Historically, Wolverine has always been the second most popular Marvel character of all time. His popularity grew thanks to his appearances in X-Men cartoons and the X-Men movies starring the lovable Hugh Jackman.
Despite being right behind Spider-Man in popularity, Wolverine has sadly not featured in many games as a solo character like Peter Parker. From the year 2000 onward, we've only seen three Wolverine solo games.
Those three games are X2: Wolverine's Revenge, X-Men Origins: Wolverine, and now we have Marvel's Wolverine. Marvel's Wolverine is a PS5 exclusive developed by Insomniac Games.
Before I begin talking about the game itself, let it be known that Marvel's Wolverine is a different kind of beast compared to the more family-friendly vibes of Insomniac's Spider-Man games featuring Peter Parker and Miles Morales.
This is because Wolverine does not have a no-killing rule, so he's pretty much allowed to dismember his enemies no matter how gory it is. He is also allowed to drink at a bar, unlike Spider-Man, who has to be straight edge as mandated by Marvel.
If you are squeamish, Marvel's Wolverine has some accessibility options that allow you to tone down the violence. You can choose to turn off blood and dismemberment, although I'm pretty sure most people buying this game will keep things rated R as originally intended.
As for the narrative, Insomniac Games chose to tell an original story that hasn't been told before in the comics, cartoons, or movies. Marvel's Wolverine is unique because it takes place in a universe before the X-Men have been assembled and Logan has no memories of his past life.
Instead, Wolverine joins a small mutant team called Team X, and their mission is to save mutants from being killed and hunted down by Bolivar Trask. X-Men fans may already know Trask because he is a mutant hater, and he's also the creator of the deadly Sentinel robots.
Team X only includes Wolverine, Mystique, Sabretooth, and Nathaniel Essex. Sadly, if you are a huge X-Men fan, you won't see the likes of Cyclops, Professor X, Storm, or any other of your favourite X-Men characters.
I won't give out any spoilers, but the one famous X-Men character you will see is Jean Grey, and Wolverine has a special bond with her. Jean Grey joins Wolverine later in the game as an ally, but sadly, she isn't playable because Wolverine is the only character you can control.
Speaking of playability, Marvel's Wolverine does not shy away from showing the brutal ferocity of the Wolverine character. Wolverine has adamantium claws that can slice and dice a lot of humans, cyborgs, and robot-type enemies.
You can press the Square button for normal slicing attacks, while the Triangle button allows Logan to leap and attack an enemy from afar. What is also cool about Wolverine is that he can block and parry attacks by using the L1 button. Parrying at the perfect time allows Wolverine to counterattack effectively.
Aside from normal chopping and slicing attacks, Wolverine also has a ton of special abilities that he can unleash on unsuspecting enemies. By holding L2 and pressing any of the four face buttons, he can do special attacks that can either stun or do lots of damage to a group of enemies.
The special attacks include the following: Tornado Spin, Knee Breaker, Relentless, Spiral Strike, Overwhelm, and Brutal Assault. The Knee Breaker was my favourite attack because it can stun both enemies and bosses, allowing Wolverine to go for the kill.
The Relentless ability was also a useful one because it allows Wolverine to heal his health bar. The Relentless ability can also be activated automatically if your health goes down to zero because Wolverine isn't entirely invincible in this game; that would make it too easy.
That being said, Wolverine's health bar replenishes every time a group of enemies has been cleared from an area. Although his health rarely replenishes rapidly during a boss fight, there are checkpoints during bosses if you fail to finish them off in one go.
As you level up, you will gain access to more combos, moves, and abilities. Not to mention, you can upgrade Wolverine's adaptations that increase his damage tolerance or improve his other defensive techniques.
What I like most about the gameplay in Wolverine is that it is varied and it rarely becomes boring or repetitive. For example, if facing enemies head-on gets too relentless, you sometimes have the choice to take out enemies stealthily.
There are also other gameplay elements such as chasing enemies using Wolverine's scent, or even finding clues to open new areas in a level. Wolverine can also traverse levels like a rabid animal because he can climb and leap on top of high buildings and cliffs whenever he wants to.
My other favourite gameplay feature of Wolverine is when he is able to ride on motorcycles. He doesn't ride on motorcycles that much, but it does remind me of the bike sections in Final Fantasy VII involving Cloud.
Another thing worth mentioning is that the level design is unique and satisfying to explore. If you're sick of the New York setting in Spider-Man games, you'll be happy to know that Wolverine is able to visit far more countries and locations in his adventure.
Some of the countries and locations he gets to visit include Japan, Canada, a casino, and even Madripoor, which is a famous fictional city in the Marvel universe. Graphically, Wolverine is superior to the Spider-Man games because the new locations look pretty, and they're more interesting than the concrete jungle that is New York.
If you want to divert from the main story, there are some side quests that you can undertake in this game. One of the main side quests in the game is seeking out the Nightmare Trials doors. It's highly recommended you go through these trials if you want to know more about Logan's mysterious past.
As much fun as I had playing Marvel's Wolverine, there are some elements I feel some gamers won't enjoy. For one thing, there are some 'levels' in the game that are slow and are just for character-building moments. These sections might be boring to some people because you cannot skip them.
Some X-Men fans will also dislike the lack of actual X-Men in the game. As I said before, Marvel's Wolverine takes place before the X-Men are assembled, so only a small handful of characters are featured in this story.
Aside from a few flaws, Marvel's Wolverine is an action-packed masterpiece that is just as thrilling and enjoyable as Insomniac's multiple Spider-Man video games. If you are a huge fan of Wolverine, sniff out this game in stores and buy it because you won't be disappointed.