Marvel's Wolverine Preview: Story & Combat Analysis — Full Breakdown & Transcript

[00:01] an all-in-one tool to help strengthen your online privacy and security. Get an offer code skill, but check out more details after the video. Recently, Sony Wolverine, the latest offering from Insomniac Games, makers of Spider-Man,

[00:15] excellent games to list here. Now, my preview is a little late because I didn't attend the hands-on and Insomniac Studio, and instead attended an event week. It was the same build as other media and content creators played,

[00:27] introduction and then we jumped ahead to what felt like the mid game. All in, it was about two hours hands-on and I got to play on the PS5 Pro. I was not honestly is kind of a bummer given the game is only a month out now. All of the

[00:40] B-roll and trailer footage. I will tell you that there are two parts to this wonderfully told original Wolverine story with incredible presentation and McIntyre have found a really interesting spin on Wolverine that is very human

[00:54] when he has the chance to be but utterly ferocious when the situation calls for supporting cast around him, I am very, very keen to play through Wolverine to part of the package is of course the gameplay side of things. And it's here

[01:07] really hit its stride. It's going to take me some time to explain it, but the short version is that in Spider-Man, Insomniac gave you a variety of ways to express yourself as Spidey, combining positioning, traversal, gadgets, combos,

[01:20] very different character that has less in his toolkit. But Insomiac still needed to find ways to allow us to express ourselves. And so far, based on feeling like Insomniac had found them. With a low number of special attacks on

[01:34] traversal or air attacks, low environmental interactivity, and a very limited input system, it just felt like I was pressing square a lot. And yeah, triangle leaps you to the nearest enemy, etc. All of that is there, but it all

[01:48] expect when playing as Wolverine. And then you'd also expect or hope for that that makes it [ __ ] cool to play as Wolverine. and I haven't yet felt that change when I get my hands on the full game next month. Some of that source

[02:03] able to play as some of the supporting cast, Saber-tooth, Mystique, or Gan they will at no point be playable. It also might have come in the form of some unfortunately, the only boss encounter I played was this sentinel, and it was

[02:17] actually the most repetitive part of my entire demo, and the boss also just didn't feel like it was designed to fit in this video game. The one side headscratching. a time trial traversal challenge in a game that doesn't really

[02:29] have any notable traversal systems. It really was just me holding up on the seconds. I'm not sure why this was in the game to be honest. Obviously, this is just a preview based on 2 hours with the game and maybe things change

[02:41] through a section midway through the game as well, and I could see most of tree. I do leave room for the possibility that there's more laying but so far, I'm still waiting for things to really click, at least when it comes

[02:54] to the combat. The storytelling is extremely on point. I was 110% locked in think I was looking forward to those cut scenes a little too much, if you know scenes a little too much, if you know what I mean.

[03:10] >> You just give a [ __ ] when it suits you. >> Marvel's Wolverine is an original a damn good one. It begins with a look at Logan in the wild, both in terms of location and personality. Crouched and snarling in the brush, he's completely

[03:23] he's approached by a smartly dressed, softly spoken man who promises Logan a We imagine that it might be Xavier talking, but it's not. Instead, it's one going to mean something to you or it's not. And if it doesn't, then I don't

[03:38] different time period and Logan is back to his old self, though still pretty Saber-Tooth keeps getting up in his grill. They're on a chopper piloted by Essex who's been captured by the mutant hainting Bolivar Tras. I think the game

[03:52] themselves right here. We don't need you, Brunt. Never did.

[04:07] captures so much that makes Logan Logan and Wolverine Wolverine. his beef with Saber-Tooth, his fearlessness, never flinching when anyone steps too, no matter how big they are, his preference for action over words, or in this case,

[04:19] ability to jump out of a plane without a parachute and dive bomb into an APC when your skeleton is made of an indestructible metal and your body can apparently [groaning and screaming]

[04:32] project director Jess Raineier Reed and I asked her in the context of the muscle memory were you relying on when making Wolverine versus what habits were me that storytelling was the muscle memory that the studio was happiest to

[04:47] since there's a familiar mix of cutscenes, inmission storytelling, and seamlessly to make it feel as though storytelling is always happening even when you're fighting. And that storytelling so far is kind of

[05:00] fact, the centerpiece is of course the big man himself. Or should I say the chosen a stature that's a little closer to the comic book origins than Hugh Jackman's Lith Proportions played by Australian actor Liam McIntyre who I met

[05:14] and who used to work at EB Games in Australia and we spent like 5 minutes guarantees. So I feel like I just became best friends with Wolverine. Anyway, that aside, this guy is doing a really fantastic job as Logan and Wolverine

[05:27] they're different personas. McIntyre's Wolverine channels all of the unbridled ferocity you'd expect from the Little Furball. You can feel his enraged roars are out, there is never a single moment when you aren't thinking to yourself,

[05:40] "Oh yeah, he's mad." [groaning and screaming] so, it's the Logan stuff where McIntyre really shines. Logan is more than his rage. A lot more actually. He's hurt and confused because of all the wrong that's

[05:53] for all the wrong he's done to others. He's always ready with a snarky joke, but only deploys them sparingly. He's warm when he likes you and tender when depth to this character, and McIntyre's performance seems to be capturing all of

[06:07] >> I just needed some space from everything. >> And would you believe me if I told you that the rest of the cast is just as strong? Troy Baker is turning in another pitch perfect performance as Nathaniel

[06:20] performance because it does wander into spoiler territory. But look, it's Troy bad job and you're going to love him here. >> My personal favorite has got to be Saber-Tooth, voiced by Brett Gibson. I

[06:33] love me some Saber-Tooth in general, and this rendition here is excellent. This love nothing more than to rip Logan in half, but he can't for various reasons. exactly what any Wolverine fan would have been hoping for.

[06:47] >> I thought you were back. we were back. >> These characters and more all serve a watched or read any X-Men stuff. Governments wanting to control mutants, that sort of thing. But the X factor here, no pun intended, appears to be the

[07:00] the character work and the tone, which really isn't pulling any punches. Again, that happen during this story that are pretty dark and that justify the sort of rage that Logan brings into a fight. Popular culture is about to reenter its

[07:14] X-Men phase after leaving the Avengers arc. What with this game and the MCU soft launching the XCU? Insomniac's Wolverine feels rather fitting in that character before his time with the X-Men, reminding the world that to be

[07:27] fears and hates you. Peace is a worthwhile goal. But it's just that, a for. And I guess that brings us to the for. And I guess that brings us to the fighting.

[07:48] feel like Spider-Man. To be clear, that is a joke, but also kind of not. If you up, you're immediately like, "Okay, I know what I'm doing." Obviously, they're but I'm not talking about that. I'm talking about the visual framing of

[08:02] finishes and tag team kills. >> Doesn't this feel good? about offscreen enemies yelling that they're about to fire with generous on-screen indicators making it very easy for you to time the dodge without ever

[08:15] having to look at who's shooting you. I'm talking about a triangle button that will instantly web zip I mean leap you to enemies. cybernetically enhanced and armored goons who you need to break the guard

[08:28] dulling out punishment. >> I'm good. Lost Victor though. familiarity. And while I think you could argue that this should feel totally different from Spider-Man, I'm honestly not fussed about the fact that these

[08:42] hoped that these things serve as a foundation from which Insomniac would build, adding new flavor on top. My problem is that based on my limited time with the game, that new flavor wasn't coming through very strongly. There's a

[08:55] lot of pressing square here. There really is. And I pretty quickly found to press when it was time for me to attack because there's also a dodge button, which makes sense. There's also a parry button, and I'm not sure that a

[09:08] Wolverine game needed a parry, but it's here. You can also long press the square That's really helpful because it'll let you impale, stagger, or stun enemies, or happen to be in the right spot. Time for this. But even with these elements, it

[09:23] does feel like the only way I can attack enemies is by mashing square a lot. And I think that is not great. Spider-Man is a tricky comparison because he has so much more in his kit. Webs and gadgets and crawling on walls, etc. I'm

[09:36] to be able to do all the same stuff because that would be ridiculous. But I do think he should be able to do some more stuff that he's currently doing. I example of what I'm talking about. Personally, in action games, I don't

[09:49] cooldown dumps. I like when the special moves can be woven into your core combat kit more regularly and more organically. Wolverine special abilities are single and they're on really long cooldowns. Like you have this really cool cyclone

[10:04] spin thing that sends enemies flying, and I love it, but you can only use it like once every encounter maybe because it takes so long to recharge. Obviously, that, you'd have to balance its damage output accordingly. But I would have

[10:16] a lot more than I was allowed to. Instead, I was just hitting square a lot impatiently. I think about all the games that have let me control Wolverine in honest, there have been some others, too. And many of them have given me far

[10:30] more expression in the Wolverine combat fantasy. So far, the combat in sound fundamentals that seems very reliant on impressive animations and gore to elevate things rather than a deep and flexible combat system that

[10:43] gives me the ability to make great things happen outside of the pre-baked sense to me if other characters were also playable since you would have had a Wolverine is the only playable character

[10:56] course it is. It's called Marvel's Wolverine, not Marvel's Team X." And yes, I know that. I'm just saying that Spider-Man 2 let you play as MJ and Imagine similar missions but you're playing as Mystique. Hell yeah.

[11:09] Spider-Man 2 lets you play as the big destructive terrifying Venom. Imagine been sick as hell. And don't even get me started on how awesome it would be to play as Gan Gray. I know it's wishlisting, but I don't think I would

[11:21] have been wishlisting like this had the core Wolverine combat really hit for me. start thinking about what might have been. I'm also a little worried about the bosses. So, you see a quick snippet here. They only provided 34 seconds of

[11:34] for much longer than that. And it's actually quite repetitive since the boss has a lot of health and very few attack animations. It also just seems like this in the sense that the combat model is very much built around moving between

[11:48] and dispatching lots of individual targets to build and maintain your rage, which increases your damage. Whereas here, you're just kind of wailing on the Sentinel's arm over and over again, dodging his laser eyes when the time

[12:00] comes. It just doesn't feel like this particular boss actually fits the combat can actually see this working for avoid the lasers or jump to the Sentinel's body to deal more damage more

[12:13] regularly, whatever. But this Wolverine, who's so wedded to the ground, I don't really think he works in a fight like this. The decision to keep Logan's feet one. As Insomniac stated in an interview with Games Radar, director of technology

[12:26] a while to say traversal is not an character." End quote. Personally, I disagree with that since his anim part of the way he fights, and I think that would naturally translate to an

[12:40] were to target that thread. Regardless, if this is Insomniac's design approach, then the inclusion of a traversal challenge is very puzzling. That was playthrough. I headed through this nightmare portal thing and these are

[12:53] unlock portions of Logan's lost memories. I don't have any footage of you a separate traversal sequence which is very similar to it. The nightmare challenge was an obstacle course sort of thing, but because there aren't any real

[13:05] involved me running forward and pressing the jump button occasionally. It's a didn't get a platinum rating on my first go was because one of the jump pads enough. Because yeah, you can't even control how high you jump in this game.

[13:20] jumps you're seeing here is when you jump off these very specific angled pads. And it's like, why can't I control how high I jump as Wolverine? That feels like something I should be able to do,

[13:32] right? Oh Jesus. >> Don't waste time telling us. Just save >> Don't waste time telling us. Just save it. experience definitely hits a certain quality bar that many other studios

[13:48] would be envious of. This is still fun to play. The spectacle and the gore is are amazing. The snappiness and responsiveness of combat is all there I'm not out here saying that this stuff is bad. I'm just saying that for me

[14:01] personally, it's missing the source that we expect from a studio of Insomniac's caliber. misaligned boss design and traversal challenges in a game without would have expected. More importantly though, I think the combat is hitting

[14:14] elements that allow you to truly express yourself. And that expression is often game. Like I said though, this is a preview based on just 2 hours with the opinions as final. And as I've said many times before, don't worry too much about

[14:29] the most important opinion is your own. Marvel's Wolverine will be out mid-Sepptemeber exclusive to PS5. I will be reviewing the full game before or you know when that review drops. Thanks again for watching and I'll see you real

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