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There's an epidemic spreading across the video game industry. A virus of COVID-like proportions which seeks to stupefy and sedate us all. I'm talking, of course, about hand-holding. I bought this for $150 and used it for a 10-second gag in one video. Now, holding hands is something I do with the homies in a totally not gay way just to make sure that they're safe. But, in video games, hand-holding is a phrase that I see being used much more frequently with a negative connotation. What exactly is hand-holding? Well, you know, it's anything like excessive or overt tutorials, pop-ups, directional arrows, any dialogue that's explicitly written to
guide the player and serves no purpose other than that. That's a generator. In some cases, dialogue that just outright explains game mechanics or highlights enemy weak points. Stealth kill. Oh my god! What the heck? Never seen this before. At the center of this hand-holding epidemic is Insomniac's newest title, Wolverine, which has become the latest victim of the gaming community's ceaseless tomato span. So, today I wanted to dive deeper into this topic, not just to dunk on Wolverine, but to examine all of those parts of it that people really dislike and apply that to a broader sense across the industry. I want to answer some important questions like when does
hand-holding become a problem and more importantly, why? How come it feels like games are getting more dumb and dumber? [screaming] Guys! And how does Wolverine exemplify the worst parts of this issue? Let's take a closer look. But first, this video be sponsored by Once Human, a post-apocalyptic survival game set in a bizarre, intriguing world, which is only getting bigger with their latest expansion, Isles of Abyss, introducing a massive new world, a series of islands to explore, and a whole host of new Lovecraftian enemies to fight. If you wish to sail these treacherous seas, you best be prepared. Once Human lets you craft your own boat, whether it's a small dinghy, a luxury yacht, or a floating fortress. Not only can you fish
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the description or pinned comment, download Once Human, I'll hook you up with an ocean survival pack and a variety of other goodies to get you started. So, thank you, Once Human, for sponsoring this video. And now for something completely different. To answer the broader question, I think we need to ask ourselves, why is Wolverine getting so much criticism? Of course, big shout-outs have to go to Skill Up in his fantastic review, which kick-started this conversation and highlighted a lot of issues the game had. His video actually has more views than any of the Wolverine trailers. So, it would seem people are more interested in dunking on this game than they are having a blast playing it.
There's also this weird theory that like Insomniac sent out a bunch of bots to say they were having a blast with Wolverine. I mean, can't corroborate nothing, but it is an interesting pattern. Now, Wolverine looks like your typical action-adventure beat 'em up, and that is like the simplest genre, and I mean that in a good way. Like, that's a hard game to screw up. So, how did they manage that? Well, let's talk about visuals. By visuals, I mean clutter. There's a lot of garbage on screen in this game. Now, I remember when Fable 2 came out back in Oh, what was it? 2008? About 1,000 years ago. And it had this like pretty revolutionary and new
breadcrumb trail that would lead you to certain objectives. I thought this was super cool, and it made total sense to me as an RPG with a bigger world, side quests, and all sorts of things to discover. This breadcrumb trail does not make any sense in a game that is mostly linear, where the level design makes the path forward extremely obvious. You can tell they realized how bad they [__] up with this like scent trail, because they updated it to make it less obstructive. Bro, I can see the trash can. You could not miss the point more if you tried. Subsequently, Insomniac came out with another update because the first one wasn't enough, which then allowed you to remove this trail entirely. Yes, we're getting updated breadcrumb
breadcrumb trail nurse. Like, this is the type of update you'll only see in a modern video game. Now, you might think this little blue trail is a very like minor complaint, but it represents something much bigger because the trailers they showed off for Wolverine did not show this mechanic, and the game looked fine. In fact, it looked kind of better, at least gameplay-wise. So, somebody at the studio inten- either intentionally hid this mechanic or included it after the fact because they thought the level design was too complicated that maybe the people who purchased this game, you know, have some kind of severe brain damage. I don't know. Stuff like this makes me think of the first time I played World of Warcraft
and what it was like playing that and exploring this massive MMO RPG. Like all the maps covered in a fog of war. Sometimes you only have a vague idea of where to go on a quest and I think it's that feeling of discovery that made that game so addicting and you were encouraged to explore. And even linear games can accomplish that as well. Take Dead Space 2 for example. Obviously Wow and Wolverine are much different games, but it's like here's an example, chests. They show off this very big like sonar ping. I think this is lore accurate because one of Wolverine's most iconic powers is that of a radar dish. It's almost like the designers are saying, "Don't bother looking around.
Just go to this big blue glowy point. That's That's where the fun is." Certain upgrades and power-ups are scattered about haphazardly with no rhyme or reason and no sense of reward for discovering them. Now, I want to point out there's a very big difference between accessibility and hand-holding. Accessibility is something that like nobody actually complains about. Unless you're some guy who's just like, "Man, I just I really hate color blind people. I just those [__] freeloaders, man. They shouldn't make a color blind mode that's completely optional." Like nobody is like that.
Right? Adding optional accessibility features is perfectly fine, but it's when you force those features onto every single player and do not give them the option to change it, that's when it becomes hand-holding. You see, it's it's all about implementation. If you make these trails a option in the menus, turn it off by default, but allow players to turn it on, then there's no problem at all and you don't have tweets on Twitter making fun of you and getting like 155,000 likes. You don't have to deal with that. Just make it an option. But because they did the opposite of that, it's like someone took the controller away from you and said, "No, no, no, you're too dumb to figure it out.
Here, I'm turning on these options. You can't turn them off." This is on by default. It is a game mechanic. It's a core component, okay? It would be like asking to remove Wolverine's arms. You just can't. But they removed it for promotional purposes, which tells you a lot. There is a huge difference between the trailers and the final product, between expectation and reality. Too many to highlight. It boggles the mind because handholding is It's like an issue that you have to go out of your way to create. So, the
simplest solution is to just make these mechanics and features optional. You see, many games include a story mode difficulty and you don't hear too many people complaining about that, you know? And it's where the game just basically plays itself. The bottom line is players enjoy having a choice or some kind of input over what kind of experience they have. To illustrate how silly Wolverine is, like imagine releasing a game that's just black and white. It's just tinted. Not mouse PI for hire. That's an artistic idea. Okay, imagine a game that's permanently set on colorblind mode and you can't change it.
It's hard to imagine that because nobody would make a game like that. They also put nav markers on the blue trail You have directions to your directions, a map to a map. $70 for a Subway Surfers game with action breaks. That's brutal. Oh, and you got to love that every grabbable surface has white paint smeared all over it. Even the zip lines have white rags and paint and in the rare chance it somehow you don't see any of this, well, there's flashing lights and torches to guide you. It's like at this point the hand-holding is becoming a massive detriment to the art style. Like think about how intrusive and bad this issue has to be that
the visuals of your game are objectively and negatively impacted. Who is the mad architect, the crazy electrician in the X-Men universe behind all these flashing lights all over these cliffs and whatnot? It's almost unbelievable when you watch or play this game for any length of time, you know? Think about this. Hand-holding is also screwing with the AI. What's the most important info to have on screen for a time trial section? The clock. Yet, that's much smaller than the objective, which just says run to the end. Like the way every bit of information is conveyed to the player is so incredibly dumb.
These are the types of things that in a good game you aren't meant to notice or think about. Between all the obnoxious visual indicators, uh Insomniac has successfully robbed the player of any chance to discover something interesting on their own. It robs the player of the chance to think, to work through a problem, or, you know, play through a level on their own without someone yanking the leash along. Wolverine takes what makes playing video games so satisfying, problem-solving, and removes that from the equation completely, resulting in a game that just isn't fun. You see, Wolverine is a game that sometimes plays itself. If you want to diffuse any and all tension, oh, please,
please don't bother programming fail states for certain parts of your game. This is wild. I mean, just 2 months ago Halo Campaign Evolved had a space battle sequence where you're told to defend an allied ship, and if you do nothing, you win anyways. How do these issues keep like multiplying across the industry? Wolverine has multiple sections that can be beaten without any input from the player. These are the most baffling of all. And you have to wonder who on earth, if anyone, tested this. Hey, this motorcycle sequence doesn't have a fail state. Doesn't that sound like internal feedback a tester would give? This is some Luigi wins by doing nothing type
AND THOSE CLIPS ARE ENDEARING because the AI is on the easiest difficulty, and Mario Party is a 25-year-old game. It's also not a game that's really meant to be taken seriously. But Wolverine is trying to be. I mean, even if the enemies attack you during these motorcycle sequences, like they can't defeat you. It's like there are quick time events in this game that are completely optional. I think Phoenix Wright would call that a contradiction. It's like you're not even trusting the player to push the buttons on their controller when they appear on screen. The whole point of a QTE is to invoke player reaction, to test your reflexes. Imagine if an RE4 Leon escaped every grapple automatically. It's It's just a joke. And again, it's not clear.
Was this hand-holding because they didn't want people to fail the QTEs? Or because they didn't want to program and animate what happens if you fail? It's truly remarkable once you start to analyze all these hand-holding mechanics and how they magnify every flaw in the game design. Like you have this motorcycle chase sequence and motorcycle chase is like peanut butter and jelly. Like you cannot go wrong putting those two together. But you can see how for some players all that effort put into the spectacle of this sequence completely falls flat because they're testing to see if it can really be beaten without touching their controller.
Fell asleep and forgot to pause Wolverine and now the game's completed. 155,000 likes. Of course, Wolverine also contains one of the hottest new tropes in modern gaming, what I like to call the focus M dialogue. Focus M. Bowser's got the power stars and you know what that means. Yeah, trouble. It's been around for a while, but the idea of a player character kind of like narrating or reminding the player what they should be doing is nothing new, but it's gotten to a point where it's just so repetitive and unnecessary. Ground state bread. The blight must be infecting the soil. If you're wondering why Wolverine has been like this perfect cocktail of backlash and criticism, well, the state
of PlayStation certainly has a big part to do with that. Since announcing their evil plans to eliminate physical discs and embrace an all-digital future, they have taken the low cow championship trophy away from Xbox and show no signs of relinquishing it. You see, a lot was riding on Marvel's Wolverine because it's the latest exclusive game released by PlayStation. People are just in a mood to hate on Sony and PlayStation and for good reason. They recently traded Hideo Kojima to Microsoft's Xbox for nothing. No money and no draft picks. Uh yeah, here, just take our star player free of charge. Interesting. PlayStation has been struggling and they really needed to find any kind of W to distract
people from how awful they're becoming. Wolverine is not that W. This feels like the type of movie tie-in game that's made in like a year. It's It's mostly meant to be rented at the local game store or whatever, played for a weekend and then, you know, forgotten about. It's It seems like a six out of 10 game that was treated as some like massive let's let's bank all the chips on that. And what you got in your hand is like a 6-7 offsuit. I think the backlash to Wolverine was preempted by Halo Campaign Evolved. It really prepared us for all of this hand-holding tutorialization to be taken to the next level.
You can get behind him. One melee hit to the back will neutralize most hostiles. Really? Halo 1 is arguably the most accessible first-person shooter ever made as its control scheme on console has served as the gold standard for the last 25 years. So, introducing dialogue which verbally reminds players of their objective despite that objective also being on screen at all times. You see what I mean? Like these are the weird bizarre contradictions that happen when hand-holding is such a focal point rather than a convenient option. So, with all this in mind, I want to ask you, are games getting dumber? Is this merely a microcosm of a bigger change in publisher priority? Maybe this started a
long time ago. I mean, the best example of games getting dumber is probably real-time strategies. They used to be super popular, but to be any amount of good, you have to understand different control groups and you're constantly swapping between your base production buildings and units and you know, it's it'd be a whole lot simpler if players only had to control one unit. That's where mobile has came along. I think maybe there's there's a bit of an industry shift towards simplification, dumbification, etc. Additionally, TikTok might have done some serious damage killing off our society's collective attention span. Vine got that started for sure.
Roadwork ahead. Uh yeah, I sure hope it does. So perhaps games are being designed like TikTok. Uh low bar to entry, something extremely easy and straightforward to digest. Hand-holding is such an epidemic because the bottom line is that it just treats the player like they're stupid. As a kid, even I thought Dora the Explorer was annoying. It's like yeah, of course Swiper's right there. What are you talking about? But as an adult, I realized that some kids aren't fortunate enough to grow up with Blue's Clues. Hand-holding is something like we're we're taught as children, right? To not get splattered across the pavement like
Frogger. So when you have a product that's marketed at a mature audience like Halo or Wolverine, but then treats them like a child, that's why there's backlash. Something we shouldn't ignore though is how inflated and astronomical video game budgets have ballooned to. Like this is a $300 beat 'em up and that budget puts Wolverine within the top 20 list of most expensive films ever made. Like why are you putting so much money into this? And where did that money go? Could it be that because some of these games have such massive budgets that s- these studios feel they have to dumb their games down to appeal to the widest demographic possible? As if keeping the game incredibly easy will keep my attention. $300 million, that sounds
like 300 million pounds of pressure put on the studio to deliver a massive financial success. I guess it all comes back to greed and profits. That's the reason everything is the way it is. Money is the root of all evil, as Eminem once said. I do think it's important for the gaming community to criticize games like Wolverine. Because, you know, we want our message to be heard that it's okay to challenge us. It's okay for us to be surprised, frustrated. Look at how successful Elden Ring was, a game that made it a point not to hold your hand. You know, sometimes a dog just needs to be taken to the park and let off the leash. You got to let that pupper roam free without constraints.
Let him frolic in the field, [__] wherever he wants. And sometimes us humans are no different. So, to summarize, the hand-holding epidemic didn't start or end with Wolverine, but it was highlighted. The issue is not in making games accessible or putting in a bunch of tutorials, but rather how you implement them. Wolverine simply took every other popular idea and threw it all into a blender without any regard for how it would work together or not. [snorts] And if you can sit back and watch a video game play itself, why not watch a streamer? Why not watch a Wolverine movie? You know, that guy is pretty popular. I'm sure he's been in quite a few films. So, the bottom line is people are hating on Wolverine
because Insomniac and PlayStation made it so easy to. This being their only major exclusive besides Marathon is not a good look. PlayStation has been torching their brand every single day, and this is just more fuel for the fire. It shows no signs of sputtering out, but what do you think? Agree or disagree with what I said? As always, let me know your thoughts and opinions in the comments below. Like the video if you enjoyed it, and subscribe to The Act Man for more awesome content. All right, everyone, that's all I got for today. This is The Act Man signing out. Peace.
