Insomniac Reveals the Real Reason Wolverine's Suit Repairs Itself

One of the biggest surprises from the June State of Play gameplay reveal for Marvel's Wolverine was seeing Logan's suit heal itself right along with his body. This sparked quite a debate among fans, with some calling it silly. Reactions ranged from "Wow, even his suit has a healing factor!" to jokes about nanomachines, and some even speculated about in-universe explanations, like Reed Richards being involved.

So, when we sat down with Insomniac's head of technology, Mike Fitzgerald, and senior project director, Jess Reiner-Reed, to discuss all things Wolverine, we had to ask: what's the deal with Logan's suit?

It turns out there's no deep lore explanation. Instead, Insomniac aimed to balance the visual impact of Wolverine's brutal combat with the practical needs of gameplay.

"I think mostly there are practicalities to it," Fitzgerald said. "You can't play through most of the game wearing just shredded rags. So we find the right balance between clothing that reflects the gameplay and the brutal combat, and then find the right moments to have it restore itself for that cinematic Wolverine feel."

Reiner-Reed echoed that, saying, "Early on, you'd play through missions with your clothes shredded for too long, and you don't feel as powerful. So we definitely found that the right balance was the way to go."

Some fans have said they'd like to see suit damage persist or get worse over time. But remember, this is Wolverine—given how much damage he takes, and how that's part of his combat style, he'd probably end up naked after five minutes of action.

Even though suit damage doesn't stick around, Insomniac still created a detailed damage system for each suit in the game to show damage in different ways.

"We invested a lot in how damage is reflected on him, his suit, and enemies," Fitzgerald explained. "And as you attack, the blood sprays from enemies use some really interesting fluid tech. It's not pre-baked effects; these are actual blood particles. They hit the ground and make the exact splatter marks they would if they landed on Logan. They leave blood there, and if he walks through water, it washes off and leaves blood swirls."

We have plenty more from our big interview with Insomniac about Marvel's Wolverine. And don't forget to check out our hands-on preview ahead of the game's September release.