The reviews for Marvel’s Wolverine have arrived and they are much more mixed than I expected. At the time of writing, Insomniac’s latest is sitting at 77 on OpenCritic, with 72% of critics recommending it across 50 reviews. Turn’s out, Wolverine’s not the best at what he does. At least, not when it comes to gaming.

Now, 77 is hardly a disaster. Hell, plenty of developers and publishers would be happy with that score. However, it is a surprisingly low result for a first-party PlayStation game, especially one developed by Insomniac and carrying both the Marvel name and Wolverine himself on the box.

To put that it into, I went through every internally developed Sony game released across PS4, PS5, PSVR and PSVR2 with a usable OpenCritic score. Wolverine ranks joint 30th out of 45, putting it firmly within the lower third of Sony’s first-party catalogue from the past two console generations. If you want to see the complete ranking and exactly how I reached that conclusion, I’ve included the full data and methodology in a PDF below. This is my first time actually publishing something like this, and it was fun putting it together. For about 5 seconds, anyway.

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It is also easily Insomniac’s lowest-rated game since Sony bought the studio in 2019: Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales sits at 85, while Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart and Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 are both currently on 88. The original Marvel’s Spider-Man, released before the acquisition, is also on 88.

That makes the spread of individual reviews interesting. There are some glowing write-ups, a sizeable middle ground and several major outlets arguing that Wolverine simply does not live up to Insomniac’s previous work. The on that really catches my eye is SkillUp, who delivers a pretty scathing but fantastically built review of the game.

So, let’s see what people have to say, eh?

GamingBolt sits at the very top of the pile with a perfect 10/10. Rashid Sayed praised the combat, performances, presentation and set-pieces, with only minor bugs and weaker stealth sections taking some shine off it.

It’s violent and surprisingly heartfelt, and about as close to the definitive Wolverine experience as you could hope for.

PlayStation Universe was only slightly less enthusiastic, awarding it 9/10. John-Paul Jones enjoyed its story, satisfying violence and willingness to be a focused, linear action game, although he found the motorcycle sections awkward and the combat familiar rather than especially inventive.

This is everything you could want from a game about The Man That Says Bub A Lot.

Game Informer gave Wolverine 8.5/10. Matt Miller felt Insomniac captured the brutal ferocity of the character and delivered consistently enjoyable fights, even if the later story becomes muddled and spends too much time setting up whatever comes next.

It may not hit a lot of notes, but like Logan himself, it nails the vitals where it counts.

The Verge did not attach a score, but Andrew Webster was broadly positive about the game’s simpler, bloodier focus. The combat and major set-pieces stood out, while the exploration, predictable story and more generic AAA elements were less convincing.

In that company, despite occasionally skewing generic, Wolverine’s bloodthirsty focus on action is something that makes it stand out.

Things take a sharper turn at IGN, where Simon Cardy gave it 6/10. He praised the portrayal of Logan and felt the story did enough to carry the experience, but argued that the action shows most of its hand too early and is supported by overly safe level design. Interestingly, Liam McIntyre’s portrayal of Wolverine being a strong one is a common theme in most of the reviews.

Marvel’s Wolverine is okay, just a step or two below Insomniac’s other superhero efforts.

Eurogamer also settled on 3/5. Chris Tapsell enjoyed Insomniac’s characterisation of Logan, but found the surrounding action old-fashioned and underwhelming.

Wolverine’s characterisation is a bright spot in this otherwise underwhelming, old-school romp that reminds us how far action games have come.

Leon Hurley arrived at much the same score for GamesRadar, awarding it 3/5. He found one of its Tokyo sections promising but thought the rest was thin, heavily guided and weighed down by mechanics that arrive too late, along with a messy story.

Marvel’s Wolverine is never a bad experience, just an underwhelming one full of odd choices.

Keith Stuart was similarly critical at The Guardian. He praised Liam McIntyre’s performance, the animation and the more vulnerable side of Logan, but found the combat increasingly repetitive and the linear environments frustrating.

As the game goes on and the enemies line up, it feels increasingly like a chore.

Giant Bomb went lower again with 2.5/5. Shawn McDowell felt that the combat takes far too long to become interesting, while the pacing, walk-and-talk sequences and traversal expose how poorly Insomniac’s familiar structure fits a game without Spider-Man’s open-world movement.

With exploration removed, the remaining storytelling and combat pillars of Insomniac’s house style struggle to support the studio’s ideas.

Finally, Skill Up flat-out does not recommend the game. His review is especially savage about the way Wolverine guides the player through its already narrow levels using scent trails, objective markers, painted routes, flashing lights and repeated audio prompts. He also describes the combat as shallow and repetitive, criticises the limited enemy variety and bosses, and argues that the story is engaging in places but poorly paced and overloaded with sequel bait.

It is a game that assumes you cannot walk in a straight line without giving you a GPS guide to follow.

Ooft.

Personally, the linearity does not bother me. In fact, the idea of a shorter, tightly designed single-player action game sounds rather refreshing. But if you are going to keep players on such a narrow path, the combat needs enough depth and variety to carry the whole thing, and the game needs to trust that they can walk down a corridor without being surrounded by objective markers, scent trails, sonar pings and white paint. Apparently, Wolverine cannot do that.

I am genuinely surprised by these reviews. A 77 is not a bad score for most games, but this is not most games. This is a first-party PlayStation release from Insomniac – arguably Sony’s best studio in terms of consistency and the speed at which it releases games – carrying a Marvel licence and one of the most popular comic-book characters on the planet. By those standards, 77 is a shock. The real question now is whether players feel the same way when Marvel’s Wolverine launches for PS5 on September 15.

I’m looking forward to it.