Accessibility Review: Marvel’s Wolverine – PS5 Pro
Are you a Superhero? No, kid, I’m Wolverine!
Introduction
Hello, dear friends!
PlayStation Studios, Insomniac Games, and Marvel Games have just released Marvel’s Wolverine exclusively for PS5 and PS5 Pro this week. We received a review code just one day before the actual launch, so that’s why it took me a few days to play the game and write this article for you.
The good news is that Wolverine is much more accessible for blind players than Spider-Man 2 was, and I would go as far as to say that it is 100% accessible for totally blind gamers.
But first, I must tell you that I’m not necessarily a superhero fan. I mostly like X-Men and Batman, with Spider-Man following in third place. No, I don’t particularly feel like I should love Daredevil just because I’m blind as he is.
For me, Batman: The Animated Series, The Dark Knight Trilogy, plus X-Men ’97 and the X-Men movies make up my favorite superhero entertainment. Of course, I love the Batman Arkham games, X-Men Origins: Wolverine, and the Spider-Man games from Insomniac.
So, you can imagine that when I heard in 2021 that a Wolverine game was in the works, I became quite interested.
I followed the development of the project closely, and when Insomniac announced that they would make accessibility a priority, I knew that there was hope for a blind-accessible experience.
But before we talk about accessibility, let me tell you about the story, the gameplay, and the presentation.
Story and Gameplay
For Marvel’s Wolverine, the talented people at Insomniac have written a brand-new, original, and very entertaining story featuring familiar and new characters, for me at least. I will not spoil any plot points here, but I will say that both Alina and I have enjoyed the story tremendously. Everything is nicely polished, from the mission structure to the characters that feel alive, all the way to the insane graphics and flawless voice acting.
When the game starts, we are dropped directly into claws-out, bloody action and quickly introduced to the visceral gameplay and the struggle of the X-Men.
It was quite easy to substitute the mutants that are hunted down with current-day events where people are shunned, humiliated, and discriminated against just because they are not what parts of our broken society deem as acceptable. It felt great to punish all the enemies when I thought of them as bigots who hate on others because of their skin color, sexual orientation, or gender.
It took us around 13 hours to make our way through the game, and after finishing it, we felt like this will remain for many years to come one of the best superhero games ever.
Unlike Spider-Man 2 before it, Wolverine is not an open-world game. This is exactly what we wanted, to be honest, because both Alina and I prefer focused, single-player, story-driven games to the detriment of experiences where there are too many things to do, things that will keep us away from enjoying a well-written adventure.
And what an adventure we have here!
From the wilderness of Canada to Japan and other exotic locations, Wolverine will take us through a globe-trotting journey filled with intense action and unforgettable characters.
Wolverine feels more like a blockbuster movie where we have full control of the main character, so expect an experience more similar to The Last of Us than Spider-Man 2.
As we all know, Logan, a.k.a Wolverine, is a living, breathing, killing, slicing, and dicing machine. Using his adamantium claws and different skills and abilities, he is almost unstoppable, especially when combined with his healing powers. But, as formidable as he is, Logan is a complicated, deeply broken, and feral individual.
Throughout his adventures, we will discover parts of him that he has tried to keep hidden for decades.
The gameplay is intense, fluid, addictive, and rewarding. It truly feels amazing dropping from above on unsuspecting enemies, completing high-octane set pieces, and making hamburger meat out of all the not-so-nice people we meet along the way.
There are a lot of things to customize. From skills to costumes and even claws, we can find the best combination to suit our playing style.
We also loved the inclusion of character bios, which can be easily read using the excellent TTS feature.
Presentation
Marvel’s Wolverine is a visual and auditory feast! Alina tells me that the graphics are insanely detailed, with character models and levels looking amazing.
As I said above, the voice acting is flawless and, in combination with the shiny presentation, really delivers an atmospheric, immersive, and highly entertaining experience.
Add to that excellent implementation of the still unmatched DualSense controller, and Wolverine springs to life in our hands thanks to spatial sound, natural haptics, and satisfying adaptive triggers.
Accessibility
Marvel’s Wolverine is the most accessible superhero game, and that includes blind players.
Insomniac Games have taken all the excellent universal design and previous accessibility work from Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart and Spider-Man 2 and have made sure the barriers from those games are almost nonexistent in Wolverine.
The game boots up with Screen Narration enabled, and from there it is a breeze to explore the over 100 accessibility features available.
From the excellent Text to Speech, to Audio Descriptions, and all the way to Navigation, Traversal and Chase Assists, plus Target Lock and a comprehensive Audio Cues system, which will be quite familiar for any blind or visually impaired player that has tried The Last of Us, Spider-Man 2 and God of War Ragnarök, Wolverine really fires on all cylinders.
The interact, attack, dodge, lock-on target, and many other sounds are the same or variations of those that were introduced by these revolutionary and accessible experiences.
The development team has made sure that not only blind gamers can play Wolverine, as the game offers options that can benefit low-vision players, with larger text, character and item outlines, and high contrast.
Players with limited mobility will also be happy to find options to change button mashes to taps or holds. Quick-time events can be simplified or done automatically, and there are difficulty choices that will allow almost anyone to play the game.
Fellow gamers with hearing impairments can take advantage of captions, directional arrows for subtitles, and other such features.
For a full list of accessibility features, I recommend that you check out my Accessibility Deep Dive video or the Accessibility article on my blog.
I have also recorded a Gameplay video where I show exactly how the game works for blind players, as well as a video in which I go through all the Sound Cues in the game.
To be clear, Navigation Assist can sometimes be inaccurate, but with patience, I always found a way to move forward.
This is the most complete suite of accessibility features in a game, and it is very much appreciated by disabled and impaired players.
As some of you may already know, both Alina and I work at Nydalen Voksenopplæring, a special school for adults with disabilities and impairments here in Oslo. Over the last two years, we have been running a pilot program with a gaming and LEGO room where our participants, including people who are totally blind like me, visually impaired, or physically disabled, can experience accessible games and LEGO activities.
We are really excited to introduce them to Wolverine after sharing with them games like The Last of Us Part I and II, God of War Ragnarök, Spider-Man 2, and many other titles that either come with great accessibility options or that we have been able to make accessible through customizable controls and the Copilot function on PlayStation and Xbox.
Conclusion
Marvel’s Wolverine is our favorite game of 2026 so far and definitely the most immersive and entertaining superhero adventure. We loved every second of it, and to all the haters I will say just, get a life!
Insomniac Games has raised the bar even higher for both entertainment and accessibility with Wolverine, and I really can’t wait to see what’s next from them!
Wolverine will delight and entertain any gamer with common sense and an appetite for quality experiences.
Thank you, Insomniac Games and PlayStation Studios, for continuing to push high-quality games and accessibility further than ever before, and please always use Descriptive Video Works to write and record the audio descriptions for your titles. This is how you show your blind fans that you respect us!
If you are a fan of X-Men, action games, or just want to have a great time with one of the most excellent games of this generation, get Marvel’s Wolverine. You won’t be disappointed!
Review copy provided by Insomniac Games via PlayStation Norway.
Victor Dima
