X-Men Origins: Wolverine

But this is a comic book game we're talking about, and for all the blood, gore and brooding menace, there's still a bit of good old cheese. Wolverine has a power called "phero sense". When activated, this allows him to perceive the world around him using primal animal instincts. In other words, when you press up on the d-pad the screen goes grey and wibbly and all the things you can hang off turn green. And a blue arrow points out where you're supposed to go.

Other potential causes for concern include Raven's answer to quick-time events. "We wanted to turn that whole concept of QTEs on its head and put the user in control," says Poffenbarger. Righto. "The idea was, why not just give the user the ability to move around during these sequences? You can still have these big awesome moments, but to lead up to those moments and let the user be in the moments and actually play, that was a big win for us."

How does that work, exactly?" "In a QTE you see the hero do something cool, then the game slows down for a sec, then you have to hit a button prompt for them to do something else really cool," says Poffenbarger. Yep, got that bit. "Here, instead of hitting a button prompt, you're actually moving them into position to do that thing, and then sometimes executing those really cool moves." Hmm.

To demonstrate this, Poffenbarger shows us a level where Wolverine is speeding down a tunnel on the back of a truck. A set of floodgates open, the tunnel starts to fill with water and our hero needs to get a move on. So he jumps onto the back of the next truck ahead, slices up the baddies on the back of it in with finesse, then leaps acrobatically to the next truck. It certainly looks spectacular, but without having the chance to try it out for ourselves it's hard to judge just how much control you'll have in these scenarios - or what will happen if you get the button presses wrong.

We do get to play a level set in a lush African jungle. (Poffenbarger says he's aware of the controversy over Resident Evil 5's African setting, but isn't too concerned: "When you're playing our game it's whites and blacks, it's an equal mix. Trust me: we're very sensitive to how people feel they are portrayed, and we're taking those things seriously.")

The game has been built using Unreal Engine 3, and it shows. There's an impressive level of detail, with plenty of realistic jungle foliage and natural-looking lighting. "We really filled up the levels as much as possible, and the artists have totally gone to town," says Poffenbarger. It's certainly not the kind of generic backdrop you'd expect to find in your average brawler; in fact, what with all the clay pots, old crates, rope bridges and wooden gates lying about, it's more reminiscent of games like Uncharted: Drake's Fortune. There's even a bit of rope climbing and ledge shimmying to do.

Moving around in the environments feels easy and fluid, and there are some nice interactive touches. If Wolverine takes a swipe at a tree trunk, for example, he'll leave a set of scratch marks. There are odd inconsistencies, though; it seems strange that a man who can cut people in half can't slice the top off a nettle.

Perhaps they'll sort out these minor details in time for the game's release. More importantly, here's hoping they'll sort out of the AI. Some of the enemies we came up against were either spectacularly brave or unfeasibly stupid. Often they'd refuse to move from their crouching and firing position, regardless of the fact they were totally exposed, Wolverine was walking right up them and they'd just seen him throw three of their mates off a cliff.

That aside, we came away pleasantly surprised by X-Men Origins: Wolverine. The game certainly looks more impressive than most movie tie-ins, and the brief playtime we spent with it was a lot more enjoyable. It'll take more of an in-depth investigation to establish just how much depth there is to the combat, to experiment with the game's character development system, to test out the balance of action versus adventure and so on. But it looks like Raven's determination to make the lead character as powerful and dangerous as he was always meant to be could well pay off.