Marvel’s Wolverine has some highly cinematic boss fights that force players to think differently about Logan’s skillset and leverage his abilities in a different way than when cutting through waves of enemies.
Marvel’s Wolverine Game Director Shares Combat Tips and How Boss Fights Force Players to Change Things up
During a recent chat with some key members of Insomniac Games about Marvel’s Wolverine, VICE had a chance to get in the weeds about the combat system, stealth, and how boss fights force players to embrace some different strategies…
VICE: How can players lean into the Rage system, Last Stand, and health recovery for a high-risk, high-reward ‘unkillable’ playstyle? What are the best ways to consistently build up the Rage bars quickly?
Mike Daly, Game Director: If you want to go high-risk high-reward, then your main focus is
getting to Rage Tier 3 and you only have to get there with enough health to be alive. With the
Savage Sprinter, Sprint Block techniques and the Enraging Sprint adaptation you can sprint into an encounter instead of Leap Attacking. Ranged attackers won’t damage you and will help build rage and opening with Savage Sprinter builds bonus rage in addition to hitting multiple enemies.
Use Knee Breaker early and often, push your Barrages as far as possible and enhance it with the Enraging Barrage adaptation, only falling back to Healing Strike if you are in danger of being knocked out.
Once you are in the fray, focus on staggering the weaker targets. After you parry a normal
enemy, follow up with a short combo that ends in Stagger Ender (hold triangle) so that you can Barrage.
You should get to Rage Tier 3 quickly, but there’s also a good chance that by pushing your luck on charged enders and barrage, you’ll have lost a lot of your health. But now you can use Healing Crit adaptation to rapidly refill. Rage Tier 3 is about getting kills as quickly as possible, so I prefer to stop parrying and prefer dodging so I can more quickly get rage-sustaining hits that get enemies to critical range quicker using Dodge Retaliate technique.
The ultimate risk-reward experience happens in New Game+ when you get the reckless
adaptations. These adaptations dramatically increase the lethality of combat in both directions, but if you are skilled enough to survive, you can clear encounters incredibly fast.
VICE: How can players leverage scent tracking, aerial takedowns, and opener synergies before a fight even breaks out?
Mike Daly, Game Director: While stalking enemies in stealth, your earned Rage doesn’t decay even in tier 2, so you’ve got some time to prowl around and keep looking for stealth kill
opportunities. On top of that, stealth takedowns give more Rage than combat kills so it’s worth your time. Enhanced Senses make your targets clear, but it’s up to you to determine the best route to them by observing the environment. If you are outdoors, keep an eye out for trees you can climb to navigate around without being spotted.
This process goes faster if you use the Stealth Leap technique, which allows you to do quieter takedowns at range and the Double Takedown technique can help take out pairs of enemies in stealth or act as a more powerful opener into combat. If you find yourself looking for these stealth opportunities often, then the Enraging Stealth adaptation combined with these techniques can get you all the way to Rage Tier 3 from the stealth phase, bringing the encounter to a swift conclusion.
VICE: The interplay between taking damage, building Rage, and triggering Healing Factor / Last Stand creates a unique combat rhythm. What tips do combat designers have for managing Rage Tier 3 and Critical Strikes during tough boss encounters or high-density mob fights?
Mike Daly, Game Director: Boss encounters have a different feel to them since there aren’t opportunities to get rage from kills and bosses are too tough to fall to a critical strike. That’s not to say it’s impossible and having a Last Stand in your pocket to survive damaging attacks and getting a damage boost from achieving tier 3 can still be valuable. Focus on the adaptations that allow you to build and sustain rage outside of kills such as Rage Longer, Enraged Barrage (mounting bosses counts as a Barrage for this benefit), then use Enraged Recharge since good Special Technique use can get you out of tight spots against bosses. Outside of the rage system, bosses generally use power attacks more frequently, so Dangerous Healing and Dodge Recharge adaptations, and the Power Attack Counter technique are extra effective.
Big encounters with tons of enemies are a different matter entirely. Large groups can easily overwhelm you, especially when elites are in the mix or they’ve activated a Coordinated Assault. At low rage tiers, prioritizing defense and positioning yourself to access lone or small groups of weak enemies on the periphery can help you start building rage. It takes time, but at Rage Tier 1 survival is the priority. At Rage Tier 3 the equation flips, this is your chance to take out tougher enemies quickly, but you’ll still want quick kills along the way to keep things going, so you should jump into groups, get a quick kill and any follow up kills from intimidation then pick an elite to take out and repeat.
VICE: What is a combat synergy or skill combination that your QA team or combat testers discovered that surprised even the design team?
Justin Steinmetz-Deer, Senior Boss Designer: The one that got me was a player who started every punish window with a charged leap attack to deal stagger, took advantage of stagger from combos, and set their adaptations to earn extra stagger. With a few parries and their play style they were able to breeze through the start of Essex.
Cullen Carns, Senior Gameplay Programmer: Two combos: Kicking an enemy off a ledge and following up with a leap attack to tackle them out of the air. Combining the barrage recharge adaptation with flying knee, creating a self feeding loop.
VICE: When players hit encounters with Ability Inhibitors or heavily armored leaders, how does that force them to re-evaluate their build and strategy mid-game?
Mike Daly, Game Director: Inhibitors are bad news for Wolverine and Reavers integrate this technology into their specialists. In addition to preventing all sources of healing, being inhibited also drains rage over time. If you are on a mission where this tech is present, it’s more valuable to use the damage reduction adaptations than healing & rage gain adaptations but the best strategy is to keep a close eye on any armored Reavers for incoming power attacks and listen for any inhibitor grenades and be ready to dodge.
VICE: Without getting into spoilers, there are some very exciting powers that unlock later in the game after some key story moments. How did the addition of that extra level of utility power change the way combat encounters were designed in the last portions of the game?
Mike Daly, Game Director: When Wolverine travels to Japan he encounters the Hand. Among other nasty tricks, they use hordes of ninjas to overwhelm you. With a certain gift used at the right time, Wolverine can punish the Hand for these horde tactics in spectacular fashion. That let us really go all out with the horde in their fortress in Mount Haku and build some massive encounters. It also enabled us to make Sentinels more unyielding in their design, since Wolverine had more tools to break through their poise.
This also unlocks a few new techniques including the ability to clap back at ranged attackers. This didn’t affect encounter design because players might opt not to get that one, but it certainly changes the dynamic of late game encounters when you have it.
Be sure to check back soon for lots more Marvel’s Wolverine and Insomniac Games news and updates.
Marvel’s Wolverine is available now exclusively on the PS5.
The post Marvel’s Wolverine Game Director Discusses Building Rage and How Combat Strategies Have To Shift for Boss Fights appeared first on VICE.
