Speaker A
So, Marvel's Wolverine was announced back in 2021, and recently a ton of gameplay was released for this game. And the public's perception of it is certainly mixed. How mixed, you asked?
A critical analysis of Insomniac's Wolverine gameplay reveals disappointing design choices despite a large budget and long development time.
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Key Takeaways
- Despite a large budget and long development, Wolverine's gameplay feels uninspired and repetitive.
- Insomniac's previous successes raise expectations that this game fails to meet.
- Quick-time events and boss fights lack depth and fail to engage players meaningfully.
- Visual quality is inconsistent, with some moments looking awkward or poorly executed.
- Criticism is valid but should not lead to harassment of the development team.
What the video covers
- Marvel's Wolverine was announced in 2021 with recent gameplay revealing mixed public reactions.
- Insomniac's community lead blamed social media algorithms for negativity, but criticisms remain valid.
- Gameplay footage shows repetitive, boring chase sequences lacking excitement or innovation.
- Quick-time events feel shallow and automated, lacking meaningful consequences or engagement.
- Boss fights appear generic and unimpressive, not reflecting the game's long development or budget.
- Stealth segments are uninspired and combat, while gruesome, lacks complexity.
- Visuals are decent but contain awkward and poorly received character animations.
- Controversial scenes sparked backlash from certain audience groups, though context may exist.
- Criticism partly fueled by Sony's recent unpopular decisions regarding physical and PC releases.
- Harassment of developers is unjustified despite valid critiques of the game's quality.
Chapters
- 00:00Introduction and Public Reaction
- 00:41Insomniac's Past and Development Context
- 01:22Gameplay Footage Critique
- 02:10Chase Sequences and Gameplay Mechanics
- 03:04Quick Time Events and Their Impact
- 04:27Boss Fights and Comparisons
- 06:24Stealth and Combat Analysis
- 07:00Visuals and Controversial Scenes
- 07:32Social Media Backlash and Developer Response
- 08:06Conclusion and Final Thoughts
Full Transcript — Download SRT & Markdown
Speaker A
Just enough for Insomniac's community lead to call out social media algorithms for "pushing a relentless onslaught of negativity," which I think is pretty funny given the context.
Speaker A
Number one, Insomniac are the same people that saw people's criticisms towards the MJ segments in the first Spider-Man game and decided to double down and include more of them in Spider-Man 2, even in parts that are totally inappropriate. And as much as I
Speaker A
like the Insomniac Spider-Man games, the MJ segments are really [ __ ] boring and I don't like playing them. But you also have to take a look at the other side of the coin. Insomniac has worked on Wolverine for at least 5 years. They
Speaker A
have had a budget that far surpasses the $100 million range, and the gameplay they released is pretty sub-standard. And the thing that's so frustrating about this is that it doesn't even look so bad it's good.
Speaker A
You know how some games are [ __ ] but you enjoy them anyway? I genuinely don't understand how anyone could enjoy this because what they released looks so boring. Take this chase sequence for instance, which just looks like it was
Speaker A
ripped from Scooby-Doo without the cartoony music and the figure-of-eight leg movements. Sony really beating the allegations that they only make movie games. I mean, the graphics look decent and there's a lot of detail in the environments, but what is there in so
Speaker A
far as gameplay goes? You're just running in a straight line, occasionally jumping. Like, oh, you hit a few bad guys here and there and it's back to running. Like, what is this? What's that? You think I'm being dishonest by
Speaker A
only showing the worst example? How about this segment right here where Wolverine is running in a straight line whilst explosions are happening whilst the player's brain is left to rot because you are literally running doing nothing and yet you're still earning experience
Speaker A
points. That was literally just 15 seconds of the game basically playing itself. Where have we seen that before?
Speaker A
Sonic Forces came out almost a decade earlier and if it's fair to criticize that game for the game playing itself, it's fair to criticize Wolverine as well. You know what? No, [ __ ] it. Sonic Forces looks better than Wolverine. At
Speaker A
the very least it's fast-paced and the player is moving side to side. Massive improvement, I know. And the thing that's really frustrating about this is that Insomniac worked on Spider-Man PS4 which had some really good chase moments. Sure, at the end of the day you
Speaker A
are just moving forward whilst the game holds your hand but at the very least they tried making it interesting by jumping over obstacles and showing Spider-Man's acrobatics in addition to mixing up the gameplay with cinematics which creates a very energetic action
Speaker A
sequence. But what does Wolverine do other than showing the most cookie-cutter chase sequence that looks right at home in a Ubisoft game? There's no other way of saying this. The chase sequences look embarrassing. But you know what's really [ __ ] up? The fact
Speaker A
that there is a quick-time event just for Wolverine to do a badass pose. Why do we need this? What is the point? And as this person so lovingly suggests, what happens if you choose not to press the button? Does Wolverine just pause
Speaker A
there whilst the game freezes? Like sure, quick time events you can argue are bad, but I [ __ ] hate this new automation regarding them. Like back during the early 2000s, especially with Resident Evil 4, which popularized quick
Speaker A
time events in games, at the very least you were punished, usually by instant death, if you failed these quick time events, which actually made them nail-biting and a requirement for the gameplay. And then you have other instances like in the Spider-Man 3 game
Speaker A
where if you failed a quick time event, it unironically became one of the funniest moments in video game history.
Speaker A
I'm going to die. So, why does this quick time event just feel so clinical, feel so safe? It feels as though you could make Wolverine do a cool thing, but it doesn't actually progress the gameplay at all. It feels
Speaker A
shallow, it feels hollow. And if that wasn't bad enough, how about the Prototype Sentinel boss fight, which granted could very well be one of the first fights you encounter in the game, but it just looks like generic boss
Speaker A
fight 101 that we've seen a million times on the PS2? The OG God of War games look more impressive than this.
Speaker A
And as fans were so lovingly pointing out, so did the Ben 10 Protector of Earth game, also on the PS2. A video game that not only gave you five unique gameplay styles, but also perfectly melded quick time events into the
Speaker A
gameplay since every quick time event would lead to a special cinematic in which the boss fight would become permanently damaged from that point forward. When Four Arms and Heatblast performed their signature moves, it leads to the robot's arms being
Speaker A
permanently damaged. You can even see the exposed wiring looms in the arms. And again, this was a low-budget game that released on the PlayStation 2. Even the Wolverine Origins game did a better job with its visual effects and giving
Speaker A
the boss fight a sense of scale with the massive arena and the daunting size of the Sentinel. There's nothing really bad about these boss fights, but they don't scream 5 years of development time, nine-figure budget, either. What's that?
Speaker A
This game isn't feeling like a AAA game? Don't worry, there's stealth segments in Wolverine, and they look like every other stealth segment you've ever played in your life. This sure as hell isn't the Arkham games, that's for [ __ ]
Speaker A
sure. And as for the combat itself, I mean, it's fine. It's gruesome, and there looks to be some decent cinematics, but as far as complexity goes, it doesn't look anything special.
Speaker A
Again, going back to the overwhelming issue with Marvel's Wolverine, at its best, it's simply acceptable. But again, when there was so much money put into this game, and it had so many years of development time, people deserve better
Speaker A
than acceptable. There's also just unapologetically bad-looking moments in the trailer, like this image. I mean, I seriously, what do you even want me to say about this? He looks like a Down syndrome child who's just discovered ice cream for the first time. Oh, and it
Speaker A
wouldn't be an Insomniac Games video if I didn't talk about the anti-woke crowd who lost their minds at this scene.
Speaker A
There could very well be context that justifies this scene, but it is kind of hard to not say what we're all thinking.
Speaker A
Like, Logan, you're sat on your ass in the surrender pose whilst Mystique is kicking ass. Do you want to get off your ass and help her? One of those guys could shoot her. Imagine if Mystique dies in this scene because Wolverine was
Speaker A
just sat on his ass and did nothing. How embarrassing would that be? Again, I really hope there is context to justify this scene, considering Wolverine slices through these guys like a hot knife through butter throughout the promotional material. And again, this
Speaker A
comes back to the start of the video, where the Insomniac developers are blaming social media for the hate towards Wolverine. Now, part of the hate is probably because of Sony's dumb-ass decisions recently with the whole eliminating physical games thing and
Speaker A
supposedly not bringing this game to the PC like they did with the other superhero games they made. But, at what point do we draw the line and levy criticism towards Insomniac? You had so much time to work on this game. You had
Speaker A
an astronomical amount of money to do so, and this is what you showed to us.
Speaker A
Make no mistake, that's no justification for giving Insomniac developers and the employees harassment. At the end of the day, the lower down staff, they're just trying to make ends meet, and they're just trying to earn money to pay their
Speaker A
bills. At the end of the day,
Speaker A
you guys think of Wolverine down below. Thanks, guys. And as always, goodbye.
Topics:InsomniacWolverineMarvelgameplay analysisvideo game criticismquick time eventsboss fightsgame developmentSonySpider-Man games
