Marvel’s Wolverine Review

Marvel’s Wolverine, the fourth Marvel game from Insomniac Games, that studio everyone loved and wanted to make every Marvel game until they suddenly decided they didn’t. It was announced in September 2021 and cost $300M, so it’s safe to say expectations were high and the changing tide against Insomniac didn’t help that. Another thing that didn’t help was the massive leak Insomniac suffered, with Alpha build footage made available to the public far earlier than it was meant to. All that’s largely irrelevant now though, the game is out, costs £/$70, and can be judged on its own merit. I’ll admit initial reviews caused me to waver a little, game prices are high and it’s a very busy Autumn, but I took the risk anyway to see whether Marvel’s Wolverine lived up to the hype or not.

I played through the game on “The Weapon” difficulty, the second highest default difficulty, so my opinions on combat are based off of that, but I would call it easily the highlight of the game. The combat of Marvel’s Wolverine feels totally different from Spider-Man‘s, while still maintaining the fun. Ultimately, Wolverine is a simple guy, he hacks and slashes, so combat is similarly simple to reflect that, all coming down to square and triangle to slash or pounce, with a few fancier abilities on cooldown too. Mobility is a difficult balance, you need to be able to move quickly enough to be enjoyable, but not too quick that it seems silly. You get a great balance with the lunge ability, allowing you to jump from one enemy to the next as long as they’re relatively close and Logan’s sprinting and jump let you chain those together in some really cool looking kills at times. The slash attacks are suitably violent, and you can chain everything together in various combos. Kills flow from enemy to enemy really well with an autolock system, but it’s also refreshingly easy to override that lock to target whoever you please with just the camera direction. While you have a healing factor, it’s slow enough that combat still presents a challenge if you take too many hits. Attacks are either parriable or dodgable, with the parry system being clear enough when you’re about to be hit without being so glaring that it’s impossible to miss. And if you do get hit a bunch, there’s a rage system that will make you too angry to die, or so angry the world goes black and white and you tear through enemies like it’s nothing. It’s just enough of a system that makes you feel close to unkillable, while still making sure there’s a fail state.

One of my problems with the Spider-Man games was the overreliance on gadgets to provide variance in the gameplay, but I never used them because it didn’t feel right to see Spider-Man using anti-gravity grenades. The ability system in Wolverine is much better, letting you do a variety of different special attacks that may not be as “realistic” as the rest of the game’s combat, but are really fun to do. A personal favourite was the “drillverine” ability, which isn’t actually called that but what else am I meant to think when Wolverine spins around like a drill at people.

“Nightmare Doors”, the challenge based mode in which Logan regains fragments of his memories and gets various rewards by doing one of 3 types of challenges, traversal, killing enemies, or a gauntlet. The main problem with these challenges is where they appear in the main game – roots pop up along your main path, leading you to a door tucked away in a corner, the problem is so many of them appear not at quiet moments when you’re following a trail but after big climactic moments. You’re being driven by this emotional moment and get fully torn out of that to go to your flashback cabin, skipping it isn’t even an option because then you’d have to replay the level to unlock it.  The actual challenges vary, the game’s traversal system really isn’t deep enough to do speed based challenges on it so they’re far too easy. The kill challenges all give you far too much time to kill the enemies so there’s no real challenge either.  Then there’s the gauntlets, which are some of the most fun parts of the game as you fight off waves and waves of enemies getting various buffs and debuffs as you go. They throw enough enemies at you that it’s some of the toughest parts of the game, and it plays entirely off of the games biggest strength – throwing Logan through unrelenting violence.

There’s two different progress systems in the game, “Techniques”, a fairly linear progression system of new skills, and “Adaptations”, a more open selection of abilities. The techniques, aside from the ability to choose 4 out of 6 abilities, are linear enough that the skill selection feels a bit pointless, I’d often go 5 or so levels without remembering to even upgrade them. While the UI is refreshingly bare and a big reminder of a skill point would ruin that, just making the progression automatically unlock, or at least an option to have that, would easily fix that. The “Adaptations” are a lot more open, with a max of 10 slots for around 30ish abilities that let you tailor your game more to how you play. These get unlocked through the game’s main collectible, finding whisky bottles, and also Nightmare Doors. Collectibles are pretty basic, as mentioned the whisky bottles are a fun way to make little references, but the fragments of Logan’s memories we get are fairly uninteresting. The material boxes are a little too easy to find, but it’s worth it to be able to unlock all the suits, which give you a health buff every few unlocks. The suit variety itself is a little underwhelming, the lack of a classic suit is insane and the deluxe edition set feels too essential. Unlocking the suits is a pain too, they tend to come 4 or so at a time leaving little time to experiment.

One of my biggest issues with Marvel’s Wolverine is the lack of boss fights, mainly because the handful we have are so fun. With Wolverine having such a wide variety of iconic enemies it’s a little disappointing that they waste so many opportunities for more great bossfights. There’s really only 4 1v1 boss fights, with a larger Sentinel fight too and a series of “regular enemies but they’re tougher”, at least one of which really feels like cut content where a boss used to be. There’s a few things in the game that point to it having a larger scope, one notably one Callisto, who plays an incredibly small role in the game despite being voiced and motion captured by the great Debra Wilson. We know from the horrible Insomniac leak that Jean was originally meant to be playable too, and it’s hard not to see a couple of clear hand-off points where it was meant to switch to her.

At the end of the day, Marvel’s Wolverine satisfies its most important requirement – it’s very fun to play. Missions strike a good balance between combat and the occasional traversal break. They are largely linear but still come with a little room for exploration, and despite rumors, it’s not as handholdy as many are making it out to be, especially after recent patches have toned down the smell-o-vision trail. Combat is rough and brutal to watch, but still precise and polished to play, and the dismemberment and damage is incredibly satisfying while still allowing enemies to take enough hits to not be too easy.

On to the story, if you’re expecting a classic take on Wolverine’s time pre-X-Men, you’re going to be disappointed, as Insomniac instead offers a take that feels akin to an alternate universe, something like the build-up to Age of Apocalypse. It’s hard to imagine Charles Xavier or Magneto existing in this universe, instead this is a world where others have filled the gaps, where Bolivar Trask has almost succeeded in wiping out mutantkind and Nathaniel Essex has manipulated those that are left into doing his bidding. Logan is part of Essex’s Team X alongside Sabertooth and Mystique, responsible for saving Mutantkind. When we first join them, Logan has recently rejoined to help rescue Essex himself after quitting the team for a while.

I’m torn on this game’s take on Logan, there’s a lot I like, but a lot that feels underdeveloped too. Too much of the story is focused on Jean Grey, with whom I have plenty of issues with herself, but the relatively short time period the game takes place over leaves their journey lacking in depth. The big twist with Insomniac’s take on Logan is in his past, playing off of some long abandoned ideas for the benefactor behind Weapon X. While the specifics are unclear, we see Logan as the Horseman of Death, a shadowy figure still feared by the Hand. As someone usually against Logan having any memory of his past, this interpretation works for me since it makes the past something for Logan to run from, not chase. This iteration of Logan may seem nicer than most at first glance, but the key thing to remember is that this is a Logan without a challenge. While the heroics of the X-Men push Logan to be better and he chafes against that, he is the moral heart of Team X with no one to push against, in fact dragging Jean down with him. One disappointment was the relationship between Logan and Yuriko, Lady Deathstrike, here non-existent. There’s a real tragedy to the comic version that could have easily fit here, but instead it makes her quite a flat antagonist, which she serves as for a large chunk of the game.

The real highlight in Logan’s relationships is his one with Sabretooth, which focuses on the elements of their relationship that are actually interesting instead of resorting to using a series of women as props for Creed to murder. Wolverine and Sabretooth, from a distance, are the same character. They’re animalistic, clawed mutants with healing factors that make them fundamentally immortal, prone to berserker rages; the difference between them is that while Sabretooth enjoys the violence, and is proud of it, Logan tells himself he isn’t. He has to, because while Sabretooth is happy to be an animal or a weapon, Logan wants to be a man. What so often brings them to blows is that Sabretooth can’t stand this, he needs Logan to be just like him. He NEEDS a pack, a home, and he’s not capable of adapting to anyone else’s world. Insomniac gets this perfectly, their Creed is devastated that Logan left their team and refuses to forgive him: drifting further and further into resentment as Logan drifts away from Essex and him. If the two could actually sit down and talk, they’d likely patch their differences, but that’s not who these two are. They fight, they spill blood, and the wounds between them grow deeper and deeper until a hug just won’t do it anymore. Brett Gipson and Liam McIntyre capture this in their performances perfectly, constantly touching on heartbreaking before wrenching you right back to the rage between the two.

Another stellar performance is Troy Baker as the main villain, Mister Sinister (although the game is a little too cowardly to call him this). While I was initially a little hesitant at the game’s design for Essex, basically a white(er) Troy Baker, using his likeness allows them to capture such small details that really sell the character. Essex is a man who thinks he’s right, even at the start, his care for mutants feels genuine even if it’s entirely self-serving. When he learns mutantkind is losing you can see Essex further fall right in front of you as he slips from protecting mutantkind to seeing it as nothing but a base from which to build his own world. People have criticised the game as being yet another ally-turned-enemy story like Insomniac’s other games, but the key difference is that Essex doesn’t really start as an ally, and it’s fairly obvious to all but Logan. His very first scene is the one that sticks with me the most, one we later find out is a lie, as we see a feral Logan brought in from the wild by a calm, suited Essex – clearly designed to mirror Charles Xavier both in design and later his home. Every word spoken by Essex is a manipulation, designed to point Logan at his latest target, and Baker sells it all brilliantly.  

Then there’s Jean Grey. From the second I saw her involvement in this game, I was hesitant. The romantic relationship between Logan and Jean has never been interesting to me, and it was clear from the start that’s where they would head. There’s no fault in Krizia Bajos performance, even her chemistry with McIntyre is the best part of their relationship, but it moves so quickly, from first meeting to the revelation that they’re star-crossed lovers destined to reunite across time, that it becomes too apparent they spend maybe 10 minutes together. Jean, here the Phoenix right from the start, has been cosmically reincarnated constantly across time, seemingly for no reason than to be with Logan and calm him down. While there are allusions to a grander purpose in her fight with Apocalypse, it’s such a background thing, and clearly nothing but bait for a sequel. There is actually interesting character work done in the game with Jean, as her relationship with Logan makes her more and more like him, driven further by anger and more prone to killing. He’s clearly a negative influence on her, but the game has no interest in interrogating this at all to the point it’s not clear if it’s actually meant to be a bad thing. 

While the story of this game largely works for me, the shift in the third act pushing Jean as the all-powerful Phoenix throws it off completely, and the long history between her, Logan, and Apocalypse leads to an ultimately confusing ending. There’s so little in the game that makes Jean feel like Jean, from a tragic abuse background to her Morlock-centric history instead of the X-Men. While her age isn’t mentioned, she feels much too old for any sort of pivot to Charles Xavier’s student at this point, and I can’t help but feel leaning further into Logan’s tendency to adopt troubled young girls like Kitty Pryde or Jubilee instead of this failed attempt at a doomed romance would’ve been better.

Mystique is a bit of a disappointment, never quite given anything to do in the story and feeling like nothing more than a background character, although it’s nice to see her queer identity make its way to other mediums. Other side characters like Sunfire or Tyger Tiger play pretty small but enjoyable roles, while the presence of Callisto and the Morlocks feels like a waste of potential.

Overall I can’t deny that despite its issues, Marvel’s Wolverine is a fun game. It has everything I could want from the experience of playing as Wolverine, it’s brutal, fast paced combat more than makes up for the middling traversal and it’s got just enough variety to make the 18 or so hours it took me to complete a blast. While the platinum may be a little simple (I had 5 trophies left after finishing my playthrough), I think it has real replayable value especially with NG+ on launch, and I look forward to mastering some of the gauntlet trials. If you like Marvel, or hack and slash games, I really think you’ll have a blast with Marvel’s Wolverine.