The initial reviews for Marvel's Wolverine have been released, and Insomniac Games' launch fell short of the standard set by the major titles from PlayStation Studios. At the time of the reviews' publication, the game scored 77 on Metacritic, based on just over 100 critiques.
This score places the game in the 'generally favorable' category on the aggregator. However, what stands out is the comparison with other games produced by Sony's main studios during the PS5 era.
In this comparison, Wolverine ranks among the first-party games with the lowest average of the generation, trailing only Concord, which received 62 points. The disparity becomes even more noticeable when comparing it only to recent works by Insomniac itself.
Marvel's Spider-Man 2 achieved 90 on Metacritic, while Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart scored 88, and Marvel's Spider-Man: Miles Morales registered 85. Up to this point, the studio had not released a title in this generation with an average below 85.
The mentioned averages primarily consider games developed by studios belonging to Sony. If titles published exclusively by the company are included, other exclusives have scores lower than Wolverine's.
It is important to note that an average of 77 still signals a predominantly positive reception, given that several outlets reviewed the game more favorably. Push Square, responsible for the survey, gave the title a score of 8/10.
The result indicates, above all, that Wolverine failed to achieve the same level of critical consensus as its previous Insomniac releases. The difference is considerable, especially given the studio's recent history; after Spider-Man 2 reached 90, Wolverine represents a drop of 13 points in the Metacritic average.
Player reviews will still contribute to defining the long-term reception of the title. However, for now, Logan's return to video games begins as an exception in a generation where Insomniac's main projects maintained averages above 80 points.
