Here’s the short version. The main story runs 12 to 13 hours, a full playthrough with the side content included lands around 18, and that’s the shortest completionist time of any Insomniac Marvel game to date. If you were bracing for another 25-hour open-world commitment like Spider-Man 2, that’s not what this is. That’s good news for your backlog.
Marvel’s Wolverine released September 15 on PS5, priced at $69.99 standard and $79.99 Digital Deluxe, with no PC version announced at launch. Reviews landed a few days ahead of street date: 78 on both Metacritic and OpenCritic, about 73% of critics recommending it. That’s a real, solid score, and also Insomniac’s lowest in a decade, sitting well below Marvel’s Spider-Man (87), Miles Morales (85), and Spider-Man 2 (90). Critics are close to unanimous on what works (Liam McIntyre’s Logan, the character writing, a more violent and R-rated take on the material) and what doesn’t (combat that repeats itself more than it should, exploration that’s a lot more contained than Insomniac’s open-world games trained you to expect).
That last complaint is the whole reason this is worth a dedicated piece instead of a line in a roundup. Insomniac built this one differently on purpose, and it changes the backlog math.
Why This One Doesn’t Need a “What to Skip” Guide
Most of what I write in this space is about triage: which side quests earn their hours, which collectibles are worth chasing, where a 60-hour open world actually only needs 20 of you. Marvel’s Wolverine mostly removes that decision for you.
This isn’t an open-world game in the Spider-Man mold. It’s a more linear, contained, story-driven action game, and multiple outlets tracking Insomniac’s Marvel output have flagged the same thing: there’s meaningfully less side content here than in Spider-Man 2, let alone Miles Morales. The design prioritizes the narrative over an open map full of icons. That’s exactly the kind of thing that usually reads as a knock in a review (and for critics chasing more Spider-Man-scale exploration, it clearly did), but for someone managing an actual backlog, a smaller, tighter game with fewer optional systems fighting for your attention is a feature, not a bug.
Practically, that means the honest “how long to beat” answer here isn’t really “X hours if you skip everything optional.” It’s closer to “X hours, because there isn’t much optional to begin with.” The completionist time (all collectibles, side content, full clear) lands around 18 hours, which is the shortest completionist run of any Insomniac Marvel game so far, shorter even than Miles Morales, which was already the compact one in this lineup. If you’ve got a Spider-Man-shaped block of dread reserved for this game, you can let most of it go.
The Actual Numbers
Main story only: roughly 12 to 13 hours. That’s the number that shows up most consistently across playtime trackers for a player moving through the campaign without detours.
A more thorough playthrough: 15 to 17 hours. This covers a player who’s engaging with some side content and optional challenges but not chasing full completion.
Full completionist clear: around 18 hours. Every collectible, every side activity, everything the game has to offer. For comparison, Miles Morales completionists averaged closer to 18 hours as its own full number, and Marvel’s Wolverine lands in that same range despite being the newer, more combat-focused game, which tells you how much less there is to chase here relative to Insomniac’s other output.
Any of those three numbers fits inside a real week or two of evening sessions for someone with a normal job. None of them ask for a Spider-Man 2-length commitment.
What the Time Actually Buys You
The reviews are useful context for how to spend those 12 to 18 hours, not just whether to spend them at all.
If you’re going in for story and character, you’re in the right place. Liam McIntyre’s performance as Logan and the writing around him are the parts of this game that critics agree on almost without exception, and the more violent, unfiltered take on the character (backed up by 100-plus accessibility options letting you dial blood, dismemberment, and language up or down to taste) is the actual selling point, more than the open-world scale Spider-Man trained you to expect.
If you’re going in hoping for Spider-Man-level combat variety across a full campaign, temper that. The most consistent critical complaint is combat encounters that start to repeat by the back half of a 12-to-13-hour story, which is a real risk in a shorter, more linear game: less time for the design to breathe before a mechanic starts feeling familiar. Playing on a higher Challenge Level setting (the game ships with adjustable difficulty and dodge/parry timing controls) is the practical fix if repetition is your specific worry, since a sharper challenge curve tends to mask combat repetition better than an easy one does.
Is New Game Plus Worth Your Second Pass
Marvel’s Wolverine ships with New Game Plus at launch: a full replay of the campaign with your unlocked equipment, suits, claws, and abilities carried over, plus a Mission Replay option if you just want to revisit specific story beats instead of a full second run.
For most people reading this, the honest answer is: not right away, and maybe not at all. This isn’t a live-service game angling for your ongoing hours, and it isn’t trying to be. It’s a finishable, self-contained story you can close out in under 20 hours and move on from with a clean conscience, which is the exact shape of game this backlog-minded corner of the internet tends to reward. New Game Plus is there if the story pulls you back in later, not a box you need to check to feel like you got your money’s worth the first time through.
Where This Fits Your Actual Backlog
If you’ve got a 30-hour budget you’re trying to protect before the fall gets busier, Marvel’s Wolverine only asks for about half of it, and asks cleanly: one story, one real ending, no open-world checklist nagging you to come back. That’s a different kind of commitment than most of what’s competing for shelf space this season, including the 80-hour math you’re already doing for GTA 6 in November.
If you’re on PS5 and you liked what Insomniac did with the Spider-Man games, the 78 score and the 12-to-18-hour range both point the same direction: a good, tighter, more violent story that doesn’t need your whole month to finish. If repetitive combat over a short runtime is specifically the thing that’ll bother you, that’s the one honest reason to wait for a sale instead of buying day one.
Want the real time cost before you buy, every time? TAG Pro launches December 1, ad-free gaming media for adult-mode gamers. Founding seats at twoaveragegamers.com/founding.
Are you playing Wolverine for the story, or holding out to see if the combat complaints are overblown? Drop it in the comments or in the TAG Discord. I want to know if the repetition complaint holds up past the first few hours or if it’s a back-half problem specifically.
