Insomniac Says There's Plenty in Marvel's Wolverine to Keep People Playing After the Credits Roll, Including New Game Plus Day-One
Insomniac has confirmed the various features in Marvel's Wolverine designed to keep people playing after the credits roll.
Unlike the Sony-owned developer's open-world Spider-Man games, which are packed with side activities and let players free roam, Marvel’s Wolverine is a linear, story-driven adventure that focuses squarely on Logan’s journey. However, as senior project director Jess Reiner-Reed and Insomniac head of technology Mike Fitzgerald told IGN in a recent interview, there’s plenty to keep players busy even after they finish the game.
For example, littered throughout the game are whiskey bottles that aid Wolverine’s progression, material crates that contain the raw materials used to unlock suits, and Nightmare Doors, which contain unique trials.
“It is a story-driven adventure,” Reiner-Reed said. “Logan is pulled through uncovering these mysteries of his past. But you can go off the beaten path.”
The Nightmare Doors, specifically, are “manifestations of the horrible things happening in Logan's mind,” Reiner-Reed added. “There's many of those throughout the game with different types of trials.” One we played during a recent hands-on session is called Shinjuku Shuffle.
Marvel’s Wolverine also has Mission Replay, which lets you return to any mission to find collectibles you might have missed. And, crucially, Marvel’s Wolverine has New Game Plus day-one — something the Spider-Man games have lacked.
“In a New Game Plus, you can use all of your loadout and progression that you already unlocked,” Reiner-Reed explained. “You can choose whatever suit you want. So there's some fun things that happen there. And also there's some adaptations that are only available in New Game Plus. So there's some fresh gameplay for folks.” These adaptations (unlockable buffs) let players “amp up the difficulty” or make Logan a “much more powerful and aggressive character,” Fitzgerald added.
Marvel’s Wolverine replay features
- Whiskey bottles
- Material crates
- Nightmare Doors
- Mission Replay
- New Game Plus
These features may go some way to addressing a concern about Marvel's Wolverine's replay value I’ve seen from some quarters of the internet. There’s no getting away from the fact this is a very different game than Insomniac’s Spider-Man series, so replay value will come less from the joy of exploration or movement, and more from combat mastery and Logan’s own progression. Wolverine will have a suit grind, of course, as the Spider-Man games do.
We've got plenty more on Marvel's Wolverine from our big interview with Insomniac. And don't forget to check out our hands-on preview ahead of the game's September launch.
Wesley is Director, News at IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.