Game Review: Marvel’s Wolverine

(In Wolverine voice) I’m the best there is at what I do, but what I do isn’t very nice.

[Aren’t you a reviewer?]

Exactly, bub.

[Why are you talking like that?]

(In normal voice) Because I’m reviewing Marvel’s Wolverine. The game developed by Insomniac Games.

(Doors slam)

What was that?

[The sound of thousands of people leaving your blog.]

Yeah…I don’t get that. Why is everyone so against it?

[If you listen to GhostRobo it’s because of expectations. People expected it to be this Ultimate Game of the Year game, and it wasn’t.]

How so? I thought it was pretty good. The graphics were amazing. I couldn’t believe the character detail not to mention the detail of buildings and such. It was almost more detailed than reality. (Laughs)

It was also a fairly manageable game. It lasts about 12-15 hours.

[Didn’t you watch it via Blitzwinger and MKIceAndFire?]

What’s your point?

[You didn’t spend $70 on it. Your opinion is biassed.]

All opinions are.

If you don’t like a linear solo-player game, you’re going to like Wolverine less than someone who loves linear games.

[And that was the problem. It was a 1990s or 2000s video game in the body of a 2026 game. It was linear instead of open world. It was solo-character instead of multi-character—you played as Wolverine the whole time. There was no crafting—]

You got to craft the suits. Kinda.

[You didn’t get some perk from having a certain suit or claws equipped. It was combat heavy instead of a mix of combat, stealth, and puzzles. No multiplayer. It was 12 hours instead of 80. No real exploration. The material crates, whiskey bottles, and nightmare doors were pretty much along your path. The level-ups and special skills were pretty much nonexistent.]

There was hot claws.

[Which you could get only under certain conditions.]

What about the helix claws?

[OK, I might have to give you that one. However, they only came with a few upgrades.]

When you say it like that, you can make anything sound bad.

[It probably would have done better if it was a 32-bit, side-scrolling arcade style beat-em-up instead of a full-on modern game.]

The game was called Wolverine. What were they expecting? He is a combat, slash-and-dice character.

[You can’t tell me that it was perfect.]

I did wonder where Weapon X came in. It seemed like it wasn’t part of Logan’s history, but he still had the adamantium claws. The timeline seemed a little screwy.

Also, if the inhibitor fields take out mutant powers, how could Wolverine still activate his claws? There might be an explanation in the comics, somewhere, but that’s the point…in the comics, not the game. In the game, he just can. Then later, he is collared with an inhibitor collar and seems unable to use his claws. Destroying the inhibitor fields also seemed way too easy.

Plus, when Trask teleports Wolverine into that jet engine tunnel why didn’t Trask activate an inhibitor field and then turn on the jet engine? He knew Wolverine could heal.

[So, you’ve come to my side?]

Hmm, no. I still think it was a fun game. Not the best. Not the most perfect game. But fun.

[But you never played it. You watched it.]

It was still fun. A movie isn’t less entertaining because you watched it instead of being in it. Watching a baseball game isn’t any less entertaining because you didn’t play. The thing is it was fun.

[What about the $70?]

That is a lot, but I’ve found 80 hour games that were not worth the $70. I’ve found eight hour games not worth $15. I’ve seen eight hour games that cost $15 and felt like they deserved more.

I get it. You paid $70, and you get something that doesn’t measure up. You feel cheated. You feel like you wasted $70, and in this day and age, that’s a lot. You could get a year of Marvel Unlimited. You could buy a loaf of bread, or fill up a tank of gas. And that’s fine. If I paid $15 for a game I didn’t like, I’d be mad too.

But I had fun.

[But you paid nothing.]

I paid time.

I could have finished reading a book…maybe two. I could have watched five movies. I could have done laundry, done the dishes, wrote a book, and so on.

But I had fun. And I’m still thinking of buying it.

4/5 stars. It wasn’t perfect; I saw times where the foes spawned inside rooms you couldn’t enter. But, I’m still glad I watched it.

Until the next wormhole…thanks for reading!