Marvel’s Wolverine review for PS5

Nearly five years ago to the day Sony announced their next game utilizing the Marvel license after the success of Spider-Man. The credit for that success lies mostly with the developer of Spider-Man, Insomniac, so it was a no brainer for Sony to select Insomniac to develop Marvel’s Wolverine as well. So since that original announcement in 2021 we’ve seen another Spectacular Spider-Man game (I’ll try and keep the puns to a minimum but this just works too well to pass up), a new Ratchet and Clank title, and a massive data leak of Wolverine in an unfinished state. So after all of that, does Wolverine live up the build up and hype?

Backstory time, you see growing up my favorite Marvel heroes were without question Spider-Man and Wolverine. Growing up as a child during the era of FOX Saturday morning cartoons and the animated series of X-Men and Spider-Man were peak for comic book kids (of course Batman: The Animated Series should also be mentioned in that same breath, but I’m trying to keep this review mostly Marvel centric). From a child watching Marvel cartoons to a young adult watching those same characters in their first live action cinematic debuts, I’ve been along for the ride with these characters for a very long time and my fandom has not wavered. I mention all of this to say that my expectations (and I’m sure many others’) were pretty high for the release of Wolverine. The amount of time waiting for release, how “Amazing” (sorry) the Insomniac Spider-Man entries have been, and the overall demand for a new X-Men/Wolverine video game have all added to the anticipation.

Wolverine, while having similarities to the engine utilized in the Insomniac Spider-Man series, couldn’t be more different. This is purely a linear story with very little-to-no free roaming. I only even mention there being slightly some free roaming as one area of the game has some semi-open city environments to explore. Outside of that one area (trying to avoid any kind of spoilers), there is no getting lost or just exploring; this is very much a single player story with not much to do otherwise. There are some challenge areas/time trials but these are broken out into areas called “Nightmare Cabins” which will appear as you’re progressing through the story. In these areas you’re playing through these challenges/trials to unlock memories Wolverine had lost somewhere along the way. The recovered memories are just voiced over dialogue of items Wolverine now remembers after completing the trial throughout his lengthy life. For fans of the Spider-Man series and the Arkham series, I expected these to have more references to the larger Marvel universe or easter eggs. Towards the end of the game I found myself just speed reading the memories and skipping the narration.

Speaking of easter eggs, scattered in the environments there are certainly items to see and observe but outside of collecting hidden whisky bottles (many with comic title names) there aren’t any other collectibles in Wolverine. Coming from all the cool things to see, find and collect in Insomniac’s Spider-Man, this was pretty disappointing. I’ve been waiting my whole life for the definitive Wolverine game and it just seems like the same level of care was not given here. Through and through this is a story based game and it’s been sold as that so there is no surprise, but it just seems like the replay value is going to be next to none. Just look at the previous comic titles I mentioned. Spider-Man and the Arkham games are the gold standard and feature tons of content to either go back to once you complete any of the games or even to just distract you from the main storylines for a little detour.

Lets talk a bit about the gameplay now. I’m not a huge fan of the God of War series but have dipped my toes in a few of the games over the years. In my opinion Wolverine feels like a mix of the God of War franchise and the more recent Tomb Raider games (without the open world exploring, clearly). Combat immediately feels repetitive, but it does feel better as the game progresses and you unlock more abilities (just like Spider-Man). I know what you’re thinking, “well, Wolverine is a brute who brutalizes people what do you expect?” and yes you’re right, he is a brute and this game accurately represents his brutality without toning it down for a younger audience, and for that I applaud Insomniac. It just feels like there should have been some more combos or variety. Towards the tail end of the game I found myself just using the same combo of abilities depending on the type of enemies I was fighting and it was just rinse and repeat. So take my critiques with a grain of salt if you’re looking for a beat ‘em up with some brutal kills.

This review is very challenging without going into spoilers and if you’ve read any of my previous reviews you know I really make it a point to not ruin anything from the storylines. I don’t think it will ruin much as it’s been in the trailers, but much of this game features a companion character fighting alongside you. While it fits the story and there’s definitely a reason for it, I feel like the game would have benefited from the ability to switch characters on the fly à la Ultimate Alliance or at least have some button shortcuts to call in attacks or particular abilities like the Guardians of the Galaxy game. This could be me just wishing for a new X-Men game but I definitely felt like at points it would have been a good pallet cleanser to switch characters (potentially Insomniac is still having nightmares over how disliked people were with the forced missioned when you switched to Mary Jane in the Spider-Man titles).

Storyline as I’ve mentioned earlier is what will keep you hooked and pushing towards completion. Being in an else world of sorts, this takes place in a completely different universe than X-Men fans are used to. You see there are no X-Men in this world. Nathaniel Essex has created a Team X and that’s the extent of what I will spoil. If you know your X-Men characters you will immediately find it suspicious, wondering what Essex’s motives truly are based on his “Sinister” motives in all the other comics and shows most are familiar with. Troy Baker performs the voice over for Essex and is far and away (unsurprisingly) the best of the whole cast. Liam McIntyre as Logan just didn’t work for me. Again as a longtime Wolverine fan I have a certain expectation between Wolverine voice in the animated shows and of course Hugh Jackman in the live action movies, McIntyre just didn’t feel like the portrayal I wanted/expected. When in rage and yelling he did a better job giving me the Wolvie feels but in just normal conversations with others he felt too reserved and casual.

While we’re at it, I was not a fan of the face model used for Logan as well. No problem with any other character in the game, but Wolverine which is really unfortunate. But at least you can put Wolverine in his traditional cowl and there are plenty of cowls, costumes, and claws to choose from and unlock. The costumes and claws selection is “Astonishing” (guess I lied about the puns, sorry bub). I have no notes as far as critiques for costumes, nearly any and every costume I would expect is represented here. Again, I won’t spoil them but there are some definite (pleasant) surprises here and I found myself switching up costumes mission to mission as I just wanted to use them all. Costumes and claws come as a package to unlock (via materials crates scattered throughout the game), but once unlocked you can mix and match most claws with any costume.

I know I have been pretty harsh overall with Marvel’s Wolverine but it’s really not a bad game by any stretch, it’s just my (and everyone else’s) expectations were so high in the wait for this release and my history and fandom did it no favors as well. There’s just too many other good Marvel titles of the past 5 years that I would recommend you check out before Wolverine, such as any of the Insomniac Spider-Man titles or the Guardians of the Galaxy game. But if you’ve played all of those and you’re a huge Wolverine/X-Men fan I would still recommend you check out Wolverine. At the entry point of $70 it is a tough adamantium pill to swallow based on the lack of collectibles, side quests, and the linear nature of the game, but if you know that all going in there’s lots of fun to be had here slicing and dicing enemies.

Note: Sony provided us with a Marvel’s Wolverine code for review purposes.

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