Marvel’s Wolverine Review
Marvel’s Wolverine is a bloody, cinematic thrill ride with visceral combat and gorgeous PS5 visuals - my full review.
Marvel’s Wolverine doesn’t take long to show its claws. Brutal combat, enormous cinematic set pieces and a surprisingly personal story give Insomniac Games’ latest superhero adventure an identity of its own. After years of delivering some of gaming’s most polished superhero experiences, the studio turns its attention to Logan with something darker, bloodier and far more aggressive.
After completing the game on PS5 Pro, I came away impressed by how fully the experience embraces both sides of the character: Wolverine and Logan. The combat is ferocious, the violence is unapologetic, and some action-hero moments are absolutely spectacular.
"The combat is ferocious, the violence is unapologetic, and some action-hero moments are absolutely spectacular."
Yet beneath all the blood and adamantium is a more personal story about a man who has spent much of his life trying to outrun his past.
Insomniac has created an exciting, visually stunning superhero adventure, even if repetitive combat and restrictive level design occasionally dull its edge. Let’s dig into where Marvel’s Wolverine sinks its claws in deepest, and where it misses the mark.
Marvel’s Wolverine Review Details
Platform: PlayStation 5
Reviewed on: PlayStation 5 Pro
Developer: Insomniac Games
Publisher: Sony Interactive Entertainment
Genre: Action-adventure
Modes: Single-player
ESRB rating: M for Mature 17+
Release date: September 15th, 2026
Wolverine Hits the Ground Running
Thankfully, Insomniac doesn’t spend hours retelling Logan’s origin, opting for a more direct approach. When the adventure kicks off, James “Logan” Howlett is already a well-weathered Wolverine, emotional baggage and all. He has adamantium, knows how to use his claws, and carries years of complicated history with Nathaniel Essex, Mystique, Sabretooth, and the other members of Team X.
The X-Men have not yet formed, though, leaving mutants scattered across a world that is only beginning to understand they exist. This also emboldens Bolivar Trask, who is leading an increasingly violent campaign against mutantkind.
"He has adamantium, knows how to use his claws, and carries years of complicated history with Nathaniel Essex, Mystique, Sabretooth, and the other members of Team X."
This eventually pulls Logan into the conflict spanning Canada, Madripoor, Tokyo and other memorable locations I won’t spoil here. Familiar names and concepts from Marvel history also appear throughout the story, but Insomniac rearranges enough of the pieces that I was rarely sure where everything was heading, and it kept me invested.
Logan’s fractured memories are especially important. Rather than positioning him as an unstoppable
superhero who happens to have forgotten a few things, the game repeatedly uses his missing past to question who he was, who he has become and whether those are really two different people.
Liam McIntyre Makes Wolverine His Own
Another aspect of the story I loved was the standout performances. Liam McIntyre brings plenty of gravel and fury to Wolverine, but his quieter moments ultimately made the biggest impression on me. His Logan can be intimidating one minute and vulnerable the next, particularly when his relationships force him to confront parts of himself he would rather ignore.
Most importantly, I never felt like McIntyre was trying to reproduce another interpretation of Wolverine. This felt like his portrayal of Logan through and through, which is an important distinction.
Troy Baker is equally fantastic as Nathaniel Essex. In fact, it was my favourite performance in the game, and he stole every scene he was in.
"Troy Baker is equally fantastic as Nathaniel Essex. In fact, it was my favourite performance in the game, and he stole every scene he was in."
Baker gives Essex enough charisma that I enjoyed simply listening to him talk, while always leaving just enough beneath the surface to make me question his intentions as the story unfolded. Mystique and Sabretooth also bring out very different sides of Logan, and those relationships help sell the idea that Team X existed long before I arrived.
Logan Is Often Most Interesting When His Claws Are Away
For all the full-throttle action and violence, some of my favourite moments came when Marvel’s Wolverine slowed things down.
Exploring the Canadian wilderness, wandering through Madripoor, or interacting with other mutants, and watching Logan navigate conversations he clearly would rather avoid gave the character some necessary breathing room. These sections helped make Wolverine feel like more than a weapon and gave his character more context. Unfortunately, the level design and story pacing don’t always leave enough room for those quieter moments.
The campaign often settles into a familiar rhythm of arena combat, bookended by a character-development segment that starts to feel all too familiar. I enjoyed the story enough that I occasionally wanted to spend more time with these characters instead of being sent to dispatch another group of enemies. Things improve in the latter half of the story as the larger mystery and enemies come into focus, but the separation between character development and combat can feel overly obvious at times.
Ferocious Fighting with a Familiar Rhythm
When it comes to gameplay, Logan fights with a wonderfully aggressive momentum. Lunges send him flying across the battlefield, parries create openings, claw attacks tear through enemies, and Special Techniques let him unleash heavier moves against groups or particularly stubborn targets. Wolverine is a rage-fuelled rollercoaster with claws, and when you level him up and unleash him, it’s a ballet of chaos that is incredible to direct.
"Wolverine is a rage-fuelled rollercoaster with claws..."
The Rage Trifecta
The three-tier Rage system fits Wolverine’s gameplay and character especially well. Staying aggressive builds Rage and increases his destructive potential. If Logan takes fatal damage while Rage remains available, his Healing Factor can also pull him back into the fight through a “Last Stand,” which adds health through a healing animation and gets him back in the fight. He can die, but he’s not going down without a brutal fight, and this mechanic fits into the comic lore perfectly.
Wind Him Up and Let Him Go
At full speed, combat is spectacular. I loved launching myself toward a distant enemy, parrying the next attack and immediately turning the encounter into a blur of claws, blood and chaos. The animation work sells an incredible amount of weight behind every attack.
"At full speed, combat is spectacular."
Unfortunately, after I sunk my claws into multiple enemy encounters, I began noticing how often combat sequences played out the same way every time. It was fun, but it became repetitive with little evolution in the gameplay mechanics, and this took away from an otherwise entertaining gameplay loop.
It's Not the Destination, it's the Journey
One of the biggest differences between Marvel’s Wolverine and Insomniac’s Spider-Man series is structure. This is not a massive open-world superhero playground. Instead, Wolverine feels closer to the tightly directed action-adventure that was more common before every game started promising hundreds of icons scattered across a map.
On one hand, its focused structure gives Insomniac more control over pacing, spectacle and environment changes. Logan travels through an impressive variety of locations rather than spending the entire game patrolling a single city.
"Logan travels through an impressive variety of locations rather than spending the entire game patrolling a single city."
The downside is that some levels become overly restrictive. Narrow traversal paths regularly funnel you toward obvious arenas, and there were plenty of visually interesting locations where I wanted to wander off and explore only to discover there was nowhere meaningful to go. The larger areas are some of the game's strongest locations because they finally give you a little room to explore; unfortunately, they are few and far between.
Nightmare Doors Dig Into Logan's Past
There are still reasons to stray from the “golden path.” Material containers, collectibles, whisky bottles, costumes and optional challenges reward exploration, although you generally won't need to travel very far to find them.
I enjoyed the side mission challenges that Nightmare Doors presented. These surreal challenges dig into Logan’s fragmented memories while mixing traversal and combat. They make uncovering Wolverine’s memories something you actively participate in rather than simply watching another flashback, which I thought was a clever use of optional content. I also found myself digging into more corners of each level to make sure I picked up material boxes. These contain the elements needed to build some unlockable costumes that look stellar and include some amazing nods to Wolverine lore.
Marvel’s Wolverine Is A PS5 Pro Showcase
Visually, Marvel’s Wolverine is spectacular. Character models are incredibly expressive; Logan's injuries appear dynamically across his body, and watching them repair themselves remains impressive throughout the game.
"Visually, Marvel’s Wolverine is spectacular."
The environmental variety is equally strong. The cold but stunning Canadian wilderness, blood-covered battlefields, and Tokyo’s neon-soaked streets all have distinct visual identities, with excellent lighting that enhances each location.
I spent most of my review time playing in Performance Pro mode on PS5 Pro. Targeting 60 frames per second while retaining an extremely detailed image made it my clear preference. Combat remained beautifully responsive, which matters when a fight demands rapid parries and dodges.
Fidelity Pro, on the other hand, prioritizes additional visual detail at 30 fps, with Advanced Ray Tracing improving reflections, ambient occlusion, and lighting. Whichever option you choose, this is a fantastic-looking game.
Final Thoughts On Marvel’s Wolverine
Marvel’s Wolverine succeeds most when Insomniac focuses on what makes Logan different. The combat is intense, violent and tremendously satisfying. The problem is that its mechanical depth never develops as much as I expected. Restrictive level design and familiar enemy encounters eventually take some of the edge off those claws. Still, I had a lot of fun.
There is something refreshingly straightforward about a polished single-player action game that wants to give me a compelling story, spectacular locations and a handful of different ways to introduce bad guys to adamantium claws.
Marvel’s Wolverine might not reach the very highest points of Insomniac’s superhero portfolio, but it understands its hero exceptionally well. For Wolverine fans, that alone makes Logan’s latest adventure well worth sinking your claws into.
Marvel’s Wolverine Pros
+ Outstanding character models, environments and cinematic presentation
+ Fast and wonderfully brutal combat
+ Excellent PS5 Pro performance
Marvel’s Wolverine Cons
- Combat eventually becomes repetitive
- Progression rarely changes how encounters fundamentally play
- Linear level design can feel overly restrictive
- Some excellent character moments are separated by too much arena combat
Marvel’s Wolverine Scoring
Category | Score |
Gameplay | 7/10 |
Graphics | 10/10 |
Sound | 9/10 |
Lasting Appeal / Replayability | 6/10 |
Marvel’s Wolverine Overall Rating | 8/10 — 80% |
PlayStation provided a review copy of Marvel’s Wolverine in order to conduct this review.
About the Author - Matthew "Dapper Tux" Rondina
Matthew has been involved in all things gaming since the 8-bit era. He is a video game and tech industry veteran who has been passionate about technology and gaming for over 20 years. In addition to being the Managing Editor of dappertux.com, he has bylines with Best Buy, Cineplex Entertainment, Mobile Syrup and Walmart. Follow Matthew’s gaming + tech adventures on multiple social platforms with the handle @dapper_tux via X, Instagram, Threads, TikTok, and join in on the fun!
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