3.5/5 ★ – CastleOfVariety's review of Marvel's Spider-Man 2.

It's been a long time coming, but here is my review on everything about Spider-Man 2 PS5 that I liked as well as disliked. Mild spoilers ahead so don't read if you haven't played for yourself. This review has been written over the last month or so, and doesn't account as much for the recent updates but rather my initial experience as I played it when it first came out. I'm aware things have changed, but obviously my initial playthrough was my first impression of the game. If you make it to the end of my review, I appreciate you! This is all in good faith and to critique parts of a game, doesn't mean I hate the game. Everyone will disagree about certain aspects as well, so I'm not expecting everyone to agree with me. I'm just being brutally honest about my experience, so here goes... What I love about Spider-Man 2 The World and Traversal The city is bustling, alive, vibrant, colourful and an absolute joy to swing through. There's been a lot of effort put in to give New York a real sense of character throughout, and it's blown me away just how different they manage to make the city feel in every game, ESPECIALLY this one. It also feels much more contrasting compared to the previous 2 installments. The swinging has definitely been improved. There seems to be a lot more weight as you swing (especially if you turn swing assist off). Turning off Swing Assist definitely takes some getting used to with timing your swings and avoiding buildings, but it's massively worth doing! The re-implemented loop-de-loops as seen in previous games made a return too, as well as corner tether quick turns and air dashes/jumps which definitely make the traversal much more fun, and gives you more chance to experiment with the tricks and mechanics. The web wings are a feature I never thought I'd use as much, but it definitely adds a lot of flare and personality to the game. There are definitely parts of New York (specifically Queens and Brooklyn) which are harder to navigate with the lower buildings, so that's where it comes in handy. Although, my favourite thing I've found myself doing is using the web wings to build up speed with point launches, then zipping, doing tricks, and going back into web swinging full speed to see how much I can experiment before crashing which is really fun! Everything feels refined, fine tuned, smooth and the there is very little to no frame drops which is crazy given the speed you're travelling sometimes. Insomniac mostly did outdo themselves with how smooth the game runs. It really does feel like it makes the previous games unplayable, with all these quality of life improvements that make everything that much more satisfying. Combat The combat is MUCH more free-flowing, it never stops throwing things at you, which keeps the player a lot more engaged when you're surrounded by Hunters or any other villain faction. It's very easy to get overwhelmed by enemies, but also it keeps you using all of the abilities, all the gadgets and you can mix and match between the normal and new implemented combat to make some great combos! It throws it all at you so quickly, so learning the new buttons for the combo moves as I'm being overrun by villains was definitely a great learning curve. There is very little shortage of permutations to use in the combat, the only thing is learning the new combos and remembering them. Another thing I've found really interesting is how it's much harder to heal, you need a full focus bar as opposed to a partially built one. This gives you an aim to achieve during combat if you're getting your arse handed to you, and the accidental pressing of a finisher instead of healing has been my downfall on multiple occasions. You definitely really feel the difficulty changes if you put it up too, especially when it comes to bosses. The parry mechanic takes some getting used to, but when you master it, it's very satisfying to accomplish and makes the game combat that much more exciting when you can stand your ground as opposed to constantly dodging. Game Cinematics and Set Pieces That first opening mission was an amazing experience and a great way to re-introduce you to the returning cast, as well as giving you a massive boot into a brand new adventure. It wastes no time showing you that this won't be the exact same game as the previous two. They clearly wanted to show us that the game will be familiar, but clearly wanted us to focus on the newer implemented abilities. The set pieces, dramatic moments and action sequences were great for the most part. There was a very bombastic feel about the scale of these moments, and every moment was packed full of love by the developers. There wasn't one mission that didn't feel full of energy and passion, and it's a testament to all the talented developers that made the game. It's also a reason why I think the story was more direct and focused rather than being a more lengthy experience, because they wouldn't have been able to pack so much into the game if they made it much longer. (Which has it's advantages and disadvantages, I'll cover that later) Characters The characters and their relationships are decent, there's a lot more focus on the flaws of being human in this story. Each character has their own goals, with high stakes obstacles that are stopping them from achieving their goals. There's a massive scope of themes including control, jealousy, abandonment, conceit and a heightened sense of power which builds throughout this game, and it's a constant boiling pot where you're wondering when it's going to explode. The real rise of Peter Parker in this game, is an absolute perfect example of the higher they rise, the harder they fall. There's a real focus on Miles taking the mantle of being the Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man too, which Peter for the most part has clearly lost sight of, as he's dealing with his personal issues and much bigger things at hand. Kraven is an absolute UNIT and I absolutely love any of his appearances on screen. He absolutely commands every single scene he's in, I just wish they utilized him more because it felt like he took a backseat as a villain with everything going on. I somewhat enjoyed the portrayal of Harry in this game. Usually Harry portrayals get pretty one dimensional pretty quickly in terms of how he deals with Spider-Man, but all the way through you could sense Harry and Peter's friendship, and that the circumstances were driving a rift between them, as opposed to just blind hatred. This was a refreshing take and I enjoyed that different approach. The MJ stealth missions were definitely improved and actually felt high stakes compared to the previous game. The new mechanics made everything smoother, faster and feel a lot less tedious than just hiding from cover to cover. However, I still don't think these missions were necessary in the grand scheme of things (other than the Peter symbiote mission, that one was definitely well-delivered.) The Howard side mission, yes that needed a whole point on its own. I thought I'd play it to cheer me up thinking it'd be chasing pigeons with the web wings, but what actually happened in that side mission broke my heart. Insomniac's storytelling and filling things with sentiment will always be amazing, however they're evil for doing that to us. It also reminded me a lot of my Grandad given I lost him coming up around a year ago. I also feel they could be doing a lot more of these kind of missions, building a rapport with the citizens of New York and having more ways of interacting with them. World Building and Music The different free roam music options that play throughout the game's narrative are nicely executed and they add to the tone of the story when free roaming. Once we finish the game, Insomniac actually allow us to change which act of music we want to listen to which adds quite a bit to the free roam, however replayability is very limiting given that they focused less on the open world and more on the short but actions packed story. What I didn't like as much about Spider-Man 2 The story as great as it is, due to its bombastic nature is a little bit messy, and they just need more separating moments to allow those big moments to land. The game could've done with 5-10 more missions just to let these moments build and be appreciated more, ESPECIALLY with the symbiote story. It felt they were really rushing to get to the next story beat and given they advertised the game to be about Venom and the symbiote, it seems they left that til last and rushed through what could've been a great story had they gone into more depth. I'll explain this further in my next point. An abrupt ending. I think the story and what it was setting up was magnificent, the relationships between the characters and how that was affected, the high stakes and how everything felt like do or die. I just think the symbiote aspect of the story could have had another hour or two to simmer and let things boil. I got half way through the game and wondered when it was gonna transfer to Peter, and then within 5 missions we were moving onto something else. As decent as the fallout of the black suit was, I just wanted to see a little bit more of a gradual decline for peter as opposed to it being so sudden into the symbiote storyline. I was hoping the end would give us a few more side missions as well, similar to in Miles Morales which would relate to the story as a whole to kind of ease things out, but after the story it was just kind of over abruptly other than some challenges. The traversal is great, but it's also the game's shortcoming too. As much as it's really fun gliding, diving and building up speed. The building up of speed makes it really easy to ignore the environment and becomes a task of getting from point A to point B most of the time. I feel like this was done on purpose as New York definitely has a lot going on, but when you slow down you realise there isn't tons going on in the city other than the crimes, side quests and main missions. Insomniac's focus of this game was showing the fast loading times and SSD with the PS5, and sometimes I just like to slow down and admire what the environment has to offer, then interact with it more. Having more parkour tricks where we interact with cars and buildings would just make it feel that much more like a concrete jungle, but unfortunately darting through new york doesn't allow for much of the 'smelling the roses' mentality. Another strength that felt like a weakness were the set pieces. As incredible as they were, I think there should have been less quick time events, keeping them playable with stakes and keeping the player immersed. There were some moments where it felt like I was watching a movie play out which is amazing as a viewer, but as a player I was longing for more interactivity at times and prompts to do something. If this was a long movie it would be perfect, but it's also a game and sometimes I felt like the scenes were a bit too long. The car chase crimes were also way over simplified as well, as they used to have quick time events but they for some reason were shortened down. The symbiote being an ability rather than a feature. I think previous games where the symbiote takes over by a press of a button and having a symbiote mode would've been a more exciting premise rather than being able to wear regular suits and having the symbiote be timed abilities. I think the symbiote should affect overall the gameplay of how Peter moves, how he swings, his power behind the combat, the combos should all look and feel different in the symbiote. I get that Insomniac tried to make up for that by having the rage mode, but the whole point behind the symbiote is that it makes everything much more powerful and hard hitting in general, then having a rage mode ON TOP OF symbiote mode where Peter could be walking on tendrils and fighting with them similar to Venom would've been godly. The 'Insomniac Symbiote' suit taking over whilst in rage mode can be a bit jarring too, especially if you're already wearing a different symbiote suit underneath. I do like the symbiote abilities, but they should be attached to the symbiote power itself, which can then be unlocked again at the end of the story etc. Another thing that would've worked is that if you want to wear other suits whilst under the influence of the symbiote, you can change the suit but it will look like a symbiote version of the suit you want to wear when in 'symbiote mode'. That would've been thematically much more cohesive, cause it's easy to get thrown out of the story when you have regular suits doing mix and match iron arms and symbiote abilities (even though it's fun). There are some combo moves that I thought were symbiote specific too which is a shame that they aren't. I just think the symbiote was the only thing that lacked a bit and it's a bit disappointing when that was supposed to be the whole premise of the game. The actual transition happened in cutscenes as well, and I was hoping to have the ability to choose when we transition in and out ourselves in gameplay, with the gameplay changing as you transform... but I guess that's just a major personal thing for me specifically. The MJ missions weren't bad and definitely offered something different to the gameplay, however I really didn't feel the MJ missions offered anything to the game and it definitely took away from the finale for me. There was an opportunity to do something different and have a mission where Spider-Man is being chased, rather than the generic chase missions. I really thought that the leading Venom away would be a really unique moment of trying to dodge him without your spider-sense and actually use the whole of New York as a battle playground, but it ended up being what it was which felt disappointing. MJ also felt a little overpowered compared to the Spider-Men at times too. Parkour hasn't really been improved at all, vaulting over objects, cars and over buildings etc has stayed pretty much the same. I would've loved to see even more parkour interactivity, but I can understand why they wouldn't with so much else to focus on. The crimes have been improved but again feel quite repetitive in their nature, there's quite a few different types but not enough to warrant keeping coming back to the game when the story is over. The lack of variety really is this game's shortcoming. There's been a few glitches and bugs which is to be expected, but I experienced a few missions where enemies are stuck out of bounds or phased into buildings that I can't reach, and I've had to reset the game to do them again which was a bit frustrating. The 'leaving the playable area' in a mission is a feature I really don't like, the game is open world and it doesn't make sense to stop you going back and getting stuck if there's been glitches etc. Another glitch I had was certain suits turning Spider-Man into a white cube, not sure how that happened to me twice but it was annoying having to reset the game multiple times. My game also crashed a couple of times, but I don't think that is something to be all too concerned about. The suit selection in general was disappointing, with a lot of great suits not making a return to the game that we unlocked in the first game. Then to have had the option to swap suits at certain points in the story upon replay would've been nice too, instead of being forced to wear particular suits (this was addressed in New Game +) I thought there weren't many trophies this time around? I'd have liked some more combo and gadget based trophies, as well as things to do beyond the game's story, but it felt like a very straightforward trophy hunt with little secrets or challenges. Maybe if they do a DLC or spinoff in the future there will be more of that, just thought it was strange there didn't seem to be too much to do in that regard in this game. Insomniac's method of following one villain for 75% of the game to set up the final villain for the final 25% is something that works quite well, but unfortunately took away of a lot of time we could've had with Venom as well as Kraven, which unfortunately felt very rushed. Kraven didn't feel like the formidable force he said he was in this game, his faction were doing most of the heavy lifting and the killing he supposedly did was all off-screen. Which felt like a really distasteful way to rid of the villains from the previous game. A mission where you as Peter have to try and save them and end up failing would've solved this issue, and ultimately would've been a great addition to the story that the symbiote made Peter 'a better Spider-Man'. I wish Sony would stop interfering, there was a lot about this game that could've been massively different had they not pushed for an exclusive release back in 2023, and this obviously led to a lot of issues that weren't Insomniac's fault, given they were also dealing with a studio hack that must've been distressing for them too. Studio interference is really the reason the game feels so rushed, especially in the third act and it's a shame Insomniac didn't get to execute the game the way they wanted to. Nitpicks I was hoping for more replayability once finishing the game. The initial first playthrough is great, but once finishing the game it doesn't feel like there's a whole lot to do besides the recurring crimes which was also an issue in the last game and even worse in this one. In previous games you could change the weather which was even more dynamic in Miles' game, with this game there was tons of different settings which we should be able to choose from. I also think mission select should be a permanent feature, as there's some really memorable moments that people will want to replay without starting again. New Game + is another feature coming to the game, but I feel like releasing it 2-3 months after the game comes out you kind of lose a little bit of the hype of wanting to come back. With the symbiote I was hoping we'd get to choose between the black and white tendrils, I get the narrative reason behind why they chose the white ones, but beyond the story mode both options should be available as free roaming isn't specifically canon and should just be a mix of everything you've unlocked. The white tendrils also don't match the symbiote suits that you unlock during the game, and they're a bit weird to look at if you use them with a black suit post story. (This was fixed in NG+) The suits... I really don't understand why Tom's movie suits took up like 4 different slots, instead of incorporating their new colour variant feature, which would save on slots and allow for more suits. They could've just used Tom's Homecoming suit as one slot, then unlocking the colour variants unlocks his other movie skins. Same with Tobey and Andrew. Tobey could've had his 3 trilogy suits including the black suit which could take over the red one (relating back to symbiote mode), then Andrew with his two suits and so on. There's so many different suits that could've been done, but it felt like there was a massive push on Insomniac original suits or artist created suits that just aren't impressive. There's tons of suit designs that could've implemented, including symbiote variants of things we already know and love, as well as loved favourites from the previous games. I've always really wanted a Steve Ditko original appearance suit with the blue spider on the back as a variant, then different colour alts for the red spider as well as red with blue or red with black etc. It'd be a nice callback and homage to the origins of Spider-Man rather than all these new suits nobody shares a connection with. It also really would've looked great with the black web wings, a massive missed opportunity. The execution of these suits is also a little underwhelming. I've all seen the mods on PC and unfortunately some of us have been spoiled because it makes having to go back to these suits a bit more difficult when we know how good some of the suits could look. The Spider-Bot side quest ending felt a bit underwhelming, like it would've been nice to receive a Spider-Verse related item or costume for completing the quest, rather than just a cutscene with a character that I didn't know (who was apparently cut from the movie). Even just to re-unlock the Peter B Parker suit that seems to have just been cut from the game would've been nice. (Peter B. Parker's suit was added in an update) Going Forwards There seems to be a lot they've set up in this game, which makes for a very interesting 3rd game and apparently 'the final chapter' of this specific universe. Where these characters end up appearing in the future is up for question, but it will be very interesting to see what this set up does for the Marvel's Spider-Man universe as we know it. I do feel like we need something leading into Spider-Man 3, as some of these open-ended set ups could get a bit messy if it's explored all at once, so a DLC would really help tie the story together that little bit more. We've also got a lot to look forward to with Wolverine, but if these games keep doing well, we could be looking at a Insomniac Marvel Universe for gaming which could be cool. The Verdict As much as I've been harsh with critiquing the game, I'm a passionate fan and I have to be completely honest and transparent with my thoughts on this game. We've waited a long time and I think a lot of us have built up these astronomically high expectations because of outside sources saying what they want, and not knowing what Insomniac are doing and so on. However, putting all that to the side, including my personal biases, I think this was Insomniac's magnum opus in terms of the sheer scale, the feel and the work they've put into this game. They're building what shapes to be an incredible universe of content, and who knows what will happen in the future. It isn't perfect, but it really does show the heart of the developers and that they absolutely love and care about the characters in the franchise. I'm giving this game a very solid and respectable 7/10, and even with the issues that should've been there at launch I fear it was too little too late to make a significant difference to this game's replayability.