Insomniac Explains Why Wolverine’s Suit Heals Itself

One of the big talking points coming out of the June State of Play gameplay reveal for Marvel’s Wolverine revolved around Logan’s suit healing alongside his body. This caused quite the kerfuffle within the community, with some fans saying it looks silly.

“Wow, even his suit has a healing factor!” was one reaction to the gameplay. “NANOMACHINES, SON,” another joked. Some have even suggested in-universe explanations for why Wolverine’s suit heals itself (Reed Richards might have been involved!).

So, when we got the chance to sit down with Mike Fitzgerald, head of technology at Insomniac, and senior project director Jess Reiner-Reed to talk about all things Wolverine recently, we had to ask: what’s going on with Logan’s suit?

Rather than there being some deep cut lore explanation the developers drew from, Insomniac set out to achieve a balance between showing the effects of Wolverine’s brutal combat and the practicality of the gameplay.

“I think mostly there’s some practicalities to it,” Fitzgerald began. “You can’t play through most of the game wearing just shredded rags on his body. 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.”

Reiner-Reed doubled down on this strive for a balance. “Early on you would be playing through missions and your clothes are shredded for way too long,” she said. “You don’t feel as powerful as you’re playing through. So yeah, we definitely found that right balance was the right thing to say.”

I’ve seen plenty of people say they would like to see suit damage remain, or progressively get worse. But let’s remember this is Wolverine we’re talking about. Given how much damage he takes, and how taking damage is kind of the way his combat works, he’d probably end up naked after about five minutes of action.

So, while suit damage does not hang about, Insomniac still had to create a damage pipeline and process for each suit in the game to show the damage that does occur in different ways.

“We invested a lot in how damage is reflected on him in his suit, on enemies and their suits,” Fitzgerald explained. “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.”

We’ve got plenty more on Marvel’s Wolverine from our big interview with Insomniac. And don’t forget to check out our hands-on preview ahead of the game’s September launch.

Wesley is Director, News at IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at [email protected] or confidentially at [email protected].