It’s really awesome to see Insomniac Games back at it with another Marvel superhero game, albeit a much different one than its previous Spider-Man titles that helped define a genre.
Marvel’s Wolverine is a way bloodier, more linear, and more narrative-driven experience than anything Peter Parker or Miles Morales have been through, and it’s mostly great. But the short, hairy guy’s focus on ripping and shredding vs. gadgets, webs, and creativity makes it feel a tad repetitive at times. Thankfully, the story within is a fun one and a somewhat unique take on the character that will definitely get people talking, for better or worse.
Wolverine is quite a complex character, but when it comes to his forte of killing, it’s pretty simple: slicing, jumping, roaring, tackling, more slicing, dismembering, and a whole hell of a lot of blood. Buckets of blood. You will constantly be drenched in blood, take a ton of damage, and use his regenerative health to stay in the fight and keep killing (his suits regenerate, too, and that has a silly narrative explanation to go with it).
It’s all here in Marvel’s Wolverine. It’s gorgeous on PS5 Pro with 120hz support, VRR, advanced ray tracing, and a buttery smooth experience throughout, breathing life to a well-acted narrative experience that is driven by the rage of a mutant who lost his memories, but remembers full well how to absolutely maul his enemies and anyone standing in his way.
The combat in Wolverine is driven by that rage, too, which is the main mechanic in clearing out hordes of everything from cyborgs to ninjas to robots. Get used to pressing the square button to deal the vast majority of your damage, and then triangle to lunge at enemies to get in close and do it all again, all while building up a rage meter that allows James “Logan” Howlett to finish off foes quickly. When he is at max rage, Wolverine gets angrier, hits harder, and can move faster, so it’s all about building to that rhythm by slashing as much and as often as possible.
It’s hard not to compare this game’s combat to that of Spider-Man’s, as it’s from the same developer and both exist in the same universe, codenamed Earth-1048 (although you wouldn’t be able to really tell from this title: those looking for Peter or Miles to show up in any capacity will be disappointed). But that serves as a bit of a drawback for Logan, because his style of combat doesn’t allow for much creative expression beyond a handful of combos, special techniques that operate on a cooldown, and some minor tweaks to his abilities elsewhere. The techniques are basically abilities that you should use whenever the cooldown ends: a spinning tornado claw attack that does AoE damage, a flying drill claw attack, and so on. Fighting is not without total variety, as you can do things like push enemies into walls to stun them and follow up with a rapid stab attack, or kick them off of a ledge and then dive into them mid-air, claws-first.
That doesn’t mean the combat isn’t fun, though, because it is, and it does a great job of realizing the Wolverine fantasy. It’s extremely gratifying using Adamantium claws to rip through foes, cutting off limbs, impaling their brains, and combining with other X-Men characters like Jean Grey, Sabretooth, or Mystique for some well-animated finishers and incredible action set pieces. Keeping up the pace of attacks with the aforementioned square and triangle spam is coupled with those skills, O to dodge, and L1 to parry attacks, and I found it pretty damn satisfying, if not repetitive at times. A stagger mechanic occasionally shakes things up.
You’re often given the option of being stealthy, using tall grass in the environment to sneak up on enemies and silently take them down to thin out their ranks. But there’s really no penalty for going loud and just cutting through everybody, so there’s no real incentive to be quiet. And as an indestructible murder machine like Logan, why would you want to be?
سەرچاوەی فەرمی بە زمانی ئینگلیزی: https://www.destructoid.com/reviews/marvels-wolverine-review/
