{"id":95868,"date":"2026-10-20T11:40:00","date_gmt":"2026-10-20T15:40:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/overcentral.com\/en\/?p=95868"},"modified":"2026-09-24T11:25:23","modified_gmt":"2026-09-24T15:25:23","slug":"marvels-wolverine-short-campaign-95868","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/overcentral.com\/en\/marvels-wolverine-short-campaign-95868\/","title":{"rendered":"Marvel’s Wolverine Is Too Short: The $70 Problem"},"content":{"rendered":"

Insomniac\u2019s Marvel’s Wolverine<\/a><\/strong> lands on PS5 with a story that takes most players around 15 hours to finish. A platinum run adds maybe another hour or two. That\u2019s it. And for a $70 flagship release, that\u2019s a problem most reviewers dance around but rarely state outright. Let\u2019s state it: the game\u2019s length is a genuine flaw, not a feature, and it undermines the value proposition for anyone who isn\u2019t a die-hard X-Men fan.<\/p>\n

The Numbers \u2013 No Padding, No Excuses<\/h2>\n

Multiple sources confirm the same range. One player reports finishing the main story in \u201cjust under 15 hours\u201d and spending another hour and a half cleaning up trophies. Another player platinum the game in 16 hours total. A third mentions they \u201cfinished the story in just under 15 hours and spent another hour and a half to clean up.\u201d Even an optimistic completionist run clocks in around 20 hours.<\/p>\n

Compare that to Marvel\u2019s Spider-Man 2<\/em> (roughly 17-25 hours for 100%), God of War Ragnar\u00f6k<\/em> (35-50 hours), or any other major Sony exclusive. Wolverine<\/em> sits firmly on the short end. The linear structure leaves no room for open-world exploration, no dense side quests, and only a handful of optional nightmare challenges that add maybe 2-3 hours total. The collectibles (whiskey bottles and material crates) are glorified scavenger hunts that barely add playtime.<\/p>\n

Why Length Matters for Value<\/h2>\n

The standard argument is that quality trumps quantity. Wolverine<\/em> delivers a tight, polished, violent narrative that respects your time. That\u2019s true. But \u201crespecting your time\u201d shouldn\u2019t mean \u201cfinish in a weekend and put it down permanently.\u201d At $70, players expect either a long campaign, strong replayability, or robust post-launch content. Wolverine<\/em> offers none of those.<\/p>\n

New Game Plus exists, but it doesn\u2019t change the story or add meaningful content\u2014it just lets you carry over upgrades and tackle harder difficulty. That\u2019s a bandage, not a fix. The nightmare doors provide ranking challenges, but after you get the two exclusive suits and the hidden memory, there\u2019s little reason to revisit them. The game actively discourages exploration by keeping you on a strict linear path; one player noted they had to \u201creplay missions from the start\u201d to find missed collectibles, but even that cleanup is short.<\/p>\n

The price tag is the elephant in the room. Multiple guides explicitly tell players to \u201cwait for a sale\u201d or note that \u201cif the price is holding you back, that’s completely understandable for how short the experience is.\u201d That\u2019s not a ringing endorsement for full-price purchase.<\/p>\n

The 10-Hour Speedrun Edge Case<\/h2>\n

Here\u2019s the specific failure scenario most discussions ignore: someone playing on the default difficulty, ignoring all optional content, no exploration, no backtracking, can finish Marvel’s Wolverine<\/em> in under 10 hours. That\u2019s not a statistic pulled from a forum\u2014it\u2019s a direct observation of the game\u2019s design. The game hands you objective markers, blue scent trails, and constant waypoints. The combat is forgiving enough that a player can brute-force most encounters without mastering the systems. If you skip every collectible, every nightmare door, and every bit of lore, you can roll credits in a single evening.<\/p>\n

At 10 hours, the game costs $7 per hour of entertainment. For context, a movie ticket averages about $15 for 2 hours ($7.50\/hour), so you\u2019re roughly parallel. But a movie doesn\u2019t ask you to learn combat systems, manage upgrades, or repeat sections. A 10-hour linear action game at AAA price is a hard sell, especially when Spider-Man 2<\/em>\u2014from the same studio\u2014offers nearly double the playtime for the same cost.<\/p>\n

Where the Pro-Short Argument Falls Apart<\/h2>\n

Advocates for the short length often claim it\u2019s a \u201ctight, focused experience\u201d free from bloat. That\u2019s a fair point for some games, but Wolverine<\/em> doesn\u2019t feel tight\u2014it feels trimmed<\/em>. Moments where the camera pulls back and hints at a larger world (like the Madripoor sewer system or the Canadian wilderness) are never explored. The nightmare doors contain more interesting story lore than the main plot, suggesting cut content. Players have even found out-of-bounds areas that look like unfinished open-world hubs, complete with train tracks and NPCs that behave oddly. The infrastructure for a longer game is there, but the delivered product is a fraction of that.<\/p>\n

The combat depth argument also falters. Yes, Wolverine<\/em>\u2019s moveset becomes more complex with techniques and adaptations, but the enemy variety doesn\u2019t match. You fight the same militia goons, Reaver snipers, and lizard-creatures through the entire run. A longer campaign could have introduced more enemy types, more boss phases, and more environmental encounters. Instead, you get a relentless but shallow loop that runs out of surprises after the halfway point.<\/p>\n

The Verdict: A Good Game at the Wrong Price<\/h2>\n

Marvel’s Wolverine<\/em> is not a bad game. The combat is visceral, the story is competent, and the presentation is top-tier. But its length is a genuine liability. For completionists or trophy hunters, 15-20 hours is fine. For the average player who wants a weekend game, it works. For the customer paying full price expecting a flagship exclusive comparable to Horizon Forbidden West<\/em> or The Last of Us Part I<\/em>, it falls short.<\/p>\n

The most honest advice from players who\u2019ve finished it isn\u2019t \u201cyou must<\/a> play this now.\u201d It\u2019s \u201cwait for a sale.\u201d That single sentence says more about the game\u2019s value than any score out of ten. If you can get it for $40 or less, the length becomes acceptable. At $70, you\u2019re paying for a quality appetizer when you could get a full meal elsewhere.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Insomniac\u2019s Marvel’s Wolverine lands on PS5 with a story that takes most players around 15 hours to finish. A platinum run adds maybe another hour or two. That\u2019s it. And for a $70 flagship release, that\u2019s a problem most reviewers dance around but rarely state outright. Let\u2019s state it: the game\u2019s length is a genuine […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":96562,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com\/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcRniHdiTw-VC3loZ7qfqi4erIjomUjDqH4ejS30SO1WPj6FnhLL8xi0GD8&s=10","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-95868","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-videogames"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com\/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcRniHdiTw-VC3loZ7qfqi4erIjomUjDqH4ejS30SO1WPj6FnhLL8xi0GD8&s=10","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/overcentral.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95868","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/overcentral.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/overcentral.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/overcentral.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/overcentral.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=95868"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/overcentral.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95868\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":100894,"href":"https:\/\/overcentral.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95868\/revisions\/100894"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/overcentral.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/96562"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/overcentral.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=95868"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/overcentral.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=95868"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/overcentral.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=95868"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}