Popularised by the X-Men movies, one of the most recognisable characters in the X-Men franchise is the Wolverine. After a long break from being featured in games, with the last game being the 2009 game X-Men Origins: Wolverine developed by Raven Software, the hairy, adamantium-clawed mutant superhero is now in Marvel’s Wolverine for the PlayStation 5.
Developed by Insomniac Games, who created the amazing Marvel’s Spider-Man games, Marvel’s Wolverine blends the protagonist’s animalistic combat with his emotional story into a riveting third-person action adventure game.
Unlike the massive open-world Spider-Man games, Wolverine is a more linear experience with few collectibles and limited exploration. The only side activity comes in the form of Nightmare Doors where there are various trials for Wolverine to complete.
Of mutants and men
Marvel’s Wolverine takes place when Logan (Wolverine) had isolated himself from his team of mutant superheroes for three years. At the start of the game, he was persuaded by Mr Essex to rejoin Team X (a precursor of the X-Men) and help mutants who are hunted down by the anti-mutant billionaire tech-bro, Bolivar Trask.
The game features popular characters from the X-Men franchise, including the red-headed Jean Grey with telepathic and telekinetic powers, the blue-skinned Mystique with shapeshifting abilities, and the bestial Sabretooth who unleashes brutal attacks on foes. Although these other characters join Wolverine for certain missions, you can only play as Wolverine.
Insomniac has done a good job with the story for Marvel’s Wolverine, which detracts from the comics and movies about his origin and his past, thus opening up new possibilities for a different storyline.
Logan’s amnesia is central to the story, and more is revealed about his past through conversations, scattered notes as well as flashbacks.
High tension action sequences are interspersed with more contemplative intervals when Logan converses with his team, Jean and other mutants. The romance between Wolverine and Jean adds some emotional depth to the plot.
The story also touches on the discrimination that takes place between humans and mutants, adding more depth than most “bishy bash” action games.
Globetrotting blockbuster action
Marvel’s Wolverine takes place in Canada, Japan and Madripoor, which is a fictitious city in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) supposedly modelled after Singapore. This sets the game up for a good variety of environments, with the snowy forests of Yukon, the dense city of Shinjuku and the cultural melting pot of Madripoor with its modern buildings surrounded by slummy outskirts.
Unlike the Spider-Man games that feature a huge open-world to explore, Marvel’s Wolverine takes place in contained levels with limited exploration, which makes the game rather linear.
Much of the game focusses on combat, where you use Wolverine’s adamantium claws and combo attacks to plough through cybernetically enhanced soldiers, hostile mutants, sneaky shinobis and tough bosses.
Collectibles come in the form of whiskey bottles, of which there are 20 to find and collect. Each bottle offers up a snippet of Logan’s relationships with team members like Mystique and Sabretooth as well as two Ability Points for him to gain passive perks in the form of Adaptations.
Material crates are another worthy find for unlocking additional costumes and health upgrades. There are also vats and shrines for Wolverine to bash for experience points. Apart from these, there isn’t much else to motivate exploration.
Exploration is guided by Wolverine’s sense of smell depicted by bright blue scent trails that lead you to collectibles or main objectives. But this can be pretty misleading as the trails do not differentiate between the two, which sometimes caused me to trigger a “no turning back” cutscene advancing in the game before I could grab the collectible.
For those who find the scent trails too distracting, the latest patch lightens the scent trails and offers an option for the trails for collectibles to be turned off. Although this helps in making the trails less intrusive, it also means that the collectibles are harder to find.
Despite the heavy scent trails, I did miss out on some of the collectibles during certain missions that were too action-packed to break away from or when I accidentally triggered a cutscene that advanced the game. Thankfully, I could satisfy the completist in me by replaying chapters using the bed in the Nightmare Cabins, which serve as the game’s only side mission.
In Nightmare Cabins, Wolverine can perform a variety of timed trials to chalk up enemy kills or traverse obstacles in the shortest time to get the most rewards. Access to the cabins is through disembodied Nightmare Doors that show up like a portal during most levels.
Unfortunately, the Nightmare Doors that pop up during tense and urgent missions are immersion-breaking, since they take Wolverine away on a detour from the critical main story. Worse, the trials that are offered can sometimes be the ones that you have already completed, which makes their unsolicited interruption rather annoying.
That said, many of the trials are important to glean more insights into Logan’s backstory as he recovers memories. They also offer up Ability Points to unlock Adaptations which endow Wolverine with passive perks for healing, increasing damage and critical strikes.
Despite being linear, the game has plenty of blockbuster-styled, adrenaline-fuelled sequences to keep things exciting, including thrilling motorbike chases, rooftop pursuits and tense boss fights.
That said, Marvel’s Wolverine is a pretty forgiving game where even a jump that I thought was way off was sticky enough for him to land. The routes also tend to be clearly marked with white paint, so it’s usually a no-brainer to find your way around.
Claws out, punches in
Like the Spider-Man games, Marvel’s Wolverine combat is a lot of fun although the skill tree is more simplified with a smaller variety of attacks. Apart from striking foes with his adamantium claws, Wolverine can perform a flurry of slashes, long-ranged leaping attacks and powerful kicks that can stun enemies.
Wolverine’s finishing moves are also incredibly satisfying, albeit extremely violent and bloody, so do turn off the blood and dismemberment graphics if you are squeamish.
The game also makes good use of the environment for Wolverine to use, such as electrical panels to electrocute enemies, fiery lava to fry them and heights from which to kick them off.
Fire barrels can be used to set Wolverine’s claws on fire for incendiary lethal attacks as well as explosives for splash damage. Wolverine can parry, dodge and unleash a number of limited special attacks which can be unlocked with accumulated experience.
As you play through the game and gain XP (experience points), Wolverine also gains Technique Points that level up his attacks and unlock new ones. There are six special attacks to unlock – you can only equip four at any one time, but these can be switched out anytime.
Boss battles are satisfying and manageable, although some of the multi-stage boss fights can take a while for you to study the boss’s moves and train for the attacks. It gets easier when Wolverine has levelled up and unlocked powerful attacks and combos.
There are also scripted QTE (quick time events) in the game, which means that you cannot take your hands off the controller even though a battle seems to be over.
Logan’s look book
Marvel’s Wolverine is a visual spectacle, with top-notch graphics and detailed depictions of the various locations, with plenty of thrilling blockbuster quality cinematic cutscenes and high octane action. Be warned that Marvel’s Wolverine has very graphic depictions of violence, with plenty of blood and gore, including decapitations and dismemberment with Wolverine’s adamantium claws.
What makes the game visually interesting are the over 30 costumes and numerous claws that can be unlocked by collecting materials from material crates. Changing Logan’s look is fun, and I especially like the comic book-styled costumes, even though they can a little silly during the emotionally-heavy scenes.
Despite the contained locations and limited exploration, there are also plenty of interesting details that stand up to scrutiny if you take the time to look around and appreciate.
For instance, in Shinjuku, you can see plushies displayed at the window of an arcade and NPCs (non-playable character) buying drinks at vending machines. In Madripoor, you can listen in on amusing conversations by the NPCs who are gossiping about others or revealing their innermost insecurities.
It’s a nice touch to hear the Madripoorean NPCs speaking in Malay, Mandarin and even in Tamil. However, as a Singaporean, I have to nitpick – Madripoor in Marvel’s Wolverine feels more like a mish-mash of Southeast Asian countries, and not truly Singapore.
There are too many slummy areas surrounding the shiny metropolis, with culturally inappropriate gaffes like liquor shops with signage in Malay as well as unrealistically numerous bánh mì food stalls.
Marvel’s Wolverine has its fair share of bugs – I encountered several serious game-breaking glitches where completed quests didn’t trigger for the game to proceed, forcing me to replay the level. There were also less critical and amusing visual bugs with characters getting stuck in walls or Wolverine’s feet sinking into a roof.
TL;DR
Marvel’s Wolverine offers plenty of slicing and dicing action with a decent story that focusses on Wolverine’s past, his romance with Jean Grey and the discrimination of mutants. Combat is excellent, with a good variety of special moves, combos and finishers although it is far less than those in the Spider-Man games.
Exploration and collectibles are also quite limited, making the game feel rather lacking, although there are some interesting details to appreciate. The immersion-breaking Nightmare Doors could have been better executed as it disrupts the high tension and urgency of certain missions.
With great graphics and animations as well as blockbuster cutscenes, Marvel’s Wolverine is an enjoyable experience although the graphic violence and gore makes it unsuitable for the young and the squeamish.
Marvel’s Wolverine is available at the PlayStation Store for S$89.90.
