In recent years, Marvel games have been going through a bit of a resurgence alongside the wild success of the MCU, but one developer in particular has shown off a true talent for adapting the action and adventure of comic books into some truly great games.
Insomniac has been responsible not only for amazing franchises like Rachet & Clank and Spyro the Dragon but also for the Playstation exclusive Spiderman and Miles Morales. Both of these games received rave reviews on release and demonstrated Insomniac’s aptitude for comic-book games, which is being capitalized on in the best way possible. During today’s Playstation Showcase, Insomniac got to show off not one, but two new Marvel games: Spiderman 2 and Wolverine.
Spiderman 2 is the first direct sequel to 2018’s Spiderman and will follow both Peter Parker and Miles Morales as they’re pitted against Venom, one of the wall-crawler’s most notorious enemies that fans have been looking for ever since he was teased in the first game’s post-credits scenes. The trailer also features a voice talking to both Spidermen about all the enemies he’s faced: A voice that might just belong to Kraven the Hunter, another of Spiderman’s classic villains who has dedicated his life to hunting Spidey and proving himself the ultimate wild-man. While Kraven wasn’t confirmed in the trailer, we did get an up-close and personal look at this game’s iteration of Venom, teeth and all.
According to an official blog post, he’ll be voiced by the Candyman himself: Tony Todd, who’s voice has been fueling nightmares now for generations, so fans can rest assured that this longstanding fan favorite will be done justice in Spiderman 2. The trailer gave the game a 2023 release date, which you can see for yourself below.
Insomniac also revealed Wolverine during the showcase, a new game which will take place in the same shared universe as all three Spiderman games. Insomniac explained that “both [Wolverine and Spiderman] feel deeply compelled to defend people who are less able to do so,” which inspired them to pitch Marvel the idea. The game will be helmed by Brian Horton (creative director) and Cameron Christian (game director), both of whom are returning after working on Spiderman: Miles Morales.
The game is still early in development, but Insomniac has promised that so far the game’s “emotional narrative and cutting-edge gameplay” is already looking promising. You can watch the teaser for Wolverine below.
Wolverine does not have a release window at time of writing. Both games will be exclusive to the Playstation 5.