4.5/5 ★ – nickmazz15's review of Marvel's Spider-Man 2.

SPIDER-MAN 2 REVIEW - “Balance is a process, not a destination.” This game is the ultimate Spider-Man experience. It feels like if there was never gonna be another Spider-Man game ever made this would get everything in. In that the scale of this game is huge and can feel bloated. Even with that I still had a tremendous time playing Spider-Man 2. Its one of those games where when I wasn’t playing it, all I could think about is wanting to play it again. The combat just never gets old. I didn’t think the small shift in combat mechanics could make such a big difference. Insomniac cut the amount of gadgets in half in exchange for four abilities you unlock throughout the game and equip. Then upgrading gadgets along with the extended skills you can purchase for Peter, Miles and both of them, the combat is just utter chaos. Utilizing different combinations of gadgets and abilities will send enemies flying all over the place. I appreciate that even when you’re playing as such powerful characters you cant slum it against enemies. Kraven’s hunters can take you out quick if you’re not careful which I learned early. A good variety of enemies plus some whose attacks can only be parried and not dodged makes you consider combat encounters more. I liked the parry system for the most part. Only thing I took issue with is the ques for enemy attacks being too similar especially when it they’re stringing combos. Maybe Im just too slow and its a skill issue Idk. I do wish you got to select from a set of gadgets like with the abilities. You’re just stuck with the four you have and I only consistently used two of them. Web Grabber and the Concussion Bursts are the GOATs. Upshot and Ricochet Web? I mean they’re alright. I miss the Trip Mine and Spider Drones from the 2018 game damnit. Boss fights are much better than the 2018 game. They’re not just: dodge attacks, yeet throwable objects at boss, start punching them, rinse and repeat. Ok there’s some of that but with the parrying system and your abilities you feel like you can go on the offensive way more. Plus most of the boss battles are built as these epic multistage set pieces. Even if they’re smoke and shadow details, they make a big difference. Shit even the MJ missions themselves are much better in this game which may be this game’s biggest accomplishment. The swinging is so much faster and crisper. It honestly took me a little bit to get used to. Somewhat has to do with me playing at 60 FPS at first, deciding I didn’t like that and switching back to 30 FPS but I digress. I honestly thought the gliding was gonna be a useless addition but that couldn’t be further from the truth. The gliding is fucking awesome. It feels awesome soaring through the wind and feeling every ripple in your suit. The wind tunnels driving you faster, exhaust vents lifting you higher and super slingshots launching you into the air just make traversing New York City so much funner. Speaking of the Big Apple, New York City feels so much more alive. Not only expanding the map to Queens and Brooklyn but from activities NPCs are doing to environments staying damaged after destructive events for a significant time to randomly encountering Peter or Miles fighting criminals. It all makes New York feel like this lived in world that you cherish and want to protect. The side quests help that out to the big and small ones. A significant improvement Spider-Man 2 makes over the 2018 games is its side quests being story first and currency grinders second. Well except for the EMF missions but hey they’re for a good cause. Think of the bees. But this game does what I ask of all open world games with a bunch of side quests. Have the story of the side quests tie into the core themes of the main story. It just creates a richer experience. From something as small as helping a grandfather and granddaughter reunite to unraveling the mystery of Mysterio’s mysteriums (say that three times fast) everything in this game feels like a worthwhile experience and its all so quintessentially friendly neighborhood Spider-Man. Shit some side quests I think could’ve straight up been injected into the main story itself. I do have one big nitpick. Why cant I listen to J. Jonah Jameson and Danika Hart’s podcast entries back? You could in the previous two games. I missed so many entries cause they triggered just as I was entering a mission area. That really annoyed me. I also encountered quite a few glitches. Enemies getting stuck in walls, me getting stuck in a wall and one crash. Now for the main story. It is a lot. The thematic ideas, scale and countless interjecting of characters is incredibly ambitious. Most of it I think pays off and is satisfying but occasionally I think the story has trouble keeping up with itself. I don’t know what the insistence was on having the main story be just as long as the first game when this is so much larger and has to balance Peter and Miles as dual protagonists. Instead of developing character and story beats over a period of time naturally this game only has time to have one scene or sequence devoted to key ideas each. For the most part the game still manages to get you invested in these ideas cause the writing, performances and direction is strong especially when it embraces a more cinematic design with its playable scenes. But some things just aren’t consistently prevalent when maybe they should be. In the 2018 game all the seemingly little things felt like they mattered even by the end the game. Some things like Peter wanting to keep Aunt May and Uncle Ben’s old house even though he cant afford to or Miles’ mom telling him she’s dating again I wanted to see how they would fester over the course of the game even if in small ways and they just don’t. Things feel like they’re put on the back burner until they have to be. Maybe if it was just the small stuff it wouldn’t be that much of a issue for me but its also indicative of some of the bigger story elements. Some stuff I just wanted to live in more and would’ve paid off already good climatic sequences even better. Even if I have issues with the semi-rushed storytelling, I still really liked the narrative overall and virtually have no issues with what actually happens in the story. That’s all the more impressive with the changes Insomniac has made to the Spider-Man mythos were used to. But the writers at Insomniac have such a great understanding of these characters that whatever changes they make still feels like it honors them. Which is great cause it adds a layer of unpredictability to these games. Having Peter and Miles operate as Spider-Men together I think was a genius decision. I think what’s even better about it is that Peter isn’t strictly portrayed as a mentor to Miles. Sure Miles seeks his advice but they just feel like friends and there’s an equal trust between them yet Miles cant help but still look up to Peter cause he was the first Spider-Man. That becomes all the more interesting when Harry Osborn comes back into Peter’s life and takes a hold of him. Peter isn’t that constant in Miles’ life anymore and we see how they deal with that in different ways. This whole game is about relationships and codependency really. The balance between being living how you want, making your own choices for you and accepting help for others and being there for them. We see the selfishness that can spawn from devoting yourself fully to your own needs or devoting yourself fully to the needs of others. The resentment that can be born from that. All this then becomes greatly exasperated with the involvement of the Symbiote. I think the Symbiote and Venom are brilliantly implemented here. Being the incarnation of a possessive friend. Manipulative, exploitive and twisting all your good intentions into its ends. The ultimate parasite. Tony Todd as Venom is the kind of perfect casting you wonder why it didn’t happen years ago. All the performances are great truthfully. Yuri Lowenthal and Nadji Jeter are excellent as Peter and Miles especially when they have to go to those heavy places. I don’t think Laura Bailey gets enough credit as MJ. Its the casting all around that also helps this world Insomniac has built feel like such an authentic iteration of Spider-Man. What’s crazy is that this game doesn’t have just one great villain in Venom but two along with Kraven. Kraven is fucking awesome. He tests our heroes in different ways as a tactile genius. But what’s also great about Kraven is how he pushes some of the other themes of the story. Reformation and evolution. Kraven comes to New York to hunt not only the Spider-Men but their rogues gallery as well. Some of which don’t want to embrace that side of themselves Kraven wants them to return to. Kraven is a man who cant let go of his life as a hunter. He’s made it all he is and all he can offer in life is death. I really like this being explored in a time with an older Peter Parker. His villains are older to and some have grown weary of who they are and want to change. I think there’s this interesting dichotomy between Peter and Miles here where Peter has been Spider-Man for so long and he’s been fighting his villains for so long that he cant even think they’ll change and maybe thats cause he doesn’t think he can change from being Spider-Man. But Miles doesn’t have the perspective even when he really wants to. How that’s explore with Miles seeking vengeance against Mr. Negative was interesting to see. Its okay to try something new. Priorities change. Only when Peter and Miles can see that they can truly change and let go of what’s holding them back can they accept the everyone can have a brighter future and heal if they choose to and that they can help. Spider-Man 2 is a whole lot of game. Too much and sometimes and too little others but it always had its grip on me because its truly a labor of love to these characters. Its also just one hell of a fun game to play. Insomniac know what they’re doing. Cant wait to see what they do next with that Wolverine game and the eventual sequel to this down the line. And yes… this game did make me FEEL like Spider-Man.