Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 Review

I had thoughts you know. Big thoughts. Really detailed thoughts. Thoughts that might take me thousands of words to fully articulate. Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 is a massive, highly anticipated release! A PS5 exclusive! But then I looked back at my reviews of Spider-Man and Miles Morales and discovered I could be a more concise.

And the more I thought about it, this review is quite simple. Three years in, Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 is my first next-gen feeling game. With it’s incredible traversal and strong story it’s a fantastic game. The combat stumbles a little and the cycling is shocking. But I don’t mind playing as Mary-Jane this time! Leveraging the PS5’s strengths, there’s no real reason to play the older two games now. You’ll just be wondering why you’re not playing this one.

There’s a high-level review for you. But if you’d like more here you go.

I could swing and glide and boost my way around this bigger New York for hours, helping people as I come across them. I did do that! That feeling of being Spider-Man is not only still present, but it’s magnified by the way you can travel. I could swing from one end of the now much larger map to the other with no loading or blips in performance. To traverse that large map you now get web wings, a cool way to get around faster. You can fast travel to any unlocked area of the map within a couple of seconds, but I rarely did this. I just enjoyed moving around.

This time around the Spider-Men are equals. Juggling their responsibilities as best they can, but at different places in their lives. That equality is apparent in all aspects, which whilst laudable, brings issues. Particularly in combat. Miles has his venom abilities (odd naming in a world with Venom). In what feels like compensating, Pete gets metal arms. We’re familiar with these, but their lack of explanation still bothers me. What bothers me more is whilst abilities are now more easily accessed, combat feels less deliberate and more mashy. This is exacerbated by the sometimes absurd numbers of enemies, which makes it all very grindy. Miles having extra powers and Peter leaning more on gadgets with a clear line between the two would have made more sense.

Then there’s MJ, who has been receiving training from Silver Sable. Between that, her innate knack of getting in trouble, and a new gadget, she’s quite fun! Pretty much a third-person shooter, which I’m cool with in small doses. I’m not left rolling my eyes each time now.

The story has a lot of work to do, introducing a number of new characters whilst moving the Spider-Men on in their lives. And obviously dumping on both of them in typical Spider-Man fashion. Fortunately it avoids “doing an Arkham Knight” and mainly balances everything. Both Venom and Kraven get a decent amount of development time, even if some is kept in side missions or collectibles. It’s a shame that they’re generally kept distinct from one-another story wise though. I also wish we got to see them more in the city rather than contained spaces. With the aforementioned traversal abilities it could have been really cool.

Being true to yourself is something SM2 deals with across it’s story. What kind of person are you? What do you really want to do with your life? Are you ready to move on? Insomniac have taken a lot of care to address not just what has previously happened across two games with excellent stories, but treated everything introduced with respect, whilst planting lots of seeds for the future. It’s pleasing to see some younger Peter scenes too, bookending his time with his friends and family whilst displaying his growth as Spider-Man.

Spider-Man 2 is a technically astounding game with a lot of heart. It gets a little muddy in the details, but when I’m swinging and gliding and pulling tricks I’m in awe of it. Insomniacare still making me feel like Spider-Man.

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