Inside Look: Enemies
May 08, 2009
Learn more about all the different kinds of enemies you’ll face in the X-Men Origins: Wolverine video game.
Hey everyone –, I’m Aaron San Filippo, a game programmer here at Raven Software. I’m going to talk for a minute about the enemies we’ve created for the X-Men Origins: Wolverine video game.
Creating Enemies That Can Stand Up To Wolverine
One of the big initial design challenges for X-Men Origins: Wolverinethe game was this: how do you take a character with razor- sharp claws, and create enemies and fights that are a challenge? Realistically, your standard enemy doesn’t stand a chance.
But then again, we’re talking about the Marvel Uuniverse here.
One of the great things about working within this universe is that we have an incredibly deep pool of characters to borrow from. Tons of varieties of Mutants will attempt to stop you, from teleporters who evade your attacks, to "cloners," who create copies of themselves and try to overtake you by sheer numbers.
Oh, and of course you’ll get a chance to re-create some of the epic showdowns from the movie - Gambit, Sabretooth, Blob, Wraith, etc. And then we went ahead and threw in some extras, like the Sentinel Prototype, a giant Lava Mutant, and the massive Sentinel boss.
Step 2: Add the Fun
Once we had the initial ideas for these enemies, we planned out a set of behaviors and fighting styles for each one. The primary goal is for the player to be having a blast, and so for everything that every enemy can do, we always try to give the player an opportunity to do better. You are Wolverine after all!
One example of this is the Sentinel Prototype, who fires a barrage of homing missiles at you. If you time your button presses perfectly, you can deflect them back at him, inflicting massive damage.
This is just one example of a "countermove" that you can execute – - we’ve setup dozens of unique countermoves, so you’re always going to be seeing some new way for enemies to get owned.
That’s not to say you won’t be challenged –- there are definitely moments when you’ll be tested. We tried to give each enemy a unique role, and then combine them with other type of enemies that make each battle feel a little different from the rest. For instance, remember the Teleporter I mentioned earlier? They hate it when you use the Lunge move, and they’ll do everything in their power to stop you. This creates a real challenge when you’re also fighting a 20-foot tall Leviathan where Lunge is your best tool for the job. So don’t expect it to be a walk in the park!
Seeing Them All Together: The Weapon- X Arena
Early in development, we set up an "Enemy Test" map where we as developers could manually spawn in any enemy in the game. This allowed us to test the combat for any given enemy over and over again. Fighting enemies in their "natural environment" is awesome, but we always enjoyed being able to throw together combinations of enemies that you wouldn’t ordinarily fight together.
In addition, Jeremy Blumel, our visual FX art lead, setup a "Dismemberment Room" to test the various death animations and… ahem "effects" (use your imagination.). This stuff was all lots of fun to play with, but we hadn’t scheduled time to make it an official game feature.
But when GameStop approached us and asked if we could give them a "little something extra" for pre-order bonuses, we wanted to do more than just an extra costume or an action figure. We knew the combat was the best feature of the game, and so we jumped at the opportunity to take these "behind-the-scenes" features and put them in the hands of players. Between the Dismemberment Room, the Environmental Kill Room, The Ladder Challenge, and The Custom Combat Arenafour rooms, there are hours and hours of extra fun to be had. The last one in particular is my favorite, and probably has some of the toughest fights in the game. I can’t wait to see all your videos on YouTube. 
156 comments on
Inside Look: Enemies
05/09/09
The concept art looks really cool! I like the gauntlet soldier’s whole “bionic commando” thing he’s got going on :D
07/25/09
How do those bio-mechanically-armed guys stand upright? Those arms must way like 600lbs.
05/09/09
Yeah the concept art is great! loved the enemy fights in the game they were a mix of challenging yet fun. some tactics worked better than like the lunge move was not as effective on guys with shields or some machines. overall great experience.
05/09/09
Looks cool it’s very detailed! I love when the different enemies behave in different ways it definitely makes the game better.
05/10/09
i think it looks awesome.... the villains look cool… especially the guy wit 4 arms
05/10/09
i think it fucken rules sceialy the one that has the swords coming through his arms
05/11/09
I recall it being those four armed stone guys (picture on top) making the last Leviathan fight difficult, but still, Vondrak, you’re right, it still forced me to rethink my strategy and provided an awesome challenge.
I really like the Ghost, and Goliath (gauntlet soldier) concepts. It shows that you guys really like to show the details. (Like the Ghost’s googles that would allow him to see while invisible since light reflection works both ways, practically the user would be blind while invisible without special tech to let him see)
The way they react and their fight styles are awesome too. I was pondering how you would make the game a challenge when you’re playing as a bad ass dude who’s indestructible and has claws that can slice through anything, but boy was I surprised when you whipped out such an original and badass arsenal of baddies!
Kudos, Vondrak, Raven Software, and anyone else involved in the making of this great game!
06/11/09
Even though it’s a game some of those enemies seem pretty freeky but the guantlet soldier is so easy to kill!
08/13/09
their enemies are very cool. I so want to try this game. This enemy strong-strong or not, so it’s not.
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08/20/09
i like the pictures a lot except for the third enemie he looks like he has no chlothes on
08/25/09
enemies very cool and responsibilities. I was very impressed with his enemies.
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09/15/09
The enemy in this game hard to the beat. requires several techniques to defeat him. I am very happy with this game.
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10/01/09
very cool enemies and enemies have a size different. there is a difficult enemy to overcome and there is easy dikal I really liked this game.
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10/04/09
I’ve played this game. the enemy is very cool and challenging. enemy various forms, there is a large and small.
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10/05/09
his enemies are cool, I’m very happy with his enemies. many challenges against enemies. I really like when fighting his enemies
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10/08/09
This game is one of the coolest game of his enemies. and its enemies have a variety of sizes and shapes.
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10/23/09
enemy in this game has a variety of sizes, I really like when fighting an enemy that is very large. and very difficult to fight an enemy who is ketch size.
03/16/10
tha games alriihte but on psp itt don/t gott half these bosses. itt wouldda been fun tu atleast incorporate gambitt but theyy don’t unless i’m missing something..
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