4/5 ★ – daneh's review of Marvel's Spider-Man 2.

(Outdated review - some thoughts about this game have definitely shifted after letting it sink in for a while) I vividly remember back in 2018, after Insomniac released the first (modern) Spider-Man game, I first got interested in getting a PS4. It looked so different than any superhero-related game I’d seen until then, the free and fast exploration using Spidey’s abilities and the freeform combat alongside a gripping story in this world was enough to get me excited. Years later, I finally played that game, and even though it wasn’t without its flaws, it certainly did not disappoint. I played Miles Morales right after, and it was really interesting playing with another protagonist with an entirely different story and new relationships, although at the end of the day the game was glorified DLC. Not to say that’s necessarily bad, it’s still a phenomenal game even though it plays very similarly to the last one. At any rate, Spider-Man 2 had been announced a while ago and I was excited to see how the formula had been shaken up this time around, and I kept looking in wonder at every screenshot or trailer during the pre-release of the game. Fast forward to today, turns out this game is amazing, and it might be my favorite out of the trilogy… but that’s not to say I wasn’t expecting a tiny bit more. First off, the presentation of the game is obviously incredible. Being one of the few games out there that were created exclusively with the PS5 in mind, the city of New York shines in a way it never has, with tons of tiny little details even from far away, amazing lighting and quality. The speedy loading of the PS5 also allows for cutscenes and fast travel to go through one place in the city to another completely seamlessly, and even in a section of the game it effortlessly switches between different parts of the world outside of New York in a fast sequence without a single loading screen in sight. Everything about this game is a technical marvel and I just have to commend it for it. The story of the game is pretty good honestly, and although I’d say Spider-Man 1’s story is a bit more consistent and I might prefer it slightly more, this was definitely close. I feel like SM2’s main issue in this aspect is the pacing to be honest. The game starts off strong, then it slows down to a halt for a while, then moves slightly a bit more, stops some more, and it’s only way past the halfway point that the story actually gets REALLY engaging, and the last few missions the story finally reaches a phenomenal climax. This part of the story is amazing, but it leaves the first 60% of the game feeling somewhat motionless. Adding to that, Peter’s side of the story is absolutely the main one and I know the focus was on him, but I still feel like Miles was very sidelined sometimes with random quests thrown in-between the story just because they had to get Miles to do something, I wish he had a more significant role before the last part of the game. Just like the first game, SM2 also has multiple villains in the form of Kraven and Venom, and frankly they are really amazing even if they don’t carry the same weight that Doc-ock had. Kraven was really interesting, and I always loved seeing what he was about to pull off, every time he was on screen he always let out a very menacing, powerful presence. As for Venom, I will say the plot revolving it was sort of predictable, at least until the last few missions, it feels very derivative of other Spider-Man media which I guess was kind of what they were trying but I wish maybe they would’ve taken more risks with it? Either way, by the end it’s genuinely crazy what this villain pulls off and how he affects Peter’s and everyone’s lives. I should also mention side mission stories in here, and although I didn’t complete all side missions, I did beat the main ones being Miles’ Cultural Museum and Peter’s Wraith and The Flame, and I feel like this is a bit of an example of Miles getting the sidelined story. Don’t get me wrong, I think Spider-Man helping his community is an important part of his character, but this feels sort of uninteresting compared to Peter’s cultist takedown and shaky relationship with a past important character and the cool ass villain and insane cliffhanger by the end of the entire questline. The Flame questline was amazing and I’m hoping to see more of it either in DLC or in a new Spider-Man game. As for the Cultural Museum, I guess it was nice, but it couldn’t have hurt having Miles doing some crazy stuff like Peter was doing. The gameplay was pretty expected, it’s the usual Spider-Man formula Insomniac has been building up which is great… but it is sort of disappointing seeing them playing it so safely. There are new moves, abilities, movement options, the new additions are honestly pretty good and it’s enough to make the gameplay in this game far superior than its predecessors. But at the end of the day, it’s still most of the same thing on paper. Get a waypoint for a mission, swing over there, get some cutscenes, go through some combat with most of the same combos as last game, explore a bit, more combat, maybe stealth section, finish mission eventually, and then either do side quests or go for the next main waypoint. And frankly it’s not like there’s much wrong with this, it’s still very fun and all of these aspects of the game I just mentioned are enjoyable, but it’s still very similar to the past few games, and although I really liked this formula playing Spider-Man 1, this is the third game of this, and with it being so similar it’s somewhat saddening, I wish they would mix stuff up more. Other things I’ll mention are MJ sections and boss fights because I feel like these two have vastly improved since the last entries. MJ sections now have many more options to approach them and the stealth parts aren’t as annoying as it feels you have more power over which strategies you can use, and when you unlock the web gun/sonic gun, they actually become really nice cover-based third person shooter stealth sections almost like Uncharted, I think this mix-up to MJ makes her parts much more fun instead of something really annoying like the first game. As for boss fights, I think the new parry mechanic makes them more fun as with enough mastery and good timing, you’re able to become much more aggressive and fight them at your own pace, which is highly rewarded by the game, plus the L1 abilities can also weaken them, making it also include some resource management aspects. To counteract, I feel like bosses are also much more aggressive here which makes overall these fights more engaging and fun, although I will say I think some of these have way too many phases that barely change anything about them, so some fights can become tedious and boring by the end. One last thing regarding gameplay, it’s not the worst thing ever and some of them are pretty funny, but damn this game certainly has bugs, I don’t know if I was just unlucky but many times my character would get stuck against walls, or sometimes button prompts to interact with something would straight-up not work at all and I’d have to reset the game entirely for some missions, and sometimes I’d move my joystick during combat so that my character would move, but they would instead move in place as if they were stuck by an invisible wall and I’d get hit. Not game-breaking by any means, but yeah, this game certainly has a few bugs running around which is kind of weird since I didn’t see that many in the past two games. Overall, Spider-Man 2 is a spectacular game and I do consider it to be better than its predecessors. The story brings together many likeable characters and intense villains, alongside stakes higher than anything before, and the gameplay is the best it’s ever been. Sadly, it is a very safe game that I feel takes little risk to revolutionize what Insomniac has done before, and the weird pacing towards the start of the game is a bit off-putting as well. Thankfully, this still isn’t enough to detract completely from an otherwise amazing experience. 9/10