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

Spider-Man 2 was a game that I had been waiting for for years now. The first game is one of my personal favorite video games of all time so this game had a lot to live up to. And while I think this game was a bit of a letdown in comparison to the first game, it's still amazing nonetheless. First of all, the combat and traversal in this game is a major upgrade from the first one. And to be honest, I didn't even know how that was possible considering how mind-blowing the first game mechanics were. But somehow, someway, insomniacs managed to do it. The web swinging is so much more fluid and really does make you feel like Spider-Man. On top of that, the new web wings are insanely fun to use when necessary and made traveling from the different parts of New York much easier. Moving onto the combat aspects, contrary to the traversal, it is a major upgrade. The special abilities in this game between both Peters Symbiote suit/Iron Spider arms and Miles lightning abilities were so fun to use and felt so satisfying when pulled off. Not to mention when fighting the many bosses throughout the game, you can land some nasty combos with said special moves. Speaking of which, the bosses were also a major standout in this game. This is apparent right from the very beginning with the absolutely stunning Sandman boss fight all the way to the final Venom boss fight. Not to mention some of the other amazing bosses like the Lizard, Kraven, and even Spider-Man himself. Something that I along with many others hated about the first game were the MJ missions. They were insanely slow and brought the pacing of the game down to a screeching halt with every mission. However, in Spider-Man 2, these missions are completely overhauled with the simple addition of an insanely overpowered stun gun. And while they still bring down the game's pacing ever so slightly, I'm glad Insomniac actually listened to the people and tweaked them to be much more bearable. The game has some of the most impressive technical aspects on the PS5 like the instant fast travel and minimal loading screens however this does come at a major cost of glitches. Now if you know me, you'll know I don't care about frame rates or graphics. As long as its not distressingly bad or interferes with the gameplay or cinematics, I'm fine. However, I encountered a few glitches in this game that definitely bumped down my overall experience with the game which unfortunately interfered with gameplay and story cutscenes. Some other aspects this game shines in are the suits, suit tech, skill trees, and gadget upgrades. These aspects all pushed exploration which is mainly something I don't really do in games, I can make an exception considering how fun swinging around the city and fighting criminals is in this game. Also, the suits are all well designed and much better than the first game in my opinion especially with the new color swap feature with some of the suits. However, that final miles morales suit was pretty bad to say the least. The side missions are also insanely fun in my opinion. Whenever I needed to collect tech parts or other resources to get new suits or upgrade my suit tech, I never hesitated to do the side missions considering how fun they were. I know this is one of the more heavily debated topics when it comes to this game and I know not a lot of people necessarily like the side missions but for me, I just couldn't get enough of fighting kravens goons, collecting Marco's memories, destroying the symbiote nests, and even taking pictures around New York for Robbie. And that one Howard side mission got me teary eyed. To me, the side missions make me feel the most like Spider-Man simply due to the fact that there all minuscule and small tasks that seem like things Spider-Man would be doing on a regular day to day basis (when he's not fighting 6 bad super powered bad guys at once and saving the whole world from becoming symbiotic monsters). These missions also allow Spider-Man to connect and build chemistry with the people of New York which further builds the charm of his character. Some of them have so much more impact than the main story missions because knowing that you helped someone you dont even know feels so much better and has a much heavier impact on you than saving/helping a character part of the story. Similar to the first game, I just can't help but love these side missions. Moving onto the story side of this game, while I personally think it's pretty decent, I can definitely see why people say it's a major step down from the first game's story and suffers from a lot of issues. For one, it is very apparent that they tried cramming a ton of stuff into this game but just couldn't execute some of it properly. Also, Miles Morales did not get nearly enough time to shine as he should have considering you only play as him in a few of the many main story missions. Not to mention the fact that there are only one or two main missions where Miles and Peter work together which was supposed to be the main selling point of the entire game ("Be Greater. Together."). However, like I said before, I think the story is actually pretty decent and not complete utter dogshit like some other people like to say on the internet for some reason. The chemistry between Miles and Peter is so freaking good in this game and is one of the major standouts in my opinion. This is made much better by the fantastic voice performances from Yuri Lowenthall and Nadji Jeter. But in my opinion, it's the chemistry between Harry and Peter in the beginning of the game that got me in the feels. Also, Miles and Peter have great character arcs specifically when Peter gets the Symbiote suit and when Miles confronts his fathers killer, Mister Negative. Finally, I have to mention Venom and Kraven who are some of the best villains in the entire Insomniac Spider-Man universe and provide some of the best story beats in the entire game. Overall, while Spider-Man 2 is a bit of a step down from the first game, its still a fantastic video game that should definitely not be overlooked/slept on especially considering its far superior combat mechanics and traversal, challenging yet super fun boss fights, and incredible characters with outstanding arcs and chemistry. I would highly recommend this game to literally anybody as it provides hours upon hours of fun and is one of if not the best gaming experience you can get from the PS5.