Starting out 30 years ago as a blank slate which was cultivated and molded into the ultimate weapon, James ‘Logan’ Howlett becomes the Wolverine, but only time could heal the damage that was done to him. Here is our Marvel’s Wolverine Review.
Developed by Insomniac Games and Published by Sony Interactive Entertainment, Insomniac Games have really hit home in the recent years with Marvel games. From Marvel’s Spider-man to Marvel’s Spider-man 2 and even Marvel’s Spider-man Miles Morales, a Dive into Manhattan has never been the same, but this year we have a darker tale of heroes and villains. Before he was a member of Team X, he was a soldier, before he was a soldier he was a Man, but he has always been a living embodiment of rage and destruction. Known to the world of Mutants as Wolverine, James “Logan” Howlett, is a force to be reckoned with, and Insomniac does this proud.
STORY
The story technically follows the events of Nathaniel Essex, the man who saved Logan in the game. This would normally break the rule of a game but Logan takes centre stage as events unfold, and as chaos is raised.
Starting out the game in a mission to save Essex from Trask Industry, and working alongside Mystique (Raven Darkholme) and Sabertooth (Victor Creed), Wolverine’s core systems are introduced to the player the same way Marvel’s Spider-man does, with hands on experience. Saving Essex means a confrontation with Omega Red which is the first time when a battle doesn’t just feel like a game, boss battles throughout the game, while limited, feel like a life or death situation. This is different to how its done in any of the Marvel’s Spider-man games as Spider-man doesn’t kill, Wolverine on the other hand has no issue ripping apart legions of enemies in his path.
On saving Essex and defeating Omega Red you are taken to the Canada Safe house where missions are planed from and you are deployed to help Mutants which are identified as Trasks targets. This leads Wolverine to come face to face with “Red”, Jean Grey, while trying to save some mutants in Vancouver. The game follows a slow pace as Wolverine starts to discover himself and worries about how much of a danger he is to everyone around him. That all changes when things go south and Trask finds the Canada Safe House, and Logan thinks it time to go on the offensive, which leads the survivors to Madripoor.
After a short battle which turns Trask Industry into a Warzone and Logan finally has a moment to relax but all that is broken by the Abduction of Walter (the teams scientist and Potential Mutant) and the arrival of The Hand. losing Walter to The Hand, Logan and Jean travel to Kabukicho District in Tokyo. Those of you who know the Yakuza/ Like A Dragon Franchise should know this place as Kamurocho, just be careful you don’t turn a corner into a mean looking guy in a red shirt and white suit, or a Snake Skin jacket with an eye patch, while looking around town. Chasing the Hand through Kabukicho, Wolverine is referred to as the Shinigami, A Kami (god) of Death, Thinking about it that’s a pretty accurate description for Wolverine since he’s just about Immortal and looking at the amount he kills till that point.
As the Japanese section of the game progressed, more truths are learnt about Logan and the events of the game, all culminating in a trip back to Madripoor and a not so warm welcome. Knowing what is going on and how things are playing out Logan and Jean set out to save the world, but what the world throws back at them is far from what they can handle and the outcome leaves room for growth.
Mechanics, Graphics, & Technical things
Unlike the rest of the Marvel’s games that Insomniac have built this one is a Dark story, thanks to the killing and the settings that can be applied. Mechanically it feels like playing Spider-Man, minus the Wall Crawling and Web swinging, but the core of the locomotion feels kinda off and its not till much later in the game when it becomes apparent that its only a subconscious thing. The reason it initially feels wrong is because, whether it was designed or not, the player might be meant to feel like they are going from Spider-Man to Wolverine in a sequential flow. I don’t know if that is because the games are built of the same core programming or if its an oversight and it just “feels” like I could go Marvel’s Spider-Man – Marvel’s Spider-Man Miles Morales – Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 – Marvel’s Wolverine, without missing a beat much like I can with Yakuza/ Like A Dragon, or Assassin’s Creed, but the underlying “feel” is there, and honestly if it was Designed that can be some pretty Heavy fore thinking.
In terms of “raw” gameplay and interacting with the world the game feels like a hybrid of Marvel’s Spider-Man, coupled with God Of War/ God Of War Ragnarok, and Ghost of Tsushima/ Yotai. Why these comparisons? Well while Marvel’s Spider-Man takes the forefront of this the important thing is that Spidy wont kill and that where GOW and GOT/GOY come in. The combat is brutal, bloody, and outright fitting for either of the other games, Kratos in GOW is a depiction of Rage in the Greece Saga but has mellowed some in the Norse series, that’s not to say hes grown soft because he really hasn’t and the way he carries himself and battles is just as violent as he was when he was the Ghost of Sparta, Wolverine on the other hand is technically the original embodiment of Rage in this sense and I’d take a guess that the team at Insomniac took inspiration from GOW for Wolverines actions, even if it wasn’t needed. This brings us to the point of Ghost Of Tsushima/ Yotai, in both games you use a Katana to battle (yes there is more in Yotai but we are only looking at one aspect), Wolverine uses his claws. As much as I would personally like to say the concept of Wolverine blocking and Parrying an attack seems unrealistic, I actually found my comfort zone when i was Parrying and counterattacking more than anything else, just like in GOT/GOY. It doesn’t just feel natural it feels better than taking a hit even if I know the Wolverine can heal from it, Parrying in the game is taken to a new level, making it feel deliberately the way to resolve any combat situation.
This brings us to the mechanical part of the game which felt wrong to me. Knowing who Wolverine is, You know he’s a hothead, someone who doesn’t like to play by the rules, and someone who would act first and ask questions later. However that isn’t the Wolverine Insomniac have built. The Wolverine who Insomniac have built is someone who is rational, thinks things through, and and acts as if he were part of the X-Men Team, which is somewhat poetic and a romanticized version of Logan which is shared with the Marvel’s Spider-Man that Insomniac buit, in their words;
both heroes feel deeply compelled to defend people who are less able to do so
Throughout Marvel’s Wolverine this is true, although he does kill his enemies, He will stop to help people, which is highly depicted in the Return to Madripoor, where Wolverine saves people. Throughout the game his actions do reflect the above statement from Insomniac and Wolverine does feel like the type of character who is more compelled to assist someone in need rather than the aforementioned GOW where someone needs to persuade Kratos to help.
One of the systems in the game, while not related to the above point directly, is the Stealth System. Now I don’t see Wolverine in a Stealthy situation, however what Insomniac have done with this aspect is actually pretty good. I mean you start to play the game expecting to be this character all rage and action and then have sequences where Stealth is involved and your sat there waiting for Logan to say something that would break the 4th wall like Deadpool would… and nothing. Surprisingly I enjoyed the Stealth, so much so that I purchased the upgrade to stealth take down 2 enemies at once, and I don’t like getting upgrades in game, like really don’t like getting them. But Stealth in Wolverine feels natural, and it makes traversing areas far easier.
A slightly, what I feel underutilized system in the game is the Puzzle Solving mechanic which is seen in Kabukicho District. When you are looking for The Hand you are presented with a handful of really interesting Mechanics which use the Dual Sense controller to solve. they aren’t too difficult on the easier difficulties but still worth a note. The idea is you find a weak point in the wall and open the door.
Graphics, what can we say about graphics? They are realistic, grounded, mesmerizing, and downright impressive. I had a small issue when starting up, since I grew up with a very specific depiction of Wolverine being either the Animated 90s show, or Hugh Jackman, which put a massive problem forward for this depiction of the famous hero. Amazingly after a few hours of play this new look for Logan really grows on you, and fits the character of Wolverine. The Actor who portrays Logan in Marvel’s Wolverine is Liam McIntyre, but he his also joined by other known names in video games like Troy Baker.
As shown above in the image of Logan, he looks real, and that is one of the best things about the game that the Worlds look alive and the character roster makes that more believable. Worlds are both full and detailed, boasting expanse, Verticality where needed, and depth, all to promote a vast living space which is far bigger then it actually is. Canada feels frigid, frozen in its icy prison, Madripoor is bustling packed with people, Japan towers over you as steel twists into the sky, and then there are single use environments. The Cargo plane to get to Japan, The Cabin, and the “Mind Palace”, all promote unique aspects of the game, and it goes beyond that to even include the more Speedy environments where you ride a motorbike through a mountainous area of Vancouver or the neon-lit world of the Tokyo Metropolis.
Before we reach our conclusion I think it would be a prime idea to address some of the more unique logic simulations within Marvel’s Wolverine, things like Wet Maps, Mission Bounding, and Yes Menu Systems. These Systems might sound unimportant or “not my concern” but they help sell the illusion of the game.
While the game is Mechanically and Graphically astounding, the crown for me is one of the “simpler” systems. While it is true the game needs this as the game wouldn’t be Wolverine without this subsystem seeing it is another thing entirely. The system I am referring to is the Damage System, and yes it needs its own section as its so varied. The Damage in the game is very “Visceral”, more so then the 2009 Wolverine PS3 game. While that game was good this one is far superior and in relation to the damage system, I have 2 points;
- 1. I would like it to be more realistic, showing something like what you would see in Sniper Elites X-Ray kill cams
- Think of this you have muscle fibers that would regrow, organs showing at times and the outfit gradually becoming unwearable. That is the Wolverine Damage System I would like!
- 2. The Damage is limited to selected areas making it feel predetermined or scripted damage
- This is because the Developers presumably want to show damage in a way which is resource friendly and won’t tax the system too much when compared to everything else which is happening.
While it sounds like I am ripping the incredible damage system to piece I am really not. It is amazing what they did with the damage and regeneration system, and I’m pleased as can be but we are looking at a PS5 game, its not so unexpected to want a tad bit more right?
The Last image in the set above is a scripted event in the late game and the costume is unique, the bad part about this is that you can’t use that outfit after the sequence has concluded, which I personal take exception to as it would have hit the criteria I was explaining above if the suit could take that much damage that it was hanging off Wolverine. In addition to the damage working for Wolverine, this system works the same for the enemies, but you will need to use Photo Mode to take a good look, just ignore intersecting items we will be addressing it in the Conclusion.
This brings us nicely on to the Wetness System and Wet Maps. We have addressed this lots of times in different games, but Wetness in a game can really sell an illusion of world building or depth, not just when the player jumps in some water to swim but when the environmental effects influence the world. In Marvel’s Wolverine there are a few instances like this, ranging from Snow to Rain, and even Ash, all effect the world of Wolverine and play a role in influencing the characters appearance, below are examples of these;
The water also has a boundary which is nice, it means that standing in any depth of water will not soak the character instantly, the character needs to be in contact with the water at that point to receive the wetness pass, as shown below.
On the flip side of this there is the Snow in Canada, which is most interesting. Where it is Parallax Occlusion Mapping (POM) at its finest and we have seen this billions of times if not trillions over the past years, lets face it the novelty of walking into snow in a game and it compressing and leaving a trail, that’s been done by almost every game, most famously is probably Red Dead Redemption 2 with it being used multiple ways. What Marvel’s Wolverine does makes the World feel alive like what Rockstar do with Red Dead Redemption 2 but it feel lived in too. I played around with this for a while and I got to say I like the Snow, and here is why. Because of how it is built it needs to talk to other parts of the game, and those parts are equally as complicated, the only time I can recall being this impressed by shader design was in Uncharted 4 A Thieves End, why? The reason is simple. When you get snow on Wolverine, it looks alright, until you notice that its not showing on the Skin or on the Hair. The hair we can ignore for like a dozen reasons we are not going into but the skin should take on a “colder” tone, which it does, it turns reder as if to mimic blood returning to those areas. This is more visible on the Hands, but it could be a trick of the lighting conditions in the game. Back to the point, I went one step further than this and there is water in this environment and so I rolled in the Snow and then in the water to see what would happen, apart from Logan saying “that’s cold” it was a nice blend of what should happen. The Snow is washed off and the character becomes wet. Check it out below;
Just as a final note about the Snow, just because you walk in it and your enemies leave tracks in it, don’t think they wont make it dirty with their blood when you introduce them to your claws, and yeah the blood soaks in so it started out red and went darker.
There is a major downside to the suits which were tested however, for example the Animated suit which is shown below. This one, as one might have guessed, does not react to environmental conditions like Rain.
The other one, which was slightly disappointing was the Hellverine Suit. This suit is disappointing for another reason and in hindsight I should have expected as much but when you see Fire and there is Rain, or water nearby interacting with said rain you kinda hope for some form of a reaction. Sadly the Hellverine suit has dashed this concept but it does look cool in the rain, right?
Lets face it, if we were playing in a rainy environment we expect the rain to effect the character, playing in the snow the snow should effect the character, there’s no question it should, right? Well Wolverine’s logic goes one step further, and it takes a bit to notice but normally when your character is susceptible to these effects it’s all in a layer over the character dictated by Vertex and math calculations, however, I don’t think the logic is so straightforward for Logan. Looking at the Rain on Logan I noticed that there is another “Flow” type layer, one that is almost underneath the initial arbitrary wetness layer. This, at least to me, indicates that the team at Insomniac went a cut above with this limited visual system, if I had to hazard a guess I’d say there was a Static Flow Map or some sort of “Wetness Controlled Alpha” setting within the material which gives this effect, and honestly its fascinating, which can be seen above.
So lets talk about mission boundaries. There are 2 key ways the missions are locking you in from exploring the wider world, these are;
- Logan saying something like “need to return to the mission” or “Can’t abandon the Mission” something which will physically turn him around, and there will be a player prompt which says “Leaving Mission Area” in the middle of the screen.
- On levels where there is water, or falls or thing like that the game is set to stop progressing in that direction, but doing something;
- Water is impassable for Logan as he cant Swim
- Some levels have tall Cliffs/ buildings when on rooftop, if you are not meant to head in a direction the game will reset you like water does
- Few vertical based missions will have you Die if you fall from the level you are on
- On “Chase Missions” you “Die” if you stray too far from the target
While some are understandable, I still don’t understand why Logan can’t Swim, Spider-Man? Yeah, alright, we can play off the “spiders don’t swim” angle but Wolverine should be able to swim. As for the Falling there is a Fall Damage modifier which could be applied in missions where falling doesn’t mean instant death.
So there are a few things I wan to add, like the Real-Time Reflective surfaces, and the potential for other characters. Reflections in Real-Time can be pretty graphics intensive, however, there are neat ways around it, the Physic-Based Rendering (PBR) is one such way. While it is only a method of Texturing the game, the PBR workflow lets the artist set something’s Reflectivity, and Roughness values based on a linear 0-1 scale. This means that the material itself will control the reflective nature of a surface. This means that Eyes, Puddles, Mirrors, Show Windows, even Wolverine’s Adamantiun Skeleton can produce a Real-Time Reflection with ease. The other side of this is it takes what it sees not what is preset, meaning that no mater what outfit you are in the Real-Time Reflection you see will reflect the right suit, even if its the wrong style for the games aesthetics.
The second thing seems like a random guess work but there are some things other than the obvious link to Marvel’s Spider-Man which seem like they were placed in the game as subtle nods to something else. The likes of Sable International and Roxxon Signs, there is also one for Hammer Industry which could link in to something with Iron-Man later or just a coincidence. There is also a Kabuto in one of the sequences in Tokyo, which could point to Silver Samurai as it has a distinct resemblance to the comics of him. If we follow that thread there are a number of other characters who are hinted to be in the games Universe, the likes of Remy LeBeau, Doctor Hank McCoy, and other X-Men thanks to the Scan (there is limited time to see this but they could have been outline in the scan). Other items include a Reference to Like A Dragon in the form of Ichiban Kasuga, with the Cinema, Multiple Portraits around the environments of different people connected to Insomniac, and plenty of questions that we won’t be answering in this review.
The final thing I want to address before the conclusion is the Menus. As much as I despise using menus in games there are some aspects of Marvel’s Wolverine which made me want to use the menus, mainly the Suits and Claws. Both of these are customizable provided you have the Material to do so, however, that’s not what drew me to them. The fact of the matter is that the Suits Upgrade the Health, and the more suits you have the better your life is, but that’s an overview of the truth. The real thing that caught my attention was the variety, even some which seem like references to other thing.
Take the Patches outfit for example, my first instinct was “oh wow I’m playing Metal Gear Solid… kinda”, and strangely enough Logan theoretically backs that up saying shortly into this sequence that he likes Espionage, so maybe a reference there or I’m just looking into it too much after the launch of MGS Collection Vol.2. The other ones that caught my attention are the Animated Suit from the 90s X-Men TV show, the Weapon X, and Hellverine. The Animated Suit is what I know so that was a definite get, and the Weapon X was one I liked in the PS2 X-Men game X-Men 2: Wolverines Revenge, but the Helverine suit, that one is interesting. Looking like a bases of Ghost Rider there is a change on the Left arm, around his Left Forearm looks like the Chains that Bind the Blades of Chaos/ Athena/ Exile to Kratos from God Of War.
The other side of this is the Main Menu, and if you leave it, it is pretty interesting, don’t take our word for it try it yourself, below are some of the different ones.
CONCLUSION
So to conclude, the game is incredible, I might have disliked the direction of the narrative with who I had originally thought characters to be and the feel that Logan had given off but by the time Canada was over I started to enjoy every second and could no longer see the path the story was taking. That being said there are multiple things working being the scenes which could have been built better and coming off the massive springboard that is Marvel’s Spider-man 2, Marvel’s Wolverine delivers but with some exceptions.
To say the game is mechanically flawless would be stretching the truth, there are plenty of abysmal flaws and glitches which should have been addressed it makes me want to cry when I think about how good Insomniac are at building games, and how much this feels wrong. Calculations which should be done behind the scenes for scaling items doesn’t function perfectly, response time feels sluggish on base PS5 hardware when in intense battles (probably my imagination after long sessions), and the greatest sin of all might be in the feel of Logan’s core Locomotion. That’s not to say that Logan feels wrong or anything to control, its more complex to explain, so we are just going to say it “Feels” wrong.
So continuing on I want to address some other sins the game has, not just what is explained above. Things like;
- Floating character/ Objects
- EXP Farming from world objects
- Phasing through objects
- Photo mode IK disabled
- “Hand me the collection?”
- Intersecting meshes
- Stretched Texturing
Floating Characters/ Objects:
This is to be expected when populating a world as vast as the ones in Wolverine, which is probably done with procedural character calculations to get AI to spawn when the player needs them and not have them perpetually available. However, this has its own hiccups, one of which is collision detection and path finding, unfortunately there was a single instance in the game where there is a “flying” person in Japan, and a “Floating” stick used to beat a guard in Madrapoor. These 2 instances, although ridiculously limited, was an annoyance in such a great game.
EXP Farming from World Objects:
Throughout the game you will find these little blue glowing/ highlighted items, be they signs/ billboards/ people or anything in between. Getting close to them will trigger a comment from Logan and a tiny bit of EXP to be granted, normally its like 5 XP so nothing much in the grander game but its something. The idea is that these can actually be farmed out, why you would want to Farm out 5 xp at a time to get you level ups is a mystery, after all its far better to take on Sentinels or The Hand as they award between 30 and 60 xp for every one you defeat. The idea of this is probably down to validation checks or an intentional reward, but it irritated me that you could just go to a Nightmare Door after collecting the World Object and just leave to reset the item in question letting you recollect it. I tried this with the Sable International Billboard in Japan as the Nightmare Door is near by and it take less then 5 minute. Personally I think it should have been only active once per run of the mission since you can easily replay missions to get more EXP, this isn’t really a bad thing just something that got on my nerves.
This is also how the game ties its connection to the Marvel’s Spider-man games with Logan making a comment about being Scouted when he sees the Sable sign and wondering if Simon Krieger was still in jail when he sees the Roxxon sign.
Phasing Through Objects:
I have no words for this other than it should have been caught. This was only really applied to elements of the world which were destroyed, so walls/ boxes/ fences, and in Japan there was a Car bonnet that I passed through when vaulting it. Its not game breaking as the game can function without these elements being correct but it is the same problem as the Floating people/ objects.
Photo mode IK Disabled:
This one is a pretty big sin of the game, and the main reason is because it is Photo Mode. Why? When you want to take a fantastic shot of something in your game, Photo Mode should act as an extension of the action, not a layer which pulls you from your sequence to take a Snapshot of the moment, which is what this feels like at certain times. The reason is the IK Character Systems which drive where player locations for Hands, or Feet are placed should remain where they were when they were in the action, in Marvel’s Wolverine, however, they don’t. While I would normally not care too much about this, this time it really bugged me and the reason is just because the game is so good and I actually enjoyed using Photo Mode to look at the game (We are not going to address all the errors which were apparent thanks to Photo mode as that wouldn’t be fair to the game running at Real-Time).
“Hand me the collection?”:
Out of all the sins the game has which I have an issue with relating to progression, this would be the biggest which I personally, have. The reason is in the title, “Collection”, personally I like the old days of gaming where collection items meant spending the next 3 weeks hunting for the last collectible or, wondering if you checked the back of the van or in the basement. Wolverine really upsets me in this way as the collection is literally handed to you, there isn’t much of this maybe if I look over here a minute I’ll find a Whisky Bottle or Nightmare Door. To elaborate on this the problem I have is the fact there is a lack of freedom to explore to find the hidden things, instead Wolverine does it all, saying things like “Smells like Whisky” or something when a Bottle is near and he can smell the Material Crates when he is close, and the Nightmare Doors are located in the path of the narrative depicted by roots which lead to them so hard to find they aren’t. The first time that I actually missed any kind of collection item was when I was in Kabukicho in Japan.
Intersecting meshes
This is harder to catch than other errors in the game but it is there. The most prominent time this is displayed is in Madripoor in the Patches sequence. There is an abundance of dancers and people going up and down stairs, and the problem is with Animations more than anything else as thing clip. Mostly the Dancers loose fingers into their partners and the people on the stairs have their hand clip into their leg, but its a matter of seconds this happens and its hard to catch. The same for Wolverine, if you look at him from the front in the Patches outfit he has his jacket clipping with his trousers and and so on, Jean’s dress also clips but i think that is something to do with simulated physics, if its animation then someone spent a long time make it look like physics.
Stretched Texturing
While this was only noticed in literally one or 2 places throughout the entire game, it doesn’t change the fact that it should have been hidden. Since there were only a few instances and we are only showing a single time, I want to address something just as bad in this portion, which is “No Back Face“. Its as it sounds, sometimes there are parts of the game you can see through to the inside of geometry, these 2 things go hand in hand, if the UV Coordinates aren’t dealt with fantastically or there are parts which show through to the other side of geometric shapes then they are as bad a sins as each other. There are a few places where there are visible UV Seams, which are public facing, this is bad but the instance of them being noticeable are mostly ignore able, due to their locations and screen space/ time.
Although all these are outright bad things, I can’t find a way to negatively react to the game. Its easy, good, and until u get to the conclusion of the narrative, keeps you on the edge of your seat. Marvel’s Spider-man 2 was one impressive game, and in my opinion Marvel’s Wolverine tops it. It is a thoroughly enjoyable game full of twists and turns, and I think the only way it could have been better would have been as an open world, where missions were scattered throughout like in Spider-man, that being said the mission approach to Wolverine is done in such a way that it blurs the line between mission and open world, its not like the missions directly say “this is your mission go here, kill a bunch of enemies, and move on the story” it’s more like Rocksteadies Batman Arkham games, where the mission gives you the freedom to look around and explore a small section of the world. Overall the game has been worth the wait, and I would highly recommend it for anyone who love playing Marvel’s Spider-man.
There is so much more we could say or show about the game but we have tried so hard no to spoil it while presenting a review which hits criteria. What Insomniac have achieved with the Marvel Games this far is amazing and I hope they continue for years to come, and just think what the future might hold for, at present, our 2 Marvel’s Universe Heroes.
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