Marvel's Wolverine was supposed to be the culture-war Super Bowl of 2026. Insomniac makes the game. A chunk of the internet already decided the studio was the enemy. The usual outlets were expected to close ranks and hand out 9s. Then the embargo lifted, and the joke wrote itself.
A 77 From the Studio That Used to Mint 90s
The game is not a secret 2 out of 10. It is sitting around a 77 on Metacritic, the kind of score studios treat like a polite funeral. After Spider-Man, Miles Morales, and Spider-Man 2 all lived in the mid-80s to 90, that number is a face-plant in a tuxedo. Polygon called it one of Sony's worst-reviewed PS5 exclusives. Kotaku noted it is currently the lowest-scoring in-house PlayStation Studios game of the generation. Forbes ran the headline that the score is not great. That is the polite version.
The common complaints are simple. Combat starts sharp, then turns into a chore. The levels feel like 2009 with a bigger lighting budget. The story swings for prestige television while the player mashes through another identical hallway. Skill Up said he does not recommend it because the game holds your hand so hard it might as well walk you to the fridge: pop-up reminders, GPS pointers, audio pings, sign-posting. Wolverine, the guy who heals from being dropped in a volcano, apparently cannot be trusted to find a door.
The Woke Studio Lost Its Own Press
For months the discourse was already locked in. Insomniac got branded the woke studio after the 2023 leak, the Spider-Man 2 fights, and the Sweet Baby Inc. talking point that never dies. Preview footage brought the usual checklist: Mystique is not hot enough, Logan looks "low T," the game is too linear, there are mental health doors, the studio is lecturing you while you pop claws through a man's face. The marketing director blamed social media feedback loops. The director said backlash is "a good problem to have."
Then the reviews arrived and the expected script snapped. IGN, GameSpot, and GamesRadar all gave it a 6. Eurogamer gave it a 3 out of 5. The Guardian said a gloriously conflicted Logan is let down by crude, boring battling. The Washington Post said it has heart but lacks ambition. PCMag called it a bloody bore. Those are not rage-bait accounts. Those are the outlets that were supposed to run cover.
The game even tried to buy itself a pass with gore. R-rated dismemberment. Rage meter. Feral finishers. Liam McIntyre doing a solid Logan. Some reviewers still like the character work. Fine. The problem is the wrapper around the claws. Insomniac left the open-world playground that made Spider-Man feel like a toy box and delivered a linear, over-directed action game. The studio that once made swinging across New York feel effortless now treats the player like a toddler with knives.
The Culture War Became the Sideshow
Online, both sides are still doing bits. One camp is screaming that consultants killed Insomniac. Another camp is screaming that only bigots hate a 77. Meanwhile the actual reviews keep repeating the same words: repetitive, dated, patronizing, forgettable. When IGN, GameSpot, Polygon, and The Guardian all land on "this wears thin," the pre-assigned teams start looking like extras.
That is the hilarious part. Insomniac spent years as the designated villain of a certain corner of the internet. The counter-argument was always going to be, ignore the mob, the game will be excellent. Then the outlets that usually defend that argument played the thing and said, more or less, nah. Not a catastrophe. Not Concord. Just a $70 claw simulator that peaks in the first few fights and then asks you to care about another emotional beat while a golden path blinks in your face.
Wolverine is supposed to be the best there is at what he does. This version is pretty good at bleeding on the camera and mid at everything else. The studio that could not catch a break online made a game so safe and so padded that even its usual friends would not pretend it was special. You do not need a manifesto for that. You just need a scoreboard.