Insomniac Confirms Marvel's Wolverine Performance Mode Details

Insomniac has revealed an impressive performance mode for Marvel’s Wolverine on the base PlayStation 5.

Speaking to IGN, the Sony-owned developer said 60 frames-per-second with ray tracing is the default mode on base PS5 — a first for Insomniac.

“From early on in development, we knew we wanted to make this 60 FPS, working on the base PS5 in performance mode,” senior project director Jess Reiner-Reed said. “And we've definitely been able to accomplish that. The game feels super smooth.”

Mike Fitzgerald, head of technology at Insomniac, added: “We've always had these fidelity and performance modes, and then we always sort of last minute get the performance mode with ray tracing and like, ‘But this is pretty good...’ And so for this game from the start, we said, ‘You know what? We know we're confident we can ship this now. This is going to be a 60 frames per second game with ray tracing as the PS5 should have. We're going to build the game around this and towards this.’ And it's the default mode for the first time for us in one of our games. It’s important for the presentation.”

60 FPS with ray tracing as default on base PS5 is sure to go down well with players, especially considering the combat-heavy nature of Marvel’s Wolverine. Having that responsiveness is sure to help when it comes to nailing combos and tearing up enemies.

Elsewhere, Insomniac pushed the boat out when it comes to graphics performance in Marvel’s Wolverine, but it presented a very different opportunity compared to the Spider-Man games the developer is known for.

“Spider-Man's a very urban city based title,” Fitzgerald said. “We invest a lot in technology to represent that. And then Marvel’s Wolverine takes us outside the city. We spend some time in the wilderness of Canada, in a different nature of city in Madripoor. So we invested in a lot of tech around foliage and the jungles that you start the game in. All that foliage is very reactive to wind and characters and the environment going on around it.

“Logan's a really destructive character. The aftermath after you fight a big battle, we wanted to make sure you didn't feel like you were defeating a bunch of The Hand and then walking out of this pristine market that you happened to be in. So most of the props in the game are destructible, react in physically accurate ways. We invested a ton in that technology. So market stalls and tables and everything around you is splintering and flying off as you're doing combat.”

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 wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.