Marvel’s Wolverine Brings a More Brutal Experience with Deeper Combat Systems

Marvel’s Wolverine is starting to look very different from Insomniac’s Marvel’s Spider-Man games, and that difference becomes clear once you spend time with it. The combat is heavier and more brutal, while the overall experience puts a much stronger focus on Wolverine’s story and character.

The preview was split into two sections that showed very different stages of Logan’s journey. The first part took place near the beginning of the game and spent about an hour introducing the basic combat, controls, progression systems, and opening story. 

The second section jumped much further ahead, providing access to a more developed Wolverine with additional abilities, upgrades, costumes, and progression options. That later section also immediately threw players into a demanding boss fight, giving a better idea of how much the combat can expand once you get deeper into the game.

Combat was easily one of the strongest parts of the preview, especially because it does not simply copy the rhythm of Spider-Man. 

Wolverine feels heavier, more grounded, and much more aggressive, with every attack carrying noticeable weight. Enemies react to Logan's hits, while the variety of animations and takedowns keeps encounters from feeling repetitive. 

The combat system is all about building rage as you fight. As Logan strikes, blocks enemies, and keeps up the pressure, his rage meter builds, allowing him to become stronger during the fight. Your standard attacks are very much square-button combinations at first; a triangle is used for more powerful finishing blows. 

As you progress, the combat opens up with more techniques that give you more options when you are fighting. Unlock things like sprinting multiattacks, charged leap attacks that can stagger enemies, defensive improvements, and other abilities that make Logan more versatile. 

You also have some special techniques, which are individual abilities you can access by holding L2 and pressing the face buttons. This allows you to have more control over how you address different encounters. This means the early combat is only the start, with later abilities allowing you to develop a more personalized fighting style.

Then you get to the higher levels of the rage system, and it gets even more interesting. At tier three, Logan can enter a special state that depletes the rage meter but allows critical hits against weakened enemies. 

These critical attacks can instantly take down weakened targets, letting you move between enemies and perform brutal executions one after another. The ability is not only visually impressive but also useful because it can help Logan eliminate stronger enemies and clear groups much faster.

Insomniac has also found a different way to handle Wolverine’s healing. 

Rather than making Logan feel practically immortal, rage acts as a kind of safety net through a mechanic called Last Stand. If you take enough damage to go down but still have sufficient rage, you can fight your way back to your feet by repeatedly pressing square. 

Defense is just as important, with parries mapped to L1 and the ability to cancel out of many attacks and interrupt certain animations. That makes the combat feel responsive because you are not constantly locked into long attack animations. 

Stealth is also available, allowing Logan to use his heightened senses to detect enemies through walls by listening to their heartbeats. You can then perform stealth takedowns, including midair takedowns, although the combat is enjoyable enough that charging directly into a fight can often feel like the more appealing option.

While the combat may be the biggest immediate highlight, Marvel’s Wolverine also appears to be much more focused on its narrative than Spider-Man. The game has a darker tone that fits Logan, but it also avoids telling his entire origin story from the beginning. Wolverine already has his adamantium skeleton, yet he does not remember every detail of his past. 

The game also introduces optional Nightmare Doors, which are timed challenge rooms connected to Logan’s forgotten memories. Completing these challenges can unlock new adaptation perks while gradually revealing more about his past. 

Finishing them faster can also increase your maximum strand allowance, allowing you additional space to equip passive upgrades. This helps optional content to feel like part of the narrative and the progression systems, not just another set of combat challenges.

Insomniac is also taking a different approach to the wider Marvel universe. 

Mutants largely exist in the shadows in this version of the world, with much of society still unaware that they exist. Logan is not already part of an established X-Men team either, instead becoming involved with Team X alongside familiar characters such as Sabretooth and Mystique. 

That change in setting also explains why Marvel’s Wolverine is moving away from the open-world structure used by the Spider-Man games. The game feels more linear or wide-linear, with the story generally moving you from one mission to another across different locations. 

You can still explore certain areas, investigate side paths, find hidden resources, and decide how to approach some encounters, but the preview suggested a much more focused structure overall. This could be a major change for players accustomed to freely exploring New York, although the more controlled design makes sense for the story Insomniac is trying to tell.

Exploration still gives you reasons to step away from the main path. Hidden crates contain resources for crafting new suits, while other discoveries lead to additional cosmetic items. 

The preview build contained 27 suits and around 20 claw designs in its menus, although several were locked, suggesting that the full game could offer even more customization. Suits and claws are therefore more than simple visual changes, as the progression system gives you plenty of reasons to search through the environments.

Progression appears to be surprisingly deep for a game that is taking a more linear approach.

Leveling up gives you technique points that can be spent across different progression trees, unlocking stronger attacks, combo extensions, defensive improvements, and other upgrades. This gives you more freedom to shape Logan's abilities around the way you prefer to approach combat.

Special techniques give you active abilities that can be adjusted around your preferred play style, while adaptations provide passive perks that you can mix and match using a limited strand allowance. Nightmare Doors can increase that allowance, giving you more flexibility as your build develops.

Even cosmetic progression has a gameplay effect. Unlocking more suits can increase Logan’s maximum health, meaning collecting costumes is connected directly to character progression. During the preview, eight unlocked suits had already increased maximum health to 165%, while the menu showed 27 suits in total. 

The preview was another highlight of the presentation. Despite preview builds sometimes having crashes, bugs, or performance problems, the entire hands-on session reportedly remained stable with only one visual glitch. 

The exact console hardware and graphics mode were not confirmed, so it is still too early to make final judgments about performance across different PlayStation 5 configurations. Still, the character models, detailed environments, animations, and finishing moves all showed the level of visual polish you would expect from Insomniac.

The audio also appears to be receiving plenty of attention, from voice acting and motion capture to combat sounds and the soundtrack. 

Accessibility is another area where Insomniac is continuing to provide options, including the ability to remove repeated button presses. Players can also disable blood and dismemberment, giving more control over how they experience the game. Those options should make the game more accessible without changing the core identity of Wolverine.

After spending time with the preview and seeing some of the work happening behind the scenes at Insomniac, Marvel’s Wolverine is starting to feel like a distinct project rather than another variation of Spider-Man. 

The combat has the speed and polish associated with Insomniac, but its heavier attacks and brutal finishers give it a different rhythm. The story, progression systems, global locations, and more linear structure also show that the studio is willing to change its formula to better suit Logan.

After just a few hours with a preview build, players still cannot judge some important things. The biggest uncertainty is whether the more linear structure will remain satisfying once the full game opens up, especially for players who loved exploring the worlds of Spider-Man. 

The quality of the story's eventual payoff and the variety of bosses and enemies will also play a major role in determining how the finished experience comes together. For now, though, Marvel’s Wolverine looks like a darker and more focused take on the Insomniac formula, with enough changes to give Logan an adventure that feels distinct.