I’ve gone back and forth on this rating, much like I went back and forth about how I felt during the game. At times I was certain it was a 3-star game, but then a story moment would hit for me and I’d bump it up a notch.
Wolverine is a mess. Maybe we’ll never know what happened during the dev cycle, but from the outside it feels like a shift happened part way in. The story just seems to jump forward at times, levels are big but empty, and the skill tree feels padded out.
But, I had fun. The combat while mashy, was mostly satisfying. When it flows, Wolvie is the murder blender we all want him to be, only feeling tedious during back-to-back long action sequences. It’s a shame the stealth system isn’t fleshed out, there could’ve been something there. The game doesn’t even tell you early on that you can jump between rooftops and sneak up on baddies and stab them to pieces. It’s satisfying when it works.
And although it feels disjointed, I think the story is good. It’s hard to tell if it hits for anyone that has no history with X-Men characters as the game doesn’t do a lot of set most of them up. Some only show up for a few seconds in the background of a cutscene, but I still popped for a Glob appearance. (I make his coconut laksa recipe in our slow cooker and it’s delicious.)
It’s largely a Logan and Jean story, and without spoiling much, I really liked the spin on their relationship. It’s genuinely touching at times. And likewise for some of the (pretty standard) X-Men moments. Even though we’ve seen mutants get abused and oppressed many times, it still hits right in the feelings because as always, those moments are far too real.
Wolverine is more than the sum of its parts I think. Though definitely not up to par with Insomniac’s previous superhero games, I still think there’s something there. Especially if you’re an X-Men fan. Maybe coming in with lower expectations helped based on the reviews (probably). Maybe we’ve all just been starved of good mutant content for a while.