Matt Steele

I’m gonna say this because some of the discourse around Marvel’s Wolverine is getting ridiculous. You can criticize the game. You can dislike parts of it. You can give it a 6/10 if that’s genuinely how you feel. That’s what reviews are for. But this whole “Wolverine is a disappointment because it isn’t Spider-Man” narrative needs to fucking stop. IT’S WOLVERINE. Insomniac did not spend years developing Wolverine just to give us Spider-Man with claws. This character has a completely different identity, tone, combat style, story, and gameplay fantasy. Spider-Man is about swinging through a massive city, stopping crimes, doing side activities, exploring an open world and constantly moving. Wolverine is a brutal character-driven experience built around Logan. Why the hell are we acting like the game failing to copy Spider-Man’s exact structure is automatically a flaw? And now people see a Metacritic/OpenCritic score around the high 70s and suddenly it’s “MID,” “FLOP,” “INSOMNIAC FELL OFF,” and “FIVE YEARS FOR THIS?” Come on. A score in the 70s doesn’t mean the game is fucking garbage. There are reviews praising the combat, visuals, performances, atmosphere, characterization and story while other reviewers criticize repetition, pacing, exploration and narrative choices. THAT IS CALLED A GAME HAVING STRENGTHS AND WEAKNESSES. Some reviewers are giving it 9s and 10s while others are giving it 6s. You can acknowledge the flaws without pretending the entire game is worthless. And yes, some of the criticism is completely fair. If the combat gets repetitive for you, SAY THAT. If you wanted more exploration, SAY THAT. If the story doesn’t land for you, SAY THAT. Those are actual criticisms. But “it isn’t as big as Spider-Man” is not automatically a criticism. “It doesn’t have the same open-world scale” isn’t automatically a criticism. Wolverine DOES NOT NEED TO BE SPIDER-MAN. And I’m especially tired of people throwing around “five years of development” like that automatically means Insomniac owed everybody a perfect 10/10 masterpiece. Five years means people spent FIVE YEARS of their lives making this game. Artists. Animators. Writers. Programmers. Designers. Voice actors. Engineers. QA testers. Everybody who put their time into bringing Logan into Insomniac’s Marvel universe. You don’t have to worship them. You don’t have to agree with every design decision. But at least respect the fucking work. Insomniac gave Spider-Man an entire gaming identity that people still compare everything against. Now they finally get the opportunity to give Wolverine that same treatment, and some fans immediately look at the game and say, “Why isn’t this Spider-Man?” BECAUSE IT’S WOLVERINE. Let Logan have his own game. Stop demanding that every Insomniac Marvel game become another Spider-Man. Stop treating a 77–80 aggregate like a funeral. Stop letting a review score decide whether YOU are allowed to enjoy a game. And stop acting like criticism and appreciation are mutually exclusive. You can say “this game has flaws” AND “I’m grateful Insomniac made this.” Both can be true. After years of waiting, we finally have an Insomniac Wolverine game. A studio that already gave us some of the biggest Marvel games ever actually decided to take Logan and build an entire experience around him. I’m going to appreciate that. If you don’t like the game, that’s fine. If the combat isn’t for you, that’s fine. If you wanted a bigger world, that’s fine. If you think the story could’ve been better, THAT’S FINE. But don’t sit here and call the entire game trash simply because it didn’t become Spider-Man with claws. Let Wolverine be Wolverine. And maybe before everybody starts screaming “FLOP,” actually PLAY THE FUCKING GAME.