Marvel’s Wolverine Review – Adamantium-Strength Story, Cardboard Combat

Marvel’s Wolverine finds itself in a predicament. It’s at the center of a war between fans and Sony, as the people voice their displeasure at the gaming giant for deciding to halt physical disc releases. While the anger toward Sony’s decision is justified (since digital-only distribution has been shown to be an untrustworthy and farcical system), Insomniac Games is getting the heat when it has no say here (blame the parent company – not the devs). From nitpicking details without context to spreading outright lies, there’s a drive for this title to fail.

Now the problem is: how do we have a legitimate discussion about Marvel’s Wolverine without the social media sillies dogpiling Insomniac for supposed crimes against humanity? Easy. We support the fight for the release of physical media, agree that Sony has made some of the dumbest decisions in gaming history recently, and also look at this game without an agenda. In other words, we behave like rational adults.

With all that said, let’s not bury the lede too far here: Marvel’s Wolverine is fine, but not fantastic. Considering all the years it was in development, you would have expected more, and something that turned into a generational title for the PlayStation 5. However, this isn’t a game that’ll move the needle for the superhero genre like Marvel’s Spider-Man and the Batman: Arkham series did. Instead, it’s a game to be played once through, then forgotten about altogether.

Insomniac made the right decision in removing the open-world elements from Marvel’s Wolverine and containing the action within its sandbox, but the problem is, it wanted to make a Wolverine game in the Spider-Man mold – and it just doesn’t work in its execution. Since Wolvie can’t fly or use web to swing, he needs to leap and climb to get to where he wants. This system doesn’t work well, since there are only certain branches or items that he can climb freely. This limits the movement of the character, feeling like you need to follow a specific path and can’t deviate from it. Going from point A to B is a chore, and that’s not how it should be.

Then there’s the combat. While it’s bloody and brutal, it becomes old very fast. Sure, as Wolverine’s skill tree grows and you arm special techniques, there’s a little more variety – and some enemies require a different approach than button-bashing. However, this feels like the bare basics in comparison to other games in the genre. For instance, Jean Grey accompanies Logan on many missions, and she’s able to daze enemies if you ask for assistance – why couldn’t this have been expanded further? Why couldn’t Jean have taken over their mind and forced an enemy to turn against the others like the Jedi tricks in Star Wars Jedi: Survivor? The use of the companion characters could have been better.

Speaking of characters, their in-game design is based on the actors playing them. So, Wolverine looks like Liam McIntyre, Nathaniel Essex is Troy Baker, and so forth. Every actor nails their voice role and convinces as the character – McIntyre, in particular, is perfect as Logan – but let’s talk about the appearance. Much has been written about how the characters look online.

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Look, I’m not here to argue about who looks attractive and who doesn’t with @muskrider345 and their cartoon avatar, but there is a legitimate point to be made about how shortcuts have been taken in some of the character models. This is supposed to be a PlayStation 5 title, but I’m seeing hair move like it’s from WWE 2K20. Compared to other titles released in 2026, this is lagging behind.

Where Marvel’s Wolverine is the sharpest is in its storytelling. Yes, it deviates from canon, but much like Marvel’s Spider-Man, it finds a way to tell a unique narrative that’s still true to the essence of the characters. The X-Men concept doesn’t exist in this world yet, so Wolverine is a part of Team X, along with Nathaniel Essex, Sabretooth, and Mystique. Think of it like a type of X-Force, using military force and not being afraid of getting their hands dirty. Team X finds itself at odds with Bolivar Trask, who hates mutants (some things never change), but Wolverine’s path takes an unexpected turn after he meets Jean.

Like in most Wolverine stories, Logan has a problem remembering his past, and this game puts together the pieces through the main story and what’s known as Nightmare Trial sidequests. This is a different take on the character – he’s more compassionate, like Hugh Jackman’s interpretation of him, than the gruff comic book counterpart – but it opens up the possibility to go in several directions if sequels ever materialize. It’s an emotional journey that hits right in the feels, making Logan even more of a tragic character than ever and adding another layer to his complex relationship with Jean.

In terms of playtime, Marvel’s Wolverine took about 15 hours to complete, with a fair amount of exploration and spending time testing out different sections. I don’t see it taking longer than this for the average player, who should be able to get through this in probably 12 hours.

As mentioned earlier, Marvel’s Wolverine is okay, but it isn’t spectacular. This year has spoiled gamers with an abundance of Game of the Year contenders and genuinely awesome titles. In the end, Marvel’s Wolverine won’t feature in any of these discussions. While it’s far from the disaster that social media tries to paint it out to be, you can’t help but walk away from it thinking that it could have been better.

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