Marvel’s Wolverine is a playable summer blockbuster — but fades from memory fast

For better or worse, Marvel’s Wolverine is basically a playable blockbuster. You’ll find cinematic spectacle, thrilling set pieces, and a (mostly) enjoyable storyline. But, like many modern summer movies, this PS5 exclusive lacks substance and is even a little forgettable.

PS5’s Wolverine shows its full hand surprisingly early. While the violent combat feels true to the character, even the gory satisfaction of eviscerating an enemy soldier starts to wear off disappointingly fast. Still, at least the original comic book narrative has its moments, and the game always looks great on PS5 Pro — when technical issues aren’t spoiling the fun.

I had a good time tearing through this slickly produced Wolverine game, but even as I write this review, merely a week after completing the campaign, it’s already fading from memory. But if the goal was to give players a bombastic single-player experience, in which Logan’s inner turmoil takes center stage, then developer Insomniac Games has definitely succeeded.

It’s just a little disappointing that Marvel’s Wolverine doesn’t have more to sink your claws into. It lacks the staying power and gameplay variety to be one of the PS5’s best exclusives.

Marvel's Wolverine: The Basics

• What is it? Marvel’s Wolverine is a third-person action-adventure game where you play the titular always-angry hero as he tears through armies of enemies on a personal quest to protect mutantkind from several sinister villains.
• Who is it for? Dedicated Marvel fans may enjoy this fresh spin on the character, while players looking for a short (and mostly sweet) game will enjoy Wolverine’s linear approach.
• What’s the price? Marvel’s Wolverine on PS5 costs $69 at Amazon. There’s also a Digital Deluxe Edition for $79 with some extra suits.
• What other games has the developer made? Wolverine comes from Insomniac Games, the developer behind the Marvel’s Spider-Man series. Other notable titles from Insomniac include Ratchet & Clank, Sunset Overdrive, and the PS3 shooter franchise Resistance.
• What games is it similar to? Marvel’s Wolverine shares several similarities to its sister series, Marvel’s Spider-Man, but without an open world and with the blood and gore factor turned up to 11.

Not the Marvel Universe you know

Marvel’s Wolverine throws players right into the action. After a brief introductory cutscene, Wolverine leaps from a helicopter on a mission to save Nathaniel Essex, leader of Team X and something of a father figure to Logan, who’s been captured by villain Bolivar Trask.

I appreciate that Insomniac has opted to avoid the origin story approach. Like the first Marvel’s Spider-Man game, you take control of an established Wolverine, already familiar with his powers, and with a rich backstory explored across the single-player campaign.

Marvel purists might wrinkle their noses at some changes to established X-Men lore. However, the story is generally entertaining and does a good job of motivating players to push through the many, many enemy gauntlets to see what happens next. There are also several familiar faces, including Mystique, Sabretooth, Lady Deathstrike, and Jean Grey.

The latter is the most important. Jean and Wolverine’s relationship takes on a prominent role in the narrative, and their budding romance is easy to buy into. There’s no Scott Summers in Logan’s way in this Marvel universe, so that played-out X-Men love triangle isn’t repeated.

One less successful character inclusion is Nathaniel Essex. I’ll avoid direct spoilers, but anybody even vaguely familiar with the X-Men’s comic book history will know where his character arc is heading, which means that when the big reveal comes, it lacks impact.

While not telling the definitive Wolverine story, the game presents a well-paced and smartly plotted comic book tale. It leaves the protagonist in a good spot where a sequel seems likely, not least because of an intriguing post-credits scene that leaves a thread hanging.

Getting the claws out

Insomniac hasn’t been afraid to lean into brutal violence with its interpretation of Wolverine. Within moments of picking up your DualSense controller, Logan’s claws are stained red with blood as he quite literally tears through enemies, lopping off limbs, spilling guts, and some of the finisher moves are so extreme they made me practically wince the first time I saw them.

Unfortunately, while such a high level of violence is initially novel (does that say something worrying about me?), the pleasure of disembowelling an enemy wears off alarmingly fast. Wolverine’s combat always looks extremely flashy, but it’s very one-note. It’s your basic system of light and heavy attacks, with the occasional block thrown in every few strikes.

As the story progresses, you unlock a suite of special abilities, one of which lets Wolverine knee an enemy in the chin (which always made me chuckle), and another lets him unleash a quick flurry of damage-dealing slashes. But these do little to spice up a combat system that feels repetitive within just a few levels. Late-game enemies are damage sponges, and bosses have large health pools and predictable move sets, further adding to the issue.

At least smartly managing your rage meter, which fills as you kill enemies, can make later encounters a bit less of a slog. At rage level 3, you unlock the ability to instantly execute enemies, so you can bounce around the battlefield, turning henchmen to pulp in minutes.

Alternatively, you could often opt for stealth; multiple levels place Logan in environments with tall grass to sink through and high trees to scale, but I have to wonder: does anybody associate Wolverine with a stealthy approach? It certainly doesn’t fit the character to me.

As the game progresses, combat areas grow larger with more and more enemies to slice up, but I found myself merely going through the motions, relying on basic combos that suffice until the end. The skill tree unlocks a few new moves, but they’re largely unnecessary; on normal difficulty, just mashing the standard attack and tapping the block button will suffice.

Unfogging Logan’s past

Wolverine is primarily a very linear experience. There’s no open world like Spidey’s NYC. However, some levels do let you wander a little bit. Taking in the sights is worthwhile, as there are collectibles that flesh out Insomniac’s spin on the X-Men universe.

I suspect some players will find the frequency of “walking” sections a chore, but I enjoyed this change of pace, and they helped to break up the repetitive combat. They also go a long way to developing Wolverine’s relationship with the supporting cast, which is one of the game’s core strengths. I wouldn’t have cared about Jean Grey half as much without them.

Optional Nightmare Doors offer even more insight into Wolverine’s past and represent the bulk of the side content (unless you count collectible whiskey bottles). These imposing wooden doors are easily spotted within levels by their glowing purple roots, and each offers a self-contained challenge mission. Once completed, you get a short memory fragment.

The Nightmare Door challenges range from combat trials (not that I really need more enemies to butcher) to some very fun traversal courses, which I always looked forward to. Upon completion, you’re given a rank from bronze to adamantium, and I felt compelled to achieve the highest rank on each before moving on. High score chasers will love them.

Here, the game also dips its toes into the rougelite genre with three trials that pit you against 20 waves of enemies. Between every five waves, you can pick a modifier that buffs Logan (increased damage, reduced special ability cooldown, etc.), while also giving him a negative effect (like your rage meter taking longer to fill), forcing you to adapt your combat tactics.

These combat trials are very simple, and all take place in the same small map, but there’s a good foundation here. I’d love to see them expanded further. Maybe they’re hinting at a post-launch DLC similar to God of War Ragnarök’s well-received Valhalla expansion?

Impressive visuals, with rough edges

On PS5 Pro, Marvel’s Wolverine looks and runs very well. Character models are expressive, the bloody detail when Logan sinks his claws into a goon is marvellous, and the voice acting is of a high standard. Particular credit to Liam McIntyre, who voices the eponymous mutant.

Even when the action gets thick and fast with Wolverine leaping between enemy soldiers and eventually Sentinel robots, I never noticed any framerate hitches; things were locked at 60 fps. Insomniac offers players plenty of accessibility options, which is very commendable.

Unfortunately, while Marvel’s Wolverine is another PlayStation Studios game that proves there’s plenty of power remaining in the PS5, my playthrough was blighted by pesky bugs and glitches. These ranged from enemy bodies floating in mid-air, Wolverine initiating a finisher move with thin air (which admittedly looked very funny), and interactable objects refusing to cooperate until Logan was standing at the perfect angle. Annoying but tolerable.

What was harder to stomach were the half-a-dozen hard crashes that occurred during my 15-hour playthrough. Marvel’s Wolverine is generous with checkpoints, so most didn’t cost me any real progress, but two came during boss battles, which forced me to start over. And as noted, the boss battles are already over-lengthy, so I didn’t need them drawn out further.

Marvel’s Wolverine review: Verdict

I don’t want to be too harsh on Marvel’s Wolverine. It’s a generally high-quality action-adventure experience that lets you live out your X-Men dreams of becoming the team’s most iconic member. Yet, while playing, I always felt like something was missing.

There’s a factory-line quality to Marvel’s Wolverine; it hits all the expected beats of a modern AAA game, but never carves out an identity of its own. The combat is repetitive, the story is good but predictable, and after completing it, I felt little reason to return — even mopping up the few remaining trophies for the Platinum failed to motivate me to continue playing.

Marvel’s Wolverine is undeniably well-made and offers some no-frills superhero fun, but launching in such a packed release schedule, it’s hard to see where it truly stands out.