Push Square has published a hands-on preview of Marvel’s Wolverine built specifically to fact-check the wave of viral criticism that followed the game’s initial press showings, after playing the same two-and-a-half-hour build given to other outlets ahead of its September 15, 2026 PS5 launch.
Here’s the context: The backlash arrived despite pre-release verdicts from outlets that actually played the game being generally positive, according to Push Square’s account of the situation. Clips circulating online painted Insomniac Games‘ next PlayStation exclusive as a quick-time-event-heavy, single-button experience, and the criticism reportedly got bad enough that it reached Insomniac itself, prompting a developer response that Push Square linked to separately. Readers following the story since San Diego Comic-Con can catch up on the confirmed story and combat details revealed there, plus the villains and story elements shown off around the same event.
The preview itself pushes back on several specific claims. The writer counted every quick-time event and on-screen button prompt across the full session and landed on six total – roughly one every 20 to 30 minutes – rather than the QTE-fest depicted in the clips that went viral. Stealth, meanwhile, is entirely optional: takedowns and grass to hide in exist, but there’s no game-over state for getting spotted, a deliberate departure from the stealth sections that dogged earlier Insomniac Spider-Man games.
- Combat depth – A basic attack button expands quickly into combos and a skill tree, alongside an Adaptations system that lets players lean into stealth kills, Rage-meter builds, or other combat flavors
- Revive mechanic – Losing all health triggers a revive that consumes a chunk of the Rage meter; running out of Rage means an actual death
- Nightmare Doors – Optional combat and traversal challenges with gold, silver, and bronze times, each unlocking a totem and an audio log tied to Logan’s backstory
- Suits – At least 25 unlockable suits, based on a pause-menu screen showing 27 total slots
- Collectibles – Whiskey bottles replace the Spider-Bots and backpacks of prior Insomniac open-world games, reflecting the shift to a linear structure
Honestly, the more interesting story here isn’t the individual myths being debunked – it’s what that debunking says about how pre-release discourse functions now. A two-and-a-half-hour preview build, watched in fragments through algorithmically-selected clips, got flattened into a narrative about a broken game before most critics who actually played it had filed a word. Push Square’s response, essentially counting QTEs on camera to prove a negative, is a strange but telling sign of where the burden of proof has shifted in games coverage.
It’s also worth taking the preview’s one real criticism seriously rather than dismissing it as more of the same pile-on: the Sentinel boss fight that’s been circulating in released footage is, by the writer’s own account, a tedious, overlong encounter with a health bar that takes too long to whittle down. The context matters, though – it comes right after a time-skip that dumps every unlocked ability on the player at once rather than letting them build up naturally, so the full game’s pacing could land very differently.
What remains unclear is whether that Sentinel fight gets tuned before launch, and whether the linear, combat-forward structure sustains itself across a full campaign rather than a curated first act. Push Square’s own verdict stops short of calling Wolverine a Game of the Year contender on the strength of act one alone, which is a fair line to draw with only a preview build in hand.
What to watch: Full reviews should land close to the September 15, 2026 release date, and that’s when claims about combat depth, pacing, and boss design get tested against the complete game rather than a two-and-a-half-hour slice. Readers weighing the mature rating and tone shift against Insomniac’s Spider-Man work can also check our breakdown of the ESRB rating and content details for more on what to expect.
Did the viral criticism shape your expectations for Wolverine, or does this preview change your read on the game? Are you still planning to pick it up day one, or waiting on full reviews next month?
