Marvel’s Wolverine is now a month away, and Insomniac seems to be quite busy making up for years of silence with a deluge of information about the game.
There was that welcome announcement about its performance on the base PS5, for starters, along with the reveal that New Game+ was baked into the release build. But an interview with IGN addresses a detail that has stuck out like a sore thumb for many players who’ve been eagle-eyed enough to spot it: Logan’s self-healing suit. We did find it odd but explained it away as a nanotechnology-based solution to a problem likely faced during his early days as Wolverine. However, Insomniac chose a more straightforward answer when asked about it.
“You can’t play through most of the game wearing just shredded rags on his body,” said head of technology Mike Fitzgerald. “So we find the right balance between clothing that reflects the gameplay you’re doing and this brutal combat and the realities of that, and then finding the right moments to have it restore itself so you get that right cinematic feel of Wolverine.”
Senior project director Jess Reiner-Reed added, “Early on, you would be playing through missions, and your clothes are shredded for way too long. You don’t feel as powerful as you’re playing through. So yeah, we definitely found that [the] balance was the right thing to say.”
That does allow for a bit of cinematic realism that could blend very well with Insomniac’s vision for the game’s visceral combat.
“We invested a lot in how damage is reflected on him in his suit, on enemies and their suits. And then as you attack them, the blood sprays coming off them are some really interesting fluid tech. So it’s not just pre-baked visual effects. These are actual blood particles coming out. They hit the ground and make the exact splatter mark they would make if they land on Logan. They leave blood there. If he walks through water, it washes off and leaves blood swirls in the water,” noted Fitzgerald.
With ray tracing working by default behind the scenes, and a dark and gritty take on the beloved character in the foreground, that self-healing suit is probably going to melt away into the back of your mind once you take on whatever Logan needs to when Marvel’s Wolverine launches on September 15th.
