Claws, sideburns, and calling people bub. Sure, there’s plenty more depth to the Canadian X-Men mainstay, but these feel like the core Wolverine pillars, to me at least. Of course, there’s more to capturing the essence of a character than having them say the line and strike the pose, and it’s become very evident that developer Insomniac deeply understands the recipe to nailing a character adaptation.
I recently spent two hours going hands-on with Marvel’s Wolverine at a preview event, dicing up Reavers and angrily grunting at everything, and there’s a thought that I keep coming back to time and again: this team gets Wolverine.
My preview was split between two sections. The first was the opening to the game, with Logan and the other members of Team X, Mystique and Sabretooth, mounting an offensive on a Trask Industries compound to free their leader and friend, Nathaniel Essex.
It’s here I was introduced to Wolverine’s up-close-and-personal combat system, complete with more dismemberment and blood than you could shake an inhibitor collar at. No, this isn’t a watered-down, Spidey-adjacent take on the character; this is the Rabid Wolverine. More of a throwdown brawler than a theatrical acrobat, Wolverine is a brute; he’s heavy, and combat reflects this. Square and Triangle do the lion’s share in combat, with the former commanding a standard claw swipe and the latter ending combos with a strong cleave.
Pressing Triangle while moving in the direction of an enemy in range will launch Logan, claws akimbo, into their chest, closing distance and interrupting their movement if the right ability has been purchased. The fundamentals here are tight and feel characteristically savage, aided greatly by the tighter camera that gets you right up and in the messy business.
That’s squarely where you’ll need to stay if you want to succeed. Logan is a fast healer, but he can die. However, instead of health regeneration coming to those who run away, it’s intelligently tied to the game’s Rage system. This meter will fill the more you kill, with each of the three segments unlocking increased damage, or even a berserker state if seen to the end. Cleverly, if your health does hit zero, you can spend a Rage bar to grit Wolvie’s teeth and get back into the fight with a fresh bill of health and an anger hotter than the sun. It’s a thoughtful and frankly quite ingenious way to deal with the healing factor of it all without trivialising enemy encounters.
Speaking of which, the enemies I fought were your standard X-Men fare, with Bolivar Trask’s basic henchmen mixed with more deadly Reavers. Parrying blue attacks and dodging red ones felt familiar but fine, while hitting a riposte on a yellow swing felt excellent, thanks to the nasty finishing move that accompanied them.
With the basics established and a future Mr Sinister unchained, I moved to the second part of the preview. A time jump took me to the end of the first chapter, with Team X raiding a Trask facility in Madripoor. This section kicked off with a boss fight against a Proto-Sentinel, one that only had access to the top half of its giant robot body.
The promise of a future fight with a fully operational Sentinel was tantalising, but this encounter was just…fine. You’ve likely played it before, and I know I certainly have. Dodge the first few punches, wait for them to get their oversized fist stuck in the ground, wail on the arm, repeat. It was a multi-stage affair that picked up slightly in the second phase, and team-up prompts that sent Sabretooth and Mystique in for an assist were a fun aside, but otherwise it was a completely serviceable fight.
Once the metal menace was decommissioned, the team took some much-needed R&R at the Princess bar. This offered up the opportunity to slow things down and interact with the cast of mutants in a non-combat setting. Walking around the bar, chatting with Logan’s teammates showed me that this is a narrative I’m going to care about. The quieter moments are the ones I enjoyed the most here, with Aussie actor Liam McIntyre’s excellently performed Wolverine bouncing so well off the equally impressive supporting cast. Hints at the larger machinations and twists to come had me wanting to push the story forward in a way I wasn’t fully expecting, though this is absolutely a welcome surprise.
After shots of whiskey were sunk, 7-inch vinyls were spun, and touching moments were had, the action kicked back off, with Wolvie chasing The Hand through the downtrodden streets of Madripoor. These shadowy ninjas had captured another member of Team X, and Mr Claws wasn’t about to let them disappear into the night without losing some foot soldiers first. The chase sequence through the Madripoor slums was exciting, even if the training wheels were obvious. I’m not one to complain about semi-on-rails segments robbing players of a challenge, so I had a grand old time leaping from rooftop to rooftop in hot pursuit.
The action here was slightly more involved, as I had access to more of the combat suite thanks to the time skip. Several cooldown-based combat abilities let Wolverine control a crowd with a spinning attack, break through enemy defences with a drill lunge, or regain health through sheer Canadian aggression. Alongside some additional skill unlocks and perks, I could see an evolution in the otherwise standard combat system. I had a hell of a time carving through goons during my preview session, but the question of longevity remains.
While sniffing out Jean Grey, which isn’t nearly as creepy as I’ve made it sound, I had the chance to interact with a Nightmare Door. These act as both challenge arenas and storytelling opportunities. Oddly enough, the one I encountered was a parkour challenge that took place in a dreamscape filled with Canadian woods and shipping containers. It was a decent enough distraction from the main plot, and I can see others scratching a challenge itch that the golden path may not fully scratch, but it was the tiny glimpse into Logan’s past that was given as a reward that caught my attention. Ostensibly just a text log with narration, this memory, told emotionally by Liam McIntyre, was both touching and tragic, making me want to actively hunt down and complete the other Doors.
I poked around menus to flip through the cosmetics I had access to, and I don’t think Wolverine fans will be disappointed by the offerings. Deep cuts and fan favourites were both well taken care of, and I was only privy to a small slice of what will be on offer. Much like with Spidey, it’s clear that the callbacks and references were a true group effort by Insomniac, so I’m excited to spend time sleuthing through every hidden detail once I have access to the full game.
I can’t say it enough; this feels like a game made by creatives who understand the character. From presentation and acting down to gameplay and systems, everything I interacted with during my preview felt authentically Wolverine. I have a small concern that this faithful devotion could impact player retention should the combat suite not evolve enough during this linear story, but I won’t be able to answer that question definitively until we get our hands on the full release.
Marvel’s Wolverine launches exclusively on PS5 on September 15.
Previewed at an event hosted by PlayStation Australia.
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