Insomniac Doesn’t Need Another Open-World Hit. It Needs to Let Wolverine Bleed.

Insomniac Doesn't Need Another Open-World Hit. It Needs to Let Wolverine Bleed

Superhero games have been stuck in an open-world arms race for more than a decade. Wolverine doesn't need to win that race. It needs to escape it.

Superhero games have been stuck in an open-world arms race for more than a decade. Bigger maps, more collectibles, more side missions and more icons on the screen, until the actual hero can start feeling like an afterthought.

Insomniac basically perfected that formula with Spider-Man. Swinging through Manhattan was incredible, and all that freedom fit Peter Parker like a glove. But Wolverine was never supposed to be Spider-Man with claws, and that distinction matters more than people realize.

Wolverine launches September 15, and reviews are already out. The reception has been mostly positive, with critics praising its linear structure, brutal combat and character work, while some have criticized the fighting for becoming repetitive and the exploration for feeling too limited.

That tension is actually what makes Wolverine interesting in the first place. Insomniac doesn't need to prove that it can build another massive superhero sandbox. It needs to prove that a superhero game can be better when it knows what not to include.

The Claws Problem

Turning Wolverine into a modern action game is harder than it looks.

When Spider-Man hits someone, there are limits. Peter can punch, kick, web enemies to walls and throw objects around, but his whole thing is holding back. Logan doesn't have that luxury. His weapons are claws, his healing factor means he can take punishment that would kill almost anybody else, and his history is full of moments where violence isn't just something he encounters; it's something he was built to deliver.

So his combat can't just be a different set of animations bolted onto a health bar. It has to feel physical, dangerous and distinctly Wolverine.

Insomniac clearly understands that part. Reviewers have repeatedly pointed to the game's graphic violence and aggressive close-range combat, with some describing it as one of the studio's most brutal games yet. But brutality alone isn't enough. If every fight eventually turns into the same sequence of button presses, the blood starts feeling like decoration.

That's already showing up in some reviews. The combat looks impressive, but some critics have argued that it becomes repetitive compared with the creative freedom of the Spider-Man games. That's the real challenge: Wolverine doesn't just need violent combat. It needs combat where the violence actually means something.

Why Linearity Might Actually Be the Right Call

This is where the game gets interesting.

Rather than trying to recreate the giant open-world structure of Spider-Man, Wolverine goes for something much tighter and more linear. Honestly, that might be exactly what Wolverine needed.

Open worlds make sense for characters defined by movement. Spider-Man needs a city because the city is part of the fantasy. Wolverine doesn't. Logan is a hunter, a tracker and a soldier; he's often more interesting when he's trapped somewhere than when he's given an entire city to roam.

A tighter structure also gives Insomniac more control over the pace. It can put Logan in a dark corridor and make you wonder what's waiting around the corner. It can build an encounter around a single enemy instead of filling a map with twenty identical activities. It can make a fight feel like an event instead of another checkbox.

That approach has already divided critics. Some have praised the straightforward, linear action, while others have argued that the same structure feels restrictive or dated. And that disagreement says a lot: the exact same design choice can feel like a breath of fresh air or a step backward, depending on what you want from a superhero game.

Maybe that's the point.

The Man Underneath the Adamantium

It's easy to get distracted by the claws. They're the obvious selling point.

But Wolverine has never been interesting simply because he can tear people apart. He's interesting because he hates what violence has made him. He's a weapon who wants to be a man, carrying decades of trauma inside a body that refuses to die.

That's a very different kind of superhero story.

Peter Parker's greatest strength is his ability to keep moving forward no matter what. Logan's problem is that he can't escape what's behind him: his memories, his past, the people who used him, the people he hurt and the person he became.

That's where Insomniac has a real opportunity.

Reviews have already pointed to Logan's characterization and emotional side as some of the strongest parts of the game, even when the gameplay itself has attracted criticism. That matters because Wolverine doesn't need to be charming. He needs to be complicated. The violence should feel like something Logan carries with him, not simply something the player gets to enjoy.

The Spider-Man Problem

There's an unavoidable comparison here, and it's a dangerous one.

Insomniac's Spider-Man games were massive successes, and that creates expectations. Players know what this studio can do with a giant city. They know how good its traversal feels and how polished its combat can be, so naturally, some people are going to look at Wolverine and ask why it doesn't give them the same freedom.

But copying Spider-Man would have been the bigger mistake.

Imagine the same map structure: random crimes, collectibles, enemy bases and dozens of side activities scattered across a giant city. At some point, Logan stops feeling like Wolverine and starts feeling like another video game character moving from one objective marker to the next.

He deserves better than that.

The Real Benchmark

Wolverine doesn't need to be the next Spider-Man 2. It needs to be the first great Wolverine game. That's a much more interesting bar to clear.

From the early reception, Insomniac appears to have gotten many of the important things right: a strong sense of who Logan is, a more focused structure and combat that embraces the brutality people expect from the character.

But the criticism surrounding repetitive fighting and limited exploration shows that committing to a narrower vision comes with its own risks.

That's fine.

Not every superhero game needs to be a theme park. Sometimes the better experience is the one that knows when to stop.

Let Wolverine Be Wolverine

The superhero genre doesn't need another game trying to do everything. It needs games that understand their characters well enough to do something exceptionally well.

Spider-Man should make you feel the freedom of swinging through a city. Wolverine should make you feel the weight of every fight: the fear of getting surrounded, the relief of healing through damage and the exhaustion of being pulled back into violence over and over again.

More importantly, it should make you feel the tragedy of being a man who can survive almost anything except his own past.

Wolverine drops September 15 with a lot to prove. Not because Insomniac needs another hit, and not because Marvel needs another successful game, but because Wolverine has been one of Marvel's most complicated characters for decades.

He deserves a game that understands that.

And if Insomniac can make players feel the rage, pain and weight behind those claws, it won't need another open-world masterpiece.

It'll have something better: a Wolverine game that could only have been made for Wolverine.

— Sushi