Marvel's Wolverine is Shockingly Bad (Review)

Overview

The video is a negative review of Marvel’s Wolverine by Insomniac. It argues that while Insomniac has previously made excellent superhero games—especially Spider-Man (2018)—this title becomes a “fascinating disaster” that feels disjointed and often actively undermines player control.

Main arguments and critique

• Insomniac’s Spider-Man framework doesn’t fit Wolverine. The reviewer claims Wolverine borrows the systemic structure and pacing of Spider-Man-style design, but applies it to a character, stakes, and story that don’t align with it. This creates an “identity crisis,” leaving the game uncertain about what it wants the player to do.

• Too much time spent not playing the game. The review highlights excessive walk-and-talk segments, long room/interaction checklists where players examine objects while listening to unskippable dialogue, and frequent stretches where the player mostly holds forward or navigates with minimal interaction. These sections are criticized as “endless AAA tropes” that delay the core hacking-and-slashing action.

• Early gameplay fails to justify itself (in medias res). The opening sequence is criticized for dropping the player into combat/stealth situations without context. The reviewer argues Wolverine’s survivability makes hiding feel pointless and that the game lacks immediacy and explanation early on—encouraging players to question design choices rather than enjoy them.

• Combat is chaotic but not satisfying; impact and reliability issues.

  • Wolverine’s healing/rage mechanics are seen as undermining “mechanical stakes,” prompting developers to compensate with constant enemy swarming. The outcome can be hard to read and inconsistent in enjoyment.
  • Enemy repetition becomes a problem, with later “new” enemy types feeling like recycled hostiles from earlier factions.
  • Boss fights are described as repetitive pattern-recognition slogs with phases that grow stale quickly.
  • The parry system is criticized for swinging between trivial and frustrating/unreliable, with interruptions that don’t feel attributable to player error.

• Worst camera in a prestigious action game (per the reviewer). The reviewer calls the camera cramped and erratic, often failing to clarify what’s happening. Rage-induced chaos is said to worsen the problem, making action hard to parse.

• Automation and rigid set-piece rails hurt agency. Even during major action moments, the reviewer claims the game repeatedly snaps the player into pre-scripted positions and automates sequences—sometimes with quick-time-like pressure to stay on rails. It’s compared unfavorably to games known for more organic control (e.g., Naughty Dog titles).

• Presentation/controls mismatch: “fidelity” doesn’t equal good gameplay. The visuals are described as aiming for realism/fidelity, but gameplay “jank” and animation/feel issues make the presentation seem out of place—more like older janky comic games than a polished modern experience.

• World/collectibles feel like empty busywork. Collecting and exploration are criticized as less expressive than in Spider-Man. The reviewer argues that movement is less fun, traversal often becomes slow checking of dead ends, and collectibles offer little character or meaningful reward—more like arbitrary crates/materials than narrative flavor.

Story criticism

• The story is described as serviceable but structurally inefficient—the reviewer repeatedly argues it would work better as a mini-series.
• While it forges continuity involving Logan and Harry DuBois, the emotional focus is claimed to be overly centered on Jean and Logan, with other mutant stakes underused or superficial.
• The reviewer makes a “win the battle, lose the cutscene” complaint (common in superhero storytelling), arguing Jean’s powers could solve obvious problems, making some conflicts feel avoidable in hindsight.

Conclusion

Overall, the reviewer frames Wolverine as a game that:

• keeps applying familiar Insomniac/Spider-Man templates,
• but repeatedly undermines control, pacing, combat satisfaction, camera clarity, and narrative efficiency,
• resulting in recognizable polish in places, yet “empty calories” and a lingering sense of why it exists as a game at all.

Presenters or contributors

• Writing on Games (channel/host/reviewer; the narrator is the sole presenter in the provided subtitles)