Highly anticipated: It was forever ago that we found out Insomniac Games is giving the coolest X-Man a game. Aside from a hacking dustup, the studio has been tight-lipped – until 24 hours ago, when it finally dropped a gameplay trailer. And boy is it dope – and bloody. Viewer discretion is advised.
It has been four years since Insomniac announced it was developing a Wolverine game. At the time, Spider-Man 2 was still two years away, which makes it feel like ages ago. What makes it worse is that the studio has been radio-silent since the 2021 PlayStation Showcase reveal – aside from that little hacker fiasco just before Christmas 2023. Of course, damage control is not the same as a progress report.
The long wait for information appears to be over, as Insomniac used yesterday's State of Play event to unveil gameplay footage of Marvel's Wolverine. Oh my – the gore, the copious amounts of limbs and blood. If that bothers you, this game is not for you, and you might want to skip the trailer (masthead).
Clearly, Insomniac did not pull any punches in telling Wolverine's story. If you are familiar with the character, the Weapon X project literally built the self-healing X-Man to be a human Cuisinart. Limbs will fly, blood will splash, and human enemies will die by his blades. To quote Logan himself:
"Death's always waitin', just not for me. 'Cuz I ain't no hero. I'm Wolverine."
Considering how other developers have sanitized Wolverine's animal nature by pitting him (and other Marvel heroes) against non-human enemies – Sentinels, mainly (which will make an appearance) – Insomniac's willingness to show his darker side is commendable. The gore isn't just for shock value – or maybe it is – but it mainly conveys that Logan isn't the type of hero who ties criminals up in a neat little web sack and leaves them for the police.
He faces evil men with big guns, aiming not only to kill him but others as well. His use of force, while brutal, is mostly justified. Plus, hey, it's just a game – what's a limb here or there? It's really no worse than any of the Mortal Kombat games. The shock comes from seeing a studio finally have the guts (no pun intended) to portray Logan in his true form: a man who's endured excruciating torture at the hands of others trying to create an invincible super soldier. Too bad for them.
The bad news is the game still has another year or so in the oven. It has a tentatively loose release window of Fall 2026, but as these things go, it could slip even further. However, that's okay. I'd rather see a good Wolvie game than a rushed piece of garbage, and if Insomniac does as good a job with it as it has with the Spider-Man games, we're golden.
The other bad news is that it will be exclusive to the PlayStation 5 – at least at first. Another leak in 2023 revealed that Sony has been impressed with the performance of its delayed exclusives on PC. The PC release of Spider-Man nearly caught up to Days Gone on Steam in six months, despite the latter having a 15-month head start. Anything could happen, but we might see a PC port in late 2027. I know, it's a probably overly optimistic, but I'm allowed to dream.
