Does Wolverine Have Too Much Blood?

When I saw Wolverine in action for the first time (and not that infamous leak, but how Insomniac wanted the game to be seen), one thing that stood out to me besides a very old-school, sort of PS2-era-but-not-really approach to action game design, was how much blood there was splattering everyone. I mean, it makes sense. Whether it’s Wolverine, the comic book hero, or the wolverine, the animal species, they’re both ferocious, and the jury is out on which one is more. But there was still something unsettling about blood there that I couldn’t immediately figure out.

I don’t really enjoy violence in video games, unless it’s very absurd and abstract to the point where it’s hardly violence, but I’m no prude on this. I played Mortal Kombat, Soldier of Fortune, Manhunt and others around the time they came out and wasn’t that unsettled, even if occasionally it didn’t feel pretty. So Wolverine having that effect on me made me reflect, and I now realize it’s just how video game violence needs to have progressively higher fidelity over time to really repel me. And I suspect others, too.

Most big-budget productions are safe by nature. They don’t really go for excessive blood for no reason. But Wolverine had to. And Wolverine had to also feature some very advanced rendering techniques and material interactions. It’s a PlayStation Studios production, after all, they pride themselves in that. And as a result, the game looks too real and too ridiculous at the same time, creating that infamous uncanny impression I can’t get over right away. I’m sure once Wolverine looks reasonably outdated, it won’t be an issue, but it might take a while now with how hardware returns are really diminishing these days.