Insomniac Games really struck gold when it nabbed the Spider-Man license. As a studio, Insomniac was always highly regarded in the industry, and with franchises like Spyro, Ratchet and Clank, and Resistance under its belt, it had obviously seen plenty of critical and commercial success- but it wasn’t until Marvel’s Spider-Man launched in 2018 that it enjoyed is massive explosion in popularity, to the point where it’s now probably one of the most successful developers under the PlayStation Studios umbrella, if not even the entire industry at large.
And now, Insomniac is ready to expand even further. With its Spider-Man series growing increasingly stronger, the developer is now also ready to bring another Marvel license into the fold with the upcoming Marvel’s Wolverine. And even though expectations from the game are high – which makes sense, given the studio’s track record, with Marvel games in particular – until now, the only thing about the game that’s been officially confirmed is… well, that it exists. Which means speculation is right now our best bet when it comes to talking about how it’s going to turn out.
And while it’d only be natural to look straight at the Spider-Man games and assume that Insomniac will be learning from their many strengths (and their few failings), it might actually be another first party PlayStation franchise that would be the perfect template for Marvel’s Wolverine to follow. We are, of course, talking about Sony Santa Monica’s God of War games – the Norse duology in particular – because there are a lot of obvious cues that the Wolverine title can take from them.
For starters, we can probably assume that unlike the Spider-Man games – which, by their very nature, appeal to as many demographics as they possible can – Wolverine is going to be a much grittier game, tonally speaking. In fact, that much was confirmed by creative director Brian Horton shortly after the game was announced, who said that it will have a “mature” tone. As anyone familiar with the property will tell you, any Wolverine story across all media is unlikely to work out too well if it’s being held back from having a darker, more mature tone, so the game taking that route isn’t necessarily a surprise.
Given that more mature tone, however, and given the fact that this is a Wolverine game, we can probably expect combat to be much more visceral and violent than what we’ve seen in the vast majority of Insomniac games in the past (with some notable exceptions, like the Resistance games). After all, Wolverine’s MO is getting up close and personal with his enemies and ripping them to shreds with his adamantium claws, which would suggest that the combat system in Insomniac’s game is likely to resemble a hack-and-slash action title.
Which, of course, is where God of War comes in. Sony Santa Monica’s games have already delivered experiences where we play as an indestructible, nearly invincible force of nature, doling out the heaviest, crunchiest, most violent melee attacks possible, and that’s pretty much exactly what you want in a Wolverine game as well. Obviously, there would probably be some differences in how the moment-to-moment gameplay feels – after all, Logan can be significantly faster and more agile than the much tankier Kratos – but we wouldn’t be surprised if Marvel’s Wolverine’s combat ends up resembling the combat in the God of War games in more ways than one.
Beyond combat, level design and the game’s structuring are other areas where we think it’s possible that Insomniac takes at least some inspiration from the God of War games. Earlier this year, it was claimed in a leak by journalist Jeff Grubb that Marvel’s Wolverine was going to be a semi-open world game, featuring multiple wide linear and larger areas rather than a single, seamless, open world map- and for obvious reasons, we can’t help but think that the God of War template might be something that Insomniac may have looked at during development.
God of War (2018) and Ragnarok both served as excellent proof that a big budget, modern AAA game (which is what Wolverine is obviously going to be) doesn’t need to have a massive open world to be a meaty, lengthy experience. Both games boasted excellent level design and encouraged and rewarded exploration, and did that not in a massive map, but across several levels that were more contained, but still sufficiently large, and more importantly, densely packed with things to discover and activities to engage with.
And honestly, that is exactly the sort of approach that would work best in a Wolverine game. For starters, Logan isn’t your friendly neighbourhood superhero, which means you can’t have him running around in an open world map and beating up petty criminals so he can keep the streets clean. From a Wolverine game, you ideally want constant forward momentum that is dictated by the story, with players being taken from one location to the next without too much downtime. That sort of pacing can be difficult to maintain (to say the least) in an open world setting, and there are few games out there that blend solid semi-open world design with consistent forward momentum as well as the God of War games do. And given the cross-pollination we so often see within PlayStation Studios as a group, it wouldn’t be surprising at all if Insomniac did indeed feel the same way.
Of course, it would be foolish to suggest that a major new Wolverine game should lift everything it can from the gameplay and tonal aspects of the God of War games. This is a beloved, established property that has been around for decades, since long before God of War even existed, and it has its own unique charm, personality, and eccentricities that we’d expect to see manifesting in how Marvel’s Wolverine plays, especially if Insomniac’s incredible knack for capturing the spirit of Spider-Man is anything to go by. At the same time, however, Insomniac is a studio that has shown that borrowing elements from past games that have been massively successful and adapting them to their own game can yield impressive results- after all, it’s fair to say that there’s more than a little bit of the Batman: Arkham games in the Spider-Man series.
And if that is the approach that Insomniac takes with its take on the Wolverine universe as well, we can think of no better series to take inspiration from than God of War. From the gritty, mature tone to the brutal, gore-tastic combat, from the focused yet dense level design to the emphasis on pacing, there’s so much in the God of War games that Insomniac can lift and use to lay down the foundations for its Wolverine game. Whether or not that’s something that actually ends up happening obviously remains to be seen, but it’s hard to deny that the God of War template is one that, if done right, would fit a Wolverine game like a glove.
Note: The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of, and should not be attributed to, GamingBolt as an organization.
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