Marvel's Wolverine launches today on PS5 to mixed critical reception
Insomniac Games' new title debuts this Tuesday exclusively on PlayStation 5, though it trails behind Spider-Man 2's reception in early reviews.
Player One
40 minutes ago
Marvel's Wolverine, Insomniac Games' latest project for Sony, hits shelves this Tuesday, September 15, available exclusively on PlayStation 5. The worldwide rollout happens at midnight in each local time zone, meaning players on the US West Coast were already able to start the campaign Monday night.
The third-person action-adventure game casts players as Logan, the mutant known for his adamantium claws and accelerated healing factor, in an original story focused more on his personal journey than on sprawling Marvel universe events. The roughly 15-hour campaign has been praised for its gritty atmosphere and character performances, but criticized for not evolving its combat system enough as the game progresses.
Early reviews, released five days ahead of launch to give outlets time to calmly finish the campaign, landed at an average of 78 on Metacritic — a respectable score, but noticeably below the 87 earned by Marvel's Spider-Man and the 90 scored by Marvel's Spider-Man 2, the studio's two previous blockbuster hits.
Outlets including IGN and GameSpot gave the game 6 out of 10, describing the experience as competent but repetitive as the adventure wears on, with few design surprises beyond what trailers already showed. Other publications, such as COGconnected, awarded the title a perfect score, highlighting the brutality of its melee combat as the production's biggest strength.
The split reception arrives at a delicate moment for PlayStation 5's exclusive lineup, which had been riding a streak of critically acclaimed Insomniac releases. Even so, anticipation among Wolverine fans, who haven't had a major dedicated game for the character since the 2000s, should support strong early sales, particularly among audiences who follow the X-Men universe in comics and film.
It remains to be seen whether Sony and Insomniac will lean on post-launch updates or additional content to address the most criticized aspects, something the developer has done on previous projects. For now, Marvel's Wolverine joins September's release calendar as one of the year's most anticipated titles, even if it doesn't repeat the critical consensus of the games that came before it.
