Insomniac Games' new title, "Marvel's Wolverine," has recently sparked discussion due to its in-game "scent tracking" effect. The trails appear behind the character Logan is tracking, leading The Washington Post reporter Gene Park to jokingly refer to them as "fart gas." Some players have begun requesting an option to completely disable the feature.
The controversy even extended to the game's accessibility settings. While the developers offer options like "chase assist" to reduce target movement speed, there's currently no setting to directly disable the scent trails. This led some to mistakenly believe the effect would be constantly active throughout the game.
In response, James Stevenson, Insomniac's Director of Community and Marketing, clarified: "The scent trails aren't always on. They represent Logan's mutant super-senses and his peak tracking abilities within the canon."
He further explained that the trails only appear when Logan is tracking specific scents or sounds, including people, whiskey, or other clues. This is typically limited to story and mission segments, as well as when detecting nearby collectibles.
However, some players still feel that these visual cues "hold the player's hand" too much, even comparing them to the "yellow paint navigation" commonly seen in past games. They hope the feature could be changed to be actively triggered by pressing R3.
Stevenson later added that if players want to find hidden collectibles, they still need to explore on their own and get within a certain range before Logan can detect sounds or scents. Therefore, players won't receive full navigation from the outset.
via： IGN