// KOTAKU — GAMING
Why Wolverine Players Are Crashing Out About The Game’s Motorcycle Segment That ‘Plays Itself’
Marvel’s Wolverine has been out for a day, and while I thought the game was mostly fine, the latest superhero action game from Insomniac was already coming in with a lot of negative momentum for perceptions among some that the game is aggressively handholdy, thanks to its linear structure and its insistence on giving players a literal scent trail leading to their objective. However, now that more people are playing the game, more of the little ways the game almost “plays itself” are getting under players’ skin, and has people sharing a specific sequence where Logan takes part in a heated motorcycle chase as indicative of all the game’s problems.
While some fans are debating the legitimacy of such criticisms, one fundamental truth is that many of Wolverine’s quick-time event segments, which usually have Logan doing sick stunts in not-so-interactive action scenes if the player presses a button, do not actually require player input to complete. Historically, QTEs have had a fail state. Misclick during an action sequence in the tie-in game for the 2007 film Spider-Man 3, for instance, and Peter would faceplant and catch on fire while a hostage realized that she was about to be similarly cooked. Wolverine, however, puts button prompts onscreen mostly as decoration, because if you miss the window or press the wrong button, Logan is still going to do whatever cool thing he was going to do.
Insomniac's Wolverine automatically completes quick time events for the players if they miss them byu/Least-Path-2890 invideogames
In Wolverine, several sequences play out largely the same regardless of whether or not you respond to the prompts in time, and the illusion of input shatters in some segments if you simply don’t press a button. (This is true regardless of whether or not you turn on the QTE autocomplete option in the game’s accessibility features.) You might get a slight variation, such as in an arm wrestling scene against Sabretooth where Logan doesn’t seem to get the upper hand if you choose not to press any of the game’s button prompts, but ultimately, there aren’t exactly major consequences for failing to button mash.
Completing VS Failing QTE in the Sabertooth Arm Wrestling sequence in Marvel Wolverine pic.twitter.com/6kEi6VWnmW
However, it’s not like missing QTEs throughout the game have no tangible effect. In some cases, Logan will take damage he doesn’t have to, which will put players at a disadvantage when they get into a proper scrap later in the level.
Replying to @ksbryce #fyp #viral #trending #wolverine #wolverineps5
In these cases, it comes down to a debate about whether or not failing a QTE should result in an immediate game over or just inflict one of a thousand cuts that might lead you to dying later. Whatever your feelings on the matter, saying that none of Wolverine’s QTEs have any consequence is false, but it’s definitely true that there are segments in the game that will “play themselves.”
Outside of the QTEs, one segment that is going viral on social media is a motorcycle chase in which Logan hops on a chopper and pursues a truck carrying captive mutants. Some clips are circulating of people not actually playing the game during this section, letting Wolverine barrel down the roads on autopilot. The idea is that you steer left and right to avoid incoming cars and make quick turns. However, as some have discovered, Logan can bounce between guardrails and eventually reach the end without player input.
He CAN die. You do not need to control the bike. https://t.co/76EI4lDAy8 pic.twitter.com/6mPKHnxNne