Marvel's Wolverine - Hands-On Preview
I’ve spoken a lot over the years about how I’m not a Marvel mega-fan. In fact, I don’t think I’ve ever read a Marvel comic, and the last MCU film I watched was Avengers: Age Of Ultron putting me some 20 movies behind the present day. For what it’s worth though, I did love the old Raimi Spider-Man movies, and I have mostly kept up with the Hugh Jackman X-Men films. So it has been ultra fortuitous that the largest gaming works in the Marvel sphere have focussed on the two IP that I have interacted with the most. Having now released three Spider-Man titles, to universal acclaim, the talented team at Insomniac Games have turned their eyes to Logan with Marvel’s Wolverine, and having spent two hours playing it, I’m not yet certain if it will hit the same heights of the Spider-Man titles, but I am certain that it will still be an excellent time.
The preview session saw me move through two different segments of the game’s opening act. The first was seemingly the game’s opening with Wolverine and Sabertooth, despite the friction between them, working together to bring down the tech-savvy, Mutant-hating, Bolivar Trask, and recover their leader, Nathaniel Essex (voiced by Troy Baker). Omega Red is also on the scene and is dispersing Trask security across the overgrown beaches that you’ve landed on, to take Wolverine, Sabertooth, and Mystique out. This opening sequence serves as the demo’s tutorial, with the game showcasing how the rhythm of combat, with all of its bloody brutal aggression, paried with its dodging and parrying systems comes together.
I’m torn on the lack of lock-on in the game, because on one hand, Wolverine is hyper aggressive, and can flail around quite wildly in a way that feels quite genuine to the character, but at the same time, through a gameplay lens, it makes the combat feel a bit clumsy and overly cumbersome. The game doesn’t do the best job of signposting when ranged attackers are going to have their shot at you either, unless they’re in your frame of vision to begin with. I often felt like I was being cheated when I was ripping limbs off the target in front of me, whilst being shot in the back because I had no cue to let me know that the bullets were coming my way. That all said, taking damage shouldn’t worry you too much, as there are plenty of systems built into the combat to help you recover lost health; in fact, the game gives off a very DOOM vibe such that if you attack or kill in certain ways, then you’ll recover health for that approach. Some of these perks are tied to abilities unlocked via technique points tied to leveling up, but there are a few choices available to you allowing you to build up your Wolverine in ways that feel appropriate to you. The demo prompted me to unlock a twirling helicopter swing move that was great for crowd control, and there will undoubtedly be others to help lighten the load in combat too. This sequence also saw us navigating our way through a small coastal township, where we saw stealth opportunities manifest, mutant detectors that needed destroying, and several different clusters of enemies that all needed besting, before eventually entering the Trask facility
One of the most notable segments of the demo was something we skipped forward to, and it was an encounter with a Trask-powered mechanical Sentinel. This was notable because it was perhaps the weakest part of the gameplay experience. We’ve spent decades dealing with oversized bosses where we weaken them by attacking whatever limbs are closest (in this case the arms) before exploiting an opportunity to get much closer for a finishing blow. Wolverine employed this exact boss encounter model, so it was a bit deflating to see the lack of originality here, but then that also paired with the Sentinel being quite spongey. Despite the incredible claws available to Wolverine, it felt like you weren’t really breaking down the Sentinel, and sapped the moment of the power-trip that you really should be feeling. It was bloated, and not a lot of fun, so I hope that Insomniac has a few tricks up their sleeve for subsequent boss encounters.
Finally, the demo took players Madripoor’s Lowtown where you play ‘Never have I ever’ with Mystique, engage with the other mutants, learn a bit about the friction that is being felt between Wolverine and others from Team X, and more, but it is a kidnapping that sends Wolverine frantically chasing after members of the ninja group, the Hand. The chase sequence ends the demo and so we don’t quite get to see how everything nets out, but the tension was present, the action hot, and the combat fluid. Along the way, players will have their attention diverted towards a Nightmare door challenge. The game is at pains to shove it in your face with mysterious purple tendrils stretching across the ground steering you towards it. Hopefully not all of these are as in your face, allowing for further discovery opportunities. The door itself takes you to a challenge, in this case a platforming one, that can be completed to earn a bronze, silver, gold, or adamantium medal, and success allows you to explore a slice of Wolverine’s background a bit further.
The acting is top notch, with Liam McIntyre doing a fantastic job as Wolverine, and while the friction present between the team certainly left me not feeling overly connected to others in the group, this is clearly by design, and I look forward to seeing the ways that the relationship within Team X grows, and is challenged throughout the fullness of the campaign experience. The game is looking gorgeous, and sounding even better with the visceral sounds of adamantium blades slicing through jugulars, and piercing abdominals sounding equal parts fantastic and disgusting. Most sequences of this demo were under moonlight or inside, under unnatural lighting, so it’ll be great to see how the world can pop more in broad daylight.
Marvel’s Wolverine is so far an extremely engaging game to play, despite the game not necessarily giving the player anything new or refreshing to engage with. It feels familiar and safe, but is very well designed and executed upon. Listening to Liam McIntyre, and Insomniac Senior Project Director Jess Reiner-Reed speak at this event about what the game’s latter acts are offering is heartening, but the proof will ultimately be in the pudding. An excellent game that is currently lacking in a bit of inspiration (based on what was playable), I’m excited to play Wolverine in full in a little under a month.
