Logan is the player character of Marvel's Wolverine, and the only playable character in the game. He opens the campaign with his adamantium skeleton already in place and with no memory of how he got it, which is the pivot the whole story turns on. This is not an origin story: the game starts after the fact and spends the campaign handing back fragments of the past rather than showing it happen.
At a glance
Detail | What is confirmed |
|---|---|
Role | Player character. Single player, no character switching, no co-op |
Also called | Wolverine, James "Logan" Howlett, and runt when Sabretooth is talking |
Starting state | Adamantium skeleton present, memories missing |
Affiliation | Team X, rejoined after a three-year absence |
Height | Around five foot seven in game |
Weight | Described by the studio as five hundred pounds of adamantium skeleton |
Performer | Liam McIntyre, voice and performance. See Cast and Crew |
Where he starts
Three years before the game begins, Logan walked out on Team X, the mutant task force Nathaniel Essex formed. The campaign opens with him rejoining it for a rescue. Insomniac's own wording is that Logan returns to his former team for a critical mission to infiltrate Bolivar Trask's outpost and save Nathaniel Essex, and that this is what sets the story in motion. The reason he left is deliberately withheld at the start. See Story and Setting.
He is not anchored to a home city the way a hero with a fixed beat is, and creative director Marcus Smith has tied the campaign's globe-trotting structure directly to that. The game moves through a run of smaller, purpose-built areas rather than one map, taking in Telambang, Canada and Vancouver, Japan, and Madripoor. See Locations.
How the studio frames this version
Game director Mike Daly has described this Logan as cynical and candid, someone who keeps people at arm's length. The team has been explicit that he is not Old Man Logan, and Eric Monacelli of Marvel Games has called him an amalgamation, a little older than a lot of the canonical versions. Because the story is original rather than an adaptation of a specific comic run, nothing about the character carries over from a previous version by default.
The physical build is a deliberate middle ground. Marcus Smith has put the in-game height at roughly five foot seven, between the shorter comics figure and the taller screen version, and has described the character as five hundred pounds of adamantium skeleton. That weight is not only characterisation. It is the stated reason Traversal works the way it does: Daly has said the team wanted a system that represented weight and groundedness, so Logan climbs rock and timber and closes ground with a lunge rather than moving lightly.
What he can do
Logan fights with his claws and his fists, with no weapon loadout and no picking up guns or swords. Holding L2 and R2 pops the claws outside of combat at any time. Levelling on its own does not raise his maximum health; the healing factor covers survivability, and crafting suits is what raises the ceiling. See Combat, Rage and Healing Factor and Suits and Claws.
Ability | What it does in game |
|---|---|
Adamantium claws | The whole melee kit. Claws deflect and absorb gunfire rather than forcing a retreat to cover |
Healing factor | Regenerates damage and underpins Rage and Healing Factor. Bolivar Trask's Ability Inhibitors can shut it off |
Tracks enemies, scents, conversations and music, and marks Nightmare Doors and collectibles | |
Rechargeable moves assigned to shortcut slots, four equipped at once | |
Passive perks equipped against a limited allowance | |
Critical Strikes | Finishers, performed alone or jointly with an ally. See Combat |
The memories
Logan's missing past is a system as well as a plot point. Whisky bottles tracked by scent hand back memories he could not reach without the smell in front of him, and the timed trials behind Nightmare Doors return more of the same. The hub those doors lead to, Nightmare Cabin, is framed as the inside of his head rather than a place in the world. See Collectibles.
Performer
Liam McIntyre voices and performs Logan, and narrated the game's features trailer in character. Full cast credits, development leads and music are on Cast and Crew.