Sonys 18rated Wolverine game from the Spider-Man studio

[Rebecca40]

BBC Newsbeat put out a review of Marvel's Wolverine and the framing throughout is essentially whether Sony made the right call going full 18 rated with blood, gore, and violence rather than keeping things family friendly like the Spider-Man games from the same studio. Insomniac built this one too, and their Spider-Man titles have apparently sold around 50 million copies, so there was clearly a lot riding on this being a similarly big commercial swing. The article frames the rating choice as a genuine gamble rather than an obvious decision, which is a fair way to look at it given how different the tone is from their previous work.

The comparison to Deadpool and Wolverine at the box office is doing a lot of work in the piece to justify why this gamble might actually pay off. That film made 205 million dollars opening weekend, the best ever opening for an R rated movie, and ultimately grossed 1.3 billion dollars worldwide. If an R rated superhero film can pull numbers like that, the argument goes, then an 18 rated game featuring the same character might have a bigger built in audience than people initially assumed going in.

On the actual gameplay side, the review praises the traversal and movement mechanics specifically, describing leaping between buildings as feeling excellent to control. That is notable since traversal was one of the standout elements that made the Spider-Man games so beloved in the first place, so carrying that quality forward into a very different tonal register is a meaningful signal about production quality. The reviewer does note some reservations though, particularly around cutscene heavy sequences interrupting actual gameplay more often than they would prefer.

Liam McIntyre voicing Wolverine gets a direct quote in the piece where he talks about being proud of how audiences are responding to the story and performances. That kind of actor commentary alongside a critical review is a nice touch since it gives some insight into how the people actually making the game feel about the final product rather than just marketing talking points

PlayStation gambles with 18-rated Wolverine game - does it pay off?www.bbc.co.uk

[AlphaOscar89]

The Deadpool and Wolverine box office comparison is a smart piece of context that a lot of gaming coverage would probably skip over entirely. It genuinely does suggest there is a bigger appetite for R rated superhero content than the industry has traditionally assumed when greenlighting these projects. Curious whether that appetite translates the same way to a full price game purchase versus a two hour movie ticket though

[Benzema83]

The building to building traversal praise mentioned in this review makes me want to check this out purely for how satisfying the movement feels regardless of story quality. Sometimes a game can be genuinely fun to just move around in even before considering the actual narrative or combat systems. Spider-Man proved that formula works incredibly well so seeing it carried forward here is reassuring

[Merchant]

Monumental pressure following up Spider-Man's massive success is probably not something reviews always fully capture, but you can tell from how carefully this piece hedges its praise that the game does not quite reinvent the genre the way its predecessor did. Still sounds like a solid experience on its own merits regardless of that comparison though. Curious how it holds up against other recent PS5 exclusives once the review embargo fully lifts everywhere

[Runtime Gareth]

Not surprised Sony went all in on the darker and more violent tone here given how well that approach has worked for other recent superhero adaptations across film and television. Wolverine as a character has always leaned into that kind of brutal conflicted violence in the source comics anyway. Feels more true to the character than trying to sanitize him down to a Spider-Man style family friendly experience would have been

[Stuart]

Eighteen rated games exclusive to a single console platform are historically a much tougher commercial sell compared to more broadly accessible titles across the industry. Sony clearly believes Wolverine fans specifically will follow the character regardless of the mature content rating attached. Going to be very interesting to see actual sales figures once they eventually get reported publicly

[Arty Kayla]

Liam McIntyre sounding genuinely proud of the performance work in this interview is a nice change of pace from the usual scripted promotional talk actors give during game launches. Voice and motion capture work in games like this rarely gets the same critical attention as blockbuster film performances despite requiring comparable skill. Hoping his work here gets some proper recognition once more reviews start rolling in

[NovaPrime68]

Insomniac carrying over that traversal feel from Spider-Man into a completely different character and tone is honestly impressive from a pure technical standpoint. Movement mechanics are so easy to get wrong or make feel clunky, and apparently they nailed it again here according to the review.

The cutscene complaint mentioned is a fair criticism though since pacing issues like that can really drag down an otherwise strong action game