This summer saw the third and quite possibly the final instalment in the hugely successful X-men movie franchise, and of course with every movie blockbuster comes the token movie spinoff and this time round its Activision and Z-Axis at the helm with Xmen 3: The Official Game.

I must say I had my doubts even before popping this badboy into the ever-so-shiny tray of my brand-spanking new 360; after all, my previous experiences with titles based on movies has been extraordinarily mediocre, however in the name of gaming journalism I gritted my teeth, picked up my controller and sat back for an all-night session.

The first thing I noticed about this game was its visuals. While, as a multi-platform game, it doesn’t quite pack as much of a graphical punch as other titles designed exclusively for Xbox 360, the decision to completely bypass CGI cut-scenes in favour of a more canon compilation of comic-book stills and rendered artwork to guide the story along was refreshing, if somewhat unexpected of a next-gen game.

You pick up the story shortly after the events of X-Men 2, with everyone still trying to pick up the pieces. Jean Grey is dead, having sacrificed herself to save her fellow mutants, and the political cogs are turning ever forward towards an inevitable flood of trouble for mutantkind. Taking control of either Wolverine, Iceman or Nightcrawler, you’ll work your way through a plethora of events as you battle to clear up the mess left by Stryker and his band of merry men.

Mere minutes into the game, however, you run headfirst into what is, in my opinion, a major shortcoming, as you face off against Sabretooth. Yes… Sabretooth, you remember him from the first movie? And did you also notice his complete absence from the second? Just one of many inconsistencies that will have you scratching your head and reaching for your DVD collection just to check whether you’d missed something from the films as more random characters who either died or disappeared resurface for seemingly no other reason than to build a single mission around.

Even more frustrating is the fact that these readmissions to the X-men movie storyline, as that is essentially what this game is telling, is the fact that there is already so much going on that there really isn’t any need to pour more inconsequential plotpoints into the mix, as you are hurtled headfirst into almost every major chapter of x-men lore under the sun. Sentinals? Check… Brotherhood? Check… all of which come crashing down so quickly you barely have a chance to keep track. This of course may have the casual X-men fan salivating, but the general mishandling of such mammoth x-men legends will be like nails on a chalkboard to many hardcore followers. Still, at least that’s something both the film and the game have in common.

The choice of playable characters fits in well with the game itself and allows for a much more varied playing experience than most button-bashing franchise titles. Don’t get me wrong, there is still a fair bit of button-bashing to be done here, but the variety and novel usage of each character skills negates the usual mind-numbing drawl. And, while many of you may groan at the prospect of having to play as Iceman, quite possibly one of the most eye-gauging dull mutant, it is, in fact, the usage of his powers that provides the most refreshing change – as you practically air-surf along on a regenerating block of ice, putting out fires, taking out bad guys and cooling Wolverines beers… well, perhaps not that last part…

Everyones favourite teleporting shadow-hugger Nightcrawler is in the playable line-up too, an unexpected inclusion but most certainly a welcome one, whose aerial acrobatics and frenzied relocating all over the shop adds an all out poetic insanity to combat clinches. Then, of course, theres Wolverine who, despite being the big star of the movies, is actually the least enjoyable to play as. While whipping out those big old claws has a novelty to it at first, playing with him leads you down that same old street almost all other movie spin-offs take, as you thoughtlessly thwack away at your controller hoping to hit something.

While the reasonably paced switching between these characters does alleviate boredom for the first few hours, once you reach the halfway point you’ll find yourself in the rinse and repeat cycle, with the fundamental gameplay boiling down to beating people up, activating a switch or some other random object, and then more beating people up. Fortunately you do have the games’ narrative to keep you going and give you a reason to continue doing your thing, and at times you’ll find some pretty neat little tricks implemented into your missions that go a long way towards reigniting your enjoyment of the game.

Although the narrative is, as mentioned earlier, a little too crammed with important plots which really deserved a lot more involved attention and expansion from the developers – theres no denying that it is thoroughly entertaining regardless of whether you own every piece of X-men paraphernalia ever produce or just rented the first movie because they were out of ’10 Things I Hate About You’ – the revelation of exactly what did happen between X2 and X3, as well as the acknowledgement of key figures and events completely overlooked by the filmmakers should keep you happy the whole time you’re playing.

What could dash that contentment, however, is the way in which the story is told to you. Although those comic-book esque stills are a nice break from the norm, they do at times seem to have been very sloppily put together in a way which completely undermines the initial effect they create, and you’ll find yourself thrown from slickly jumping from render to render; to staring at a static image of a particular individual delivering a winding long speech wondering whether your console has crashed.

Highlighting what some may seem as pretty minor issues doesn’t really do justice to the most impressive aspect of this game, and that is the fact that rather than solely setting out to milk the last of the X-Men cashcow, the developers truly seem to have tried with this game. Unlike similar titles, they have opted to explore uncharted territory as far as storyline goes, rather than simply taking you through the motions outlined in the movie itself. Through varying the characters and giving you a wide breadth of effective and practical skills to play with, they have done well to add a much-needed injection of variety into a field which is usually devoid of it, and the storytelling style while frequently missing the mark, is a brave step in todays world of flashy CGI
to maintain some level of comic-book authenticity.

If you’re an X-men fan, the its likely you’ll gain some level of enjoyment from this game however brief, if only for the chance to flex some mutant muscle and absorb some much-needed coverage of some of the more prominent comic characters and events. If you don’t know your Professor X from your Preparation H, then you should still give thought to trying this fun, varied and novel action game which, for once, is better than the movie its based on.

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