Marvel's Wolverine Review

(Not) ‘nuff said

Like Wolverine’s murky past and piecing together his fragmented mind that might be as old as 200 years, if not more, piecing together a definitive review for Insomniac’s Marvel’s Wolverine has been tough. Largely because, while the intention to be true to the character, his nature and to service the fans, the studio has gone off track and forgotten the basic cadence of fundamental design in games.

Unapologetically, it was correct to tell people the game would not be of the modern sandbox or open-world ilk, but would rather be a story-driven action epic with bombastic moments, lots of explosions, blood and cameos galore. And it delivers on all of those fronts. We’ve likened it closer to a Call of Duty single-player campaign starring Wolverine and soon-to-be X-Men and X-Villains than an ode to what it should be, though. And that’s because it’s more often than not the game that plays you, than you play it. Which is problematic.

But let’s wind back, because there’s fun to be had here, especially at the claws of Wolverine, and Liam McIntyre who plays him, while perhaps less gruff than we’d have hoped, does a bang-up job while the studio’s MVGU reimagining of Wolverine and, indeed, the origins of many an X-Man and X-Villain is something we’re keen to bite more into, and explore more deeply later, but if you’re still on the fence know this -- Wolverine is no think-person’s outing of a game. It has some heartstring tugs, it has a three-act arc and it has character development, but all of that is handled entirely by the studio. What you’ll be doing as the player is simply ‘sniktin’ bubs’ this way and that, while investing in an arbitrary skilltree, seeking out claws and costumes from other iterative universes and hoping upon hope the next cameo you get builds more towards what Insomniac’s attempt at a cohesive MVGU might be.

Oh, and kicking batteries. Lots and lots of batteries.

Marvel's Wolverine

Genre: Action-Adventure Slash 'em Up
Developer: Insomniac
Publisher: Sony Computer Entertainment
Release Date: September 15, 2026
Classification: R18+
Author: Stephen Farrelly
Date: September 18, 2026

Connective Tissue

Part of the immediate issue with Wolverine is that the game wants you to play ferociously and to the beat of its hyper-violent drum. But it also tells you to collect this and that, and to kick this and that in order to nab collectible elements or XP, respectively. This immediately causes an issue -- do we play like the devs want us to; fast, furious and the best there is at what we do, yet passively, or do we play it as gamers who want to explore all areas and make sure we find the suits box or the recorded piece of audio on the antiquated device, you know, also being the best there is at what we do, but to our own pace?

Even Insomniac is unsure of how you should be doing this, which shows in both level design and in its urgency index, but we'll get to that shortly.

"We kept coming back to the Batman: Arkham series and wondering why the studio didn’t lean into an ostensible 2.5D (in principle) version of an action game with a linear story like the first Batman did..."

There are areas of the game you can spend time exploring, and later you can learn to unlock certain doors with your scent (even though trusty claws tend to be the best keys otherwise), but what you find and the space they’re in is usually too small for explorable areas so big. Moreover, inviswalls, small platforms you can’t climb and doors you can’t kick through are at absolute odds with what you can otherwise do when on the game’s golden path. And while we can defer to the studio’s initial emphasis on this being a heavily directed and linear experience, it doesn’t atone for the option to break the cadence of the game to little or no reward, based on it being in front of us. 

We kept coming back to the Batman: Arkham series (those made specifically by Rocksteady) and wondering why the studio didn’t lean into an ostensible 2.5D (in principle) version of an action game with a linear story like the first Batman did, and did brilliantly. The violence of Wolverine is here, no doubt, but 12+ hours of slaughter porn isn’t the answer to enough of the actually important and engaging questions around the Logan and while Insomniac does broach that side of him, it’s about as meaningful as the explorable spaces with nothing in them found throughout the game.

Would you like to know more?
If we're to see any DLC down the track, we implore a stalk-off between Hulk and Wolverine. These two juggernauts of the Marvel Universe have had some of the most memorable fights, ever. And let's not forget Wolverine's first comic book appearance was in The Incredible Hulk. For ours, it's the Damon Lindelof - Leinil Francis Yu Ultimate Hulk Vs Wolverine mini series that would be a perfect benchmark. Blood, snow, dialogue and an epic multi-part boss experience would save many of the negatives we experienced throughout our review time. Plus it would just be cool.

Missing: Barry Windsor-Smith

“Weapon X” is likely something you’ve heard of somewhere in relation to Wolverine. But the original source is a number of short stories from a “Marvel Comics Presents” series that ran for 13 issues by the indomitable Barry Windsor-Smith. Smith not only penned Wolverine’s adamantium origin story, but also challenged how comics at the time were written, presented and even read. Famously, he did everything barring some lettering and it remains one of the most complete and accepted origin stories of a comic book character. Ever. 

"If the studio wanted this to be the first of many Wolverines at its design hands, and when speaking to a heavily directed, linear design tilt, Weapon X would have been the better place to start..."

Insomniac chose to largely ignore this in the face of the Call of Duty-esque bombast mentioned earlier, and in doing so it missed a chance to introduce the character’s violent tendencies, his animalistic nature and the trauma from just one part of his life leading to his capabilities during said bombast. It’s touched upon to a degree, but if the studio wanted this to be the first of many Wolverines at its design hands, and when speaking to a heavily directed, linear design tilt, Weapon X would have been the better place to start, in our opinion.

That’s not to say what’s here isn’t palatable. Old Marvel hats will immediately know Nathanial Essex and appreciate the tone of his skin, and so from a world-building perspective with that MVGU idea in mind, we’re not off what’s going on here, and there’s room for a Weapon X DLC to occupy the post-release scape, but for what it’s worth we just feel we could have been more intimately introduced to the character, especially after that bestial intro…

Days of Future… Future?

Marvel’s Wolverine is a weird one. The game’s combat is one-note and rarely expands, plus gaining XP as “the best there is” to learn new moves doesn’t really gel, but that’s part of the videogame component here. At times it felt like Insomniac was proving it could do what Santa Monica Studios does with Kratos or what Naughty Dog does with Nathan, and on some levels it does. But it also forgot the fantasy of being Wolverine and has made us play its story through its hands. My loadout and combat style didn’t even matter at the end of the day, because like most CoD campaigns, I could largely just run to the next Checkpoint to ignore the previous sequence altogether.

Stealth, too, felt hamstrung by poor level design and a lack of being able to use Wolverine's animalistic strengths, and again, not to labour the Batman: Arkham point, but a successful template was there to follow without sacrificing the story the studio wanted to tell. When all's said and done, the sheer lack of meaningful agency for us to Wolverine how we wanted to, just wasn't ever there.

"The fantasy of Wolverine is more than the blood on his hands -- he’s a hunter, for the past, the present and the future..."

Which is a weird way to end this review, because at so many junctures the game felt broken, or disjointed or plain lost… like Wolverine's memory.

There’s a future here, and we’re not the only ones suggesting a shift in approach for any future endeavours and we hope this goes heard, and not un. The fantasy of Wolverine is more than the blood on his hands -- he’s a hunter, for the past, the present and the future. He’s not always so vulnerable and he does have a pack, but he’s a loner and we need to honour some of what that’s meant to him all these years. His skills go far beyond the bombast and if we’re to play as him again, we need a greater level of control.

What’s Boss?

  • Stunning visuals
  • Fast-paced and ferocious
  • Liam McIntyre is a great Logan
  • The setting up of Insomniacs MVGU is solid
  • Lots of Easter Eggs for die-hards

Not Boss Enough?

  • One-note all the way through
  • Poor level design that is at odds with the game's intended direction
  • The above puts the cadence entirely off
  • Combat is fun, but shallow and eventually too repetitive
  • Stealth felt tacked-on rather than wholly exploited

Pull on the cowl of the "best there is at what he does" and snikt your way through droves of enemies while Insomniac resets the X-Universe for the videogame age. Blood, gore and big swears await in this mature tale of Wolverine.

Learn about our reviews

About the Author

Written By Stephen Farrelly
Stephen Farrelly is a veteran journalist and editor with more than two decades experience in the worlds of gaming, entertainment, lifestyle and sport. He is a proud pug dad, loves art in all forms (particularly street and tattoo culture), and is the director of Swear Jar Editorial and Media Pty Ltd, this site's owner and publisher. When not dispensing words, he's also dispensing boutique beers as a taproom fixture at Bracket Brewing in Marrickville, NSW...
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