Insomniac Games has traded web-slinging for adamantium claws, and the result is a Wolverine who bleeds, broods, and battles with brutal style. Marvel's Wolverine, the studio's first major departure from its Spider-Man universe, arrives with a story that digs into Logan's decades-long struggle with his own nature, and early reviews suggest that character work is the game's strongest asset — even when the action around it begins to fray.
The campaign opens a few decades after James «Logan» Howlett first met Nathaniel Essex and was drawn into his mutant community, where he became a key member of Team X. When players rejoin him, something sinister is already in motion. Logan is dispatched to investigate scientist Bolivar Trask amid reports of missing mutants, a mission that sends him across the globe to both new dangers and old haunts that stir up buried memories. The plot follows familiar superhero beats, with a few predictable turns and some genuinely fun moments in its closing hours, but it struggles to tell its story through mission action, reserving real consequence for the cutscenes that bookend each level. The result is an uneven cadence that stops and starts rather than flows.
What holds the experience together is Logan himself. Liam McIntyre's performance gives the character a personality to match his trademark blades — a sharp, surprising hidden depth housed in a bulky, blunt instrument of a body. He balances the shadows of his past with the future of mutantkind while managing his Jekyll-and-Hyde nature, as animal instincts sometimes break through the compassion he strives to show. That emotion comes through not just in his voice but in how he is designed and animated: he moves through social spaces with a hunched back that suggests a vulnerability clashing with his biological makeup, a physical manifestation of a dark past weighing him down. It is a detailed rendition that has quickly become one of the most memorable depictions of the character.
The supporting cast leaves a strong impression in small doses. Reflective moments in a Madripoor bar with Mystique, a snowy cabin rendezvous with Jean Grey, and the tension between Logan and Victor «Sabretooth» Creed stand out. Krizia Bajos is particularly effective as Grey, anchoring much of the emotional weight and often preventing the tale from veering into run-of-the-mill comic book storytelling. Outside of Logan and Jean, however, few characters are given room for their own arcs. They mostly cross Wolverine's path to hinder him or offer a few words of wisdom from the other side of a bar, which frustrates the sense that the wider mutant world could carry more of the load.
Combat is where the game initially shines and eventually thins. Basic attacks sink smoothly into flesh and steel, with devastating combos delivered through rapid presses of the square and triangle buttons. Dodges, parries, and special attacks round out a responsive but forgiving system. A quick triangle press lets Logan leap to an enemy within range, and staying on the front foot fills a rage bar that enables critical hits and provides the safety net of a revive. His healing factor regenerates health over time in combat — a smart, lore-appropriate decision that eliminates the need to scramble for health packs. The animation work is outstanding throughout, with brutal finishers ranging from sliced limbs to stabs up through jaws. After years of ensuring Spider-Man never let anyone fall to their death, Insomniac has clearly reveled in all the ways Wolverine can end a life.
Yet the violence, however stylish, cannot fully sustain the campaign. The combat wears thin well before the conclusion, and the story's reliance on cutscenes for emotional payoff leaves missions feeling like connective tissue rather than dramatic beats. Marvel's Wolverine, much like its lead, is built on a firm skeleton, but what is crafted around it is not nearly as strong. The game lands as a compelling character study with a combat loop that needs more variety to match the depth of its hero — a solid foundation that leaves room for the sequel its closing hours clearly tease.