Marvel’s Wolverine will launch on September 15, 2026, and a two-hour hands-on session has offered a closer look at how Logan’s story, combat, and optional activities fit together. PlayStation’s hands-on report follows the opening mission in Telambang through a boss encounter and a visit to Madripoor’s Lowtown.
The session began with Wolverine rejoining Team X for a mission inside the facility of anti-mutant industrialist Bolivar Trask. After a rescue operation, the preview jumped forward to a major boss battle before bringing Logan into Madripoor, where combat, character moments, and hidden collectibles share the same spaces.
Trask and Team X put Logan’s story in motion
The opening flashback presents a feral, memory-wiped Wolverine before reconnecting him with Team X, a mutant task force created by Nathaniel Essex to protect mutants and help them live openly. Logan had previously left the group, leaving Mystique and Sabretooth with plenty of resentment to air when he returns.
Trask’s facility reveals just how cruel that conflict has become. The billionaire has been abducting and studying mutants, then disposing of them in his effort to preserve human superiority. Logan’s anger grows as he cuts through Reavers, clashes with Omega Red, and works to free Essex from captivity.
Essex was the person who found Wolverine in his feral state and formed Team X around the idea of protecting mutants. With Essex and Trask representing very different paths toward that future, Logan has to confront what kind of person he wants to become. The preview keeps that personal conflict close to the action instead of treating it as background decoration.
Wolverine’s rage changes the way he fights
Logan’s claws give combat a wonderfully aggressive rhythm. He can target an enemy across a room and hurl himself into the fight, turning encounters into fast bursts of movement, parries, and brutal takedowns. A basic barrage is only the beginning, since Special Techniques can be unlocked, upgraded, and assigned to the directional buttons.
The preview included Tornado Spin, which can clear space around Wolverine, and Knee Breaker, which interrupts enemy attacks. Adaptations provide longer-term upgrades for abilities such as Logan’s health and rage meter, giving players more ways to shape his preferred fighting style.
Successful combos fill the rage meter through three tiers. At Rage Tier 2, Wolverine’s attacks become stronger and he gains Last Stand, allowing him to spend rage to heal after being fully downed. Rage Tier 3 pushes his offense even further, unlocking brutal critical strikes that can lead to takedowns involving weapons stolen from The Hand, including katanas and bows. At that level, Logan’s vision narrows and his breathing grows louder and more primal as he tears through groups of enemies.
The Hand’s presence builds on the faction’s earlier reveal in the San Diego Comic-Con presentation, while the hands-on session showed how its weapons can become part of Logan’s combat flow.
Not every encounter is about charging in. Wolverine’s Enhanced Senses can help him track enemies and take them down quietly, while Trask’s Ability Inhibitors block Wolverine and his teammates from using their powers. When those devices are active, Logan cannot heal and has to rely on classic attacks until he destroys the inhibitors.
The preview’s biggest combat test came against a Sentinel Prototype built by Trask to detect and destroy mutants. Wolverine had to dodge and parry its attacks, wait for openings, and fight alongside Mystique and Sabretooth before finally breaking through the machine’s head.
Madripoor rewards careful searching
After the Sentinel battle, Madripoor’s Princess Bar provided a quieter setting for Logan and his allies. The bar is run by Tyger, and it gives Wolverine time with Jean Grey and the mutant teenagers she protects. Their connection is immediate, but Logan also admits to Jean that his anger frightens him and that he wants to become a better person.
Mystique gets a chance to step away from mission mode, too. She can change identities during combat, but at the Princess Bar she simply spends time with the team and pushes Logan to be more open during a friendly game of Never Have I Ever. Sabretooth continues to call Wolverine a runt, though their rivalry carries the weight of Logan’s decision to leave Team X.
Lowtown also gives players room to check Wolverine’s different outfits and claw types, from his classic undershirt and jeans to a helmeted Weapon X look, and find upgrades for his attire and claws. Enhanced Senses can pick up conversations, music, and scents that lead to other rooms or teammates. Searching those spaces may reveal small character details, including Mystique’s wedding pictures and an IOU written on an ace of spades card from Remy LeBeau.
Other rewards include hidden crates containing raw upgrade materials and collectible whisky bottles. Nightmare Doors transport Logan to a dreamlike cabin for timed Nightmare Trials, where he races through vertical courses built from distorted versions of locations from the game, trying to reach the finish before time runs out and recover forgotten memories.
Marvel’s Wolverine will launch on September 15, 2026, for PS5 consoles. The PlayStation Store page lists the same release date.
What do you think of Wolverine’s rage system and Madripoor activities? Share your thoughts in the comments, and follow us on X, Bluesky, YouTube, Instagram, Steam, and Telegram for more gaming updates.
Marvel's Wolverine
Developed by Insomniac Games
Marvel's Wolverine is a single-player action-adventure game and a standalone entry in the Marvel's Spider-Man series, sharing continuity with those titles while telling its own self-contained story. Players control Logan/Wolverine in close-quarters combat, using his adamantium claws against enemies drawn from the X-Men comic book mythology. It is planned as the first installment in a trilogy of games focused on the X-Men.
- Genre Hack and slash/Beat 'em up, Adventure
- Platforms PlayStation 5
- Perspective Third person
- Modes Single player
- Release September 15, 2026
- Publisher Sony Interactive Entertainment
-
Age Rating
