Marvel's Wolverine game review and impressions

Wolverine has long seemed like an obvious fit for a modern action game — healing factor, claws, heightened senses, wall-scaling agility — and now Insomniac has finally delivered one. But according to a recent review from Eurogamer, Marvel's Wolverine is a game of two halves: a surprisingly tender take on Logan that wins you over completely, wrapped around combat and structure that rarely surprise.

A Wolverine You Don't Expect

Anyone expecting the gruff, closed-off loner from the films or the 90s cartoon may be startled by this interpretation. Eurogamer's review describes this Logan as openly vulnerable, emotive, apologetic and kind — a straight-up action hero with sad eyes and a big smile, performed by Liam McIntyre with what the reviewer calls "a kind of enchanting, puppy-dog innocence." He kisses, hugs, role-plays as a cartoon cat-pirate for children, and rescues people simply because it's the right thing to do.

That warmth extends to the supporting cast. Sabretooth, usually pure brute force, reveals a softer side late in the story, while Mystique is framed as a wounded animal lashing out from an overabundance of love. Even villain Nathaniel Essex — played via voice and motion capture by Troy Baker with an "enjoyably arch English accent" — is chillingly good at the crocodile-teared non-apology. The one weak link is Jean Grey: well performed by Krizia Bajos, but written as overly doting and too often reduced to a door-opening, platform-lifting accomplice.

An Alternate Universe X-Men Story

There's no X-Men team in this universe. Instead, Logan belongs to Team X, a deeper comics cut reworked here into a mutant rescue operation run by Essex, a psychic-powered figure from the 1800s, out of his Essex Institute. The result feels closer to an alternate-universe X-Men story than one where the famous team might eventually show up.

The storytelling itself is broad and predictable — even casual fans will see most turns coming. Themes of found family and resistance to the militarised rounding-up of minorities are present and correct, and they justify some especially satisfying skull-mashing, though none of it is subtle. More problematically, the review argues, much of the good character work happens off-screen. Logan often feels like a passenger in his own story: the first third is essentially order-following for Essex, and his famed memory loss functions as a plot device rather than a character-making one. Optional "Nightmare Doors" — short time trials that unlock vague verbal recollections — underline how secondary Logan's own past feels to Logan himself. The reviewer's verdict: a protagonist dragged through the plot rather than propelling it.

Combat That Plays It Safe

Mechanically, the rundown will sound familiar to anyone who has played recent PlayStation first-party titles: light and heavy slashes, combo finishers, leap attacks, stealth executions, cooldown-based special attacks, a skill tree fed by hidden whiskey bottles that adds light RPG flavour, and the obligatory rage meter — fill two bars and you can execute basic grunts by pulling both triggers when prompted. There's a traffic-light parry system (blue parryable, red unblockable, gold "reckless" attacks that punish or reward timing heavily) and "hot claws" from smashable molten containers.

None of it is broken, and the review stresses that it isn't bad — there's real satisfaction in a well-timed parry-counter and in leaping around as an unleashed beast. The gore is ferocious. But it's also one-note and one-pace: Wolverine's settings are "yelling and extra yelling," his effects "gory or extra gory." The game is essentially at maximum rage throughout, which means it never builds to a genuine climax — and for a linear action game, the reviewer calls this the core disappointment.

The linear format, which could have brought compactness and concentrated highlights, instead allows repetition and an overlong, overfamiliar slog. And while half the modern Sony checklist is here — climbable ledges, parries, simple environmental puzzles, an ultimate triggered by pressing two buttons at once — the review notes that these mechanics, while never groundbreaking, can still be very good fun when handled well. Here, they mostly aren't elevated beyond the formula.

Who It's For

If you've grown tired of the standard PlayStation action template, this won't change your mind. But if the appeal is the character himself, the review suggests there's plenty to love: this version of Logan is genuinely charming, and his found-family dynamic with Team X carries the game where the plot and combat fall short.

Insomniac's Marvel's Wolverine is out now on PlayStation 5, published by Sony Interactive Entertainment.

Source: Eurogamer