The controls for the most part are fairly serviceable. The left thumbstick moves Wolverine around, A button to jump, Y kicks, X punches/slashes, and the B button is the action button, which is used to perform strikes (more on that later) or to interact with objects (ladders, consoles, machines, etc). The right thumbstick controls the camera (pressing down on it resets the camera behind Wolverine). The left and right triggers are used to activate Wolverine’s sense/stealth mode and crouch/crawl respectively. You can use the X and Y buttons along with the crouch button to create some fun combos but the real fun comes with strikes.
The white button is used to sheath/unsheathe your claws. Why would you sheath your claws? Because Wolverine’s mutant healing ability (also known as the mutant cop-out ability) only works while the claws are in. Double tapping the white button allows you to enter “feral” mode, otherwise known as the berserker rage mode. Every time you hit someone or are hit, your feral bar increases. When it maxes out, Wolverine will automatically go into feral mode or you can hit the white button twice and do it on your own. Feral mode allows you to move faster, do more damage, and take less damage from enemies. The downside to this is that since the claws are out, the healing ability is off and it can be inconvenient for Wolverine to go feral.
The sense/stealth mode allows you to become Wolverine: Solid Snake and sneak around. The game shifts color palette’s and you can see your enemies and other items highlighted on the screen. You can also “smell” enemies by their scents, which show up as light green smoke on the screen. This allows you to see enemies around corners and those who are hiding behind items in the room. This mode also allows you to see laser trip wires and the electronic sensor patterns. The sense/stealth mode also allows you to sneak up and perform stealth strikes but we’ll get to that in a bit.
Strikes are the heart of the attack system and are one of the funnest things in the game. They allow you to attack multiple targets and are usually the coup de gras moves when attacking bosses. To perform a strike, you either stun your opponent to open them up for a strike or you position yourself between multiple opponents and wait for the strike indicator to appear and then push the B button to initiate the strike. At this point, the game takes over and you get to watch Wolverine open a big can of Whup Ass ™ on his attackers. As you progress through the game, you can earn more powerful strikes by performing Stealth Strikes. As the name entails to perform a Stealth Strike, you basically sneak up on people using the Sense/Stealth mode and perform a strike. For each stealth strike you pull off, you get dog tags, which are used to unlock newer, more powerful strikes. The dog tags are also used to earn challenges, which unlock more things in the game.
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