Developer: Insomniac Games
Publisher: PlayStation
Platform: PS5
Tested on: PS5
Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 – Review
Spider-Man fans have been treated well over the past year, thanks to his prominent role in Marvel’s Midnight Suns and Spider-Man: Across the Spiderverse. Since the release of the original game 5 years ago, players have been treated to a handful of expansions and a standalone game focused on the Miles Morales of this universe. Now, however, we return to the streets of New York with a full-blown sequel, along with one of the web crawler’s most fearsome foes.
Story
All right let’s do this one more time: Peter Parker was just a normal nerdy teenager until he was bitten by a radioactive spider and gained superpowers. For the past ten years, he has been the one and only Spider-Man, fighting supervillains, taking down mob bosses, and becoming the mentor of Miles Morales, another teenager with spiderlike abilities.
Almost a year has passed since the events of the previous games and things are going well in New York. That is until the Sandman wreaks havoc in the city, rallying the two Spider-Men to action. This fight quickly leads to the introduction of a brand new enemy in Insomniac’s universe, Kraven the Hunter. This threat has set his eye on New York to hunt down strong prey, mostly consisting of Peter and Miles’ past villain encounters. Now they have to stop this maniac from turning the city into a villain massacre, while also dealing with their personal lives. Especially Peter has quite a bit going on, with the sudden return of his best friend Harry Osborn, who quickly recovered from his deadly illness thanks to some black symbiote-like suit.
The narrative of Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 is one of its strongest and most unique parts. The first game delivered a great and impactful story that had fresh takes on some of the web-slinger’s most classical tropes. The sequel takes this a step further by putting the spotlight on an underrated villain and redefining some key parts of the Spider-Man mythos. All of this is wrapped in a compelling narrative that builds upon what came before.
Peter, Miles, and the gang are just as lovable as they were before, but the new additions are the ones that steal the show. Kraven plays his role as the main antagonist spectacularly well and is a menace every time he’s on screen. The same can be said for the other villains, but Kraven and his hunters are in a league of their own. Along with some new bad guys are also a collection of new friends, with Harry at the forefront. Spending some downtime with these friendly characters contrasts beautifully with the fast-paced action of the Spider-Man sections, delivering a ton of heartfelt moments.
While the story is definitely a great Spider-Man tale, the same can’t be said for the pacing during the opening hours. After the memorable intro with Sandman, the game slows down quite a bit to introduce a ton of activities before the real battle with Kraven and his hunters can begin. It’s great that the side content fleshes out certain story elements, but we still feel the pacing is a bit off.
Graphics
Being a PS5 exclusive always sets high expectations for the graphical side of a game, and Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 delivers for the most part. The game is definitely a visual upgrade from the previous entry, but if you’ve played the PS5 remaster of Marvel’s Spider-Man you know exactly what you’re in for. The game definitely looks great, but it is a bit of a disappointment to not be wowed by this new entry. There are two standouts, however. Swinging through the city has never looked so amazing thanks to ray tracing and lighting effects. The second visual delight is the cutscenes. All of the characters are well-designed and come to life with some great scenes and details.
Sound
Like Uncle Ben once said: “With great characters come great performances.” And that is true for Marvel’s Spider-Man 2. All of the voice actors deliver some stellar acting, bringing the entire cast to life. This isn’t the only point that the sound design scores, as the soundtrack is one that fits the atmosphere perfectly. From the serene sounds of the city to Kraven’s intimidating theme.
Gameplay
Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 is an action-adventure game that heavily focuses on reaction-based combat and traversal mechanics. Players of the previous entries in the series will feel right at home since the sequel adopts an ‘if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it’ philosophy with a bunch of tweaks and updates to its gameplay.
While the game is called Marvel’s Spider-Man 2, it would have been more logical to call it Spider-Men since you can play as both Peter and Miles in this entry. Each of them has their own playstyle, just like they did in the previous entries. Miles is able to use electric abilities to stun his enemies, while Peter has access to mechanical spider arms that are perfect for crowd control. These abilities will be used yet again during the combat inspired by the Batman Arkham Games. Throw some punches, dodge attacks at the right time, and swing enemies around to show them why you don’t mess with your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man. All of this works pretty similarly to the last games with a few additions. There is now a parry button that lets you counterattack and gives you another option to break enemy defenses. Along with this are a ton of new abilities and gadgets to use during combat, with even more to unlock thanks to a trio of skill trees. If you’ve played the previous games, you know how satisfying and fun this combat is, and it’s even more sensational now thanks to these updates. Especially the symbiote powers that are unlocked later in the game are fun to use, as these pack a punch and perfectly simulate the power of corruption.
Every Spider-Man fan knows that swinging through the city is one of the web crawlers’ favorite activities, and Insomniac nailed this mechanic in the previous entries. This satisfying part of the game returns with a bunch of updates to make it even more fun to fly around New York. Since the map is almost doubled in size, getting around fast is an important part of the experience. Luckily the developers added a wingsuit that will send you flying and air streams to glide on. This simple yet effective mechanic makes exploring New York a ton of fun, trying out different moves to gain speed and reach your destination in no time. Having such fun traveling makes the fast travel function completely useless.
But swinging from story mission to story mission would be a pretty bland open-world game, that’s why there is a ton of side content to indulge in. This can be split into two types of content: activities and side quests. Activities are bite-sized missions that will only take a few minutes, like finding a collectible or taking down a small group of enemies. Completing one of these activities rewards you with experience and resources to unlock new gear or costumes. The biggest difference between these activities and the ones in the previous game is that they feel like a fun quick detour. Gone are the big hideouts or long car chases that became repetitive in the first game. Now these are small interactions that are a fun distraction on your way to the next objective. The side quests, however, are bigger missions that will take more time to complete, but these also have a narrative attached to them. Taking your time to complete these questlines can be very rewarding because most of them continue storylines from the previous games and deliver some great conclusions along with a ton of upgrade materials.
Conclusion
Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 is a great sequel that took everything that made the first game a hit and improved upon it, without taking any real risks. The story is just as good as the previous games, although it can suffer from some pacing issues. The combat and swinging feel as fun as ever with a bunch of meaningful improvements. All of this wrapped in a great presentation, even though for an exclusive title it could have used a bit more polish. If you enjoyed the previous games, or are looking for a fun open-world superhero adventure, Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 is definitely a must-play.
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