Hello to you and how you be… Dan Ryan here… you there. Thank you so much for checking out this post and if you like what you see please share. Marvel’s Wolverine was recently released into the wild and while it is not a perfect game, the discourse surrounding it has been troubling. It’s scores, high 70’s to low 80’s on Metacritic, do not accurately reflect the content of the game but rather the current opinion of Playstation and Sony. Which, if we’re being honest, isn’t exactly helpful. Submitted for your approval this is Wolverine and the Case of the Misleading Reviews.

There are plenty of reasons to be angry at Sony currently. Over the summer they announced that they would cease production of physical discs starting in January 2028. Besides the obvious financial play here the question of ownership, and what that means in a digital only space, is incredibly important. This news hit doubly hard with the announcement of the closure of the PS3 and Vita storefronts. Tons of games will simply no longer be available anywhere legally. (seriously, get those Vita's and PS3's in good working order) Sony’s focus on live service, read infinite money, games has rubbed a lot of developers and publishers the wrong way. These types of games are great in theory but much more difficult to pull off successfully. Players have voted with their wallets again and again showing that apart from a few notable exceptions, Fortnite/Rivals/etc., they just aren’t interested . Exacerbating these concerns has been Sony’s seeming lack of caring about the backlash they are facing. Being massively ahead in a given generation buys a ton of goodwill sure, however Sony is doing their level best to erode every ounce of positivity they have earned. Wolverine being less than game of the year is not a reason to pile on. And the disingenuous nature of the reporting and reviewing of the game has been troubling.

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Reviewers are tasked with an important job in this space, namely being a guiding light for consumers on where to spend their money. It is a responsibility I take very, maybe too, seriously. The state of the world has made everyday life more expensive than it has ever been with most struggling to meet their needs let alone having anything left over for their wants. If a game is legitimately bad, people should know before they choose whether or not to purchase it. If a reviewer plays a bad game, it doesn't cost them anything. Publishers send game codes out to reviewers free of charge. A bad game means I wasted a few hours of my time, nothing more. And even if the game is “bad” I still try to point out who might enjoy it and why. 

Wolverine is not a bad game. Wolverine is also not game of the year, in my opinion. What Wolverine is is a new game starring a very popular comic book character from a developer with a track record for developing very good comic book games. What Wolverine is not is Spider-Man, and anyone expecting Spider-Man was setting themselves up for disappointment. Insomniac has delivered a game that is faithful to Wolverine the character. One of the biggest complaints with the game is the scent trails, a visual representation of Wolverine’s heightened sense of smell. The complaint was that it was always on which simply isn’t true. Yes it appears when Wolverine picks up a trail. No, that isn’t every second of the game. And, it has been patched since release to give players the option to turn it off. Complaining about it is akin to complaining that Spider-Man has a spidey sense. It’s silly and does nothing to contribute to the debate over the game's quality. Another critique has been levied at the combat. Complaints centered around it not being as deep or refined as Spider-Man which, okay it definitely isn’t. However I would again like to point out that Wolverine isn’t Spider-Man and expecting him to have the same depth as our favorite wall-crawler, replete with gadgets galore, was titling at windmills at best. Less honest criticism has been directed towards the story telling and the supposed “woke” nature caused by the Sweet Baby Inc. effect. If players entered a game based on the X-Men franchise and expected it to not speak about prejudice I would argue they haven’t actually read an X-Men title.

The most egregious example though is in the unfailable quick time events discourse spouted by reviewers who were simply lying and parroted through social media channels by people who hadn’t played the game. It is true that you cannot fail certain quick time events in Wolverine, if you turn that setting on! Seriously, you have to select “autocomplete” as the option in the accessibility menu in order to not be able to fail some of the quick time events. There are a ton of options in that menu that make the game easier, sure. A lot of us are old and don't have to prove anything and would rather play the game in a way that allows us to feel good about our purchase and the time we spend with it. QTE's suck and are a drag most of the time so having some autocomplete so I can watch the cool thing happen instead of worrying about a button press is okay with me. Rating a game negatively for an optional aspect of its gameplay is simply an argument in bad faith. Repeating that criticism without actually playing the game is somehow worse. And that’s the larger point here I suppose. People read or listen to those of us lucky enough to be in the positions we find ourselves in and we owe it to them to be honest. Not disclosing the options we selected is just wrong. We owe it to the people who support us, who disagree with us, who hate us, everyone. The proliferation of ragebait headlines is seriously damaging. Obviously, it’s what sells. Your engagement with their content is what gets them paid, not their honesty. And man is that just backwards. 

So my honest review of Wolverine, it’s very good. For the price of admission you get a beautiful, fluid, hack n’ slash game featuring one of the coolest Marvel characters ever, voice acted incredibly well with a story that’s pretty good. The visceral feel of the combat remains satisfying with new skills added at a decent clip and some interesting boss fights. The accessibility options remain just that, options that can help you tailor the game to your desired experience. It’s a linear story that runs about 15 or so hours. It is by far the best Wolverine game ever released and a must play if you are a fan of straight forward action games. (Wolverine Origins is pretty cool though...)

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That’s enough rambling from me. To hear what Kris has to say make sure to check out the pod through whatever catcher you use or on our very own Youtube channel. But I want to know what you think. Join the Stone Age Gamer discord, or you can find me on Bluesky to let me know your thoughts. In the immortal words of Billy Joel, “Life is a series of hellos and goodbyes; I'm afraid it's time for goodbye again.” See you soon.