👃 Insomniac Games released an update for Marvel’s Wolverine allowing players to toggle scent trails, audio clues, and nightmare roots
😤 The changes address widespread player complaints about handholding and intrusive gameplay features
🤔 Questions remain over why this feedback wasn’t addressed before the game launched to a 77 Metacritic score
🤷♂️ While the update improves the experience for new players, it won’t alter the initial critical reception
After achieving a rather disappointing Metacritic score of 77 – a far cry from its previous efforts – developer Insomniac Games has released a new update for Marvel’s Wolverine that addresses one of the game’s most controversial aspects: scent trails.
More specifically, the new update lets you toggle the game’s scent trails, audio clues, and nightmare roots on or off, which were deemed far too intrusive by players. Previously, a patch was deployed that toned down the intensity of the scent trails.
Marvel’s Wolverine was widely criticized for taking away player agency and for too much handholding. It even drew ridicule from unlikely sources, like Mountain Dew’s social media account.
Clearly, Insomniac Games has taken the feedback to heart. However, it begs the question as to how such a high-profile, multi-million dollar project missed these glaring issues before the game shipped. I asked this very question to James Stevenson, Insomniac’s community and marketing director, on X, but didn’t receive a reply.
“Genuine question: why wasn’t any of this feedback received before the game was released?” I said. “It’s great that you’re making changes now, but I think you need to overhaul your QA/testing teams as this was all preventable.”
There are likely two outcomes: either the overbearing nature of the scent trails wasn’t flagged during development – which is concerning – or the issue was raised and ignored – and that’s far more worrying.
Still, the game is certainly better after the update, which means new players will get a better day-one experience. However, it won’t magically fix Wolverine’s Metacritic score average and the bad press the game has received since launch.
Up next: Wolverine PS5 controller and console update: this is what’s still in stock
Adam Vjestica is The Shortcut’s Senior Editor. Formerly TechRadar’s Gaming Hardware Editor, Adam has also worked at Nintendo of Europe as a Content Marketing Editor, where he helped launch the Nintendo Switch. He also runs a retro gaming YouTube channel called Game on, boy! Follow him on X @ItsMrProducts.