Marvel’s Wolverine Review (PS5)

Insomniac Games is no stranger to the art of fleshing out superhero-padded, blood-fueled action-adventure flicks. The thing is, the team behind them has already set the bar pretty high with Marvel’s Spider-Man—a cult favorite that, in the spirit of heroism, has just about everything that you could need and want from a web-slinging open-world game. But of course, that brings about a new problem: Wolverine has some awfully big shoes to fill. While evidently as prolific and as popular as Peter Parker, the blood barren of the X-Men troupe has the weight of the world on his head, and unfortunately, a crowd of bloodthirsty fans who crave a well-rounded game that can capture the same energy as Marvel’s Spider-Man.

Marvel’s Wolverine clearly gets a lot of things right. True to the power of Insomniac Games’ creative approach to action-adventure storytelling, it delivers and quite often demonstrates the raw power of a dark anti-hero narrative that can pull you in, throttle you at the scruff of the neck, and keep you clawing at the tip of the exoskeleton for more bloodshed and pulsating action. Marvel’s Wolverine, thankfully, brings all of that to the table, with ruthlessly violent combat, slick battle sequences that don’t often shy away from the gore, and a neatly-packed story that, while still short and lacking in the grand-scale depth of Spider-Man, keeps your knuckles warm and your head straight.

As far as storylines go, Marvel’s Wolverine bears the brunt of a well-orchestrated plot. Without straying too far from a classic X-Men chapter, it manages to bring a new perspective to Logan’s story—a rough-and-ready arc that, in the spirit of a bloodier tale, taps into the brutality, the violent action and the oh-so-rugged cinematic escapades. On that basis, it brings a solid hook to the table—a premise that both pays homage to the source material and hones in on a modern world that can lift the weight of an above par experience.

Marvel’s Wolverine takes place several years after Logan’s departure from Team X. Somewhere, on the far corners of Tokyo and beyond, mutants are losing their way in a dark and somewhat opaque world. As the blade-handed anti-hero, you take your place in Team X once again, all in an effort to claw your way through the world and to uncover the truth behind the missing mutants. It’s all rather cliche, but that is, quite simply, a superhero flick for you, in a nutshell — and Insomniac Games happily embraces the lovable cliche like an old friend.

Arguably the worst thing you could do with a game like Marvel’s Wolverine is compare it against the likes of Spider-Man. Frankly, you have two completely different episodes here, with the latter choosing to prioritize an open-ended sandbox of moving pieces, and the former opting to frontline a linear adventure that pours more heart and soul into corridor prowling, stylish executions and simple yet satisfying button mashing-like combat. Looking at it that way, you can see that, behind its airtight components and sheer lack of open-world complexity, Wolverine is a good game. It might not be a brilliant game, but it is one that services the source material with utmost respect.

The problem with Marvel’s Wolverine is that it has an awful habit of repeating a lot of the same things. Don’t get me wrong, at first it feels great, to claw and carve your way through dimly lit alleys, knuckle in on the odd collectible, or hop aboard a bike and blitz through the cluttered streets of a bustling city. Of course, all of that works, as does it go down a real treat. Combat is brutal and somewhat heavy-handed, and the violence is the cherry on the cake, naturally. Though, there is a point where it all begins to drag out; the battles merge into one endless slog, and the world rarely opens up its doors to new creative opportunities. And, I’ll be honest, I did make the mistake of comparing it to Insomniac Games’ previous work. I wanted to branch out and tear the world limb from limb, only I was never given that chance.

Personally, I have no quarrels with linear games. If anything, I embrace them like a loose-fitted glove; the clear progression hooks keep me on the straight and narrow, and more often than not, I know exactly what to do and where to go. The same applies to Wolverine. Sure enough, I could stick to the same beaten paths, engage in ruthless battle sequences, and generally plug into a nitty-gritty experience that would allow me to scratch that itch. And yet, I also encountered a few  moments where I wanted a bit more fat to chew on.

For the record, there is nothing wrong with Marvel’s Wolverine. Clearly, Insomniac Games is doing what they do best: establishing a well-crafted, graphically accurate and mechanically slick experience from the beating heart of a timeless franchise. With some solid voice work, a stunning environment and a palpable storyline that keeps you engaged over the course of its fifteen-hour campaign, it technically makes for a good slog of a game. Yet, it just isn’t all that memorable, either. Several years ago it would have been the magnum opus of Insomniac Games’ catalog. In the shadow of Marvel’s Spider-Man, though, it gets stuck in a web and fails to locate the elbow grease needed to free itself from its own skeleton.

As I said, there is a good third-person action game here that will more than likely appeal to X-Men fans and the target demographic. It’s pulpy, energetic, and all in all an absolute blast to slug through as the ever-famous anti-hero of the faithful Team X. It’s the little things that drag it down, however. As engaging as it is in short bursts, it does often fail to add a bit of flair to the experience. With repetitive combat and a lack of open-world control, it’s about as on-rails as you could possibly get. Again, this isn’t a bad thing. The thing is, we’ve come to expect a lot more from Insomniac Games. Blame Spider-Man, I guess.

Verdict

Marvel’s Wolverine, as a standalone third-person action-adventure game, is a suitable fit for the anti-hero opus, as is it a faithful adaptation of the source material that merrily pairs nitty-gritty violence with some excellent storytelling and voice work. However, beneath the watchful gaze of Peter Parker, it often struggles to emerge as a worthy successor in the face of natural-born heroism. With predictable combat, an oftentimes painful sense of linearity, and a condensed world that misses out on all of the flair and golden opportunities that come with an open-world setting, it sadly fails to ignite the same spirit as its predecessor.

As I said, there isn’t a bad game behind all of this. On the contrary, Marvel’s Wolverine scratches an itch that countless others have often failed to reach. But, to reiterate, it is a game that could have done a lot more with the property and the assets at its fingertips. Perhaps Insomniac Games has set the bar a little too high. Maybe, just maybe, we need to start thinking of Wolverine as its own skeleton, and not as a genetic mutation of an existing arachnid.