When Insomniac Games announced they were doing a Wolverine game back in 2021, my reactions were equal excitement and trepidation. Considering they had established their superhero bona fides with both 2018’s Marvel’s Spider-Man and 2020’s Marvel’s Spider Man: Miles Morales, it was intriguing to see them try to take a crack at another Marvel character who hadn’t seen an official game since 2009’s X-Men Origins: Wolverine.
At the same time, for a developer that’s made its bones on creativity and most recently high energy acrobatics, Wolverine was also an odd fit for the studio. The Spider-Man games were a match made in heaven for Insomniac, taking the tech from the studio’s underrated Sunset Overdrive that felt like a property and studio syncing perfectly. Since Wolverine as a character is so antithetical to the strengths of the studio, could Insomniac find the particular “X-Factor” for the character that wasn’t already hit by Raven Software’s 2009 cult classic?
After a surprisingly turbulent five year development cycle that included a massive leak and director swap, Insomniac’s take on Wolverine arrives at a very peculiar time for the studio. Their last game, 2023’s Marvel’s Spider-Man 2, saw an initial glowing reception that faded over time compared to the praise their last two games received.
Knowing the studio is tied to the Marvel license for the foreseeable future, does Marvel’s Wolverine prove the studio is the “one size fits all” solution for great superhero games regardless of property?
To Me, Team X
Set in the same universe as the Spider-Man games, Marvel’s Wolverine tells the story of Logan (played by Spartacus actor Liam McIntyre) as he’s already well established alongside a group of mutants known as Team X. Despite the existence of mutants in this universe, they are small in number, and the X-Men and the Brotherhood of Mutants do not exist. A mutant geneticist named Nathaniel Essex (played by Troy Baker) has made it his goal to gather existing mutants and provide a safe haven for their existence from those committing mutant genocide like Bolivar Trask. Logan goes on a globe trotting adventure that takes him from Canada to Madripoor and Japan. His quest to fulfill Essex’ dream starts crumbling under an ideological divide, not helped by Logan’s muddled, forgotten past slowly emerging back in the present, portending a terrible future for mutantkind.
One of the strengths of Insomniac’s previous Spider-Man games was them taking the tried and true tropes from these characters, and doing unique spins on them that hit a perfect balance between familiar but fresh. Spider-Man (2018) and Spider-Man Miles Morales were especially great in this regard, whereas Spider-Man 2 tried but couldn’t quite find that unique take while also feeling shockingly sanded off on its edges. As Insomniac’s direct follow up to their last game, initially I found Marvel’s Wolverine a return to form of what I liked from the story of their first two superhero games.
Here Insomniac takes an even bigger swing with its setup, building a game around Wolverine, Sabretooth, Mystique, Jean Grey, and others without the common X-Men conceit, and managing some great characterization that feels earnest and true to the characters while still providing a unique take on the universe. Nathaniel Essex steals the show, where he plays a character that feels like a mix of Professor Xavier and Magneto that’s a fascinating take on both of their ideologies mixed into one character. He’s the glue that mostly keeps the rest of the story together.
Unfortunately, while the characterizations are mostly stellar, the plot holding things together is very messy. The game is at its strongest during the early Team X setup, but unfortunately starts getting muddled around the halfway mark as Wolverine is sent on a globe trotting journey that felt more obligatory than a natural progression. After a while it starts to feel like Insomniac eventually got its initial character driven tale hijacked in favor of “Leo DiCaprio points hand at reference” X-Men story key dangling.
This hits its nadir during the third act where revelations come out in full swing that are both obvious sequel setups alongside absolutely bewildering story reveals. They undermine the current story being told in an effort to try to hit all the big X-Men stories immediately, despite them not making sense with the current universe they have established. Most damaging is what the late story reveals do for this current version of Wolverine. For a studio that usually knew how to respect a character’s origin while giving a unique spin, these swings are definitely risky, and unfortunately was the first time it made me question if Insomniac understands the universe it’s trying to adapt. It’s messy, and ultimately makes the initial character driven tale that had so much promise completely whiff it at the end.
Children of the Atom
Unlike the Spider-Man games, Marvel’s Wolverine eschews an open-world in favor of a directed, linear action/adventure game. Save for a few bouts of stealth and set-piece spectacles, it’s pretty “petal to the metal” in its focus on constant action. If you played 2009’s X-Men Origins: Wolverine Uncaged Edition, there is so much in that game that clearly influenced Insomniac’s take, from its structure, to certain move sets lifted directly from that older game. Considering the 2009 game was at the time considered the ultimate representation of the character even with its ties to a pretty horrendous movie, I was happy to see so much of that carried into this new incarnation of Wolverine.
At the same time, it is funny noticing how much the basis of this game has clearly been built on the bones of the Spider-Man games. There are certain mechanics you can trace immediately back to those games. They basically gave us Batman Arkham combat with Spidey acrobatics and a huge array of gadgets at its disposal. With Marvel’s Wolverine, they took the bones of that foundation and tried to fit a square peg into a circle hole for a character that at his core, is just a dude with claws and a feral rage temper.
This is the moment when you can ask: “Why is a studio that is known for its acrobatics and creativity the one to make this new Wolverine game?” In the 15-to-17 hours it took me to finish it, and going through the entirety of the game’s skill tree and the different flavors of levels they put in, there is nothing in this game that tells me this was the right game for Insomniac to do because I feel nothing from Insomniac’s key DNA as a studio shines in this game. So much of what this game does was already done in the 2009 movie tie-in. This basically takes that and gives it a much more expensive looking sheen that can be very entertaining for the most part, but also very “been there, done that”. It shows me a Wolverine game has a certain ceiling that requires a more technical deft punch, and just trying to graft the bones of one superhero property to the next is not the right way to punch above that ceiling.
If anything, Marvel’s Wolverine should have been the moment Insomniac fully honed-in and went down the route of character action games with plenty of combos and player expression. Instead, while a lot of the combat can look flashy and satisfyingly brutal, mechanically it’s pretty simple. There are only two unlockable combos that add a little bit of variety to Wolverine’s basic attacks, and then the rest of Wolverine’s move set consists of contextual environmental interactions: lunging towards enemies, dodging and kicking enemies with shields, using four different cooldown moves, and building the rage meter. Instead of a gonzo character action game, Wolverine’s combat kit in this game is akin to an arcade brawler in the veins of Streets of Rage and even the X-Men arcade game, but all focused on one character.
For the most part, as a fan of button mashy arcade brawlers, I unironically did enjoy that Marvel’s Wolverine actually did feel like one. I certainly felt fun and satisfaction at the perpetual button mashing combat that carries you through straight to the finish (at least, when you weren’t stopped to do a walk and talk). But on the heels of recently replaying X-Men Origins Wolverine and also recently experiencing the shockingly deep hack and slack combat system of Onimusha: Way of the Sword, it hurts that Marvel’s Wolverine couldn’t quite go the extra mile beyond the simplicity.
In the alternate reality the combat mechanics of this game were akin to something like a Devil May Cry game that provides plenty of avenues for player expression, Marvel’s Wolverine could have emerged as a stronger game than it is. As it is, the fun of its combat provides immediate brutal satisfaction, but mileage may vary if that can carry you throughout the entire adventure, and there’s no reason to try to experiment beyond just dialing in the difficulty and make enemies spongier (which considering the super spongy enemies that show up for the third act, you’re just asking for the game to stop being fun at that point).
I will say, going through the early parts of the game again in New Game+ was definitely an even more fun experience with everything unlocked, and it made the earlier stronger parts even better. If you feel the game takes too long to unlock all its skill set before it all ends, take New Game+ for a spin.
Breaking up the relentless action pacing of the game, you get the chance to participate in a couple of nightmare challenges that vary from parkour sequences, to kill orders, and wave-based survival. The parkour sequences are clearly Insomniac trying to put their usual platforming chops on a character not about parkour and platforming, and they’re so painfully unchallenging they shouldn’t have bothered. The other ones just give you more combat in a game all about combat, but at least the challenge is dialed up and it showcases the brutality of combat well. The wave-based challenges are certainly the most interesting, as they come with rogue-like modifiers that make you think about the combat a little more and shows the ways the combat can be more interesting than the simplicity of the main game.
Time to address the elephant in the room. At this point you will have now heard about the super patronizing hand-holding the game has been getting lambasted with. This being a mostly linear action/adventure game broken up by certain set piece moments, I can certainly say the way the game points the way forward can certainly be excessive. In the context of a game that feels like an arcade brawler where you’re meant to keep going forward for combat to not let off, I actually stopped thinking about it afterwards.
I have way more issues with other things like the game employing set piece moments and quick time events that are flashy yet sometimes so automatic, I wonder why most weren’t just cut-scenes. The fact the game tells you sometimes to press R2 and L2 at specific moments, but you can complete them by just hitting one of the buttons because they didn’t develop cut-scene fail states is where I feel they went too far. Even their Spider-Man games bothered to have failed QTE’s, so I don’t understand what happened at the QA level here.
If there is certainly one thing that’s undeniable, it is that Marvel’s Wolverine looks like a mightily expensive, beautiful game. Insomniac’s Spider-Man games certainly were great showcases of the PlayStation 5 hardware without being the absolute top of the line, but in its linearity, Marvel’s Wolverine absolutely shines bright as one of the better graphic first party showcases of the PlayStation 5. This is the rare game where the game actually looks better in motion within the game than the social media screenshots and compressed video footage make it look. The level of detail is astounding, and the Japan section at nighttime really was a showcase for the game’s ray tracing. For all of the game’s relative failings, for people that love having a game to showcase to graphic loving snobs, Marvel’s Wolverine is certainly a looker. Play this on the biggest screen you can, and if you have the equipment for it, take advantage of the unlocked framerate modes on either PlayStation 5 or PlayStation 5 Pro.
For a studio that has basically carried an entire console generation on its back, it hurts to not feel more enthusiastic about Insomniac Games’ latest offering. The studio is so incredibly talented, it’s sad Marvel’s Wolverine does not fully showcase that talent. While there is certainly fun to be had if you are a fan of arcade style brawlers and plenty of spectacle and polish to boot, this game makes it clear Insomniac Games may not be the “one size fits all” solution for every superhero property, and underlines the importance of marrying a property with the right creative team. While Marvel and X-Men fans can certainly find enjoyment with Insomniac’s interpretation of the X-Men mythos, if what you’re looking for is the next great superhero action game, this is a good, not great one.
You can find Seasoned Gaming’s review summary here