Marvel’s Wolverine (PS5) Review

Introduction

Insomniac Games is taking on the challenge of adding another comic book superhero to their portfolio, and it is by far the hardest. While Spider-Man has woven a rich tapestry of various stories in his entire media catalog with a more receptive audience to various faces of the character, there are certain characters that are now burdened by a once-in-a-generation casting. So Insomniac Games announcing Wolverine isn’t quite the surprise given his popularity, but rather a challenge of how they’re gonna pull it off. That said, the big question is how are they going to make a game that feels very Wolverine?

Reviews of Marvel’s Wolverine for the PlayStation 5 are released today, and this is Back2Gaming’s review of the game after a complete playthrough. In this review, we’ll talk about the features of the game and how it sets itself apart from being a Spidey-clone, managing to create a feel that we could say is uniquely it own. Read on to find out more.

Plot

Insomniac Games has crafted a unique story for this game, specifically pulling from the various lores of Wolverine and the X-Men as a whole. Canon is a fragile thing for comic book adaptations: follow it to a tee and the game becomes predictable; veer too far, and you will get roasted by the fandom. Unlike their Spider-Man games, Wolverine is more loosely adapted, taking characters from the X-Men universe but keeping the roster small with name-drops and easter eggs here and there for a sense of familiarity to the wider world.

The game’s story focuses on James Logan Howlett (played by Liam McIntyre). The game opens with Logan in self-imposed isolation following what appears to be a berserker episode where he lost control and hurt his family. Nathaniel Essex (played by Troy Baker) finds him three years after walking away from his so-called family, the mutant strike team known as Team X. Logan is a reluctant, rogue survivor living on the fringes of a world where mutantkind remains unorganized and hunted. He is violently dragged back into the fight when anti-mutant science mogul Bolivar Trask (played by Jason Spisak) begins abducting vulnerable underground mutants, including the Callisto (played by Debra Wilson) and her group, forcing Logan into a tenuous alliance with an independent Jean Grey (played by Krizia Bajos.) While the initial arc falls face-first into standard, cliché superhero tropes, it serves as a gateway to a much deeper, more volatile narrative involving genetic mastermind Nathaniel Essex, the ninja underworld of The Hand, and a race to control a mutant-altering relic called the Helix Engine.

The game sees Logan hopping from Canada to Madripoor in Southeast Asia, and Japan, where we’ll encounter familiar names and places as Logan completes Essex’s tasks in order to aid mutantkind with his machine. This sets us up to fight against ever-evolving threats from Trask and his goons, including his most nefarious creation: the Sentinels.

Audio/Visual and Presentation

As expected, the game has a dark and mature tone from visuals to scenes and their composition. The game doesn’t have a filter on it so bright areas are bright and dark areas are dark. But Insomniac Games has a creative way of framing certain scenes which really help the narrative but for the most part, the free camera is yours to abuse and learning it is vital in maximizing combat efficiency but we’ll talk about that later.

The game has large vertical stages as well as tight hallways, all of which are beautifully detailed. As an action game, I prefer Performance mode but players will be able to choose between Graphics or Performance mode to suit their liking anytime in the settings options.

All-in-all the game does well in the audio department even using licensed mainstream music to complete some scenes. A nice touch is the familiar ping of item boxes scattered around the map, which will be very familiar to Spider-Man players as well. Excellent audio design is also done with attack animations for both enemies and Logan with the most effective use when he maxes out his rage meter where the action gets really frenetic.

Visually, the presentation is a somewhat polarizing mixed bag that alternates between bleeding-edge tech and jarring design choices. While Insomniac deserves massive credit for finally honoring Logan’s comic-accurate 5’3″ “short king” height and broad, stocky physique, his base character model looks surprisingly soft, giving him a “pretty boy” facial structure that conflicts with his rugged ~200-year history. Even more distracting is Sabretooth’s exaggerated anatomy, where Victor Creed’s neck is bizarrely rendered wider than his actual torso when wearing his combat suit. Fortunately, the game claws back points through its real-time battle damage physics, which dynamically shred Logan’s skin and suit down to his underlying adamantium structural plates before visibly healing mid-combat.

Voice Acting and Mocap

Liam McIntyre did an excellent job in his emotional portrayal of Logan but Insomniac’s choice of using a de-aged face of Liam (no offense to the actor) rather than his current face makes it feel like we’re looking at a boy Logan, not the broken man we’ve seen him become in this game. While biologically grounded for Logan in canon, it takes away from the visual drama that the game tends to adhere to when doing its cutscenes. It’s also partly important in his rage close-ups where McIntyre delivers great gravitas. But Liam falls flat against scene partners like Krizia Bajos, Brett Gipson, or even minor scenes with Debra Wilson. This game’s version of Jean Grey gives us a more vicious yet caring Jean who isn’t above slamming builds on deserving bad guys. While she spends much of her time floating around, props to Krizia for pulling off excellent facial mocap to deliver her scenes. Brett Gipson’s Sabertooth also deserves a nod and while he’s practically always angry, much of the work is in the vocal delivery, which Gipson nailed, and the only single emotional line by Sabertooth in-game is also well articulated, enough to communicate his pain… in a psychotic kind of way.

And most notably of all, Troy Baker. I’m starting to feel Troy Baker is becoming the Jared Leto of video games: a hyper-visible “celebrity” in this space. And while Baker captures the theatrical-yet-calculating arrogance of Nathaniel Essex flawlessly, his static facial performance is simply lacking for such a pivotal character in the story. Intentional or not, it gives off a punchable face reflex but not the face of the potentially twisted nature of his namesake.

Gameplay

Mechanically, Wolverine completely switches up the open-world “downtime” of the Spider-Man franchise in favor of tight, linear narrative velocity that takes place over a continuous, urgent span of what feels like days in-game. The combat engine plays out like a love letter to the original, high-intensity hack-and-slash era of the Greek God of War trilogy. The frenetic, high-APM button mashing is tightly interspersed with brutal cinematic Quick-Time Events (QTEs), and the control layout is an unmistakable homage: L1 manages your active parries, tapping L2+R2 erupts into lunges enemy to enemy in his berserker rage, and cinematic finishers require you to hit the buttons precisely or expect to be punished. It is a relentless, visceral brawler loop that forces you forward with maximum momentum.

The game says it clearly at one point, and I paraphrase: you are indestructible, but you’re not immortal. Wolverine’s kit is bolstered throughout the game with familiar from his fighting game history like the Spiral Claw (Drill Claw from Capcom) and shortened Berserker Barrage, and by the end of the game, a skill similar to his Fatal Claw. The game’s moves are separated into two categories: Techniques are added on top of your current move set while Special Techniques are a set of 4 skills you can switch from that do more damage. Special techniques also have upgrades which further enhances that move. These moves can be done anytime in-combat with L2 + face button of your choice and they can be done mid-combo to serve as a combo or a counter.

Traits also support Logan’s kit and serves as his enhancements. In my first playthrough, I got a total of 9 traits only missing one of the required in-game sidequests that unlocks traits. New Game+ should increase this cap allowing Logan to grow stronger and become more highly efective in combat. Traits vary from healing, to dodge, block, and other augmentations that help in battle with a few helping out in the field. My build specifically set my traits to speed up skill cooldown from dodges, counters and parries. This helps build make combat flow non-stop allowing more rage to build up faster to mop up enemies quickly.

And speaking of dodges and counters, etc. This is the foundation of the game. While Wolverine is hard to kill and will soak up damage like a sponge, he needs time to regenerate and the game let you know this. Logan CAN and will die if you don’t protect yourself. Mastering when to dodge or parry is key in building up a non-stop combat flow to your taste: Wolverine may be feral and ferocious but its ultimately up to you if you play fast-paced or methodical.

Dealing and soaking damage builds up Logan’s rage in combat granting him further effects. You can further bolster these via traits but at its most basic, you practically can one-shot frightened enemies. I mentioned earlier, it pays to know when to swing your sticks and this is for spatial awareness. You want to maximize your rage when its built-up and keeping a steady stream of bodies piling up is a way to ensure its utilized well so mapping out enemies is a helpful skill.

90% of the game is pure hack-and-slash, and curiously enough I was doing a replay of God of War III Remastered when I started this game, having just beaten Hades. The game feels much like that God of War experience with the fast, linear progression that leads to one fight to another. The rest is simple platformers and mild puzzles including challenges via the Nightmare Portals where you enter pre-assigned doors in-game that puts you into Logan’s mindscape where he can recall his past by completing challenges which nets you Skills and Trait points.

It’s a simple loop, and while similar to the webhead’s setup, is also uniquely Wolverine.

Conclusion

Marvel’s Wolverine is a tale of two entirely different creative directions. It suffers from clear whiplash, stumbling through a predictable, corporate first act that culminates in a highly uninspired, half-finished Sentinel boss battle, before entirely redeeming itself by diving headfirst into an unhinged, deeply satisfying comic-lore sandbox. While the character models and forced romantic subplots will inevitably alienate a fraction of the hardcore fanbase, the sheer mechanical weight of its hack-and-slash combat loop and exceptional secondary performances make it an incredibly potent foundation for Sony’s emerging mutant universe.