Marvel's Wolverine - Old Bland Logan (Review)
Marvel's Wolverine
Released: September 15th, 2026
Developer: Insomniac Games
Publisher: Sony
Systems: PS5
It’s an often mocked cliché that reviewers love pointing out when a superhero game “makes you feel like” a superhero, but that feeling is a crucial element. If you can’t feel like Batman or Spider-Man when you play their games, those games surely failed to deliver on their primary promise. Still, some heroes come with powers that could easily trivialize gameplay if a developer isn't careful, so what do you do with a man who quickly regenerates flesh around his almost indestructible skeleton?
If you’re Sony’s Insomniac’s Marvel’s Wolverine: A Star Wars Story, you’ll simply fail to deliver on your promise.
Wolverine has been so thoroughly fucked by circumstance. Insomniac already had a tough act to follow after two beloved Spider-Man games, but putting this out mere days after Onimusha: Way of the Sword (review pending) is cursed. It's just sad having to go from one of the most perfectly balanced combat systems of all time to a badly coordinated mess of prompts, worsened all the more by their shared emphasis on deflection mechanics. One game mastered the art of videogame parrying, one barely understands what parrying's even for.
Speaking further to Wolverine’s poor luck, the semi-mythical “superhero fatigue” scenario is worth bringing up. While audiences are not as sick of heroes as desperate executives like to claim, people are just tired of seeing the same old shit from mainstream “FRANCHISES” that keep spinning their creative wheels. Seven or eight years ago, a standardized “AAA” Marvel game aiming for efficiency over excellence would’ve almost certainly gone down better than it has in 2026, even if it wouldn’t completely escape criticism.
We also can’t ignore the context of the era in which Wolverine’s been released. At the time of writing, Sony’s reputation is lower than when Ken Kuturagi proudly proclaimed, “Five hundred and ninety-nine US dollars!” The catastrophic failure of Concord, doubling down on service swill, ruthlessly canceling projects, shutting down studios, announcing plans to end physical media production, it’s all been one long chain of antagonism persisting for several years. Gaming discussions get emotionally charged at the best of times, and Sony’s got folks riled up at the worst possible moment for a tentpole release.
I prefaced my review with such an extraneous lore dump because - and I’m really not trying to be a twat here - Wolverine’s cultural baggage is more interesting than Wolverine.
Insomniac’s latest is a real throwback, and that’s not necessarily a bad thing (although in this case it is a bad thing). Speaking as someone who fondly remembers X-Men Origins’ tie-in title, I’m perfectly happy to see more linear action games pushing single-player stories, and Wolverine has serious seventh-gen sensibilities in that vein. An open world extravaganza isn’t the best fit for Logan, neither narratively nor mechanically, so I really can’t argue against a structured, chaptered, one-way campaign.
However, if you plan to tailor an environment to suit a particular character, you should try and do a convincing job of it.
Rather than build maps around Logan’s animalistic agility, Wolverine offers a series of levels right at home among a multitude of Xbox 360 titles. They come complete with Uncharted-style climbing ledges, Stealth Grass(™), Witcher senses, and monkey bars, forming a rather basic set menu. All the staples are here, actions we’ve performed hundreds of times in dozens of games with far less distinct protagonists. What I’m saying is that you don’t “feel like” Wolverine when navigating the world, because the world’s not set up to showcase him.
A highly selective approach to climbable surfaces compounds the issue. Some walls can be climbed while identical counterparts can't, and positions that look perfectly reachable are cut off by invisible barriers or Sudden Two-Inch Jump Syndrome. In wider areas where you’re meant to be stealthing around, these limits aren’t just arbitrary, they reveal how much of the space is an illusion. Stealth’s a poorly implemented crapshoot anyway, a collection of rudimentary sneaking mechanics for levels that aren’t designed for sneaking, even in spots literally reserved for sneaking. A scattershot sprinkling of Stealth Grass and Scuttlin' Trees is only a stealth section in the most tokenistic sense.
We can’t just blame the environment, since Logan isn’t very enjoyable to maneuver in general. He manages to be both twitchy and plodding at once, not quite able to move with any real sense of grace, speed, or at least the kind of aggression you might expect. He’s also bloody unreliable when it comes to jumping, always at a slight risk of flying off in a weird direction or failing to competently snap onto designated landing spots. While things are never so unwieldy as to prove unplayable, there’s a subtle but consistent clumsiness humming in the background. Oh, and true to its retro nature, the campaign loves an excuse to force players into slow walking animations, be it for specific interior rooms or mid-mission dialogue exchanges, and I know I’m nitpicking here but so much time is wasted with this shit.
Combat is sloppy in a way wholly unbecoming of the talented artists responsible. Fundamentally, it’s as pedestrian as the rest of the game, basic hack n’ slash battling cast from a post-Arkham mold, ostensibly focused on repelling attacks from Basic Guys, Shield Guys, Knife Guys, and Gun Guys. Unlike practically every other game of its type, Wolverine’s combat has zero flow to it whatsoever - enemies attack at erratic intervals, there's none of the necessary rhythm, and the screen's usually drenched in flashy action prompts. In some ridiculous cases, a whole gang of basic mobs will attack with such sequential frequency that you have to hammer the parry button like it's fucking Sekiro, albeit without the satisfying feedback or opportunities to reverse and punish.
While Arkham’s Batman seamlessly transitions between offense and defense to negotiate a hostile crowd, Logan has no such talent. There’s no smooth reversal after you repel an enemy, no back-and-forth between player and opponent, there’s just mashing parries and mashing attacks whenever relevant. Logan’s basic moveset is terrible for crowd control despite the fact his opponents are permanently set to Swarm Mode, you're basically one of those low-tier Dynasty Warriors characters who were inexplicably designed for one-on-one fights. Offscreen melee attacks come with zero warning because everybody loves a cheap shot, and you have to play for hours just to unlock the ability to parry multiple enemies at once.
Wolverine has the durability of a two-ply condom. Nearly anything he does is interruptible even during his powered up Rage mode, whatever animations can't be broken usually leave you open to attack as soon as they're finished, and The Wolverine Man only displays his famed resilience to any serious degree in scripted sequences. Cutscene Logan is capable of far cooler feats than the player’s Logan, the most “Wolverine” thing he gets to do is stab electronic locks. Seriously, stabbing stuff in order to open doors is the best example of interactive embodiment on offer.
This is one of those cases where combat isn’t so much challenging as it is a pain in the ass. You can get through it easily enough, it’s just not very fun to do so, and I learned that if I randomly attempted blocking between attacks, fights became much easier. Trying to perform parries accurately, like I would in any similar game, was making me worse at Wolverine, so I had to throw my Onimusha training out of the window. Of all reviewers, I’m the last to have a problem with mindless combat, but this is a system where simply having a mind is an active detriment. Makes sense though, since your offense is just as vacuous.
If you hit triangle, Logan will leap to whichever generic mook he desires, then you can hit square a lot until it dies. When an enemy’s dazed, you can hit square even more to perform a barrage of stabs, though it’s easily interruptible because Wolverine can’t do anything without being an actual bitch. Cooldown abilities unlock as you go, and they’re completely unremarkable beyond the glimmer of crowd control they offer. As time goes on you’ll acquire some other moves, but there’s nothing unique, nothing that feels like it couldn’t be done by any number of 2010s protagonists. Most of the time, you’re either just smashing the parry or smashing the attack buttons, trusting Logan’s automatic targeting to lunge at mobs with no evident consideration for their threat level or proximity.
Attempts to spice things up only shine a harsher light on how bland the overall experience is. Sure, you can kick guys into environmental hazards, but it’s only entertaining in the precious few areas specifically set up for it. About the only gimmick that succeeds is the ability to heat up your claws with convenient fire barrels to shred enemies apart in a manner that almost… almost… makes you “feel like” Wolverine.
There are collectibles of course, a bunch of tokenistic “content” and nebulous resources scattered around levels that really aren’t worth replaying if you miss them. Since the maps are generally quite linear, opportunities to hide items are few and far between, further emphasizing how much of an obligation such things have become. You won’t have to look for most of the hidden pickups since your Witcher senses spot them from a distance and there isn't much distance between anything. Still, finding material boxes to craft new suits is worth it for the HP upgrades - Insomniac’s Logan has a skeleton closer to aluminum than adamantium, but with a lot of investment you can bring it up to tin.
It’s incredible how much of a jobber this guy is.
Wolverine has its moments, don’t get me wrong. Primarily, there are some cool setpiece moments, with various chase sequences and climactic battles actually proving enjoyable. I’d have been happy to have more biking sections, which are probably the most exciting and best presented parts of the game. Combat livens up whenever Logan’s joined by an ally like Sabertooth or Jean Grey, they usefully draw aggro and capriciously perform double-team finishers that are actually pretty cool. I’m really not sure I can think of anything else I’d flag as a highlight.
The fact I haven’t mentioned the story of this story-driven game should tell you everything you need to know. One babystep removed from another superhero origin tale, the plot involves Wolverine meeting Jean Grey and fighting anti-mutant twat Bolivar Trask as a mediocre script lurches between unearned attempts at sentimental impact. Logan and Jean have no chemistry together, as if to make a point of how wet a portrayal this is, and roughly halfway through the campaign, plot beats start repeating themselves with different characters and locations. I’ve lost count of how many times the cavalry shows up, and any time there was a peaceful character moment I just waited for the inevitable ambush and/or kidnapping to break it up.
Characters are well performed for all the actors were given to work with, but you’ll only notice their voices if you don’t get distracted by some really unusual facial animations. Certain characters’ expressions, particularly Jean’s, seem to spread across their faces like melted butter, oozing in a way that looks equal parts uncanny and funny.
There’s little left to say of interest, I wasn’t just being glib when I claimed the baggage of Wolverine is much more interesting than Wolverine itself. Not good enough to offer an interesting point of praise, not bad enough to interestingly dissect, Marvel’s Wolverine isn’t the best at what it does, but what it does still isn’t very nice. Did I do the comic book reference right? I'm more of a Beano reader.
5/10
