Marvel's Wolverine Game Doesn't Seem To Be What I Expected, But It Makes Perfect Sense

Summary

In recent years, Insomniac Games has worked with Marvel to develop the acclaimedMarvel’s Spider-Mangames, which have been praised for their storytelling, graphics, and gameplay, with both Peter Parker and Miles Morales' superpowers being faithfully recreated across an open-world New York, and so when the studio announced that it would be expanding its take on the Marvel Universe beyond the web-slingers withMarvel’s Wolverine, there was plenty of hype for the title. The X-Men have long been a Marvel mainstay - except for that period where the MCU couldn’t use them due to Fox owning the rights, and Marvel looked to try setting up Inhumans to replace them, which fortunately didn’t stick - and it had been far too long since they took the spotlight in gaming, with the bomb that wasX-Men: Destinyin 2011 being the last AAA title solely focused on the mutant team, so I was looking forward to seeing them return with Insomniac at the helm.

[Warning: The following article contains potential spoilers forMarvel’s Wolverine.]

Loading screen artwork showing Storm in the sky in X-Men Legends

I was particularly curious to see how Insomniac’s Marvel series would handlemore M-rated content, with the game’s reveal trailer having a tone that was extremely befitting a solo Wolverine adventure, and follow-up announcements regarding the hiring ofSpec Ops: The Linewriter Walt D. Williams to pen a story far darker than the T-ratedMarvel’s Spider-Mantitlescertainly suggested this would be quite a different entry.

TheMarvel’s Spider-Mangames have been known to cover some more mature themes, from Mr. Negative’s terrorist attack in the first game, which wisely opted not to feature Spider-Man saving the day and took place through the perspective of a non-superpowered Miles Morales to make it feel more intense, and then with a sequence inMarvel’s Spider-Man 2in which Venom bit off a particular character’s head and alluded to some more M-rated content, albeit with a well-placed cutaway to keep its Teen rating.

Wolverine from the comics in his brown and yellow suit looking angry with the Insomniac Games logo behind him

Marvel’s Wolverine Needs To Lead To An X-Men Gaming Comeback

Marvel’s Wolverine will star the most famous member of the X-Men and it will hopefully prompt a revival of the X-Men as a video game franchise.

I Thought Marvel’s Wolverine Would Be More Like PlayStation Studios' Other M-Rated Titles

But Some Footage Showed Some Gameplay Closer To Marvel’s Spider-Man

Although it didn’t show much, the tone and Easter eggs in the trailer, which featured Logan in his civilian attire with bloodied knuckles after a brawl inMadripoor’s Princess Barmade it clear this would be more of a standalone Logan story, not an X-Men one. There wasn’t any sign of the yellow outfit, and I wondered if Insomniac would draw more from the solo movies' visuals up to that point, as Hugh Jackman hadn’t returned to play the role and don the more comics-accurate attire in the MCU’sDeadpool & Wolverineyet. I thought that while there was the opportunity to see the violent combat and healing factor of theM-ratedX-Men Origins: Wolverine Uncaged Editiongame, that we’d be seeing Logan riding around Madripoor on a motorbike dealing with various criminal factions operating out of the island… with the potential for his Patch alias to appear maybe.

Gameplay-wise I imagined this would setMarvel’s Wolverineapart fromMarvel’s Spider-Man, and almost be closer in traversal to a title likeDays Gone. Recent leaked footage showed that this isn’t the case, however. Following the devastating cyberattack on Insomniac Games last year in which hacker group, Rhysida, shared personal details about some of the studio’s employees alongside major information aboutMarvel’s Wolverineand other titles in development, various clips from Insomniac’s upcoming titles, including acanceled multiplayerSpider-Mangame, have been surfacing online, and one of these showedLogan in his full yellow Wolverine outfit using his abilities to parkour across the city, leaping across rooftops, vaulting obstacles, and using his claws to scale walls, which felt very similar to the parkour and wall-crawling inMarvel’s Spider-Man, albeit with some more weight behind it due to the two characters' different builds, and how Logan isn’t doing the aerial tricks one would expect from Spider-Man.

Other clips from theleaks have shown Logan out of costume fighting Marvel’s ninja cult, The Hand, with a camera angle more reminiscent of the recentGod of Wartitles as Logan used both his claws, and other weapons such as their katanas against them. It also featured the return ofX-Men Origins: Wolverine’s regeneration. This was certainly more in line with what I expected the game’s combat to be like, but the traversal did take me by surprise somewhat. I’m not sure why, as Insomniac has been praised for its traversal mechanics, with titles such asSunset Overdriveand the aforementionedMarvel’s Spider-Mangames seeing players fluidly move across their open-world maps, so it would make sense to stick to what worked, but I guess I wasn’t expecting that from this take on Wolverine.

The full story forMarvel’s Wolverinewas also contained in these leaks, but aside from the inclusion of The Hand, which was being teased anyway, I’m not going to go into major story details regarding other characters who will appear or how it may tie into future Marvel titles by Insomniac.

Marvel’s Wolverine Leaks Are Highlighting A Growing Problem With Games

The gaming industry is larger than ever before, and therefore, leaks such as the one Insomniac Games just faced have become a growing problem.

Marvel’s Wolverine’s Traversal Makes Perfect Sense Though

Wolverine Was Fairly Nimble In The Comics

While I was expecting something slightly more grounded, seeing Wolverine’s yellow outfit, him hurling himself across rooftops, and the appearance of The Hand - which was potentiallyteased in aMarvel’s Spider-Man 2Easter egg- did make me smile as I realized Insomniac was drawing some inspiration from one of my favoriteWolverinecomic runs to date: the acclaimed,action-packed 1982Wolverinecomicsrun written by Chris Claremont with art by Frank Miller. This arc covered Logan’s time in Japan, dealing with both the Yakuza and The Hand, and a relationship with Mariko Yashida.

Some elements and characters from thisWolverinerun were loosely adapted in 2013’sThe Wolverinemovie.

Here,Logan was far more nimble as he took on The Hand’s ninjas, as he often used parkour as a means of traversal to get across Japan, and while the gameplay leaks didn’t show Logan chasing anyone, it’s likely that he will use these techniques along with his heightened senses to track down the more agile ninjas without being limited to exploring the streets. The 80s comics, in particular, showed Logan engaging in some far more action-packed storylines, so if Insomniac is drawing from this era for its gameplay and some of its story elements, it should make for a pretty fun ride.

Of course, everything shared in the leaks isn’t final, so it is possible Insomniac will make some major changes, and that some elements were merely proof of concept pieces and may not be implemented in the final game. For all we know, the motorbike may also appear for more ground-level traversal, with the added option to take to the rooftops via parkour. Either way, it’s nice to see Insomniac has at least entertained the idea of makingMarvel’s Wolverinemore comic-accurate in this way, even if part of me was originally hoping it would be a bit more of a different experience from the studio’sMarvel’s Spider-Mantitles.