The superhero genre isn\u2019t new to Insomniac Games. After all, the Sony-owned gaming studio has already proven that it knows how to make a good superhero game with its Marvel\u2019s Spider-Man<\/b> series. But Wolverine is a very different character from Spider-Man, and adapting him into a game was always going to require a different approach.<\/p>\n
Marvel\u2019s Wolverine<\/b> certainly looks and feels the part, then. Logan is aggressive, combat is rightfully violent and the game is packed with the sort of large-scale action sequences expected from a PlayStation blockbuster. But while Insomniac has created a convincing videogame version of Wolverine, the game built around him does not always live up to the character.<\/p>\n Image: Sony Interactive Entertainment<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n Set before the formation of the X-Men, the Marvel\u2019s Wolverine brings Logan back into the orbit of Team X after a series of mutant disappearances. That means familiar characters such as Sabretooth, Mystique and Jean Grey make their appearances, while billionaire industrialist Bolivar Trask is our main antagonist \u2013 or so it seems, at first.<\/p>\n It is a darker setup than Insomniac\u2019s Spider-Man games, although Marvel\u2019s Wolverine is still recognisably a big-budget PlayStation production. There are cinematic transitions, lavishly produced cutscenes and enormous set-pieces designed to remind you that a great deal of money was spent making all of this. Sony even launched Wolverine-themed limited edition PlayStation 5 consoles. The campaign also takes Logan across several locations, including Madripoor and Tokyo, instead of anchoring him to one open-world city.<\/p>\n This is a largely linear game, and I do not think that is necessarily a weakness. After years of open worlds filled with markers, errands and crafting materials, I find a game that simply wants you to move from one encounter to the next incredibly refreshing. The problem is that Marvel\u2019s Wolverine often presents detailed locations that look as though they should be explored, only to funnel Logan through narrow routes and invisible boundaries. These places can feel more like film sets than actual cities.<\/p>\n The quieter exploration sections do little to change my impression. There are collectibles and optional challenges; whiskey bottles and metal crates that unlockable costumes and skills but searching for them is rarely interesting in itself. Insomiac\u2019s Spider-Man made getting from one collectible to another part of the fun. Here, moving away from the main path frequently feels like delaying the next fight.<\/p>\n Image: Sony Interactive Entertainment<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n Combat is where Marvel\u2019s Wolverine makes its strongest first impression. Logan can dodge, parry, leap towards enemies and chain together claw attacks, while special techniques offer a quick way out when he is surrounded. His Rage meter builds as he attacks and successfully defends himself, gradually making him more powerful and eventually allowing him to go full rage mode for a while.<\/p>\n It feels fast and suitably forceful, particularly during the opening hours. Unlike Spider-Man, who can retreat into the air or use webs and gadgets to control a crowd, Wolverine works better when he stays close to his opponents. His healing ability also encourages an aggressive style of play because taking damage also adds to his rage meter.<\/p>\n Unfortunately, the combat does not develop as much as I expected. There are new techniques, upgrades and DNA-based bonuses to unlock, but many encounters can still be cleared using the same small selection of attacks. Once I found a combination of parries, leaps and special moves that worked, there was little reason to abandon it.<\/p>\n The increasingly familiar enemy groups do not help. Some require slightly different timing or attacks, but battles soon settle into a routine, while several boss encounters rely more on patience than any meaningful change in strategy. Wolverine may not fight with Spider-Man\u2019s acrobatic style, but a simpler combat system still needs enemies that force the player to rethink how it works. Marvel\u2019s Wolverine rarely does that.<\/p>\n Image: Sony Interactive Entertainment<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n That said, Insomniac has done a pretty good job crafting Logan\u2019s character on-screen. Voice actor Liam McIntyre also gives him the necessary roughness without reducing him to an angry man who occasionally speaks between fights. His relationships with Sabretooth and Jean Grey reveal more vulnerable parts of the character, and some of the quieter scenes work because the game allows him to be uncomfortable rather than constantly heroic. All of these made it very difficult to not want to root and feel for Logan throughout my time playing the game.<\/p>\n Yet the wider story struggles to support that portrayal. It jumps between personal trauma, mutant persecution, Team X\u2019s history and the expected comic-book conspiracy, but not all of these threads are given enough space. Some revelations will also be familiar to anyone with even just a passing knowledge of Wolverine and the X-Men.<\/p>\n I just felt there is an odd mismatch between the story\u2019s interest in Logan\u2019s troubled past and the way the game delivers parts of it through optional lore and combat challenges. These memories should make him easier to understand. Instead, they sometimes feel like another category of content waiting to be unlocked.<\/p>\n Image: Sony Interactive Entertainment<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n Marvel\u2019s Wolverine is not a bad game. It is polished, visually impressive and mercifully free from the sort of open-world padding that can turn a straightforward adventure into a slog. But the best moments of the game are when its combat, performances and spectacle come together exactly as intended \u2013 giving players a sense of satisfaction and achievement.<\/p>\n However, those moments have to carry a campaign that becomes repetitive much earlier than it should. The combat looks brutal without possessing much depth, the attractive locations offer little freedom and the story does not make enough of its conflicted lead.<\/p>\n Wolverine himself survives the experience. He is angry, damaged and far more interesting than the game surrounding him. After what Insomniac achieved with Spider-Man, however, I expected more than a polished action game that too often relies on Logan\u2019s claws to do all the work, and frankly, not much else.<\/p>\n Marvel\u2019s Wolverine releases on 15 September on the PlayStation 5.<\/i><\/p>\n<\/div>\n The superhero genre isn\u2019t new to Insomniac Games. After all, the Sony-owned gaming studio has already proven that it knows how to make a good…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":84187,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[1881,258,18407,10271,28,12802],"class_list":["post-84186","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-tech-gadgets-reviews","tag-deserved","tag-game","tag-logan","tag-marvels","tag-review","tag-wolverine","wpcat-32-id"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84186","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=84186"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84186\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/84187"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=84186"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=84186"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=84186"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}A different sort of Marvel game<\/h2>\n
Plenty of rage, but not enough depth<\/h2>\n
Logan deserves a stronger story<\/h2>\n
Final thoughts<\/h2>\n
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