Marvel Spider-Man 2

The Good
* Incredible graphics and presentation: a game that makes use of everything the PS5 can do.

• Greatly improved mechanics in every area, from web-swinging to combat

• Expertly shifts between the two Spider-Men, with each one having their own abilities, missions, and storylines.

• New York is bigger and more detailed than the first two games.
  
  The Bad
  * The story, while still enjoyable, is slightly weaker than the first game's

• Still retains the open-world checklist nature of the original, which some may find repetitive and tedious
  
  The Bottom Line
  Apart from the relase of the PlayStation VR 2 in February, 2023 has been relatively quiet when it comes to major PS5 exclusives, but Sony has finally shaken things up with the release of Spider-Man 2, the highly-anticipated followup to the 2018 original, and PlayStation’s biggest and most important release this year. Sony has promised a shift towards multiplayer and live-service-based titles after this, so this could very well be one of the highest-profile single-player titles for the system for the forseeable future. Nevertheless, I’m pleased to report that Spider-Man 2 delivers everything that is expected of it, and is an experience that showcases the very best of what a AAA video game can do in 2023.

  Some time after the events of the first game, New York is under the protection of two Spider-Men: the original, Peter Parker and his protegé Miles Morales. Unable to balance his mundane life with his superhero duties, Parker gets fired from his job, but it isn’t long before opportunity comes knocking when his longtime friend Harry Osborn appears at his doorstep, offering him a position at his newly formed research company following extended treatment for a terminal illness which involved the usage of a strange alien organism called a symbiote. Meanwhile, Miles has to spend time preparing for his future, feels that his time as Spider-Man has taken away his life as a student, and is still getting over the death of his father. After New York is threatened by Kraven, a terrorist who hunts supervillians for sport, Miles and Peter are forced to grapple with huge dilemmas in their lives once again: Peter gets infected with the symbiote, which gives him new powers but also alters his personality for the worse, while Miles is confronted with the opportunity to get revenge on Martin Li, the supervillian who killed his father in the first game. While Spider-Man 2 works perfectly well as a standalone story, I would recommend playing the first two games if you haven’t. Not only because they are fantastic games in their own right (especially the first one in particular), but you’ll get a lot more context for everything that happens leading up to this game that just makes evertyhing that much richer.

  What really makes the game work is in how it balances the typical superhero bombast with intimate moments of mundanity. Insomniac Games understands that the appeal of Spider-Man is in exploring the contrast and relationship between the two sides of its heroes’ lives. There’s a lot of moments in this game where you’re just having an ordinary day like any other, and though these might make for a boring experience on a repeat playthrough, they work wonderfully in the contest of the story, giving emotional weight to the overall experience when the big moments do come. I will say that I’m not completely sure if this story tops the first game’s. There are a few moments which feel out-of-place and either exist for the developers to discuss various causes, or simply kill the momentum, such as the stealth missions where you have to play as the taser-wielding journalist Mary Jane Watson. Nevertheless, the narrative is largely well-written and kept me engaged throughout, mixing aspects that are familiar to fans of either the films or the comics with fresh and unexpected ideas. I think Spider-Man 2, and really this series of games as a whole, represents some of the best superhero content right now in any medium.

  The main hook of Spider-Man 2 is right there in the name: this time around, you will be controlling both Spider-Men. Main story missions will usually switch between the two heroes at scripted moments, but otherwise you are free to choose which one to control at any time. This system is comparable to Grand Theft Auto V, albeit this time you’re helping the law rather than breaking it. One annoying quirk of this sytem is that the game won’t always tell you if a particular task or mission is locked to the other Spider-Man you aren’t playing as, thankfully switching is instantaneous meaning it’s not as much of an issue as you might think. Each Spider-Man has their own skill tree, suits, and missions to undertake. The game is strictly single-player however, so if you were hoping for a co-op mode where two players can control a single Spider-Man, you’ll have to keep looking. That being said, during random crimes, the other Spider-Man will actually show up to assist, which is an extremely cool touch, although it doen’t happen very often.

  The traversal of the first game was highly praised in how well it captured both the blistering speed and lithe style of Spider-Man’s web-swinging. The sequel retains all of those mechanics, but also has a new trick up its sleeve in the form of the Web Wings. It’s becoming quite the cliche to just add a glider to every open-world sequel game ever since Breath of the Wild popularized the idea, and though it’s a bit strange for Spider-Man, the Web Wings are a lot of fun to use. You have a lot of control over your glide, but only enough to where you can sense the feeling of being carried along by webs. You will gradually descend and slow down the longer you glide, but finding a vent or a wind tunnel will allow you to glide and ascend much faster. While swinging generally results in faster movement, the Web Wings will give you greater leverage over spaces where there aren’t buildings to swing from. Since the map is much bigger with the Hudson River between its two sides and includes some suburban areas in Queens with low-height houses, gliding is a necessary tool this time around.

  The stealth system functions largely the same as it did in the first two games: you’ll sneak and web-zip around an environment, creating opportunities to safely knockout enemies by creating distractions with your web shooters. This sytem introduces a new mechanic where you can create web-lines to traverse the environment, which gives you a bit more freedom and flexibility in how you tackle these sections. Eventually, you can unlock an ability to takedown two enemies while perched from your web-lines, which is great for the last few remaining stealth missions. Miles can also use his camouflage ability to sneak around without being seen, although this ability has been greatly nerfed from his solo game, as the amount of time Miles can remain invisible is much shorter than it was before.

  Combat has been largely expanded from the first two games. You have all of the same punch, web-shoot, and dodge moves as before, but now each Spider-Man has a loadout of unique abilities they can use on a cooldown timer. These are triggered by hodling down the L1 button and one of the four face buttons. Peter’s abilities are based around the usage of his mechanical Spider-arms and later in the game the symbiote that infects him, while Miles’ are based around the usage of his electric powers. The gadget wheel has been replaced with a similar system for gadget usage. Using these two in concert is the core of the new combat system. For example, you might use a web grabber to put a bunch of baddies in one spot, the follow up with a smashing ability attack for a huge amount of damage. This system makes it extremely easy to work these powerful ailities in with your existing combos, and at higher levels you are nearly unstoppable. That being said, I greatly miss the individual suit powers from the first two games, as they allowed for a greater variety in terms of one’s playstyle, and gave you an incentive to unlock each suit beyond its aesthetics. In lieu of this, we now have the Surge Meter, which when activated greatly increases Peter’s power and gives Miles an ultimate, screen-clearing move, respectively. Overall, however, combat still feels great in this game, with a greater variety of attacks and animations, more responsive controls and less reliance on wave-based encounters, although at times it can be a touch too easy at times even on the hardest difficulty setting available upon launch (there is a harder setting available after you finish the story, but I haven’t tested this). Still, these games are all about the power fantasy, and Spider-Man 2 definitely delivers.

  Insomniac haven’t compltely broken free of the series’ admittedly dated checkilst design structure when it comes to side missions and activities, but they have alleviated things for a much smoother and more engaging experience overall. While the general quantity of these activites has gone down, the quality of each one is generally higher. For example, Parker and Miles will receive Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man requests through their phones, and each one of these is a completely unique adventure in its own right. Many of these checklist activities offer substantial narrative and gameplay rewards that pay off once you complete them, and they are much faster and more convenient to complete.

  Spider-Man 2 is one of the PS5’s best looking games, and is among the system’s next-gen showpiece titles. Not only is New York bigger thanks to the new boroughs that have been added, it’s also much more detailed, with unique assets and building textures everywhere you look. The use of ray tracing gives building and puddle reflections an extra sense of realism and color. Animations, particularly during cutscenes, are more lifelike, conveying subtle emotions of each character during conversations and action setpieces. Perhaps the best aspect is in how the game utilizes the SSD of the PS5. This not only allows for nearly instantaneous swapping between the two Spider-Men, it also allows each character to move much faster than before, which makes web swinging and knocking out your remaining map markers that much more fun. This is showcased in an early mission where one Spider-Man is literally thrown halfway across New York in a matter of seconds: I definitely don’t think the PS4 could have done that! All of this runs at an incredibly rock-solid framerate and stability: while I ecnountered a few minor glitches, there wasn’t a single stutter or crash during my entire playthrough. The lack of a true day-night cycle, much like the first game however is a bummer, although I think this has more to do with narrative reasons rather than technical ones. Nevertheless, it would have been nice to have seen a feature like this implemented, especially with the additional power afforded by the PS5.

  Spider-Man 2 is the most cinematic game to come out in 2023 and is a must-play if you enjoyed the series’ first two outings. It improves on the existing foundation in nearly every way, and while the story perhaps isn’t quite as good as the first, it’s still a wonderful experience all the same. Put simply, it’s a blast.