I'm several hours in to it so maybe my views will change, but this is a pretty fun game, very much of an older school of design; Marvel's Wolverine would fit right in with any Xbox360 era or PS3 style game, fitting very much the mold of other linear action-adventure titles of that time. For contemporary gamers (and critics, apparently) this is their garlic and wolvesbane, but if you pine for an era when you did not have to traverse a vast open world map hunting endless fetch and find quests to no real purpose, this game is a solid gem. Despite assertions it has been idiot proofed --and as someone who loves walking simulators, which by the same definition are also idiot proofed-- I think the real problem is that the Wolverine game is mismatched with the audience that was expecting it. People who expected it to be like a Spider-Man title in the same video game universe will be shocked (assuming they read none of the promo material about this being a linear adventure) to learn it is not open world. Players who expected it to be a visceral soulslike-level of combat difficulty will probably also be disappointed, though I found the combat to be more satisfying so far than the Arkham Batman games' combat, which is not dissimilar. The first major boss in the game (I played way too late into last night beating him, fyi) is Omega Red, and the multi-stage battle requires figuring out his patterns and countering them, striking when the opening presents, and then relearning his patterns as the battle morphs. It was hard....arguably on a level of soulslite hard, but not so hard I was ready to ragequit and I appreciated that I, an Old Gamer, could get through this.
Much adieu has been made about the scent trails in the media. It's only had nominal appearance in the first few hours, but expect it will appear more later on. So far it has contextually made sense, but I agree they could have found a way to make it less obtrusive.
The storyline is great....but the Marvel Video Game Universe started with the Spider-Man titles is a different beast, and there's some weird stuff going on in the new game. Mr. Sinister in his guise as Nathaniel Essex is a major plot figure and initial ally of Logan, though I can sense the tides turning on it. The storytelling is great, though, so far.
The game does have some problems, though. I have experienced two bugs, one annoying and one amusing. At one point you need to advance the story and Mystique needs to open a security door. In my first playthrough she simply didn't open the door, so I restarted the checkpoint and she showed up. Later I watched a enemy combatant merge into the ground although (unlike when some radscorpions did the same thing in Fallout New Vegas) when I tried hitting him he took the damage and "popped" back up out of the floor. Weird, no idea if the Spider-Man games have bugs like this.
Despite those two bugs, the game has so far been a blast. If the game shifts south at some point I will update and report! But right now I just wanted to get this out and suggest that the social media anger against this game is just a bunch of clickbait nonsense. If you like old school linear action adventure titles with some panache, check it out!
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