Marvel's Wolverine reviews land in the high 70s, and for Insomniac that counts as falling short

TL;DR

Marvel's Wolverine, Insomniac's PS5-exclusive action game, launched worldwide on 15 September 2026 at 69.99 dollars, its first M-rated Marvel game (ESRB M / PEGI 18) and a deliberate return to linear design. Critic aggregates settled in the high 70s (Metacritic around 77 to 78, OpenCritic top-critic average around 78 to 79, roughly two-thirds of critics recommending) as of mid-September, well below the 85 to 90 Insomniac scored across its Spider-Man games. Critics praised the brutal, satisfying combat and standout visuals, and criticised repetition, restrictive level design and heavy hand-holding. Storefront and pre-order signals are strong, but there are no official sales numbers yet. Notably, Insomniac was publicly responding to the reception within a day, though its first patch fixed unrelated bugs rather than the design complaints. Here is the honest read.

Here is a number that should not be controversial: high 70s. If a new studio shipped its debut action game to a 77 on Metacritic, it would be a triumph. Marvel's Wolverine shipped to roughly that on 15 September, and a large slice of the conversation treated it as a letdown. Both reactions are correct at the same time, and untangling why is more interesting than the game's combat system. The short version: this is Insomniac's expectations problem far more than it is a bad game.

The facts of the launch

Marvel's Wolverine released worldwide on 15 September 2026, developed by Insomniac Games and published by Sony Interactive Entertainment with Marvel Games. It is a PS5 console exclusive (PS5 and PS5 Pro Enhanced, no PS4 version, no PC release announced), with no paid early-access window. The Standard Edition is 69.99 dollars, with a 79.99 dollar Digital Deluxe and a 10 dollar upgrade between them.

Two things make it a departure for the studio. It is Insomniac's first M-rated Marvel game (its three Spider-Man titles were rated Teen), carrying an ESRB M (PEGI 18 in the UK and Europe) for intense violence, blood and gore, strong language and other mature content, a real swerve for a team whose superhero games have been aimed at teens. And it is deliberately not open world: a linear, single-player, narrative-driven adventure that moves Logan between Canada, Japan and the fictional Madripoor. The campaign runs roughly 12 to 15 hours by outlet estimates, with completionist runs closer to 20 to 25 hours. For everything Insomniac had confirmed before release, see our pre-launch breakdown of Marvel's Wolverine. That figure is aggregated from review guides rather than an official count, so treat it as approximate.

Marvel's Wolverine review scores, and why "good" reads as "disappointing"

As of mid-September 2026, the aggregates sit in a band rather than at a fixed point, and they will drift as more reviews land. Metacritic is around 77 to 78; OpenCritic's top-critic average is around 78 to 79, tiered "Strong", with roughly 68 to 69 per cent of critics recommending. Individual reviews stretch from a 50 (Giant Bomb) up to full marks (Hardcore Gamer), with IGN and GameSpot both landing at 6 out of 10 and Push Square and TheSixthAxis at 8.

Now put that next to the shelf it is being measured against. Marvel's Spider-Man scored 87 in 2018, Miles Morales 85, and Marvel's Spider-Man 2 a 90 in 2023. As Push Square noted, Insomniac had not made a game that scored below 85 across the entire console generation until this one. So a perfectly respectable high-70s result reads, in context, as a sharp drop, and it lands the studio among its own lowest-rated first-party output of the generation. The honest framing is not "Wolverine is bad." It is "score inflation and a stellar back catalogue have made a good game feel like a miss." A high-70s game is only a failure relative to a 90.

What critics loved and what wore thin

The praise is consistent: the combat is brutal, tactile and, in several reviewers' words, satisfying, with vicious finishers and team combos that sell the fantasy of being Wolverine. The PS5 and PS5 Pro visuals and facial work drew near-universal admiration, and Logan's characterisation is repeatedly named as the strongest thread.

The criticism is just as consistent, and it clusters around the same design pivot. Reviewers found the combat repetitive over a full campaign, the linear levels restrictive (invisible walls, fade-to-black leashing), and the hand-holding heavy, singling out a scent-trail tracking mechanic that surfaces too often. GameSpot's Tamoor Hussain caught the tension in one line: "Wolverine might be the best at what he does, but what he does hasn't let Insomniac's developers be the best at what they do." The interesting reading is that the loudest praise and the loudest complaints both flow from the decision to go brutal and linear, trading the open-world traversal joy that made Spider-Man a 90 for something tighter and darker.

Insomniac is already responding, in public and fast

The freshest wrinkle is not in any review. Within a day of launch, Insomniac responded publicly. In an official comment the studio said it was "incredibly proud of what the team has created" and "actively engaged with our player community and gathering feedback to further refine the player experience." Community and marketing director James Stevenson put it more colourfully on 15 September: "We have been 100% listening over the last few days and the team has been cooking hard today in response to some of the feedback, in case you were wondering what that smell out of our kitchen was." Coverage tied that to the complaints about over-frequent tracking prompts.

But it is worth being precise about what actually changed. The day-one patch fixed unrelated bugs (missing English voice-over on some consoles, a mission-progress blocker, a stuck door), not the review criticisms. And on the most-cited complaint, the scent-trail tracking mechanic, Insomniac defended the feature as canon to the character, said it is not always on, and confirmed it cannot be switched off, with no toggle planned. So what is confirmed within a day is a public commitment to listen plus a routine bug patch, not feedback-driven design changes. Even so, a studio engaging this fast and this openly with a single-player game's reception is unusual, and worth watching over the coming weeks. (Stevenson's remarks reached the public through coverage of his social posts; the studio's own comment was reported as an official statement.)

The number that actually matters is the one we do not have

For all the review noise, the figure that will decide how Sony feels about Wolverine is sales, and it does not exist publicly yet. What we have are storefront signals, and they are strong: the game topped PS Store pre-order charts after its June showing, reportedly ahead of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 pre-orders in some regions, and at launch it sat among the top sellers on the PS Store and Amazon with a very high verified-purchaser storefront rating (around 4.8 out of 5). Every one of those is an indicator, not an audited sales number, and the storefront rating in particular reflects only buyers who chose to rate. Ignore any specific "units sold" or "sales down X per cent" figures floating around; none of them trace back to Sony.

That commercial-versus-critical gap is the whole story in miniature. A high-70s critic average colliding with chart-topping pre-orders and near-five-star buyer ratings is exactly the kind of split that makes "was it a disappointment?" unanswerable in week one. Insomniac made a confident, violent, deliberately narrower Wolverine game, the critics judged it against the studio's own best work, and the buyers turned up anyway. Whether that counts as a stumble or a success depends entirely on which number you are looking at, and the one that settles it has not been published.

Frequently asked questions

What is Marvel's Wolverine's Metacritic score?

It sits in the high 70s, around 77 to 78, from well over 100 critic reviews as of mid-September 2026. That is Insomniac's lowest-scoring Marvel game and, by several outlets' reckoning, one of the lowest-scoring first-party PlayStation games of the generation.

Is Marvel's Wolverine good?

Reviews are genuinely split. Critics praised the brutal combat, the gore, the visuals and Logan's characterisation, and criticised repetitive combat over a full campaign, uneven pacing and restrictive linear design. Individual scores run from a low of 2.5 out of 5 up to full marks, which is why "divisive" is the fair word.

How long is Marvel's Wolverine?

Roughly 12 to 15 hours for the main story, and around 15 to 20 hours if you take in the side content, by outlet estimates rather than an official figure. It is a linear, chapter-based game rather than an open-world time-sink.

Is Marvel's Wolverine coming to PC?

Not at launch. It is a PlayStation 5 and PS5 Pro console exclusive, with no PC version announced. Insomniac and Sony have brought earlier PlayStation games to PC eventually, so a later port is plausible, but nothing has been confirmed.

How much does Marvel's Wolverine cost?

The Standard Edition is 69.99 dollars and the Digital Deluxe Edition is 79.99 dollars, with a 10 dollar upgrade between them. The download is large, at around 80 GB.

Is Marvel's Wolverine open world?

No. It is a linear, cinematic single-player adventure, closer in shape to Uncharted or The Last of Us than to Spider-Man's open New York, moving Logan between the Canadian wilderness, Japan and the fictional Madripoor.

What is Marvel's Wolverine's age rating?

It is rated ESRB M for Mature 17+ (and PEGI 18 in the UK and Europe) for intense violence, blood and gore, strong language, partial nudity and drug reference. It is Insomniac's first M-rated Marvel game.