Insomniac Games’ rendition of the 5’3 Canadian hairball has left myself frustrated with what is ultimately a very ‘meh’ game.
About five years ago now, Insomniac Games revealed a teaser trailer for Marvel’s Wolverine — their next superhero undertaking after their success with Spider-Man made for the Playstation 5. It depicted none other than the Wolverine at a bar, presumably fresh out of a fight, having a drink before going for a round two. It was a short trailer, but nonetheless had many people instantly in anticipation, primarily because Insomniac handling Wolverine was a no-brainer after the success of Spider-Man (2018). Now, after all that time and a rocky road here for the studio, its disappointing to say that this game could never really reach the bar of quality expected, and rather comes off feeling just alright.
Look, I’ll say this first. I had fun playing this game. The combat is visceral and flashy if not a little basic and repetitive, there are some cool moments throughout the story, a killer performance from fellow Aussie Liam McIntyre as Wolverine, and absolutely stunning visuals to wrap it all up. However, this game is so jarringly afraid to give anything within it depth that I’ve ended up frustrated with a game that ‘could’ve been’ — and I’d make that point on basically every level; the combat, the level design, and the story. For a product asking for a hefty $125AUD on the Playstation’s digital storefront, it is not insane of me to expect more from this studio and Sony.
Image Source: Sony Interactive Entertainment
‘Marvel’s Wolverine’ is a linear action-adventure game, this means the player is to be guided along the levels with action encounters, light exploration, and cinematic set pieces full of spectacle. I’d say firstly that I don’t mind this as a game philosophy, allowing the developers to curate the experience of gameplay and set the pace themselves rather than something like an open-world title that lets you frolic in gardens while the world ends. Despite this, I find Wolverine’s version of this to be a nudge too claustrophobic. What I believe this ultimately comes down to is the game’s restraint to let Wolverine move like he should. I find it strange that he can only really climb things if the game has highlighted it for the player with white visual indicators on the terrain — seriously, why can he scale the side of a tree, but can’t freely claw his way up the side of a building unless it has something for him to hold on to. It may sound a little nit-picky, but this really does highlight my main issue with the game, where it struggles to keep you engaged with the fantasy of playing as Wolverine. It’s strange that a huge part of what makes Insomniac’s Spider-Man games so good is completely dumped here. While yes Wolverine isn’t known as a guy with insane acrobatics, he does have a unique flavour of moving with this kind of animalistic fever that the game never lets you do. The point of this is that it makes moving through these levels and the environment boring, when it really shouldn’t be.
Combat is probably the best thing about the game. It is very simple, you have a few abilities, like two combos to do, and then the ‘berserker rage’ mode that you build up which is honestly the best feeling part of the game, where you can begin tearing through enemies like Swiss Cheese (ball knowledge). It is bloody and violent, and playing on the hardest difficulty kept the game in a solid push and pull of frustration and satisfaction in each encounter. Again though, it lacks quite a lot of depth, that by the end of the game, you get kind of tired with the lack of enemy variety and doing the same moves over and over. It has more solid bones than the level design for sure, but it suffers the same problem of leaving the player asking ‘why can’t I do that”. I wish there were more to it than what we have here, but for what it is worth, its solid enough to not actually be a bad combat system.
The story however, is definitely my biggest sour point with this experience. Again, not because I think it’s bad, but because it so painfully ‘meh’. First though I will say the performances in the game are pretty good, I love Liam McIntyre as Wolverine, Troy Baker as Nathaniel Essex is really strong in the role and the most interesting character in the story by far. There is also some cool moments throughout the story that will excite you, and a handful of interesting concepts being illustrated in this adaptation of these characters. Though, on the whole, it doesn’t really leave a mark at all. For a game like this to have a story that is this messy and just kind of unmoving is maybe its cardinal sin. It’s handling of certain characters like Logan, Jean, and Mystique never really finds it footing because of this issue I highlighted with depth. In a world without the X-Men, it does not make sense for these characters to be so soft in a world this cruel to them. I think Jean kind of comes off as the biggest victim of this — where she is supposedly juggling this stress of protecting her mutants and wanting to do good, but the game never really expresses any weight to that. Instead we kind of get writing that feels too simple for these characters and what they are dealing with. Logan as well, where he just doesn’t really react to anything. Multiple times in the story there are like big reveals about other characters or himself, and then we never actually get to explore any of it because the pacing is so bad. Look, ultimately, I don’t think the story is flat out bad, but it definitely isn’t good. It starts off pretty strong too with the stuff about Trask but it just devolves into a meandering mess by the end that has unfortunately left me dissatisfied with it.
Image Source: Sony Interactive Entertainment
It’s been a wild week seeing the response to the game online, from reviewers absolutely bombing it, a few players taking up arms in defence to swear by it, and of course the sweaty basement dwellers crying over ‘woke’. This game honestly was always going to face backlash, its just a shame the product couldn’t speak for itself by actually being a standout for the PS5. I land in the crowd of just being in the middle with it, but that ultimately is in itself a huge disappointment, given this game had such a clear runway for me to love it.
I’d say its 100% not worth its asking price, and that if you are only mildly interested in it, definitely wait for a sale or the eventual availability through Playstation Plus. Or y’know, get a friend to lend you the disc… That said though, I’d give it a 5.5 out of 10.
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