RESOLVING THE LEDGER
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Insomniac Games Marvel's Wolverine PS5 Wolverine
Back in June during a Sony State of Play, we got our first good look at an extended gameplay sequence from Insomniac's upcoming PS5-exclusive Marvel's Wolverine . The action in it looks as bloody and messy as you'd expect from a game in which the hero is literally stabbing his claws into the bodies and skulls of his enemies. But some fans noticed that Wolverine's ripped clothing healed and repaired itself, similar to how he can rapidly heal after taking damage.
What's going on? What's the complicated, weird lore reason for this? Turns out, there is none. The devs just didn't think it was practical for Wolverine to run around practically naked for most of the game.
On August 13, a load of Wolverine previews went live across numerous sites, and from these we learned a lot about the upcoming Marvel game which is set to arrive on PS5 in September. But my favorite bit of information we gleaned from these developer previews was Insomniac's honesty about why Wolverine's suit heals itself just like the hero himself. ( You can see a good example of that in action here. ) When IGN asked Insomniac head of technology Mike Fitzgerald and senior project director Jess Reiner-Reed about the healing suit, their explanation was what you probably guessed: It just wasn't practical to have him run around half-naked.
“I think mostly there's some practicalities to it,” Fitzgerald told IGN .
“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 agreed, adding, "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 right balance was the right thing to say.”
And like, yeah, duh. While some people might wish the suit would stay damaged after each fight, there was no way that would work in a game where your main character is likely to get shot hundreds of times, stabbed over and over, and blown up by explosives frequently. Logan would be basically running around with his ass out by the end of the first mission. And while some folks would want that, I get why Insomniac and Marvel opted to just have his clothes heal. As to why? Who cares. It's a video game based on a comic book. We don't need every little detail and mechanic explained with pages of lore and diagrams. His suit regenerates because he looks cooler in it, and they didn't want him to be buck naked. Works for me.
Still, Insomniac says it has invested a lot of resources and time into making sure that suits do get damaged and ripped up during combat. It just won't be permanent.
"We invested a lot in how damage is reflected on him in his suit, on enemies and their suits," said Fitzgerald. "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."
Marvel's Wolverine arrives on PS5 on September 15, 2026.
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