Video summary

My Thoughts on Wolverine

Main summary

Key takeaways

News and Commentary

Overall judgment

The video is a strongly negative, emotionally charged review of Insomniac’s Marvel’s Wolverine, delivered as a reaction to weeks of heated online debate (often framed as a “containment breach” / “gaming channel” vs spillover into other communities).

  • The presenter describes the game as “turbo mid”: not the worst of the year, but around the bottom three Insomniac games.
  • They argue it’s mediocre for a $300 million budget, with visible “corners cut.”
  • Price/value is a major concern:
    • Not worth $70
    • Might be worth it on sale

Core criticism: story and writing

The story doesn’t hook

  • The biggest flaw is the story, which “never hooked” the reviewer.

Voice acting praised, writing heavily criticized

  • The reviewer praises voice acting performance, noting strong actors delivering bad material.
  • They heavily criticize the writing quality.

Example: Sabertooth’s dialogue

  • Sabertooth’s dialogue is portrayed as juvenile, cringe, and repetitive, including repeated catchphrases like “That’s my Wolverine.”

Awkward pacing and unclear direction

  • The narrative is criticized for seeming like it doesn’t know where it wants to go.
  • This leads to awkward story progression, including confusing/handholding-style transitions.

Character/power treatment — especially Jean

  • The reviewer argues Jean/Gene is nerfed in both abilities and portrayal.
  • She functions mostly as a damsel in distress who constantly needs Logan’s help.
  • They point to moments where Jean could plausibly intervene (e.g., a pivotal kidnapping scenario), but doesn’t, implying the writing undermines her power and role.

Gameplay: decent at first, then shallow and repetitive

Early combat is solid

  • Gameplay is described as solid early on, with satisfying combat set pieces and flashy action.

Combat doesn’t evolve enough

The reviewer claims combat doesn’t grow in depth:

  • Skill trees/adaptations are described as shallow, changing encounters too little.
  • Special abilities look good but don’t meaningfully transform combat depth.
  • Combat becomes stale/bland after roughly the midpoint (about 2–5 hours onward for repetition; described as “halfway point” for full dulling).

Trials and specific challenges

  • Trials are criticized as barebones and easy.
  • A hated wave-survival challenge is specifically mentioned as requiring survival for 25 waves.

Boss fights: better, but still repetitive

  • Boss fights are acknowledged as more fun.
  • However, boss move sets are said to be limited/repetitive (with Sabertooth and Omega Red allegedly reusing only a handful of moves).

Handholding and accessibility toggles

Guidance systems are too restrictive

A major pre-release complaint is addressed directly:

  • The reviewer says the game is extremely handholdy via guidance systems, including scent-style indicators (e.g., scent/fart trail/scent-beep visuals) and UI markers.
  • They argue it’s not as constant as they feared, but still frequent and highly restrictive.

“Just turn it off” is rejected

  • The presenter rejects the common defense that players can simply disable guidance:
    • They argue default settings reflect the intended player experience, so guidance isn’t just an optional user preference—it’s part of the design.

Automation and input issues

  • The reviewer also criticizes automation that can complete actions like QTEs without input.
  • They add that in some cases, the game can still accept wrong inputs.

Linearity critique

  • The reviewer says they generally prefer linear games.
  • But they argue Wolverine makes linearity feel even more “on rails” via:
    • auto-completion/assistance systems
    • guidance that reduces navigation and player agency
  • They also argue the game leans too heavily into Wolverine’s sense of smell as the defining trait, instead of highlighting claws/hack-and-slash identity more.

What the reviewer thinks would’ve helped

  • The reviewer believes Wolverine’s combat should have leaned more into a traditional hack-and-slash, including:
    • more depth in air juggling and combo chaining
    • more varied combo routes
    • more enemy juggling mechanics
  • They argue the current combat lacks the “freshness” that classic combo-driven systems can provide.

Presenters / contributors

  • Primary presenter/reviewer: The YouTube speaker (no name provided in the subtitles).

Original video