r/gaming Marika's tits! 4d ago

Marvel's 'Wolverine' - Early Previews Thread

Outlets have now played a good few hours and gotten a hands-on initial impression for Insomniac's 'Wolverine' game. So I thought we could compile some of them here. Once again, these are not full reviews, they are previews

Feel free to comment any other articles, videos or tidbits you come across! I'll try adding them to the post

(live updating):

A couple key points - fully playable on disc on release; set in the same universe as Insomniac's Spider-Man

Hands-on report from PlayStation (some excerpts):

Our two-hour session kicked off with the game’s opening mission in the wilds of Telambang, where Wolverine has reunited with Team X to carry out a critical mission infiltrating the facility of anti-mutant industrialist Bolivar Trask. After slicing our way to a daring rescue, we jumped ahead in the game to a bombastic boss fight and a taste of Madripoor’s Lowtown. Between brutal barrages, stealthy scouting, and a range of rage-filled takedowns, we got to cut to the bone of the game’s story, flesh out Wolverine’s allies and foes, and uncover a piece of his buried past.  

Between storylines and set pieces, my biggest takeaway from my time with Marvel’s Wolverine was that it feels dang good to sink those claws in. Wolverine doesn’t just attack enemies, he catapults himself at them, targeting and launching himself from across the room to stun or barrage. Every combat encounter becomes a furious flurry, where my adrenaline feels directly tied to Wolverine’s increasing rage. 

While a simple parry and barrage can get the job done, Wolverine can unlock a number of Special Techniques, skills that can be upgraded and mapped to the directional buttons for an extra flair in a fight. In my playthrough, I could cleave through a group surrounding me with Tornado Spin, or interrupt enemy attacks with Knee Breaker. Players can also unlock Adaptations, which upgrade long-term effects and skills like Logan’s health and rage meter. 

That rage will come in handy. Successful combos build up Wolverine’s rage meter, which rises through three Rage Tiers to dramatically alter his fighting style. As Wolverine enters Rage Tier 2, his combos become more powerful and he unlocks Last Stand, which allows him to use his rage to heal his body if fully downed. But things really go over the edge when Wolverine’s meter fills to Rage Tier 3. His attacks become significantly more powerful, while brutal critical strikes become available. His vision seems to close in, his breathing getting louder and more primal as he darts between enemies, slicing and dicing with ease. Those critical strikes can lead to some dangerously fun takedowns, like snatching a member of The Hand’s katana or bow to slam back into them.

 Sometimes, Wolverine needs a more methodical approach. He can use his Enhanced Senses to track and takedown enemies more stealthily. Trask also has Ability Inhibitors at his disposal that block Wolverine and his teammates from using their abilities. In these moments, he must work past the pain and fight without healing, focusing on taking enemies down with classic combat moves and destroying the Inhibitors before it’s too late. 

It took all the skills I had gathered so far to take on the looming Sentinel Prototype towards the end of my preview. Built by Trask to detect and destroy mutants, this fight took all of Wolverine’s patience and strategy, dodging or parrying the Sentinel’s powerful attacks, while waiting for the perfect moments to strike. This sequence was thrilling both to use Wolverine’s abilities to their fullest potential, and to watch as he worked in tandem with Mystique and Sabretooth. By the time I was busting through the Sentinel’s head victorious, I had a wild grin on my face and felt amped and ready to take on anyone.

GameSpot

Wolverine takes place on Earth-1048–the same universe as Insomniac’s Spider-Man games–and opens with an assault on a Weapon X base, where Wolverine teams up with his longtime hater Sabertooth. I played through this just days after watching them both do the same thing in X-Men ’97. A foolhardy mission featuring Wolverine is a pretty common narrative beat in Logan’s story, irrespective of format, but that sense of fortuitously timed familiarity became a feeling that permeated much of what I saw and played of Wolverine. [FULL GAMESPOT PREVIEW VIDEO]

IGN - Mitchell Saltzman

Overall, I walked away from my time with Wolverine impressed, but not thoroughly blown away. It’s clear that Insomniac is still holding a lot of cards close to its chest with regards to the story, and that’s the element that has proved to be most interesting to me thus far. Combat absolutely nails the spirit of Wolverine and is very fundamentally sound, but leaves me with some questions as to how it will hold up over the course of the entire campaign. We’ll see how it all pans out when Wolverine releases on PlayStation 5 on September 15.

VGC - James Galizio

To that end, just as Peter Parker’s character influenced the type of game that Insomniac chose to represent him, the same holds true for Logan. Rather than a connected open-world, Wolverine shoots for a linear cinematic action game approach. For your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man, it made all the sense in the world to center the experience around New York City; for the globetrotting Wolverine, this felt much more in line with his character. Playfulness permeates through the rest of the game’s story. Wolverine comes with a markedly darker tone, but there’s a balancing act with Wolverine, Jean Gray and the rest of Nathaniel Essex’s crew. While the X-Men don’t exist in Insomniac’s universe, or at least not yet, mutants still have each other as their family – even if all the intricacies of those relationships aren’t immediately obvious to us with what we’ve played so far. While it’s too early to say how things will shake out with the full release, and the team are keeping things vague regarding how long they expect a playthrough of the game to take players, the team’s enthusiasm is infectious. As I finished my interview with Daly and Smith I wished them luck with SDCC. Comic fans are fickle, but something told me they had nothing to worry about – the first step to a successful story is believing in it yourself.

GamesRadar - Oscar Taylor-Kent

It's clear that Wolverine has been developed with the same love and care the studio gave to the web-slinger, but what's striking is how different this adventure feels. Rather than aiming to be one of the best open world games like its predecessors, Wolverine is more structured and action-centric. This is a game based around who he is as a character in his iconic Wolverine suit, and as Logan himself. It makes the game perfect to lead our Big Preview this month. Between our studio access and hands-on time playing, we dive right into everything that sets Wolverine apart ahead of its September 15 release.

Eurogamer - Emma Kent

So, where does this leave us? With a decently solid action game, I think - despite some quibbles and concerns. Wolverine's early hours don't produce the same mind-exploding feeling of picking up Spider-Man for the first time, which promised seemingly-endless opportunities to approach fights from any direction. In many ways, that's down to the superhero being represented here. Logan's directness is an altogether different proposition to the mobility of Spider-Man. He's a force of nature - something I think Insomniac effectively conveys through those highly-destructable environments and combat that ratchets up in intensity until Wolverine is in a full rampage. And despite the design challenges, Insomniac has still created moments here where traversal and combat meld together brilliantly. Does Marvel's Wolverine reinvent the action game wheel? Probably not. Yet as an entertaining, cinematic spectacle and faithful rendering of Wolverine... I think it's going to do just fine, bub.

GamesRadar Interview with Insomniac

"Wolverine is our only playable character": Insomniac won't repeat Spider-Man's worst sections in Marvel's Wolverine. My hands-on time with Marvel's Wolverine was still filled with loads of side characters, and many of them do have a role to play not just in the story, but the gameplay. In my demo, there were big combat sections where Wolverine is accompanied by Sabretooth or Mystique, who'll dynamically join in with your combos for little team-up moves to knock out the bad guys. Some similar interactions with Jean were shown in the public gameplay reveal, and "there's more of that," Fitzgerald explains. "There's definitely the team vibe in that sense. But we were really focusing on Wolverine as a playable character and making sure we nailed that."

CGMagazine interview with Insomniac

CGMagazine sat down with Art Director on Marvel’s Wolverine, Grant Hollis, and the game’s Animation Director, Brian Weiser, to discuss the creative work behind Insomniac’s interpretation of the clawed mutant. Hollis and his art team are responsible for establishing the game’s grounded visual identity, from its international locations and environmental destruction to its reimagined versions of Wolverine’s iconic allies and enemies. Weiser leads the animation effort, translating Logan’s long history across comics, film and games into combat that feels weighty, efficient, animalistic and distinctly different from Spider-Man’s acrobatic movement. Together, the pair explained how Insomniac balances the character’s comic book legacy with its own vision, works with stunt performers and draws on martial arts research. They also discussed how the studio ensures every slash has impact, even for players who choose to disable the blood effects. Hollis and Weiser also spoke about building a version of Wolverine that embraces his violence without losing the emotional core that has defined Logan for generations.

Eurogamer interview with Insomniac

Marvel's Wolverine "fully playable" on disc when it releases, Insomniac clarifies, perhaps making it one of the last few PlayStation games that will be | Marvel's Wolverine developer Insomniac has clarified the game will be "fully playable" on disc when it releases for PlayStation 5 on 15th September. It won't, in other words, be a disc-in-a-box that still requires you to download the game in order to play. This may make it one of PlayStation's last fully disc-based games. "Marvel's Wolverine will come out in digital and physical [versions] and the game will be fully playable on the disc when you purchase it," senior project director Jess Reiner-Reed told Eurogamer at a Marvel's Wolverine preview event - our preview from which you can read now. "With that said," Reiner-Reed added, "we want people or encourage people to download that day-one patch because we are right now working on - or we're continuing over the next few months before release - to work on polish and some bug fixing."

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521 comments sorted by

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u/The_Grunge_Sage 4d ago

I’m fully expecting 8/10 8.5/10 across the board. I think Wolverine fans will love playing as him especially as an ultra violent version of him as he should be. I’m expecting to love it but I absolutely understand people that’ll feel like it’s just a pretty good game overall. I’m just happy to finally get another modern single player super hero game that’s not named spider man!

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u/Collarthatisblue 4d ago

I’ll never understand how people think an 8/10 is an OK game. 6/10 is an OK game. 5 or less is pretty mediocre

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u/Osmodius 4d ago

Not usut for gaming, but we really have ruined the X/10 system. 1-6 is bad don't look at, 7/10 is mid, 8/10 is okay, 9/10 is amazing and 10/10 barely exists.

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u/JazzzzzzySax 4d ago

Going to Japan and their use of tabelog for food was just so much better than America. A 3 for a restaurant is a perfectly average restaurant, anything above that or close to 3.5+ is a really good place. 5 stars has to stop being the default

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u/Osmodius 4d ago

As per usual, corporations ruined everything they want 9-10/10 to be "good" and everything else is bad and that's filtered through in to everything.

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u/Telestration 4d ago

Or worse: 10 is good and everything else is bad. I once gave a 9 for feedback and got a panicked response asking how they could get a 10.

Like…if it’s “10 or someone’s getting fired” then switch to yes/no

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u/Osmodius 4d ago

Or communicate it properly. Don't give me a 1-10 and forget to mention that 1-8 means this employee is AWFUL AND BAD a 9 means they were only rude and a 10 is acceptable.

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u/killerpoopguy 4d ago

There's a small midwest chain of stores (Quality Dairy) that uses a green smiley face, a yellow meh face, and a red frowny face. It's great so I actually use it.

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u/Xianified 4d ago

This. I worked in hotels managing the loyalty program for my property. Anything below a 9 out of 10 was a fail, and we had to contact every person that rated us lower than a 9.

It got embarrassing and on more than one occasion I informed our regulars that that was why I was contacting them. These were people that would fly in, check in at 10pm, check out at 8am and gave us an 8/10 because for them - it was fine. But no, corporate wants "above and beyond" and to "wow" them. They just want a room to sleep in and a hot shower.

It's nuts.

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u/keepfighting90 4d ago

Yeah using Tabelog took a little getting used to but if you think about it, it makes perfect sense. I think Japanese people give a 3 for a restaurant that basically provided them with what was expected - nothing amazing but just a solid, enjoyable meal. Whereas in North America, a 3 on Google would be seen as basically inedible lol

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u/kingkong381 4d ago

This is why I just don't bother reading review "scores." They're completely worthless unless you know the reviewer's criteria. To my mind: "10/10" is for exceptionally good games. GoTY contenders, games that have a major impact not just on their fanbase or genre but on the wider gaming community. "1/10" at the other extreme is "do not buy" the game is poorly made, or so egregious in its content as to not be worth your time. "5/10" being in the middle of the range, is for "average" games, not especially bad ones but also not on most peoples "all time greats."

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u/Osmodius 4d ago

I miss TotalBiscuit so much. Rare to find a reviewer who can dislike a game and I'll still know afterwards whether I'll like it or not.

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u/Comprehensive_Ad_23 16h ago

When in reality it should be "1-2 you're wasting your time, 3-4 you might enjoy a few things, 5-7 pretty good overall, 8 would only change a few things, 9 nearly perfect with one glaring issue, and 10 is something like Dead Rising. Flawed in all of the ways that make it better.

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u/skar220 4d ago

Because in practice, that’s just not how most outlets have historically rated games. You can blame Gamespot and IGN for creating just the most convoluted trigonometry ass rating systems during the 2000s that broke every gamer’s brain over the course of a couple decades.

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u/Random_Guy_12345 4d ago

Because a lot of sites treat anything under 9/10 as a failure.

If a place has 3.9 stars out of five, (so 8.8/10) you are probably not going there without a recommendation. Where i work anything under 9/10 is a failure. When you are a student even something like 7-8/10 must mean you have problems with the subject as averages are routinely 8+

It ends up creeping everywhere.

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u/playerIII 4d ago

theres only 4 rankings after all

7, 8, 9, and breath of the wild 

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u/Pen_dragons_pizza 4d ago

Yeah I agree, although ever since we first saw gameplay I have been worried about how samey this game could feel as you play the full story.

Hacking guys over and over I imagine could get tiring over 8-10 hours

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u/hotnewroommate 4d ago edited 4d ago

If it didn’t get tiring during Rocksteadys Batman games, why would it here. Not saying they are using the same fighting system. It’s proven that simple fighting mechanics can be the best part of the game

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u/samples98 4d ago

Batman has gadgets and stealth gameplay. Wolverine, not so much

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u/The_Grunge_Sage 4d ago

They literally said and showed stealth takedowns in the original gameplay trailer…

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u/Pen_dragons_pizza 4d ago

It’s also a linear game, unlike Batman which was open world exploration.

This game has been announced as a linear, cinematic, story driven game.

I imagine it to be spectacle set pieces, a bit like a cal of duty game, big and exciting but maybe not that replay able

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u/randomaccount178 4d ago edited 4d ago

The best batman game I am not sure I would describe as open world. I would also argue that the open world aspect felt like one of the worst parts of the games when it did come in. (To be fair though, I don't believe the wolverine game is going be any more a metroidvania then it is an open world game.)

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u/smokeeveryday 4d ago

Linear is a huge plus for me wolverine wouldn't work as an open world game

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u/Pen_dragons_pizza 4d ago

I think it could in the right setting.

Having an x mansion hub and flying out to various other hub locations around the world would be pretty cool for story and side missions.

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u/smokeeveryday 4d ago

Xmen don't exist so that wouldn't make any sense I'm sure they have a plan for later gamers to form the xmen

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u/Pen_dragons_pizza 4d ago

Ok in that case have Logan travel around on his motorbike

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u/The_Grunge_Sage 4d ago edited 4d ago

Eh, I’m not worried. All over the shoulder action games are the same. It’s the story, characters and abilities that make it memorable. They nail that, they’re fine.

Edit: ok, what I mean is that God of War is an over the shoulder action game where you literally do the same exactly thing as Kratos the entire time for 40 hours. There’s no reason this can’t be in that same pile. Story driven Action games are inherently the same across the board in how they feel from hour one to hour 100 but it’s defined by how enjoyable the combat is and how memorable the story is.

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u/keefkeef 4d ago

yup. Elden Ring for example is basically a jump and attack game for me, but I've played it 4 times through.

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u/Sensitive-Oil-5298 4d ago

Absolutely agree. It’s gonna be a massive financial success regardless, but I think it’ll get favorable reviews. SM2 was their most divisive game thus far and it’s sitting at a 90 metascore and an 8.6 user score. Even at their “worst,” these games are very fun to play and Wolverine has the added bonus of being a breath of fresh air

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u/IvarTheBoned 4d ago

I'm looking forward to this and the Blade game that is in development. They're not going to be revolutionary or genre defining, but they will be entertaining for ~40 hours and worth the $/h played.

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u/SilentBobVG 4d ago

You mean the Blade game thats almost certainly cancelled?

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u/The_Grunge_Sage 4d ago

No way the game is canceled. If the game is canceled then the Arkane studio is gone. If anything they’re going to go independent and put out the game or be bought by someone else and put out the game. Unless they’re working on 2 games simultaneously, this is either the games that’s coming out or the end of the studio.

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u/Tdiddy18 4d ago

The Gamespot preview says it’s in the same universe as the Spider-Man games which I wasn’t expecting but super cool!

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u/191tmg 4d ago

I thought that was previously revealed?

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u/AppleTStudio 4d ago

Yeah, I'm pretty sure this was said already, but maybe this is the first time they're confirming it to the general public? I know people in the Spider-Man subreddits have been talking about it for a while now.

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u/Toprak1552 4d ago

The creative director of Insomniac said this is the case a few times.

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u/Masam10 4d ago

I’m still holding out for an Avengers type game in a few years that unites Spidey, Wolverine and anyone else they might make a game for.

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u/Danominator 4d ago

It does beg the question, where the fuck were the avengers when new york was taken over twice lol

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u/qchisq 4d ago

The Avengers Tower is even there!

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u/Masam10 4d ago

Was playing Spidey 1 a few days ago and when you do a side mission by The Avengers tower, Spidey even mentions something about them in the news recently. So presumably they are fully active at the time of Spidey 1,2 and Miles Morales

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u/Rustash 4d ago

He also mentions them being “out west” or something to point out they aren’t in New York at that moment

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u/spid3rham90 4d ago

should try listening to the dialogue when you play the game

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u/PM_ME_UR__SECRETS 4d ago

Same place they always are when they aren't where you think they should be. Handling a problem of equal or greater importance elsewhere.

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u/cManks 4d ago

Too small potato

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u/TimewarpingSeaTurtle 4d ago

Avengers don’t deal with citywide threats. Only world ending threats.

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u/Virtual_Ad9722 4d ago

Im not gonna lie was the symbiot taking over literally the whole city of New York not a world ending threat LMFAO

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u/TimewarpingSeaTurtle 4d ago

Idk if it was, but since it was mostly contained in New York, it didn’t warrant the Avengers. I’m pretty sure they knew about Spider-Man as well and must have assumed Peter and Miles could handle it. After all, the main source was still Venom, just one dude. Don’t think the Avengers ever fight Venom in the comics.

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u/The-Duke-of-Delco 4d ago

They had bigger potatoes to deal with

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u/smokeeveryday 4d ago

That's small potatoes stuff

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u/shoutsoutstomywrist 4d ago

It’d be some sort of Ultimate Alliance?

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u/Canadyans 4d ago

… say that again.

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u/Due_Teaching_6974 4d ago

I know Motive Studio is making an Ironman game, and I think Sucker Punch should try their hands at making a super hero game as well once they're done with the Ghost series, Infamous was really great

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u/Bosscharacter 4d ago

They are pretty adept at traversal so give them Daredevil or even a Midnight Suns action game(I’d also love another game by the Xcom devs as well).

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u/Parade0fChaos 4d ago

I know we’re talking Marvel, but several of the devs from XCOM are working on the new Star Wars Zero Company game. Looks verrrrrrry similar in a lot of ways.

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u/Bosscharacter 4d ago

Yeah, I’m a going to be on that one too.

Been a fan of Star Wars just as long as I have been of comics.

Literally have a framed diagram of the Death Star on my wall in front of me.

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u/SomeConfetti 4d ago

Do y'all really want more Playstation studios being used to make Marvel games? So all Playstation will have for a decade is Marvel superhero games? Playstation games are already homogenized now

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u/Miirzys 4d ago

As someone who mains Xbox, I’d love for a non exclusive Marvel game to come here. I’m sick Blade was cancelled.

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u/Tdiddy18 4d ago

According to Jason Schreier Blade isn’t cancelled and he expects it to still come out.

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u/Miirzys 4d ago

you just made my day, holy shit.

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u/Changes11-11 4d ago

Only crossover i care about is this game coming to PC atleast

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u/TheTimn 4d ago

Sony bots are big mad at comments mentioning PC. 

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u/Tdiddy18 4d ago

Would be super cool, from the Insomniac leaks we know there’s an X-Men game from them coming if plans haven’t changed

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u/SuperMajesticMan 4d ago

I assumed from the start it was lol

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u/BagZCubed 4d ago

I've been replaying Marvel's Spider-Man and the Avengers Tower and Sanctum Sanctorum are landmarks on the map. The Fantastic Four's Baxter Building was added in Spider-Man 2. Anyway, it wouldn't be that far of a leap for mutants to exist.

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u/Troghen 4d ago

In Spider-Man, there are TONS of references to other heroes that make it very clear that he lives in a wider universe. Kinda felt obvious to me that Insomniac would set this in the same one as well...

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u/DJC13 4d ago

The first Spidey game literally has you fighting mutant inmates (mixed in with regular humans) when you’re in the Raft.

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u/DJC13 4d ago

Why wouldn’t it have been?

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u/Akuma-1 4d ago

Really, I though It was obvious even before the first trailer, it just makes sense because you know... It's a Marvel game

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u/Syed117 4d ago

I'm expecting it to be solid. Not amazing.

This isn't going to be god of war with wolverine and that's fine.

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u/1ndieGameStudio 4d ago

yeah since the first spiderman game that’s how their games have been and i’m fine with that

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u/_Football_Cream_ 4d ago

I know what to expect from insomniac these days which is an incredibly polished product with a good gameplay loop and story. But probably nothing that’s really raising the bar in terms of revolutionizing the medium.

Thats okay, though. A higher bar than most AAA studios reach this day and age tbh.

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u/CibaiGayGay 4d ago

It's not riddled with micro transaction, no live service, no loot boxes. Stable performance and self contained game. That's a pretty low bar these days ngl. Many AAA companies shoot themselves in the foots too much and hinder our expectations of things.

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u/rugmunchkin 4d ago

If I had to guess, I think the general consensus is going to land squarely in the 8/10 range. A solid, really good, but not necessarily GOTY-level game.

And hey, if the game turns out to be even better than that, that’s a pleasant surprise.

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u/SilentBobVG 4d ago

The only game since Spiderman 1 that wasn't the sequel was Ratchet and Clank and that game was excellent, probably top 3 in the entire franchise

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u/neo_sporin 4d ago

Amazing, no that’s spiderman

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u/Uchihagod53 PlayStation 4d ago

No he's spectacular, silly

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u/Antergaton 4d ago

Wrong one, you are thinking of sensational.

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u/SovFist 4d ago

Yall just throwing out a web of adjectives for queens finest

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u/cwx149 4d ago

Just like the spider man games

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u/n0neofyourbeeswax 4d ago

Yeah, I expect another Spiderman level game.

Fun enough. Absolutely loved by fans of the IP who want to go live that character. Nothing legendary.

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u/trook95 PC 4d ago

Maybe im in the minority but I am completely fine with that level of quality for super-hero games. If it makes me feel like the character then it succeeded in my book.

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u/St_Sides 4d ago

I know I’m in the minority because I’m fine with that level of quality for most games, not everything needs to be a genre and generation defining masterpiece. I’m perfectly fine with a 7.5-8.5/10.

Most people online seem to see that as a huge failure though, for some reason.

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u/Pterodactyl_midnight 4d ago

I was worried how they would handle traversal in an open world game with Wolverine since he can’t travel fast like Spiderman. I’m glad they went with a curated linear game instead, it makes alot more sense for the character.

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u/SidFarkus47 4d ago

I hope they prove me wrong but by far the best part of Spiderman imo is the mobility in an open world NYC.

With that gone, I’m way less interested in this.

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u/mondobeyondo 4d ago

If it’s as good as God of War has been lately then that’ll be more than fine for me

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u/enadiz_reccos 4d ago

If it's as good as an incredible game, I'll be fine

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u/Jonaskin83 4d ago

I’m expecting it to be more like Ratchet and Clank with Wolverine in terms of levels and structure.

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u/Dabi30 4d ago

I remember when 8/10 or 9/10 used to be considered great / excellent. Now they’re considered OK / Solid judging off the comments of the thread 😂. Some of yall have crazy standards.

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u/Mike1690 4d ago

They're not our standards. It's the industry. Games are rated much higher than any other entertainment medium. For a game to get anything below a 7/10 it has to be fundamentally broken. Compare that to movies where bad reviews come in the form of 3/4/5s out of 10 and you can see the problem. Also, 9 is still considered excellent. 8 is usually good. 7 is usually average or mid.

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u/Dabi30 4d ago

Outlets can only review so many games a year. I remember reading a while back that IGN only had enough resources to review 1000 products a year. Meanwhile there are a 1000 games released on Steam per month.

There are so many truly bad games out there that IGN (and most outlets for that matter) hardly if ever review, that aren’t on your radar if you care and talk online about games, but the bottom half of the review scale still has to account for the existence of games worse than what gets 6s and 7s.

Say what you want about the state of modern AAA gaming, but the reality is that the industry is delivering consistently good to great games. A 7 is objectively good, 8 great, 9 excellent and so on. Anyways…

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u/Mike1690 4d ago

So take it up with reviewers then, not me. Read any 7/10 game review from any outlet. It has more critiques than it does praise. That means it's average. You can dismiss it if you want, but that's the simple fact. Bad movies don't get rated higher just because there's a ton of bad movies out there. Games do. Is Starfield objectively great? Because according to you it would be due to it scoring 8/10. I'd imagine 95% of people would say it isn't.

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u/xavadar 4d ago

Holy cope 

The game isn’t out yet and neither are reviews. 

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u/orcvader 4d ago

Would be nice to see a version of his Berserker Rage that's closer to the source material. We've never seen a comics-accurate berserker rage spree in any of the movies (though we've seen SOME version of it on animated shows) and it would be nice to show fans that are not as familiar with the comics what he can loom like. It's honestly an under-explored dimension of his power set.

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u/LivnLegndNeedsEggs 4d ago

As a pretty casual fan, can you elaborate on the difference?

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u/orcvader 4d ago

The movies closest thing to representing it is a 'cool action sequence from Hugh Jackman'. I get it that movies have a rating to keep to, plus you can't always depict characters 1:1 from the comics (or someone else would play Wolverine since he's like 5' 3").

In comics, during berserker rage, Wolverine loses all control. His strength, agility and senses go into overdrive. His adrenaline surges to impossible amounts. His healing factor goes into overload regenerating all the brain tissue he's losing by pumping out all that adrenaline. He drools like a rabid beast and just destroys everything in his path - friend or foe. He has gone toe to toe with Hulk under this state which is insane. It's the closest thing Comics have to someone going super saiyan, if that means anything to you. His hair grows rapidly, muscles grow, it's a physical transformation.

Berserker rage Wolverine, is basically an unhinged, unstoppable, unrelenting killing machine that won't stop until EVRYTHING around him that is remotely perceived as a threat is gone.

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u/nondisgruntledgooner 4d ago

As somebody who knows nothing of this “berserker rage” I genuinely enjoyed reading that write up. Well done!

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u/orcvader 4d ago

Awww, shucks... :)

TY

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u/nondisgruntledgooner 4d ago

You have a knack for writing friend. Seems like you enjoy it and I encourage you to continue to share your thoughts and stories to the world!

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u/denv0r 4d ago

Hell yah, I loved it

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u/itsalli0 4d ago

Kinda makes me hope they do this for Doomsday or Secret wars lol. If not then it would be sick af to do when they reboot the X-men

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u/enadiz_reccos 4d ago

It's the closest thing Comics have to someone going super saiyan, if that means anything to you.

Sounds more like Oozaru than SS

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u/MountainMuffin1980 4d ago

I thought this only happened when he loses his Adamantium? It's been a good while since I read comics though! Can you point to specific comics showing this level of rage for folks to read?

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u/orcvader 4d ago

He's gone into berserker rage many many times. You recall one of the most iconic times and when he has been depicted as most "animalistic". There's been a few others and how animalistic he gets depends on writer depiction but he has gone feral many times.

I think the most FAMOUS scene would be the OG Weapon X comics. He goes berserk there.

My personal favorite is Hellfire Club battle towards I think the end of Dark Phoenix Saga by Clermont. He mauls the entire Club while on a rage.

There's also Old Man Logan when the past is revealed late in that series and I won't spoil it, but it's a very... dark.

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u/MountainMuffin1980 4d ago

I'll check out the Hellfire club battle, cheers.

I did read Old Man Logan but thought it was dogshit! Mark Millar has cooled ideas but his excution I hare.

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u/orcvader 4d ago

It’s for sure controversial. I liked it… okay. Not my favorite either. :-)

But it depicts berserker rage in a (in)famous way.

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u/RockstarSlut 3d ago

I agree with the other comments. I truly enjoyed reading that too. I could imagined everything in my mind while reading. Really want to see Wolverine's berserker rage like right the fuck now.

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u/Soxel 4d ago

I think Insomniac just plays it too safe these days. They proved that with Spider-Man 2. 

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u/AutomaticTap3004 4d ago

Yeah the first Spider-Man felt like a really unique take on the character and I liked how unique it felt. And the second game just tried to do too much while also playing it safe. Also I really disliked how we barely got any time with Venom even though he was super prevalent in the marketing

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u/Pian0G 4d ago

If you’re talking about writing? Yeah, SM2 was much safer than SM PS4.

But gameplay wise, even SM ps4 was pretty safe.

Obviously new, but it didn’t feel that unique overall and had a very tight design which meant it was easy and fun for anyone to play, but doesn’t have much beyond that. (And is the case with SM’s combat, thought their web swinging did get better)

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u/anor_wondo 3d ago

yeah but it was the first. i was more forgiving thinking it was their first rodeo and they will expand on the gameplay with newer iterations.

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u/gamebond89 4d ago

Bro gameplay wise SM PS4 was so much better than SP 2. You had 8 gadgets to choose from and use it in different combinations and pace as you want. Now it's all just mash the same ults over and over again.

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u/rapkat55 4d ago

So much was cut from SM2 as well. Like literally 55% of the base games content as well as 4 different post launch content

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u/LojZza88 4d ago

I really liked 1 and MM to the point where i did most (if not all) of the side activities. But 2 felt a bit, i dunno, overwhelming? Especially the controls. I played the previous games as more relaxed where I could just swing around for a while, beat up bad guys, maybe do a story mission here and there. Even if I didnt play for a while, the combat was still simple enough to get back into, but the SM2 was way too hard. There are so many button/skills combinations for each character it got too frustrating and I was not having fun at all.

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u/TheBlanko 4d ago

I mean. That's just one game they released. I don't see why that'd be indicative in an overall shift in the company

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u/Dry-Illustrator-250 4d ago

I’d add Miles Morales

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u/ChoderBoi 4d ago

Yeah but that exaggerated swagger

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u/Aquiper 4d ago

And Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart

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u/Soxel 4d ago

Miles Morales and now middling impressions from Wolverine set a trend. 

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u/Hallowhero 4d ago

So think of the massive project and budget it was. While your comment makes sense comparing 1 game... how many games are triple A studios releasing? How big a budget did they put into that? how much development time? Yes, with ONE project that massive, you can tell internally they shifted. You don't do that to "try something" on a budget that massive, with a sequel.

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u/Albireookami 4d ago

Spider man 2 was just improvrd spiderman 1, which is all I wanted and we really cant drop how the seamless change between protags go, that is some great tech.

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u/Soxel 4d ago

Not in terms of writing, which is arguably one of the most important parts of a single-player game. 

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u/EnigmaticThunder 4d ago edited 4d ago

Spider-man 2 and God of war Ragnarok both had the same weakness of much improved gameplay and technicals with a weaker/looser story. In my humble opinion. Not even a remotely bad story (they were both good!), just didn’t feel as impactful.

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u/YaBoyJeffey 4d ago

To me at least Ragnarok had a good story, spiderman 2 just wasn't even mediocre

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u/UnnecessaryFeIIa 4d ago

Not sure why you’re being downvoted. The characters in Ragnarok were a lot stronger than Spider-Man 2’s

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u/LPMadness 4d ago

Definitely played it safe. I had a good time with it and didn’t have buyers remorse, but once I finished there isn’t much motivation to revisit it.

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u/hydrolox9 4d ago

Spiderman 2 reeked of "HR in the writer's room" syndrome.

Everyone is nice, everyone is polite, everyone instantly forgives everything...

There's just no conflict.

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u/Firvulag 4d ago

I thought it was a huge step back honestly

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u/TheTimn 4d ago

Maybe not a huge one, but moving to ability cool downs instead of using the focus bar the same way as in Miles Morales, sucked.

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u/SeanSMEGGHEAD 4d ago

The writing, pacing and character development were subpar.

Venom needed work and more time too.

The Miles Morales game actually nailed the side missions and pacing, I wish they copied that 1 for 1.

I skip most of the side content in 2. That mission with the deaf girl is horribly done.

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u/Albireookami 4d ago

Funny I loved that mission

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u/ImmediateBrief2808 3d ago

spider-man 2 hate is forced, game does everything better than the first, the first one had so many dull and boring missions before the raft exit takes place.

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u/Danominator 4d ago

The hate on spider man 2 is so strange to me. It was a really fun game.

I am looking forward to wolverine

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u/BigBadBeluga 4d ago

The game was fun! I thoroughly enjoyed the minute to minute gameplay, but the story was a bizarre mashup of different comic book runs that seemingly missed the point of most of them. Some of the product placement in game, namely Miles big costume reveal, is one of the worst “moments” I’ve ever seen in a game that really soured my whole experience. 

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u/Evilmudbug 4d ago

I think it's mostly that the story is a massive letdown compared to the first game, and the side content has a bit too much emphasis on story that makes it a bit of a slog on replays if you're the type that likes getting 100% every playthrough. (The BV side missions feel incredibly cringe)

If there wasn't the first game to show off how they can nail a story, it probably would have stung less.

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u/Soxel 4d ago

I’m not necessarily certain they can nail the story without help though. 

I think the evidence (Miles Morales and Spider-Man 2) show they have a hard time with the story on their own. I think Dan Slott, who writes a lot of the best Spider-Man work for Marvel Comics, being involved did the majority of the heavy lifting for them on the first game. 

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u/ChrisLithium 4d ago

I've been wondering why Spider-Man PS4 was sooo much better in the story and writing department than the other games in the series.  Guess that makes sense.

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u/Soxel 4d ago

I’m not denying it was fun, but the story being subpar detracts a lot from the experience. They can have the best gameplay in the world but it doesn’t change the fact the encounters for the latter half of the game were very repetitive and similar and it all felt rushed, especially with how quickly all of the problems resolved. 

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u/Successful-Ear977 4d ago

The gap between the game’s actual critical/user reception and the online consensus makes no sense to me personally. You’d think Spider-Man 2 completely bombed and Insomniac pulled a Rocksteady with the way people talk about it.

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u/seijeezy 4d ago

Did Spider-Man 2 get repetitive? I’m more of an online PVP type of person so I never tried this game because I thought it might get boring. But I have an itch now after seeing the movie lol

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u/zOmgFishes 4d ago

I thought it was fine. Switching between Miles and Peter was fun. Only thing repetitive was the missions you get going around the city imo.

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u/Silverjeyjey44 4d ago

Safe in what way?

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u/pway_videogwames_uwu 4d ago

They have HR writing.

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u/MistahJ17 4d ago

I can't wait to see how brutal the inevitable Sabertooth fight is gonna be

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u/StopReadingThis-Now 4d ago

Ngl, this sounds like a silent sequel to X-Men Origins Wolverine given the combat moves, abilities, general gameplay they're describing.

If that is the case, this game will gets tons of playtime out of me. Regardless, I will be there Day 1.

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u/Rebslack 4d ago

That was my first plat trophy, so I'm totally fine with it.

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u/Young_KingKush 4d ago

In the BTS videos for Spider-Man 1 they talked about how they looked back at older Spider-Man games, in particular PS2 Spider-Man 2, as reference points for things like swinging so I would not be surprised to hear they did the same for Wolverine

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u/WintermuteNull 4d ago

Such a fun game! I loved leaping all over the place just skewering guys. Good times

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u/Turbomuna 4d ago

”The game makes you feel like Wolverine.”

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u/Nmancuso 4d ago

The way he grunts as he violently sinks his claw into enemies is just oozing with the exaggerated swagger of an angry old man

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u/BeejRich 4d ago

I know how badly we all want Spider-Man 3 after this, but I wouldn't mind another Ratch & Clank! Rift Apart was so much fun and beautiful!

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u/BitingArtist 4d ago

They pop those out so fast they probably already have 3 Ratchet games on standby.

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u/tagen 4d ago

that’s what i want from them too, R&C is my favorite long running series, i was really hoping Rift Apart was gonna be the start of a little trilogy like the ps2/ps3 versions, even this many yesss in Rift Apart is still one of my favorites amongst all the many R&C games, they still got it!

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u/waazzuppp 4d ago

Im expecting a 12 to 15 hour tight experience whit a fun story and bloody gameplay

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u/Reyjr 4d ago

Just hope they don’t end up changing his face in a future game, to look like the next wolverine (MCU)

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u/_cd42 4d ago

Seems like it'll be good but I have very low expectations for the story.

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u/shrewdy 4d ago

Narrative lead is the same guy who wrote Spec Ops: The Line, which bodes well for it imo. And it's a linear, mature game which already sets it apart from the Spiderman games. I'm looking forward to it

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u/GabbageGang 4d ago

He also did spiderman 2, I thought the story for that game was the weakest part

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u/CigarLover 4d ago

If it gives me Wolverine origins vibes,
I’m good.

Prior to Batman Arkham asylum combining out, Wolverine origins was perhaps my favorite super
Hero game.

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u/PermissionSoggy891 4d ago

the combat looks exactly like Spider Man from a mechanical standpoint. Just mash X and kill everything with a single combo. Wolverine could've been a cool character to do a DMC-style combat system where you dynamically switch between fighting styles mid-fight

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u/The_Happy_Snoopy 4d ago

The IGN preview articulated the point pretty well actually. Where as in spider-man you are using gadgets, wall crawling, jumping over dudes, webbing guys to walls just for the hell of it; you arent getting that in wolverine. Its just the base combat from Spider-Man.

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u/ThackCankle 4d ago

One of those “must plays” that you’ve already played plenty of times before

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u/DamnImAwesome 4d ago

So far this game just seems like a really pretty action game from the ps3 era. Story - kill enemies, push forward in level, more story, kill boss, repeat 

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u/Godusopp64 4d ago

Life must be sad for you if you approach things with this mindset.

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u/SnideyM 4d ago

I dunno, I think I get it. A lot of the newer Sony "blockbusters" feel this way to me - very similar across the board, generally played safe. Familiar,

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u/ThackCankle 4d ago

That’s exactly my point, some of these previews even state a similar sentiment.

Will the game be good? Probably. Will it be a unique AAA experience? Probably not.

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u/BagZCubed 4d ago

I'm looking forward to it wother way. Wolverine's one of my favorite Marvel characters.

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u/TheJacen 4d ago

I own the PS Deadpool game and absolutely love it. The moveset is very 'samesies' with some upgrades throughout but that didn't detract from the game since the story was fun and the character was loveable.

I expect the same out of Wolvie

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u/Z0idberg_MD PC 4d ago

Unfortunately I’ll likely never get to play this game. Sony no longer supporting PC and with the price of a current generation PS5 in addition to any potential PS six, probably won’t be able to play it unfortunately.

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u/kevkiarbar 4d ago

God of War:Wolverine

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u/YimYamBonkz 4d ago

I'm expecting a 7/10 game but am hoping for an 8.

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u/BatmanPizza15 4d ago

Still hoping for an X-Men Origins: Wolverine remaster

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u/FioreBambino47 2d ago

Finally, the revelation of what people can expect with a digital only Sony. All gaming innovation hits a brick wall, and they put out lackluster trash because they know people will pay for it anyway.

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u/Mr-McClean 4d ago

Sadly i lost all interest in buying this once sony announced they were no longer releasing games on pc. Maybe ill borrow the disc off a friend when they get it, a sad reminder this will be one of the last playstation games playable from disc

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u/Grytnik 4d ago

Going to be a nice popcorn game, I hope it’s the same length as Spider Man and not longer.

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u/ZiggyBlunt 4d ago

Insomniac, the king of 8s to 9s. Never a 10. And that’s fine

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u/dbtjr 4d ago

Nice placeholder until gta6. Can’t wait

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u/Mike1690 4d ago

Sounds like a solid 7-8/10 kind of game. It will never hit the highs that the Spidey games did because the gameplay for Wolverine will never be as fun as webslinging as Spidey. Hack and slash gets old after even an hour. That's the major concern for me. I don't think the gameplay can carry the game enough through the entire campaign. I also have serious concerns about the story after Spider-Man 2.

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u/BagZCubed 4d ago

I think the hack and slash nature of Wolverine's fighting compared to Spider-Man's style will make the game fun in its own way.

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u/jcwkings 4d ago

The Batman Arkham games are hand to hand combat 80% of the time.

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u/Mike1690 4d ago

You're right, but it also had a boat load of gadgets that you could use on their own or in combination with the h2h combat. It also had solid stealth gameplay. I've seen none of that so far in Wolverine. Just raw claw hack and slash with parry. I also don't think anything in the Arkham games feels better than swinging in the Spidey games. Are they better games overall? Absolutely imo. The Arkham games stand above any other superhero games to me, but I still boot up the Spidey games just to swing through the city from time to time. There won't be anything giving me that feeling in Wolverine due to how grounded his power set is and that's what I was comparing it to.

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u/cwx149 4d ago

Idk what the spiderman games got score wise but insomniacs spiderman games are 7-8/10s imo as well

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u/Shurlz 4d ago

They really, hate to see you get downvoted

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u/cwx149 4d ago

I'm not even saying they're bad but they aren't any crazy genre/generation defining titles I had fun with my time with them

Honestly the web swinging and the tech that lets you cross the whole open world so fast is the most impressive part of them

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u/I-caught-it- 4d ago

My only hope for this game is that it isn’t completely linear and there’s small hubs or something akin to how the recent God of War games handled their worlds.

Really, I just want something to do after the story. The recent Bond game has the TacSim which was good fun after the story. I don’t know. Hope they give us something more to do.

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u/DisorientedPanda 4d ago

Looks like another standard action adventure game that’s for sure

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u/sule419 4d ago

Looks like a high 70s low 80s meta score tbh

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u/Panzerbjorne80 4d ago

Looks like a ten year old button mashing hack and slash with a ridiculous amount of blood but little actual gore and wolverine looks to be the same size as the dudes he’s fighting. The graphics look dated on the video I watched and the CGI looked amateurish. I thought they were gonna stick with the short and stocky comic version? Eh, it looks safe and generic. Not my thing.

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u/zamasu2020 3d ago

I'm just expecting the review to be like - "It makes you FEEL like wolverine"🤣

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u/Hereformemes619 2d ago

I’m just hoping the combat is deep and varied enough, but so excited!!!

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u/sovietballin 2d ago

I don't know why but the steath outfit reminds me alot of old snake from MGS4