Away From Keyboard - Marvel's Wolverine (PS5)
Feature
Participation Trophy: The Video Game
A NEW GAME FOR A NEW ERA
Back in 2009, Raven Software developed the game X-men Origins Wolverine: Uncaged Edition. It was based off of one of the worst comic book movies ever made, yet it managed to earn its place in many gamer's hearts as a fun God of War clone. 17 years later Insomniac games is here to bring us a new God of War clone, only this time based on the reboot series of God of War. From the over the shoulder camera, to the moments where you stand around waiting for dialogue to finish, surely after nearly two decades of innovation, and a $300,000,000 budget this new Wolverine game will surely go down as one of the best super hero games of all time.
NEW IN ALL THE BAD WAYS
Within the first few hours of playing this generic action game, I came to the realization that the combat wasn't really clicking with me. At first it wasn't so bad, but the longer I played it, the more insulted I felt. Wolverine can slash parry and perform combos, but he can't block.
Since many of the enemies have heavy attacks that can pierce through your parry manoeuvre, it would have been nice if there was an ability to simply put up a guard to reduce damage from heavy attacks like in the 2009 game, but no.
Also at the beginning of the game you can only parry one attack at once. At first I thought that this was done to try and keep the combat more fast paced, and to incentivise players to dodge more than parry. However, about 8 hours into my 16 hour playthrough, I finally earned enough experience points to purchase the ability to parry multiple attacks from a skill tree. Seriously, why should I have to earn something like this? The ability to parry multiple attacks should be something that should be available at the beginning of the game, not something you unlock about half way through. Imagine if in games like Batman Arkham City you had to earn the ability to counter multiple enemy attacks at once.
Not that it really matters, since the game's combat for the most part is extremely easy. Even on the hardest difficulty, I almost never died outside of some areas that caught me off guard. The biggest complaint I have with the game's combat is that it tries to be a hack-and-slash and a Souls-like game, and those two things just don't go together - well, they don't in this anyway. Souls-like games are primarily about timing your attacks and strategically planning your steps, whereas hack-and-slash games are primarily about going all out and attacking everything you see with your character's safety being an afterthought. Combined with the limited variety of enemies, and Wolverine becomes a snoozefest.
I also recommend playing this at 30 FPS as opposed to 60 FPS, since there are a few combat moves that give Wolverine invincibility frames. The higher the framerate, the shorter the invincibility. Seriously, who the hell playtested this combat system?
As bad as the combat is, the traversal is even worse. Most of the chase sequences are boring and could have easily been a cutscene. The environmental detail ranges from passable to mediocre, and considering how this game is meant to be like God Of War Ragnarok, you would think that the developers would put energy into at least making certain aspects of the world stand out with unique details, but everything just feels so generic.
There were moments in the game where Wolverine is on a motorcycle, and players don't even have to touch the controller, and he will automatically complete the motorcycle chase sequence. Other times, there are moments where quicktime events pop up on screen, and players don't even have to push the buttons - the game plays itself.
The game has almost no sense of discovery, as it flat out tells you where everything is. It is also extremely linear and has almost no sense of wonder or reason to make you want to explore outside of collecting experience points by completing repetitive tasks. The game is more linear than you can imagine. It is a linear exposé, it is a linearity pride parade.
GENERIC MOVIE GAMES HAVE BETTER STORIES THAN THIS
Okay, so the combat and exploration are dull, what about the story?
Unfortunately. it is even worse. Marvel's Wolverine tries to be like God of War Ragnarok in the sense that there are cutscenes everywhere to interrupt gameplay, yet none of them give you much information that you don't already know. None of these moments of talking and character banter did much to invest me in the lore of this world or its characters. Characters often act in the stupidest ways imaginable just to further the plot in the way the writers want. There was one moment in the story where Wolverine and Jean Grey are arguing over who should get the last parachute as an airplane they're on is falling. As we've already seen Wolverine survive falls from great heights at the beginning of the game with his mutant body and healing factor, and the fact that Jean can fly, it seemed a wasted conversation.
I find it ironic that the 2009 Wolverine game based on a movie felt more like a pulse pounding action title and the 2026 Wolverine game felt as though it was trying to be a movie.
Nightmares
There are also some moments where you can access Nightmare trials. These do a somewhat decent job of breaking up the story by letting Wolverine partake in combat and traversal trials. These trials allow you to unlock alternate costumes for Wolverine by getting points. They don't really add anything to the story, but they at least break up the pace a little bit.
The characters are boring and don't do anything to make me care about if they live or die. There was one moment where a child gets killed, and it is supposed to take a big emotional toll on the characters, yet they never mention him again after he dies. Combine this with the fact that the story is full of plot holes and inconsistencies. In this new continuity, Mutants are not yet known to the public, and the only way for most of them to activate their powers is with a plot device that awakens the X Gene in mutants to give them their powers. Despite this, the government has all these giant robots ready to deal with them as if they've known about them for decades. It also doesn't help that this game takes place in modern day. If it took place in the 1960s when the original comics were created, then it could have been a fun origin story that later led to sequels that took place in modern day where the existence of mutants has been established for decades, and then it could have expanded on that, and lead to something interesting in modern day. Since Wolverine as a character is able to live for hundreds of years because of his genetics, it seems like a missed opportunity.
TRIPLE A SLOP HAS A NEW NAME, AND IT IS WOLVERINE
To me, it is amazing how X-Men Origin's Wolverine: Uncaged Edition, a movie tie-in game released over 17 years ago with fewer than 16 months of development time, and one tenth the budget of this $300 million title had a better sense of direction and purpose than what Insomniac was able conjure after more than seven years. Most of the problems with the former Wolverine game developed by Raven Software came down to the fact that it was made in a rush to coincide with the abysmal movie it was adapting. I could tell that based on the cliffhanger ending of that game, that the developers were passionate about expanding on the world they created back then. Insomniac's Wolverine does not have that excuse. The devs were free to basically do whatever they wanted in this new continuity of theirs, yet they still squandered it in almost every way possible. I hope that sooner or later, the higher ups at Sony, Marvel, Insomniac or the like come to the realization that Superhero games don't necessarily need Hollywood blockbuster budgets, overly complicated stories, and boatloads of fancy effects to be good - they need personality.
Score: 4.8/10
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