When PlayStation invited me to a hands-on session with Insomniac Games’ Wolverine, I knew I was in for a good time. The studio has had a great track record with Spider-Man in recent years, and games like Sunset Overdrive, Ratchet and Clank, and Spyro before that. The point is, Insomniac knows how to make a video game feel good and I was sure, at the very least, that I’d have a fun time playing Marvel’s Wolverine. Even with somewhat high expectations going in, though, I wasn’t quite prepared for the unadulterated power fantasy experience I was in for.
When you make a Wolverine game, or any superhero game for that matter, the fact is that the power fantasy is the most important thing you need to sell, and the team at Insomniac understands that perfectly. After a quick introductory cutscene where a hairy and barely clothed Logan sniffs curiously at a not-so-sinister-just-yet Nathaniel Essex, I’m thrown straight into the action.
Let’s talk about the combat first. My overall big picture take is that the combat in Wolverine is fun. That’s it. It’s just pure fun. You press the triangle button to perform a leap attack, which has Wolverine jump halfway across the map to his target, then you spam the square button to hit them with a barrage of claw attacks till they’re dead. Parrying is mapped to L1, and enemies will flash blue or yellow to let you know when it’s time to deflect.
If you’ve played any of Rocksteady’s Arkham games or Insomniac’s Spider-Man games, this will all feel rather old hat to you. Except, Marvel’s Wolverine moves much faster and with a lot more ferocity than any of those games. As mentioned previously, Wolverine’s ability to literally leap halfway across the map makes combat feel that much more frenetic and fast-paced. There’s also the fact that enemies are also quite a bit more aggressive to compensate for Wolverine’s speed, as they won’t just wait around for their turn to attack, forcing you to keep a finger on the parry button at all times.
I found the parry window to be just a bit narrower than what I was used to in Spider-Man and the Arkham games as well, which suits this game’s pace just fine. There’s a soft target lock feature in the game, and while you’ll likely be too busy mashing buttons to move the camera around, the game does a good job of showing you colored indicators to let you know when to dodge or parry.
For the first part of the demo, I found combat to be rather basic, but that quickly changed when I started leveling up and getting skill points to unlock new abilities. For the demo’s runtime, I got to play around with a healing ability, a knee strike, and a tornado spin — all of which served to make Wolverine’s moveset feel that much more diverse and varied. These abilities are all on a cooldown, so you’ll also need to manage them carefully in combat. While fighting, you’ll also build up a Rage bar that makes Wolverine even more powerful.
Filling up all three sections of the Rage bar sends Wolverine into a frenzy where he starts shrugging off attacks and deals more damage. This is where the gory glory of the game goes on full display. I can’t understate just how satisfying it is to watch Wolverine slice and dice his way through human bodies with his adamantium claws, and I particularly enjoyed the game’s usage of the adaptive triggers and haptic feedback on the DualSense controller to help combat feel more weighty.
Interestingly though, I also got to check out a boss fight against a Sentinel prototype, and I found that to be the least enjoyable bit of the demo. The Sentinel’s moves were largely predictable, and the entire fight was just a waiting game of Simon Says. Dodge when the machine raises its hands, then mash square and triangle until it eventually dies. The fight itself felt very drawn out and one-note, which is my main complaint about my time with the demo, so here’s hoping the rest of the boss fights are more interesting.
Outside of that, I found myself thoroughly invested in Logan’s story. It’s worth noting that this is a wholly original story being told within the X-Men universe, where Logan is part of Team X, which largely comprises of him, Sabretooth, and Mystique, led by Nathaniel Essex himself. There are appearances by other popular mutants like Jean Grey of course, as well as easter eggs and small nods to fan-favorites like Remy LeBeau.
In particular, I found the Team X setup to be very refreshing. I’ve always been a fan of the more antagonistic mutants in X-Men, and I loved getting to team up with Mystique and Sabretooth. This dynamic allows for a lot more chaotic energy between the trio during missions, which makes the whole story feel incredibly tense. Aside from dealing with cut-and-dried villains like Omega Red, the game also does a good job of making the player feel wary about their own teammates as well, especially Sabretooth, whose hot-headed nature causes him to constantly butt heads with Wolverine.
This isn’t to say that I don’t miss the other fan-favorites like Storm and Cyclops, but I’m happy to see Wolverine indulge in his villain era for now, even if I know it’s going to be short-lived. From my short time with Marvel’s Wolverine, I appreciated that Insomniac hasn’t shied away from telling a darker, more mature story with Logan, and I’m already hankering to get my hands on the full game so I can see what happens next.
