With two games already under its belt, and one more right around the corner, Insomniac Games has certainly proven that it can handle the Marvel license. Apparently given the key to any Marvel character it desired, Insomniac Games' passion for the character of Spider-Man is on full display in both Marvel's Spider-Man games, and hopefully, that same passion will carry through to the studio's upcoming Marvel's Wolverine.
Announced back in September 2021, Insomniac Games has been pretty tight-lipped about Marvel's Wolverine, refusing to divulge just about any details concerning the title's gameplay, story, or characters. But while nothing's been confirmed so far, it seems safe to assume that Marvel's Wolverine will borrow a good few features and mechanics from Insomniac's Spider-Man titles, and one of those will hopefully be the games' engaging approach to collectibles.
Marvel's Wolverine Should Take Spider-Man's Approach to Collectibles
In many open-world games, players will often find themselves scouring the map for collectibles solely because they're another thing to tick off on the game's long list of activities. In better open-world titles, these collectibles will reward the player with either neat little tidbits of lore that expand the game's universe and story, or they reward them with something like XP. Marvel's Spider-Man offers both.
Almost every type of collectible in Marvel's Spider-Man has an express purpose and reward, consistently encouraging the player to spend time seeking out every last one. Spider-Man's backpacks are a great example of this. Throughout the game, players will stumble upon a slew of backpacks strewn across New York City. All of these backpacks have belonged to Peter Parker over the years, and as such, each one contains a neat piece of memorabilia from his past adventures. Not only does the player receive special XP tokens for finding each backpack, which are then used to upgrade Spidey's abilities and gadgets, but they also gain a key bit of insight into this version of Peter Parker and this specific Marvel universe.
Marvel's Spider-Man's landmark collectibles are another excellent example of the game's compelling approach to collectibles. Throughout the game, players will be encouraged to stop off at some of the most iconic locations in New York City and take a quick picture. These, again, provide XP tokens used for upgrades, but they also double as a way to teach players about their surroundings, whether it's iconic real-world sites like the Empire State Building or in-universe locations like Avengers Tower and the Sanctum Sanctorum. Almost every collectible in Marvel's Spider-Man, and to some extent its sequel, rewards the player with easter eggs, references, lore, and actual gameplay benefits, making them a delight to find. And to top it all off, Marvel's Spider-Man also gives players a handful of unique Spidey suits for completing some of its collectible quests, such as the Spider-Man: Homecoming homemade suit for collecting every backpack.
While it might not be the first feature fans want Marvel's Wolverine to borrow, it certainly wouldn't hurt the game to include a variety of compelling collectibles. Much like Marvel's Spider-Man, Wolverine's collectibles should reward players on multiple levels. These side activities should give the player not only a handful of XP points to put toward Logan's skill tree, but also some engaging insights into this version of the character, and the world he inhabits. Even more so than Spider-Man, Marvel's Wolverine's collectibles should be jam-packed with references to the wider Marvel universe, with a lot of additional information about the X-Men needing to be delivered in an engaging way, filling in any gaps in the characters' history that the main narrative doesn't cover.
Marvel's Wolverine is currently in development for the PlayStation 5.
