Marvel’s Wolverine arrived with seven years of anticipation, one of Marvel’s most popular characters and the studio behind PlayStation’s Spider-Man run. That combination made anything short of a knockout feel like a miss.

The reaction has been more complicated than “good” or “bad.” Critics landed around the high 70s, players split hard, and the same complaints kept surfacing: the combat looks savage but grows repetitive, the platforming feels automatic and the structure is safer than a Wolverine game should be.

The score is respectable. The expectation was not.

A 77 hits differently when the budget is enormous

A score in the high 70s usually describes a solid game. For a reported $300-million-scale PlayStation production built around Wolverine, it reads like underperformance. Early review aggregates placed it below Insomniac’s Spider-Man titles and among the weaker-reviewed first-party releases of the PS5 generation.

That does not mean everyone hated it. Plenty of players love the spectacle, the character work and the pleasure of finally controlling a fully violent Logan. But this was sold as an event, and the response has been closer to “pretty good” than “generation-defining.”

The claws look brutal, but the combat runs out of ideas

The first hours deliver exactly what the trailers promised: heavy hits, visible damage, aggressive finishers and a Wolverine who moves like a trained fighter with no interest in looking elegant. The problem is depth. Once the shock of the violence fades, many encounters settle into familiar patterns.

Upgrades suggest a larger system than the fights really demand. Enemies can absorb attacks without enough physical feedback, and repetition turns some of the game’s most expensive animations into routine. The finishers stay graphic; the decisions between them do not stay as interesting.

Too much of the game plays itself

Outside combat, Wolverine leans on guided investigation, straightforward platforming and chase sequences that often keep the player on a narrow track. The globe-spanning locations look expensive, but the activities inside them can feel like the same modern action-game checklist wearing a different skin.

That contrast is the frustration. Logan is unpredictable, impatient and dangerous. The game around him is frequently controlled, familiar and unwilling to let the player get lost.

Logan is better than the game built around him

Liam McIntyre gives the story a real center. His Logan can sound furious without becoming a cartoon, and the quieter scenes sell the exhaustion of a man who has survived too much. Mystique, Sabretooth and Jean Grey bring tension that works because their relationships are not treated as simple fan service.

The character art, performances and emotional conflict are the strongest argument for finishing the campaign. Even harsher reviews have generally agreed that Insomniac understands who Logan is. The disappointment comes from how often that sharp characterization is placed inside ordinary missions.

The internet backlash is messy, but the criticism is real

Some of the online response has been culture-war noise, review bombing and the usual race to declare a major game dead. User scores are easy to distort, especially during launch week, and they should not be treated as a clean measurement of quality.

But dismissing all negativity as trolling would be dishonest. When professional reviews and ordinary players independently point to shallow combat, repetitive encounters and overly guided design, there is a real pattern. The game is not broken. It is simply less ambitious in play than it is in presentation.

Wolverine needed to be stranger and meaner

The best version of this game was never going to be Spider-Man with claws. It needed more danger, more player freedom and systems that matched Logan’s violent improvisation. Instead, Insomniac delivered a polished blockbuster that often seems afraid to leave the proven PlayStation template.

Marvel’s Wolverine is not a disaster. It has strong performances, spectacular moments and an excellent central character. But for a game this expensive, this anticipated and this perfectly cast, “solid” feels like the most damaging verdict possible.