It’s really awesome to see Insomniac Games back at it with another Marvel superhero game, albeit a much different one than its previous Spider-Man titles that helped define a genre.
Marvel’s Wolverine is a way bloodier, more linear, and more narrative-driven experience than anything Peter Parker or Miles Morales have been through, and it’s mostly great. But the short, hairy guy’s focus on ripping and shredding vs. gadgets, webs, and creativity makes it feel a tad repetitive at times. Thankfully, the story within is a fun one and a somewhat unique take on the character that will definitely get people talking, for better or worse.
Slice and dice, not so nice
Wolverine is quite a complex character, but when it comes to his forte of killing, it’s pretty simple: slicing, jumping, roaring, tackling, more slicing, dismembering, and a whole hell of a lot of blood. Buckets of blood. You will constantly be drenched in blood, take a ton of damage, and use his regenerative health to stay in the fight and keep killing (his suits regenerate, too, and that has a silly narrative explanation to go with it).
It’s all here in Marvel’s Wolverine. It’s gorgeous on PS5 Pro with 120hz support, VRR, advanced ray tracing, and a buttery smooth experience throughout, breathing life to a well-acted narrative experience that is driven by the rage of a mutant who lost his memories, but remembers full well how to absolutely maul his enemies and anyone standing in his way.
The combat in Wolverine is driven by that rage, too, which is the main mechanic in clearing out hordes of everything from cyborgs to ninjas to robots. Get used to pressing the square button to deal the vast majority of your damage, and then triangle to lunge at enemies to get in close and do it all again, all while building up a rage meter that allows James “Logan” Howlett to finish off foes quickly. When he is at max rage, Wolverine gets angrier, hits harder, and can move faster, so it’s all about building to that rhythm by slashing as much and as often as possible.
It’s hard not to compare this game’s combat to that of Spider-Man’s, as it’s from the same developer and both exist in the same universe, codenamed Earth-1048 (although you wouldn’t be able to really tell from this title: those looking for Peter or Miles to show up in any capacity will be disappointed). But that serves as a bit of a drawback for Logan, because his style of combat doesn’t allow for much creative expression beyond a handful of combos, special techniques that operate on a cooldown, and some minor tweaks to his abilities elsewhere. The techniques are basically abilities that you should use whenever the cooldown ends: a spinning tornado claw attack that does AoE damage, a flying drill claw attack, and so on. Fighting is not without total variety, as you can do things like push enemies into walls to stun them and follow up with a rapid stab attack, or kick them off of a ledge and then dive into them mid-air, claws-first.
That doesn’t mean the combat isn’t fun, though, because it is, and it does a great job of realizing the Wolverine fantasy. It’s extremely gratifying using Adamantium claws to rip through foes, cutting off limbs, impaling their brains, and combining with other X-Men characters like Jean Grey, Sabretooth, or Mystique for some well-animated finishers and incredible action set pieces. Keeping up the pace of attacks with the aforementioned square and triangle spam is coupled with those skills, O to dodge, and L1 to parry attacks, and I found it pretty damn satisfying, if not repetitive at times. A stagger mechanic occasionally shakes things up.
You’re often given the option of being stealthy, using tall grass in the environment to sneak up on enemies and silently take them down to thin out their ranks. But there’s really no penalty for going loud and just cutting through everybody, so there’s no real incentive to be quiet. And as an indestructible murder machine like Logan, why would you want to be?
Other than combat, the main form of gameplay is detective-like as Logan uses his top-tier senses of smell and hearing to track friends and foes alike, or traversal using his claws to climb buildings, swing on poles, and jump across large areas. It’s not close to the fun of Spider-Man’s web-swinging, but it’s pretty representative of the character and generally enjoyable to execute.
Unfortunately, some of Wolverine’s limited verticality often found me bugged out and having to restart at checkpoints, which is thankfully easy and quick enough, and the game feels janky at times because of it (a day-one patch is expected to hopefully fix some problems), but it’s nothing too worrisome.
Otherwise, the game runs flawlessly on PS5 Pro with incredible graphical fidelity, enhanced by amazing performances from the entire cast, including Troy Baker as Essex, which admittedly rubbed me the wrong way at first. He’s just so recognizable and prevalent that I thought he would take away from an iconic mutant, but the pro video game performer once again put in a stellar performance as a very layered character, standing out once again.
As for the representation of this particular cast of comic book creations, I feel as though their essences come through pretty well outside of the dulled “real world” aesthetic that Insomniac chose for most of them. It felt less overt in Spider-Man, I think, whereas here I was hoping for some more color and fantastical elements over the grounded approach we got.
Remember, remember
Marvel’s Wolverine is driven by the mystery of its plot, which feels like an amalgam of different iterations of the hero. He’s hundreds of years old and has been through a lot of battles and lives lived, but he’s suffering from memory loss for some reason, and it’s up to him (and you) to uncover parts of his past while also driving forward a familiar-yet-new story involving Bolivar Trask’s Sentinels, Nathaniel Essex, and anti-mutant sentiment.
The biggest opening takeaway from this version is that it’s not an X-Men game, as the team does not exist in this universe (yet). No Professor X, no school disguised as a training ground for child soldiers. In this world, mutants are in hiding, and Wolverine has teamed up with Team X, featuring Essex, Sabretooth, Mystique, and others as they attempt to gather mutants from around the world and keep them safe. This means cameos from several familiar B or C-list characters like Leech, Callisto, and Toad, but as you may guess, there’s more than meets the eye to all of it.
Enter Jean Grey. The sometimes-love interest of Wolverine is basically a second main character in this game, likely to be the dismay of some purists who only want to see her as the wife of Cyclops and mother of Cable. This is a different version of both characters in many ways, and the results vary, but I came away from the game’s conclusion enjoying the story that was told.
This is a version of Wolverine that feels tamer than you may expect because of his specific circumstances, but the rabid, murderous beast is seen multiple times throughout the game as he wrestles with the present and tries to unravel his past to build a future for mutants. Showing glimpses of both offers a different take on the hero than those who only know him from movies or cartoons may be used to. The occasions of fully feral, beast-like Wolverine are too few in this game, and it feels like this representation suffers a bit from it.
Much of Wolverine’s foggy past is discovered through Nightmare Doors, which function as challenge levels where you fight enemies in certain ways, defeat waves of foes, or traverse through an area quickly. These felt like a missed opportunity, because the levels themselves have little to do with the memories unlocked within them, and they’re not all that challenging either. I would’ve liked to see a bit more variety and creativity within them.
You can explore a good amount of the game’s numerous levels a bit to find certain items or the Nightmare Doors, but it’s a very linear affair. You’re thrown into a mission and you can rarely stray off its patch (not by much), you have objectives to complete and things to kill, and then the game takes it from there with expertly crafted cutscenes, visuals, and acting that show Insomniac is still one of the best studios in the business.
As I mentioned earlier, there’s very little of note that shows (or tells) that this game takes place in the same universe as Marvel’s Spider-Man, but there are numerous references to the greater Marvel world, like Alchemax, Roxxon, etc. Nothing too on-the-nose. This is a Wolverine (and Jean) story, and a lot of the major players are sitting this one out for an assumed eventual sequel, which has me excited already with its implications. X-Men fans will have a field day finding all sorts of easter eggs throughout.
At the end of Wolverine’s 15 hours of playtime on its base normal difficulty, I felt satisfied, but a bit underwhelmed in a few aspects. It’s still legitimately a very good big-budget Marvel game, and there’s plenty of replay value in New Game Plus and finding collectibles like whisky bottles (the man loves to drink) and crafting 32 different iconic suits and different cosmetic claws, so I’m happy with the end product overall.
