Marvel’s Wolverine is ‘a brutal, cinematic adventure’

I have completedMarvel’s Wolverine within every inch of its life.

32 hours total playtime. Platinum Trophy obtained.

This is a fantastic game and I absolutely adored it… to a point.

After Insomniac Games’ triumph with the Spider-Man series, expectations were very high for its next major project. And while Marvel’s Wolverine is an incredible title and absolutely worth your time, it doesn’t quite hit the same peaks.

But that doesn’t mean Logan’s first Insomniac adventure isn’t something special.

$99 | JB Hi-Fi

Beautifully Brutal

Marvel’s Wolverine is as cinematic as they come.

The game is packed with beautifully detailed environments, spectacular cutscenes and some genuinely jaw-dropping moments.

And the violence is on another plane.

I had moments where I genuinely had to pick my jaw off the floor. It was so violent.

Played on PS5 Pro, the performance was exceptional. The game ran smoothly throughout my playthrough, with no major framerate issues or obvious graphical imperfections getting in the way.

The level of detail is particularly impressive.

Reflections are some of the best I’ve come across on PlayStation 5, but it’s the smaller details that really stood out to me.

Jumping into Photo Mode and getting up close to objects, notes and scribblings on a clipboard shows just how much visible detail Insomniac has packed into its environments.

There were times where I’d stop, jump into photo mode, and simply look at something (easily added a couple of hours to my playtime here).

Logan Lore

The story is epic, but it can also be a little difficult to follow.

The premise of Logan’s tale is heavily tied to his memories, and you’ll need to unlock them to discover more about his past. These memories can become a little convoluted at times, particularly as the story jumps between different periods of Logan’s life.

But when everything comes together, it delivers some genuinely special moments.

Liam McIntyre is a spectacular Wolverine, and his performance was one of the highlights of the entire game.

The heat is on from the get-go, with Wolverine, Sabretooth and Mystique embarking on a mission to rescue Essex, played by the legendary Troy Baker, after he is kidnapped by anti-mutant scientist and all-round bad guy Bolivar Trask.

An epic rescue ensues, Logan faces off against Omega Red, and the story only keeps giving from there.

While the blood certainly gets pumping, some of the best moments are actually the quieter ones.

Between all the chaos, Logan is dropped into quieter moments where you can explore, interact with the world and dive deeper into the narrative.

This is a narrative-driven adventure first and foremost. The only real similarities between Marvel’s Spider-Man and Marvel’s Wolverine are in the combat.

It’s a much more focused, linear adventure built around telling Logan’s story.

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Logan’s linear life

There are some pretty spectacular environments in the game, from the streets of Shinjuku to the snowy forests of Canada.

At first, I appreciated how linear Marvel’s Wolverine was.

Insomniac is clearly sticking to its limits and using that structure to create incredibly detailed environments rather than attempting to build another sprawling open-world superhero game.

But after a few hours, those limitations started to stand out.

You’re encouraged to explore to find bottles of whisky, material chests and other collectibles, but take a wrong turn and you’ll quickly find yourself up against an invisible wall or being told to turn back.

Out in the forest, you’re often forced to stick to designated paths. In the city, huge walls appear to prevent you from leaving, while cars and barricades conveniently close off roads.

It can be frustrating when the game gives you an environment that looks like you should be able to explore it, only to remind you that you really can’t.

At one point, I attempted to scale one of these walls and was launched sky high and straight through the game’s boundary.

I eventually found myself running around an open section of the city where I absolutely shouldn’t have been, clipping through buildings and roads.

It was a pretty cool glitch, but also immersion-breaking.

I suspect this will be quickly patched out.

I also found the various motorbike sequences to be slightly interactive cinematics. Logan can ride head-on into a truck and brush it off and continue riding.

It’s a flashy show if you can hold it all together, otherwise it quickly becomes a messy and uncoordinated death run.

Despite being an Insomniac title, this is far from Marvel’s Spider-Man.

And I think that’s ultimately both a strength and a weakness.

The focused approach allows Insomniac to deliver some incredibly detailed environments and tightly controlled cinematic sequences, but it can also make the world feel restrictive and one-dimensional

Logan’s love for whisky is also prominent throughout the game. You can collect different bottles as you explore, with Logan following his nose to the next special drop.

Sharp, but repetitive combat

Combat is sharp and quick, with some incredible finishing moves and brutally satisfying assaults.

There’s something incredibly satisfying about tearing through a group of enemies as Wolverine.

You can parry attacks with L1, much like Marvel’s Spider-Man, while special moves are activated using L2 plus one of the face buttons.

There’s a reason why Logan’s suit looks brand new after taking an auto turret to the chest 100 times.

Outside of Logan’s standard claw attacks, there are also upgradable abilities through the skill tree, giving you more options as you progress.

Enemy variety is spread across different sections of the game. You’ll start out fighting waves of Reavers, the cybernetic soldiers, before eventually facing The Hand and coming face-to-face with Sentinels.

There are some great boss battles thrown in there too, alongside a number of special enemies that force you to approach combat differently.

Wolverine also finds himself in some excellent team-up moments with Jean, Sabretooth and Mystique.

These sequences were some of my favourites, giving combat a welcome change of pace and letting you experience Logan alongside some of Marvel’s other major characters.

But despite all of that variety, combat can eventually become repetitive.The core mechanics are fantastic, but you’re still spending a lot of time doing the same thing — parrying, clawing, dodging and ripping enemies apart.

There are also quite a few quick-time sequences throughout the story. They look spectacular, but some of them feel superficial, particularly when you can hit either L2 or R2 without any real consequence.

Later in the story, Logan unlocks a special move that completely changes the way you approach certain battles.

I’m not going to spoil it, but this is essentially Wolverine’s “Venom moment”.

It’s a fantastic ability and a genuine game-changer in combat.

Should you play Marvel’s Wolverine?

I enjoyed almost every second of Marvel’s Wolverine, and I’m genuinely sad that it’s over.

It’s not a perfect game. The combat can become repetitive, the linear environments occasionally feel restrictive, and there were a few technical hiccups along the way.

But none of that changes how much fun I had tearing through enemies as Logan. New Game+ is looking incredibly tempting right now.

Marvel’s Wolverine isn’t completely shaking up the gaming world, but what Insomniac Games has achieved is worth a very good pat on the back.

Buy it here:

$99 | JB Hi-Fi

Early access to Marvel’s Wolverine was provided by the publisher.