For a large portion of my life, I have loved Marvel Comics, but even beyond that, I’ve loved the X-Men. Certain characters are more dear to me than others, but it only made sense when Insomniac chose Wolverine as their entry into a wider Marvel universe beyond Spider-Man. Now that Marvel’s Wolverine is here, there are a lot of things to discuss about Insomniac Games’ latest game.

Marvel’s Wolverine is every bit as bloody and visceral as you would expect it to be. It involves a unique take on several characters, and in avoiding spoilers, all I will say is that Wolverine and his allies at “Team-X” must take on various threats for the good of Mutantkind. Of course, this also involves Logan’s missing memories, and a variety of other personal struggles he must dive into.

Insomniac took several steps to both balance Wolverine’s abilities (namely his healing factor) and shift the gameplay from an open-world experience to a more focused one. Combat involves a lot of parrying, with counterattacks and abilities that unlock as you progress. Additionally, as you partake in optional parts of the game (such as finding Whiskey bottle collectibles), you’ll unlock “adaptations,” which are passives you can equip.

I’m not usually a fan of the parry-focused combat systems, and Wolverine’s gameplay has a bit of a sticking point that irritates me somewhat. The rage system, a system that builds as you deal damage, allows you to get up after losing your health, as long as you have a segment of the rage meter filled. As a downside, you can’t heal mid-battle on command, except for an ability you gain midway that increases your regeneration speed for a limited time yet has a cooldown.

It feels like a strange midpoint between Sekiro and Devil May Cry, but with fewer options to heal in the middle of a fight. Granted, there are a few options that you will get later on to offer extra healing, but it feels more limiting than it should. At least, more than it should if you are meant to be a wild fighter who can shrug off plenty of damage in cutscenes.

With that said, Marvel’s Wolverine offers not only multiple difficulty options to tailor your experience, but also a huge host of accessibility features that adjust all elements of gameplay. Whether you have motor skill issues, reactionary issues, blindness, deafness, colorblindness, dyslexia, or a whole host of other accessibility needs, there is likely an accessibility feature here for you.

The story is very personal and isn’t just a “power fantasy” designed to let you rip people apart. No, fans of the comics will spend a good portion of the beginning hours wondering just what is going on, with characters appearing that offer interesting story implications.

As you progress, the story opens up more and reveals a world that isn’t aware of mutants yet will attempt to crush them if the knowledge is revealed. Logan and his allies are (as you would expect) fighting for peace, but there is more under the surface that is tantalizing and unique. The missions have a linearity to them that follows the story well. If you have a hard time with large, sprawling open worlds, this might be a more palatable experience.

Each mission is separated into an exploration/investigation segment, and then a combat-heavy portion. Some missions have boss fights, while others offer more traversal challenges and enemy gauntlets than a major encounter. Even when I was frustrated with the combat (mostly during the boss fights), it never felt unfair; it just felt like I was not as connected with the combat systems as I wanted to be.

Marvel’s Wolverine also allows you to choose between leaning into stealth or focusing on brute force. I tried to do a little of both, and while stealth usually was the easier path, if I made mistakes, I was usually able to recover and brute force my way through. I like the more streamlined mission system. It keeps the experience tight but offers enough side content during the missions to keep you engaged without having side quest decision paralysis.

It helps that the environments are gorgeous, including but not limited to the snowy forests of Canada, the island of Madripoor, and even the neon-drenched Japan. The voice acting and story beats are well done, and I really found myself growing fond of Liam McIntyre’s interpretation of Logan. I really hope Insomniac branches into more X-Men stories, because the magic they have made here is special.

It might sound strange considering my criticism of the combat, but even despite the operator error of it all and my own personal tastes, I think Marvel’s Wolverine is special in various ways. It opens up the Marvel-verse in ways that are engaging and exciting, while offering tantalizing teases that could reach into the future of Marvel or X-Men games.

Do I wish they would have leaned further into a Platinum Games’ style or Devil May Cry style of combat for Wolverine? Yes. I think it would have suited his – all-out, wild, feral – attack style more than the carefully paced parrying and counterattacking. However, all the love and care put into Marvel’s Wolverine, from the environments, the suits and different types of claws, the character beats, the storylines, and everything in between, make that a small complaint in the grand scheme.

Is it perfect? Not at all. As I’ve mentioned, the combat doesn’t quite hit the right notes for me, and some of the elements of its design feel off. If anything, it feels like an attempt to start a new arc for the Insomniac Marvel-verse, and if I’m honest, they had to start somewhere. I know some will disagree with me, but I think some people will look at Marvel’s Wolverine as a decent experience a few years from now, separated from all the discourse.

With that said, I hope Marvel’s Wolverine doesn’t get overlooked for accolades this year. It really does some wonderful things, and I think Marvel fans would be missing out if they don’t give it a look. Here’s hoping Sony changes their minds and offers a PC port, so it can reach a wider audience too. Unfortunately, I can easily see people ignoring Marvel’s Wolverine, or degrading it, due to their anger at Sony for various blunders.

A PlayStation 5 Review Copy of Marvel’s Wolverine was provided by Sony for the purposes of this review.

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Marvel's Wolverine

$69.99 USD

8

Score

8.0/10

Pros

• Interesting, Emotional Story
• Gorgeous environments and exploration
• Tons of Accessibility Options
• Engaging Progression Systems
• Lots of Easter Eggs

Cons

• Combat doesn't quite match Wolverine
• Suffers from "First-Entry" growing pains
• Boss Fights don't quite feel impactful enough