No, Marvel’s Wolverine isn’t the unmitigated AAA gaming disaster social media has been trying to convince you it is. Insomniac’s PlayStation 5-exclusive follow-up to its stellar trio of Spider-Man titles might not hit the web-slinging highs of its prior adventures in the Marvel Universe, but the combat is fun in short bursts and the presentation is top notch. Is it worth paying its $70 price tag at launch? Well, not really. Let’s unsheathe our claws and carve into it, shall we?
The Gameplay
This is a hack-and-slash game through and through. Rather than dropping you into an open world packed with side quests like its Spider-Man games, Insomniac offers a linear experience: slice through hordes of enemy soldiers, walk down a hallway, interact with a panel, fight more soldiers and repeat for 12–15 hours. The combat resembles that of other recent action games, including the modern God of War titles, with quick and heavy attacks, a dodge, a parry and special moves that can be mapped to specific buttons. You also gain additional abilities later in the story that I won’t spoil here. Combat is frenetic and satisfying, although the claws tend to dull during longer play sessions. I recommend playing in smaller chunks because the enemies become repetitive – especially the Reavers. I hope I never see another half-robot with a purple mohawk and glowing arm blades for the rest of my life.
Outside of combat, well, there’s not much here. There are optional “Nightmare Doors” that offer combat and traversal challenges outside of the main story along with collectibles that help Wolverine/Logan unlock new suits and abilities, but given the linearity of the levels, none of these collectibles or side missions are hard to find unless you specifically turn off certain settings. By default, the collectibles and Nightmare Doors practically scream at you.
Like many big-budget titles these days, Wolverine has a lot of bloat. Several sections require you to pilot our favorite cantankerous Canuck through a series of rooms to collect vinyl records, find a child’s drawings or examine computer screens before the next cutscene can begin. These moments are never fun or interesting, and I hope we see fewer of them in games moving forward. I felt the same way about IO Interactive’s 007 First Light earlier this year. Controlling James Bond as he walks from M’s office into an elevator, heads to Q’s lab, talks to Q, slowly follows him into another room to select gadgets and then boards another elevator for a mission briefing isn’t immersion. Neither is slowly maneuvering Peter Parker through a kitchen as he interacts with several objects before taking out the garbage; Insomniac’s own Spider-Man 2 is loaded with sequences like this. These tedious sections actively stand in the way of the power fantasy. I don’t want to play as Wolverine doing his laundry. Get me to the good stuff!
The Presentation
As I mentioned earlier, Wolverine looks great and takes full advantage of the PS5’s graphical capabilities. The game doesn’t miss a beat when multiple enemies appear at once, and even the environments – though constrained by the game’s linear structure – are visually impressive. As in the Spider-Man games, Insomniac’s Marvel Universe features photorealistic characters and phenomenal facial animation. My one critique is that, aside from Wolverine’s many comic-accurate looks, the costumes are more muted than mutant. The X-Men are one of Marvel’s most colorful teams, with great designs by John Byrne and Jim Lee, but many of the characters here wear Call of Duty-esque tactical gear, which is a bummer.
The Story
What typically redeems a repetitive action game is a strong story. Unfortunately, Wolverine takes several big swings that don’t work. I give Insomniac credit for trying something different, but completely transforming Logan and Jean Grey’s relationship by making them destined lovers does both characters a disservice, even in an alternate reality. That alternate Marvel Universe has no X-Men. Instead, it features a pro-mutant black-ops group led by Nathaniel Essex called Team X, with which Logan is loosely aligned. As far as we know, there’s no Professor X, no Magneto, no Cyclops for Jean to fall in love with, no Rogue, no Gambit … you get the idea. It’s as though Insomniac is a younger sibling with access to only a few of his brother’s X-Men action figures: We don’t get Beast; we get Walter Langkowski instead. I know the developers are leaving room to form the X-Men in a future game, but given how long these games take to make, why hold back?
Speaking of holding back, this game takes a massive swing by tying Logan to Apocalypse for an eventual sequel, and it serves as a distraction during the game’s third act – especially when it becomes clear that it’s just a tease for another game we probably won’t see for 5+ years.
The Verdict
Marvel’s Wolverine is nowhere near as bad as its most vocal critics would have you believe. It doesn’t “play itself” or hold your hand any more than similar AAA games, and its combat is more nuanced than simply smashing the square button over and over. That said, the confounding storytelling decisions may not inspire you to trudge through the game’s more tedious sections to find out what happens next. I would have preferred a shorter, tighter game with less “walk-around-the-office” bloat and a $50 price tag.
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