‘Marvel’s Wolverine’ Review Scores Are In, and They Tell a Very Different Story than Insomniac’s Spider-Man Games

Insomniac Games has spent the better part of a decade building one of gaming’s most trusted superhero track records, turning ‘Marvel’s Spider-Man’ into a genuine PlayStation flagship franchise. That success set an extraordinarily high bar heading into the studio’s next major project, one built around a hero known far more for brutal claws than web-slinging.

That project is ‘Marvel’s Wolverine,’ launching September 15 exclusively on PS5, and it’s been positioned as the first entry in a planned X-Men trilogy for the studio, following details that first surfaced through a 2023 security breach revealing Insomniac’s broader Marvel roadmap. With Sony’s licensing deal now confirmed and the game just days from release, review embargoes have finally lifted.

The numbers paint a picture of a solidly received game that still falls short of the near-universal acclaim Insomniac’s Spider-Man titles have enjoyed. ‘Wolverine’ currently sits at 78 on Metacritic and 80 to 81 on OpenCritic, earning a “Strong” rating with roughly 79 percent of critics recommending the game, according to OpenCritic’s aggregate data.

Individual outlet scores have varied noticeably depending on how each reviewer weighed the game’s narrower combat scope against its emotional storytelling. IGN, GamesRadar+, and GameSpot each landed at 6 out of 10, while CGMagazine, PS LifeStyle, and ScreenRant settled in the middle at 7 out of 10. On the higher end, Destructoid, Push Square, and TheGamer each awarded 8 out of 10, with DualShockers and Wccftech going even further with 8.5 out of 10 scores.

That split largely comes down to how critics responded to the game’s tighter, more linear structure compared to Spider-Man’s open-world web-swinging. In a four-out-of-five review, TheGamer’s George Foster praised the game’s emotional weight, writing that “Marvel’s Wolverine gets its claws in deep with a memorable, emotional, and high-stakes story, wonderful interpretations of Logan, Jean, and the rest of the cast, and brutally satisfying combat that distils the core of the character down to every snikt and claw pop.” Foster also noted the game feels like a genuine first step toward a wider Insomniac X-Men universe.

Wccftech’s Alessio Palumbo landed on a similarly positive verdict despite approaching the game from a different angle entirely. “Marvel’s Wolverine is a very different game from Insomniac’s Spider-Man adaptations, but it shows the developer really understands this hero, too,” Palumbo wrote in his 8.5-out-of-10 review, praising the story for keeping him engaged from start to finish.

Not every reviewer walked away as impressed, though. Some critics pointed to repetitive combat and thin player agency as recurring weak points, with a handful of outlets suggesting the game’s momentum occasionally sags in its back half despite Logan’s compelling character work carrying much of the experience.

Context matters heavily here, since Insomniac’s Spider-Man trilogy set an unusually high bar to clear. The original ‘Marvel’s Spider-Man’ scored an 87 on Metacritic, ‘Miles Morales’ landed at 85, and ‘Spider-Man 2’ reached a stellar 90, meaning ‘Wolverine’s’ 78 represents a noticeably cooler reception even while still qualifying as “generally favorable” by Metacritic’s own standards.

For a franchise carrying this much anticipation into launch, a strong-but-not-spectacular critical reception isn’t necessarily a bad outcome, especially with two more planned X-Men titles still ahead. Whether ‘Wolverine’ can build sustained momentum for that trilogy the way Spider-Man did will likely depend heavily on how player reception lines up with these early critic scores once the game hits PS5 later this month.

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