Last night’s PlayStation Showcase was a humdinger. We finally got official confirmation that Knights of the Old Republic is being remade, a proper trailer for God of War: Ragnarök, the first look at Spider-Man 2, and, in a twist no one saw coming, the announcement of the PS5 exclusive Marvel’s Wolverine.
This is coming from Insomniac Games, developers of the jaw-droppingly cool Spider-Man games. These perfectly capture the feel of being the Web-Slinger, sending players acrobatically swinging around New York, tangling with Spidey’s rogue’s gallery, and dealing with classic Peter Parker interpersonal conflict.
So, can they nail Wolverine as successfully as Spidey? Insomniac’s Ryan Schneider said over on PlayStation Blog that the studio is approaching him with the same philosophy, but warned that it’s early days for the project:
“In the vein of our Spider-Man games, our goal here is to not only respect the DNA of what makes the character so popular, but also look for opportunities to make it feel fresh and truly reflect the Insomniac spirit. Even though Marvel’s Wolverine is very early in development, from what I’ve seen of its emotional narrative and cutting-edge gameplay (see what I did there?), the team is already creating something truly special.”
Logan has had many games based around him before, with the highlight being a tie-in game for X-Men Origins: Wolverine. Despite the film being terrible, the game kicks ass and includes an awesome ‘damage’ system that sees chunks of flesh get blasted off Logan’s body, revealing his Adamantium-laced skeleton underneath.
It’ll also be interesting to see what form the game takes. The character doesn’t lend himself as well to an open-world city as Spider-Man does, so we may see a more expansive world featuring rural areas. Perhaps it’s too much to dream of a Red Dead Redemption 2 type world, but who knows?
Like Schneider said though, we’ll likely be waiting a while. Spider-Man 2 will release in 2023, meaning Marvel’s Wolverine will probably land in 2024. Here’s hoping we see more of it before then, but I’m curious about whom they’ll cast to voice him. Is Metal Gear Solid‘s David Hayter doing anything right now?
