Insomniac's upcoming Wolverine game will differ from past Marvel's Spider-Man games in a significant way. The new PS5 exclusive is an action-packed, story-driven superhero game that brings Wolverine to life in gaming (with a new lead actor), just as Insomniac did with Spider-Man. While the two games come from the same studio, Wolverine is making several changes to Insomniac's superhero formula, including removing some popular features.
The gameplay footage for Marvel's Wolverine at Sony's June State of Play confirmed that Logan won't be the only notable X-Men hero in the game, with the telekinetic mutant Jean Grey making an appearance to fight alongside Wolverine. Jean's psionic powers offset Wolverine's bloody and brutal combat, making them a dynamic pairing.
With Marvel's Wolverine providing a gateway to the X-Men in gaming, many have wondered whether that also means characters like Jean will be playable, particularly since Insomniac has featured multiple playable protagonists in the past.
Insomniac Games appears to be abandoning this feature in Marvel's Wolverine, as game director Mike Daly told IGN that "you play as Wolverine the whole way through." The director explained that they "wanted to keep the focus on [Wolverine]", which is why they opted out of adding additional playable characters in this PS5 game:
"This game is all about Wolverine and you play Wolverine the whole way through. We wanted to keep the focus on him throughout the whole story."
The previous Spider-Man games had sections where players controlled characters other than Peter Parker. Marvel's Spider-Man included gameplay sections where players controlled Miles Morales (before he had his own game) and MJ in brief sections. Spider-Man 2 expanded that notion even further, offering players the ability to switch between Miles and Peter's Spider-Men at will throughout the game. But outside of those two main protagonists, the sequel also offered a stint in control of Venom.
With multiple playable characters acting as something of a staple throughout Insomniac's Spider-Man games, it was expected that Marvel's Wolverine might do the same, particularly as Jean was shown to be a meaningful ally to Logan's combat.
While there won't be any other playable characters in Wolverine, Daly did confirm that each of the allies Wolverine fights alongside (Jean and Sabretooth are two of those confirmed so far) differs and adds a dynamic to combat that "makes the whole fight more fun."
"In this game, Logan and Sabretooth are actually on a team together, but the way they ally is not really anything like the way you ally with Jean Gray. Logan and Sabretooth have a very competitive dynamic between them. Whereas Jean Gray might give you an opportunity to get a kill, with Sabretooth fighting alongside you, it's more like, you think you've got a kill and he rushes in to steal it from you, and their combat banter brings out that dynamic and makes the whole fight more fun."
Marvel's Wolverine will be released on PlayStation 5 on September 15. The Marvel game is just one of several releasing ahead of Grand Theft Auto VI.
Insomniac's Wolverine Is A Solo Logan Experience
Now that more gameplay footage and details about Marvel's Wolverine have been released ahead of its September release, it's clear that while Insomniac has become known for its Marvel superhero games, this won't be a carbon copy of what the studio did with Spider-Man.
Right off the bat, Wolverine is a far more bloody and brutal experience than the family-friendly Spider-Man experience. Logan is shown violently engaging in combat, with graphic scenes and copious amounts of blood, an integral part of the experience of playing as the X-Men hero. Additionally, Wolverine won't be set in a single open-world location like the Spider-Man games are.
While the omission of some of these features may be disappointing for players, it also opens up the door for new ones to emerge. Removing additional playable characters may actually be a welcome change for some, as sections played as Miles or MJ in the first Spider-Man game were often met with frustration.
Insomniac may also be laying the groundwork for more playable characters to be introduced in its Marvel's Wolverine franchise in the future, but right now, it isn't a priority for this title. The studio seems to want to test the waters with Wolverine himself first, before potentially expanding into other directions with more varied playable characters in this universe.
