We knew it—the beginning of September was going to be very busy for our small team of enthusiasts, and after Resonance: A Plague Tale Legacy and Onimusha: Way of the Sword, it’s now Marvel’s Wolverine’s turn to go through Gamersyde’s critical wringer. After so many glowing reviews of all the major Sony exclusives in recent years, you might think this new article would be just like the previous ones. Still, we invite you to take the time to read our verdict before jumping to any conclusions.
Verdict
It’s heartbreaking because the developers at Insomniac had always managed to win us over until now, but this time, unfortunately, the magic didn’t quite hold up until the end. Once we got past the first few hours—which, it must be said, were already pretty formulaic in terms of progression—the routine set in so quickly that we eventually grew quite weary of the gameplay. The progression system doesn’t offer enough variety to make the combat system deeper or more diverse, and since the roster of enemies is also quite limited, a comparison with the studio’s previous titles clearly doesn’t work in Wolverine’s favor. The lack of variety in the locations you explore also weighs a bit against the game, even if our expectations in this regard were perhaps a bit exaggerated, and even though this doesn’t detract from the quality of some of the destinations on offer. Ultimately, this is a title that will undoubtedly be very appealing to the general public and more casual gamers, with endearing characters and solid overall production values. Wolverine is undoubtedly not the most impressive game on the console, but it remains visually polished and offers a very smooth experience with nice RT features. Following the incredible Saros—which we cannot recommend highly enough, as its gameplay and art direction reach heights that have been unfairly overlooked by players—this new exclusive left us with a slightly bitter aftertaste: one of disappointment. This is a first for us, as we’ve been big fans of Sony exclusives for many years, but there’s a first time for everything... We hope that our enthusiasm will be reignited in the coming months, particularly with the single-player DLC for Ghost of Yotei—a game that truly delighted us last year—or, of course, Intergalactic, the upcoming Naughty Dog title, about which we hope to hear more soon. In the meantime, even though this Wolverine game is by no means a bad game, it seems to us to fall short of the brand’s biggest hits and will therefore not make it onto our list of the most memorable games in the PlayStation ecosystem.
- On the upside
- Pretty well-developed characters
- Classic but effective writing
- It’s brutally fun...
- Technically solid
- Excellent voice acting
- Pretty and polished, with some beautiful environments
- VRR, graphics modes, ray tracing
- Very decent playtime (17 hours)
- Great end credits songs
- The main theme is also pretty cool
- On the downside
- Combat can get messy
- The combat system lacks variety and depth
- … and then everything becomes very repetitive
- Art direction is too generic (enemies, some of the environments)
- Too few bosses, and they aren’t memorable
- A couple of visual shortcomings with ray tracing
- Lack of diversity in locations
- Too long for what it has to offer
- Platforming is too hand-held
- Pointless and outdated QTEs
Our full video review in French (automated English subtiltes available)
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