‘We're incentivizing you to be aggressive.’ I got up close and personal with Marvel’s Wolverine and left covered in gore

It took 127 blood-splattered minutes for 2024’s outrageously violent flick Deadpool & Wolverine to reach a kill count of 178.

In my two-hour preview of Insomniac’s Marvel’s Wolverine , I’m pretty sure it took even less time to match it.

The game starts with a delirious murder spree against the forces of human supremacist Bolivar Trask on the Asian island of Talenbang, who has taken Team X’s leader Nathaniel Essex captive.

I’m soon slicing arms off in brutal finishing moves and pummeling their insides into paste with barrage attacks.

When I get to staggering foes into the blast radius of a nearby grenade, turning them into a mushy pile of goo, it’s abundantly clear this isn’t your friendly neighbourhood Wolverine.

It’s an impressively percussive, weighty combat system.

With Wolverine’s adamantium skeleton in mind, I’d describe it as heavy metal combat.

Rip and tear (Image credit: Sony) At first, soldiers are summarily dispatched with a chain of light attacks and a heavy attack finisher.

Later, in Canada, shield-bearing Reavers demand an initial kick before a five-knuckled skewer to the sternum.

And the Hand, red-gowned ninjas recently spotted in Spider-Man: Brand New Day , come with longer blades of their own, sometimes left lodged in Wolverine’s body to impede him until it either falls out or he rips it out to furiously stab an enemy.

The environment plays an important role too, whether you’re knocking hapless enemies off a rooftop or slamming them into a wall to leave them vulnerable to a barrage attack sure to relieve them of their entrails.

Those enemies often come prepared, with mutant power inhibitors locking Logan’s regeneration unless you target the machines first — either by stealth or all-out assault. (Image credit: Sony) Wolverine’s slower speed meant I took a few more hits than I needed when I couldn’t cancel attacks to dodge an incoming blow or use a Hurricane move to clear my vicinity.

But once I’d adjusted to the pace (and learned how crucial the leap attack is for staying in combat), I was stringing together brutal extended combos to the point that Devil May Cry ’s style meter wouldn’t have gone amiss.

In my one-man blood donation campaign, I’m building up my rage meter.