X-men Origins:Wolverine has a fetish for blood. Not a drop here and a smudge there, but buckets of the stuff. The intro cinematic alone would be enough to make the Red Cross jealous. But it’s the over-the-top gore and action that makes the game fun to play. Although it may be a little repetitive at times, and there are a few bugs along the way, it really doesn’t detract from the overall experience. The game is fun to just pick up and play, period.

The game is very well rounded. Bringing fun third person action, some puzzles (though not too tough), some platforming and hectic boss battles. While X-men Origins:Wolverine doesn’t reinvent the wheel in any of these aspects, it does do a great job of making you want more. Whether you are taking on large groups of soldiers or duking it out with one of the massive bosses, you will almost always be entertained. And the game is easy enough so you don’t get too frustrated and challenging enough to leave you feeling satisfied.

Vaulting out of a chopper that has been damaged by an RPG Wolverine plummets to the Earth from thousands of feet in the air. Falling to the ground at hundreds of feet per second as you dive onto an unlucky soldier claw first obliterating the soldier and the ground he was standing on. When the dust settles you get your first look at Logan. A little worse for wear but still alive, it’s amazing Logan survivied at all. A theme that you’ll see throughout the game. Wolverine is a bad ass clawing machine that can’t be stopped.

And that’s where the bar is set for the rest of the game. Action, action and more action.

Featured in the game is Wolverine’s ability to leap at his enemies. Leaping across the screen from one bad guy to the next is a blast. You would think doing this so often in the game would feel repetitive after a while but surprisingly enough it doesn’t. Jumping in the air and decapitating people just didn’t get old. And it’s a nice way to even the playing field. At some points in the game you are taking on a dozen or so guys all by your lonesome.

And then there are the combos. String together some well orchestrated attacks and you get rewarded with fantastic combos and finishing moves. Along with the combos you have the always enjoyable throw mechanic. This gives you even more options for dispatching your foes. Finish a combo by throwing them against a wall, heave them into a spinning fan, impale them on objects in your surroundings, or just toss them off a balcony. There are plenty of flavors to choose from.

There is some character customization to be had as well. Killing opponents and finding dog tags on dead soldiers or other hidden items all earn you experience points. Build up enough XP and you’ll unlock other abilities. How you use those points and abilities to make Logan even more of a blood thirsty maniac is all up to you.

There is a lot of fast paced action in the game, and it’s mostly entertaining. However, that’s not to say that other aspects of the game don’t get old. Fighting the bosses for example. They were pretty fun the first time you take them on, but taking on the same bosses several times throughout the game got tiresome. Having to figure out each boss’s weaknesses and exploiting them is challenging. But after you know what you have to do to beat them, and then having to do it again and again just becomes a chore. It would have been nice to see the folks at Raven Software be a little more creative in this department.

And the story got a little flaky at some points. With flashbacks and flash-forwards things got a little redundant and sometimes confusing. It would have been more enjoyable to watch the story play out in a more linear fashion. It seemed like just as you were getting in a rhythm at one point in the story you were either flashing back or going forward to a different different point, breaking up the continuity.

Also the game does not have any multiplayer whatsoever. A real downer. It feels like half of the game is missing. Online matches could have been fun to play. Having “Michael Myers” type matches where one player is Wolverine and the others play as the soldiers would have been a great idea. Or having a “Horde” type match, where a small group of players play as Logan, fighting wave after wave of enemies to see how long they could last while smashing away at the buttons on their controllers. There is some potential for more entertainment there for sure.

But overall the experience is a fun one. It’s an easy game to take out of the box and just get right into that action. None of the game’s downfalls are huge by any measure. They are just enough to be noticeable and detract very little from the rest of an otherwise fun and action packed experience. It’s a game you won’t regret playing either as a rent or a purchase. I would personally lean more towards renting it rather than buying it but only because of the lack of multiplayer.