With two incredible Spider-Man games already under its belt, and one hopefully joining the list later this year, Insomniac Games has well and truly proven itself to be one of the best superhero game developers around, though its next project is a different beast altogether. While Marvel's Spider-Man is all about swinging into action, webbing enemies to walls, and lifting them into air combos, Marvel's Wolverine won't be able to follow that same formula.
Certain elements of Marvel's Spider-Man are likely to drip through to Marvel's Wolverine, but fans should expect a fairly different game from Insomniac. Wolverine is a completely different hero to Spidey, with completely different powers, a more hand-to-hand focused skillset, and a more abrasive attitude. If there's one thing that's going to set Wolverine apart from Spider-Man, it's the hero's Healing Factor, which could potentially lead to some frustrating enemy types.
Marvel's Wolverine Shouldn't Let Its Enemies Be Too Overpowered
Wolverine's most iconic ability, aside from his ferocious adamantium claws, is his Healing Factor: the ability to regenerate tissue, muscles, and even full limbs after they've been damaged. While Wolverine isn't invincible, he's extremely close to it, and that makes him one double-edged video game protagonist. On one side, Wolverine can be an immensely fun superhero to play as, with his abilities letting players rush into battle and carve their way through hordes of enemies with little risk. But on the other side, this lack of risk can lead to some unsatisfying gameplay in the long run. A balance of unlimited power and challenge is key to creating a good Wolverine game.
In the past, this balance has been met with middling successes. More often than not, past Wolverine games have either been too easy, or too difficult, with very few titles striking the perfect balance of each. For instance, X2: Wolverine's Revenge is a bit too far on the difficult side, with Wolverine only being able to take a few bullets before he perishes. The highly underrated X-Men Origins: Wolverine goes a little too far in the opposite direction, with enemies being a complete non-threat on any difficulty lower than the game's hardest option.
It's imperative that Marvel's Wolverine strikes this delicate balance. Many Wolverine games of the past have countered the hero's Healing Factor by either giving him a virus that renders his regeneration null, or by giving enemies the ability to sap his Healing Factor away from him. Though this is a logical approach, it's not a very empowering one, and too many enemies capable of removing Wolverine's Healing Factor makes the power essentially redundant in the first place.
Instead, Marvel's Wolverine should focus on increasing the level of challenge naturally during the course of the game. Players should be able to start off as an all-powerful Wolverine, capable of ripping his way through foes in a single swipe of the claws. As the game progresses, players should come face to face with more experienced, better-equipped enemies. Some harder enemy types could wield firearms equipped with adamantium bullets, or wield adamantium swords, capable of shredding Logan's body a lot quicker than conventional weapons.
This same general difficulty progression could carry over to bosses as well, with mutants with weaker powers acting as the bosses of the early game, while mutants with powers akin to Wolverine's could be kept for the endgame. This would make Sabretooth the perfect final boss of Marvel's Wolverine, as his own Healing Factor rivals Logan's perfectly.
Marvel's Wolverine is in development for PS5.