Marvel’s Wolverine is the definition of all killer, no filler. The combat oozes with Logan’s trademark aggressive ferocity, and paired with deeply moving, layered character work, the Wolverine has never felt sharper. Gorgeous presentation, a comic-book-like structure, and fantastic writing round out Insomniac’s best superhero outing in years, even when the story takes a stumble. It understands the heart beneath the claws, and in that balancing act it proves itself as the best there is.
Marvel’s Wolverine is a superhero action game developed by Insomniac Games and published by Sony Interactive Entertainment. Read our review to see what it does right, what it doesn’t, and our overall thoughts on the game.
Marvel’s Wolverine Walkthrough & Guides Wiki
What is Marvel’s Wolverine?
It’s a superhero action game from Insomniac Games and Sony Interactive Entertainment that puts you in the claws of Wolverine, the iconic X-Men character, as he teams up with Sabretooth, Mystique, and Nathaniel Essex to stop Bolivar Trask from building the mutant-killing Sentinel robots. It’s a level-based action-adventure where you carve through enemy mobs and bosses while exploring new areas.
The pitch, in short: an original, Wolverine-centric story inspired by the comics, visceral brutal combat built around Wolverine’s powers, side content and collectibles that actually improve his gameplay, characters from across the X-Men universe, a beautiful photorealistic art style, and a level-based structure.
Man Made Him a Weapon, Gaming Kept Him There Too Long
Superheroes are basically synonymous with action game design. No other medium captures their power fantasy quite like games do. From classic arcade beat-em-ups and fighting games starring the X-Men to the open-world freedom of Insomniac’s Spider-Man games, video games are the closest most of us will ever get to feeling like our favorite heroes, at least until scientists figure out X-Genes or radioactive spiders.
Wolverine isn’t like most superheroes, though. Casual fans might write him off as the short, hairy angry guy with claws, but comic readers know there’s real depth to Logan. That eternal struggle between his feral, berserk rage and his deep humanity and empathy is tough to nail in adaptations, and gaming has mostly reduced him to just the savage side, ignoring the heart underneath the adamantium skeleton. Until now.
Marvel’s Wolverine is the best adaptation of the character gaming has ever produced. It gets Logan’s berserk rage and brutality right with a perfect blend of technical depth and pure, gory spectacle. That’s the easy part, though. What really got me is how much it understands what makes Logan such a compelling character, and how it finally gives his brutality some real emotional weight.
Wolverine’s story isn’t perfect by any stretch, but what it gets right, it absolutely cranks. Pair that with jaw-dropping cinematography, gorgeous environment design, and a well-paced gameplay structure, and you’ve got Insomniac’s best superhero game since that first Spider-Man. Marvel’s Wolverine is the best there is at what it does, and what it does is nonstop action-packed bliss.
A Snikt and A Cut Above the Rest
When I first heard about a triple-A action game based on Wolverine, the one thing I really wanted was for it to be brutal, gory, and insanely fun. That’s what games have always gotten right about the character, from his fighting game appearances to the cult-classic hack-n-slash X-Men Origins: Wolverine. Thankfully, Marvel’s Wolverine takes Logan’s combat and gameplay and not only builds on what came before, but straight-up surpasses it.
Look at a character like Wolverine and his combat should be self-explanatory: he’s an immortal, angry guy with blades in his hands. Insomniac doesn’t reinvent the wheel here. They just sharpen the edge to a mirror finish, with an incredibly brutal and satisfying combat system holding the whole thing together.
True to the game’s approach of pulling from Wolverine’s entire history, Logan’s abilities feel like a greatest hits of his moves across gaming. Anyone who’s played his aggressive rushdown style in Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 and Marvel Tokon, or his terrifying tank-busting and crowd control in Rivals, will feel right at home with this version of the character.
Spectacle is only half the equation. The other half, the technical feel of the combat, is just as good and somehow packed with nuance for player expression. Multiple unlockable moves give Wolverine a real sense of growth and progression, while his special move pool rewards good timing with genuinely game-changing abilities. The Adaptation system gives Logan passive buffs you can tune to specific attributes, from damage to regeneration to even exploration.
What ties it all together is that these systems are completely driven by player choice. The special move pool is mapped to the four face buttons, which keeps Wolverine from feeling too overpowered and rewards smart, selective moveset building. Same goes for the Adaptation perks, which let you fine-tune his savage skillset to match your playstyle.
Beyond spectacle and the technical side, the game just feels amazing to play. Managing your Rage Meter, dodging enemy attacks, and picking the right combo in the heat of the moment are all crucial to getting the most out of it. This doesn’t just encourage relentless, ruthless aggression, it straight-up demands it, and at points I found myself yelling right alongside Logan when the action got too intense.
Aggression is one of the things Wolverine does best, and it’s what sets him apart from Spider-Man’s more acrobatic, gadget-heavy approach. I mean, I wouldn’t wanna see Logan’s short, stocky frame gracefully pirouetting across the battlefield anyway. Brutal claw strikes, terrifying lunges, and a hard-hitting parry system bring the character’s berserk rage from the comic page straight to your controller, and Wolverine consistently delivers unbeatable action-game catharsis.
Linearity Has Never Felt This Good
Insomniac gets that not every superhero works in an open-world setting. Wolverine’s gameplay structure is way more linear compared to Spider-Man or Batman’s triple-A outings, but it works entirely in his favor. Logan barely has any mobility powers and, more importantly, he’s 5'3. Sorry to my fellow short kings out there, but Logan’s just not built to swing or glide across skyscrapers all day.
Instead, Marvel’s Wolverine goes with a mission-based structure. That gives Logan a lot more freedom where the story can go, since the narrative is a full-on globe-trotting adventure, while keeping the game laser-focused on combat encounters and sparse but genuinely rewarding exploration.
There are branching paths in the linear levels, and while collectibles are few and far between, they actually serve a purpose, either tying into the overarching story or, more importantly, helping Logan look cool. The whisky bottles you find add depth to his connection to Team X and hint at a bit of a drinking problem, while suit materials unlock more of Wolverine’s flashy costumes and upgrade his health bar.
The mission-based structure does something else really well: it highlights the game’s commitment to cutting out filler. Slower moments, like chilling at Essex’s mansion or investigating certain areas, work as a breather from the nonstop action. The Nightmare Doors are small side missions that throw a different type of challenge at you, whether it’s a roguelite-style enemy gauntlet or a short platforming section. Even those don’t disrupt the pacing much.
The structure works because it keeps the focus squarely on Logan and how he operates as a character. The Mary Jane missions that dragged down and padded out the Spider-Man games? Gone. This is Logan’s adventure through and through, and the fact that you can skip ahead through missions on repeat playthroughs makes the pacing feel that much tighter.
The Man in Black, Yellow, and Blue
By most estimates, Wolverine ranks in the top 10, maybe even top 5 most published characters in comic book history. Between all the X-Men runs, solo books, event crossovers, and team-ups, the guy has appeared in way too much stuff. The point is, Wolverine has seen it all, narratively speaking.
Logan might be the most adaptable character in comics alongside Batman and Spider-Man. He’s teamed up with pretty much every team in Marvel, wielded Ghost Rider’s powers, been the Winter Soldier, even been Governor General of Canada. From the narrative misfires of Return of Wolverine to the highs of Madripoor Nights, Weapon X, and Claremont’s solo run, Wolverine’s done it all.
Anyone tasked with distilling Logan into one definitive version has a massive uphill battle. Insomniac’s approach was to take pieces of his history and draw from the best while improving on the worst. Thank god, because it works incredibly well. He feels like a perfect blend of his best comic selves, from Claremont’s samurai-like discipline and gruff mentorship to Millar’s terrifyingly ruthless, cold-blooded weapon.
The story tours Logan’s most legendary battlegrounds like Japan and Madripoor, and most of his key friends and enemies are front and center. They even managed to work the infamous hot claws from the absolutely terrible Return of Wolverine into an actual gameplay mechanic. Most things are better than that book, but turning its worst idea into a fun mechanic is a brilliantly bold move.
All of that gets wrapped up nicely with Logan’s deeply layered character writing. He feels like such a cohesive, three-dimensional character in this game, perfectly capturing his complex characterization across decades of comics. He can go from ruthless mercenary to loving father figure to unstoppable beast within a few missions, and it all feels completely natural and consistently engaging.
Underneath that adamantium skeleton is a heart of gold, and the strongest parts of the story come when he lets his humanity show. Whether he’s warmly playing along with young mutants and giving them guidance, trading witty banter with friends at the Princess Bar, or visibly wrestling with his role as a weapon and mercenary, Logan is a deeply empathetic and compelling character. That makes his pain and loss hit that much harder, while giving his berserker rage the narrative weight it deserves.
Something Sinister This Way Comes
Marvel’s Wolverine casts Logan as a reluctant member of Team X, a mutant strike force made up of himself, Mystique, and Sabretooth. Nathaniel Essex, a mutant with psychic powers, leads the team against anti-mutant scientist Bolivar Trask and his Sentinel program. As tragedy keeps striking mutants under Essex’s watch, Logan and Jean Grey are sent around the globe to stop Trask, investigate a mysterious mutant weapon, and cross paths with more enemies like The Hand along the way.
Strip away the Marvel lore and this is a straightforward action game plot with enough spectacle and thematic depth to keep things satisfying. It’s not exactly profound, I doubt that was ever the goal, but there were enough awesome moments, emotional story beats, and sharply written conversations to keep me hooked. It does stumble toward the end, though, in a way that gets pretty confusing and even frustrating.
Insomniac has always taken creative liberties with their superhero games. Personally, I’ve never treated comic accuracy as the ultimate measure of a good adaptation, and Marvel’s Wolverine is a mixed bag in this department. There are plenty of interesting changes and reinterpretations that work really well in the context of the story, and some that feel completely baffling and out of left field.
Essex isn’t quite the flamboyant villain he is in the comics, but the role he plays is both excellent and crucial to making everything feel impactful. Sabretooth’s rivalry with Logan feels ripped straight from the comics, while Mystique’s total contrast to Wolverine makes their scenes together pop even as the story starts losing its focus.
The biggest surprise is Jean Grey. Wolverine’s deuteragonist is about as adaptable as Logan himself, with recent adaptations like Spider-Man: Brand New Day putting fresh spins on her that still work. Making her relationship with Wolverine the emotional backbone of the story is a bold gamble, especially considering the general fan distaste for them as a couple, this fan included. Somehow, it works.
It’s a testament to how strong the writing is that Jean and Logan didn’t make me roll my eyes every time they opened their mouths. Enough changes were made that their dynamic felt natural, mature, and well-written within the story’s context. Even if it meant altering some key parts of their established canon, the pairing works surprisingly well and creates some genuinely moving moments. While it’s a low bar for sure, Jean and Logan work better together in this game than in anything else I’ve seen them in.
Ultimately, all of this falls apart in the third act. Without spoiling too much, there are some ridiculous character moments near the end that push a few of them toward the more convoluted, fantastical side of the Marvel universe. Frankly, they feel like blatant and unnatural sequel bait. They betray the relatively grounded tone the game had going, and some of these conclusions don’t feel earned because of the lack of proper build-up.
Jean and Logan’s relationship is probably the biggest casualty of the third act’s shark jump, making their otherwise natural chemistry feel retroactively forced. While it works to set up an eventual X-Men game, it still feels like a disappointing way to wrap up an otherwise razor-sharp love letter to Wolverine. I can’t imagine what a non-Marvel fan would make of it, but a grounded story suddenly going off the rails in the final hours is a problem for any narrative.
Photorealism Ain’t for Everyone, Bub
Insomniac’s photorealistic art style for their superhero games has always been polarizing. You either love it or hate it, and I’ve historically been torn on their approach. Bringing the vibrant, colorful world of comics to life is a tough gig across any medium, and even the biggest players in the genre don’t always get the visuals right. I loved how environments looked in their previous superhero games, but their character designs often felt a bit overdesigned.
My personal dislike of Peter’s Advanced Suit and Miles’ awful Evolved Suit had me worried that Wolverine would end up looking equally goofy and overdesigned. Thankfully, Marvel’s Wolverine knocks it out of the park when it comes to translating these character designs into the real world, staying mostly grounded within the story’s context.
Wolverine looks fantastic both in and out of the costume, with a character design that feels like the closest we’ve ever gotten to a comic-accurate, real-life Wolverine. I love Hugh Jackman too, but I’m stoked that this game finally delivered a realistic, height-accurate Wolverine in a suit that perfectly channels his classic look. Even the unlockable costumes look great and translate beautifully to the photorealistic style.
The rest of the cast looks solid, though your mileage may vary. Sabretooth and Mystique look pretty faithful to their comic counterparts, Essex and whatever other forms he may or may not have look appropriately creepy and menacing, and even Jean gets some subtle nods to classic costumes outside her usual civilian clothes. The face models are a likely sticking point, though: if Insomniac’s photorealistic approach to faces and character design bothers you, this won’t change your mind.
Levels and environments can be absolutely stunning, and each location’s atmosphere comes through beautifully via lighting and color. There’s the minor annoyance of the white paint directional markers, which can kinda break immersion. Why does a 200-year-old with heightened senses need white paint telling him where to go? That said, from Shinjuku’s cold neon blues to Madripoor’s tropical warmth to the feral greys of maxing out Rage, Marvel’s Wolverine uses color like a pro.
The animations are top-tier too, selling Wolverine’s brutality and violence with the weight and fluidity they deserve. Moves hit hard and feel impactful, combos look distinct and consistently stylish, and even with tons of enemies on screen the action never feels cluttered or overwhelming. Meanwhile, Logan’s injuries capture the body horror and gore of his comic appearances, with his adamantium skeleton frequently glinting through wounds and slashes.
Is Marvel’s Wolverine Worth It?
The PS5 Gets a New Exclusive, and It’s Excellent for Fans and Newcomers Alike
Marvel’s Wolverine ultimately succeeds by using its love and respect for the source material as a foundation for mechanically tight, satisfying action and fantastic character writing. The result is a precise showcase of why Wolverine has remained a pop culture icon for nearly five decades, with excellent pacing and gorgeous presentation tying it all together even when the story stumbles. The real star of the show is the gameplay, with Wolverine’s berserk combat perfectly capturing his power fantasy while letting players fine-tune it to their preferences. It’s a great entry point for newcomers, a blast for diehard fans, and a fantastic action game across the board.
Do I Need to Know Marvel’s Other Games?
No. This is a new and standalone story set in the Insomniac universe, but it doesn’t reference their other Marvel games. At most, a basic familiarity with general Marvel lore and Wolverine’s history is more than enough.
70 bucks is not value for money for such a short game. too steep a price to even test it out and with sonys strict refund policy it doesnt seem like 90 is a good score.. read the room
Yeah, I’m not really huge about this review. The Value for Money being 9 screams bias for what is ultimately a 10 hour game
90/100 is just flat‑out delusional. What game did you review? You do realize that even if you fail QTEs, the game completes them for you, right? The handholding in this game makes Mixtape look like a challenge. A true game made for game journalists.
9 for value, but the game is super short? Somehow the same value rating as blood of the dawnwalker with 50+hours? Yea no one should take this review seriously.
Way to lenient with this game. 90? Really? Looks mid at best. Going to stop coming to this site with this BS.
Final Verdict
Marvel’s Wolverine delivers a excellent experience with a score of 90/100.