Insomniac Games Studios is known for creating amazing stories and placing beloved characters within them. They did it with Spyro the Dragon and the Ratchet & Clank games, but in 2018, they went further and created Insomniac’s Marvel Universe, breaking the records of most sold games for the studio. It was also a highly critical success, impressing fans worldwide. When they decided to create a new Spider-Man game, they made it a story where Peter Parker is already Spider-Man and has been a hero to New York City for years, instead of focusing yet again on his origin story. But in the case of the upcoming Wolverine game, I believe we’ll get something to feature both his past and current story.
Marvel’s Wolverine has been in the works since early 2021, and developers teased us with a short promotional video. Wolverine’s backstory is commonly known among Marvel fans, and this game is a perfect opportunity to create a project that will connect everything fans love about Wolverine.
Possible locations for Marvel’s Wolverine: Japan, Madripoor, Africa & USA
In Insomniac’s new Wolverine game, it’s likely we’ll see flashbacks explaining how this version of Wolverine will gain his Adamantium skeleton and claws. We could even get to replay his escape from Project X just like in the Origins game. I believe that the most important part of the story for Logan may be his journey, where he’ll have to travel through places he already knows or feels he recognizes from his past. It may be a part of his self-discovery journey.
Part of Wolverine’s story is his confusion about his past and the long journey to restore those memories. We know that (from the movies and comic books) Wolverine is over 150 years old, and he lived through some meaningful part of human history. With that in mind, the game may show flashbacks from World War I and II, and what he experienced (just like the prologue in X-Men Origins: Wolverine movie).
For example, we could visit Japan to gain some information/finish a mission and meet familiar characters (as seen in Wolverine #1 – #4 by Chris Claremont or Wolverine: Back In Japan by Jason Aaron). The same goes for Africa, which has a connection to his story because of a crossover with Punisher (as seen in The Punisher and Wolverine: African Saga by Jim Lee & Carl Potts).
But in doing so, we could find some pieces of the puzzle to solve about why some places there are familiar to Logan. Maybe a part of the story arc from The Wolverine movie could be adapted there or from. Or perhaps we could visit an important place to mutants such as Madripoor (As seen in Wolverine: Patch by Larry Hama &
Madripoor was a key place in Logan’s story at one point. Because of the world thinking X-Men are dead, he decided to start living there undercover as Patch. He was defending the city from criminals and villains like Silver Samurai. In the game, we could also get to see Madripoor without necessarily the need to go with the Patch story. It’s a place where we can meet characters like Mystique, Gambit or some other known mutants relevant to Wolverine’s story.
Logan could also spend some time in the USA and do some quests because Xavier’s School is there. But we don’t know if the school is operating, if Charles or other X-Men are alive, or even if there are X-Men alive in the world of Marvel’s Wolverine.
Marvel’s Wolverine gameplay
Insomniac Games has provided us with an amazing and unique gameplay in Spider-Man games. We were able to feel like Spider-Man while swinging/gliding through New York City, and could feel the justice flowing through our veins while fighting thugs and super villains. Every aspect of being Spider-Man was provided to us, whether it was wall-running, wall-climbing, web-zipping or anything else that we associate with Spider-Man, it was done just exquisitely. And that’s why people loved, love and will love Insomniac Games’ Spider-Man projects, simply because of the gameplay.
Now with Wolverine, the trick to give us a perfect gameplay is not flexible web-swinging, acrobatics or multiple gadgets. Instead, they need to provide us with a Wolverine who is a rough warrior, whose fists/claws are so hard hitting that it just takes one hit to take out an enemy.
The main focus in Marvel’s Wolverine should also be on adding an expanded skill tree, suits for Wolverine to use and some additional abilities like “Wolverine Spin”, multi-linguistics, high IQ, his expertise in using various weapons, or even “Berserker Rage”. With that, the gameplay could not also gain more attention, but allow long-time fans of Wolverine to play through this game using their favorite suits or some iconic moves of Logan from the comics.
Wolverine Comics Reading Guide
Expanding Marvel’s Insomniac-verse after Spider-Man 2
The Insomniac Marvel Universe started to expand more in Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales and in Marvel’s Spider-Man 2. They both included Easter eggs that revealed the presence of more characters in this world. We know that the Avengers, Fantastic Four, Doctor Strange, Daredevil and more superheroes already exist in this universe. However, that’s the only small part of the potential this world has to offer.
This new Wolverine game may be the perfect project to introduce more characters and give us more potential spin-off/sequel stories to play in. It could even start by connecting Insomniac Marvel Games together simply by mentioning that in New York there are 2 Spider-Men, there was a Venom incident, or by teasing future events. Who knows, maybe we’ll be able to see Wolverine in the upcoming Marvel’s Spider-Man 3 that will be released in a few years.
Furthermore, studios could make more games and re-use already rendered character models and cities, which would accelerate the process of working on games. But they’d have to be careful with that. By expanding the Insomniac Marvel Universe too fast, there’s a possibility they could make too many games with less than ideal quality, instead of fewer but with outstanding quality.
The Miles Morales game was the first spin-off game that was meant to expand this universe more. That’s why I believe we’ll get more spin-offs that will have a lesser budget than a main game, but will still expand this universe more. Maybe a spin-off about Black Cat, Venom/Carnage or some other X-Men could work (such as a game about my favorite X-Man Gambit).
Expanding this universe this way could lead to Insomniac releasing one big game gathering all the characters from those games together. And they could do their own version of Secret Wars, The Age of Apocalypse or maybe even Days of Future Past.
Adapting known story arcs from previous X-Men projects
New Marvel animated series X-Men ‘97 will be airing on Disney+ very soon, the continuation of the beloved animated show from the 90’s. Even though we know the game and the animation aren’t connected, I think Insomniac could intertwine some events from both projects together.
By connecting the new game with the show, I mean in more of a spiritual, or Easter eggs way, rather than the story itself. We may be able to see things like Gambit powering up Wolverine’s claws, the death of Professor X or X-Men gathering together (possibly at the end of the game) in that story. There are countless possibilities.
Using previous projects as an example can also be a good idea when they’ll try to implement things from the movies. First Class and Days of Future Past are my favorite X-Men projects. Therefore, I’d really love to see some fun Easter egg connections to those films. There’s a huge potential in adapting known stories in the games, and I hope that developers will somehow do that, even for one main story mission.
Marvel’s Wolverine from Insomniac Games doesn’t currently have a release date. Are you excited to play it when it comes out? Let us know on social media @mycosmiccircus or in The Cosmic Circus Discord.
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