Fuck yeah, Wolverine
Hey, bub, next year's big Insomniac Marvel game looks sharp as hell
In case you missed it, Insomniac Games put out a trailer at yesterday's PlayStation State of Play for their long-awaited Wolverine game. Outside of a cinematic trailer almost one million years ago, it's the first time we've seen the game in motion outside of some leaked footage a few years ago.
And, holy shit, they did it. That's Wolverine, baby. In all his mean, yucky, violent glory.
Now this shouldn't come as much of a surprise if you've been paying attention to Insomniac's Spider-Man games. They're all treasures, and re-realize Spider-Man and his universe in fun, exciting, and fresh ways (despite what some weirdos on the internet will tell you). They're some of the best superhero games this side of the Arkham series, and I am, unfortunately, still a sucker for some superhero bullshit in my video games.
But Wolverine, as he says explicitly in the trailer above, is not a hero. That clashes a bit with what we've gotten out of Insomniac in the past. Listen, I love Ratchet & Clank with all of my heart, but that series' definition of edge is some swear-adjacent titles. And Wolverine is typically bit more "fuck me, I'm gonna see if the bar will still serve me if I'm covered in blood."
Mercifully, Insomniac wastes exactly zero time answering whether Wolverine will be M rated or not. Less than five seconds into the above trailer, he stabs his claws through someone's head and we can barely see them pop out the other side with all the blood pouring out.
Now I'm not normally a "dang, check out the dismemberment in this fun video game" kinda guy. I mean I'm not opposed to some gory violence in my games, but it's not exactly what I come to them for. But there's something about Wolverine that just has to get pretty gritty in order to work.
A Wolverine that isn't literally ripping enemies to shreds and pulling torsos apart just doesn't really feel like Wolverine. It's like playing a Star Wars game where your lightsaber just knocks the Stormtroopers back a bit like it's just a glowy baseball bat instead of a fucking laser sword.
It feels a little icky to say, but seeing that Insomniac is willing to get nasty with it, and listening to them talk about their "blood tech" is a great sign for me that Ol' Canucklehead is in good hands.
The only thing I disliked about Wolverine's reveal yesterday was that I have to wait a full year OR MORE to play it. (Also, he seems a little tall, and we love a short Wolverine here at Rogue).
Are there things in my life that I should be looking forward to more than a Wolverine game, like the human child that looks exactly like me, lives in my house, and requires constant love and attention? Am I a man in my 30s? The answer to both of those questions is yes. And yet, at a time where it's very hard to be excited about the future, I am just glad to have something I feel like I've been waiting most of my life for to be excited about. I mean ... they're doing motorcycle claws and everything.
Really, with this post, I just wanted to highlight the short doc video and the cool trailer from the state of play. And, even more than that, I wanted to say that if you're someone who saw the leaked pre-alpha footage of Wolverine, said it looked like shit, and then went on the subreddit yesterday to talk about how much better it looks now ... you should definitely subscribe to Rogue.site so you can learn more about how video game development works!
