Marvel’s Wolverine is an Action, Adventure game from Insomniac Games. Following the success of the Marvel’s Spider-Man series, Insomniac Games took the mantle to work on another character. We’re playing as James Logan Howelett, aka the Wolverine. If you’re coming into this series blind and don’t know the characters, oh are you in for a treat. I will prefer now that this game is not referencing any comics or any other media. The only things you’ll find here are their names, and powers that are the cannon part of some of the mutants lore.
Now sharpen your claws and bear your fangs, because we’re slicing through this review.
You would always hear about Honey badgers not giving a flip. But have you met this Wolverine!?! HE DRANK ALL MY WHISKEY!!!!
Gameplay
Marvel’s Wolverine starts us off with Logan out in the wilderness being found by Essex. Honestly, the fact that Logan is living in the woods of Canada and this guy just out of nowhere finds us. Besides that, we go through a 30 year time skip that has us rescuing Essex. Yet, this is when parts of the problem before the solutions start to appear.
I will say I have all the settings set to not having any hints, help tools or anything is just off. The game does at times have as the community dubs it “blue fart trail” leading me to the objective. But, one thing I’ve noticed that not a lot of people point out is the reason for it is because Logan just got a whiff of something. Like Whiskey being unsupervised.
There’s also the boxes we come across that have materials in it that have a small ping sound to it. We’ve seen Insomniac Games do something similar in the Spider-Man games. The only difference is that where Spider-Man was more free and open, Wolverine has us going down a path with barely any wiggle room. There is a specific area I thought I could roam, but invisible walls show its unseeable face.
Wolverine’s Combat Experience
I want to cover my experience with the combat of the game separate from the Gameplay section. Throughout my adventure, I was playing on The Best There Is Difficulty. Which I must say lived up to being slightly more bang for my buck. Made the Nightmare Cabin challenging. Especially with the AI for these NPCs are brutal to the max.
I cannot tell you how I’m okay with being surrounded by certain types of mobs, but there is a group…I despise it! Honestly, even with unlocking certain abilities, I stuck with four that made sense. However, I don’t know if this was on purpose, but I have to remind myself to parry will in a finisher. You all do not understand how frequently I lost a lot of health because I thought I was safe in a finisher.
Now, I feel like something I don’t know if anyone playing came across this one other issue. While doing a certain type of Nightmare Cabin, Logan loses all momentum and just stops sprinting out of nowhere. Honestly, that fact that I had my victory taken from me because of it made me mad! But, I wasn’t going to stop until I came out on top!
Graphics and Audio
This is Insomniac Games, so of course these folks cooked and boy did we get a feast. I loved looking at the attention to details to every character we come across and the areas we go to. I even enjoy how Insomniac games did the same thing they do for the Spider-Man series and have different outfits for Logan. We get costumes that are from comics, movies, tv and older games as well. Which caught me off guard when I saw the Tokon Wolverine in the roster since the game is only a few months old.
I did also love the care put into Logan’s memories and the whittled wood carvings that represent a different struggle in Logan’s life.
Now, the audio actually came out very well done. From the line read performances from every voice actor, to the folks voicing the NPCs that you come across throughout the game. It’s actually my favorite thing to go look for since I first played Marvel’s Spider-Man years ago. Getting to learn more about the universe that the team create is honestly refreshing.
The level of detail to show not telling the relationships each character has with one another. Especially when it comes to Victor’s and Logan’s friendship has been crumbling. There are many moments that I’m sure it’s predictable, but showing not telling still made me angry or cry.
Longevity
Playing the game on The Best There Is difficulty did have me redo boss fights a few times. The game took me about 18 hours to beat, but to 100% it, it took 26 hours. About one hour less when I did the same thing for Spider-Man 2 when it first came out. There is a lot to get out of this game with a secret ending that is worth chasing.
Final Thoughts
Marvel’s Wolverine is actually a really great game, but I came across a lot of things that did kill my momentum because of these issues. I’m curious with the ending we got, are they going to work on Wolverine 2? Or will the worlds of this game and Spider-Man collide and we might get a hint in Spider-Man 3. Now, it is up to you if you want to pick it up because you like Insomniac Games’ work. I want to say that this is a good game with an amazing story to tell.
I give Marvel’s Wolverine the Thumb Culture Gold Award
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