I often wait for games to drop in price which falls in line with me not having the most amount of time to play games any more. I am however currently on a couple month gap from my uni studies so that frees me up somewhat. I was lucky enough to get a whole heap of great titles at Christmas, with this being one of them.
I have waited oh so patiently to find a gap in my time where I could dedicate the entire play-through of this game seeing how much I enjoyed the first one and the spin-off Miles Morales. So I’m not entirely sure if the self hype for me ruined this game a tad or if it just doesn’t build upon the first game enough.
Firstly I’ll say the game looks great to fantastic and it uses the source material designs faithfully whilst sticking to insomniacs own design interpretations. The villains and Spider suits look peak (me giving chefs kiss in the background). The symbiotes you’ll come across are top tier as well. Even though this game has been out a while now I should probably mention this’ll be a bit spoiler heavy. The biggest show off what this game and PS5 are capable of comes from the opening fight against Sand man. Honestly what a way to open a game it’s the best looking boss fight in the series, it’s spectacular, pardon the pun. The game however doesn’t manage to reach this sort of high again. It just dips off and meanders for a while.
The game relies on the city of New York to do a lot of the heavy lifting to tell this story. The developers have tried to make the city feel alive especially with the constant crimes that pop up and are easily thwarted. As the story progresses the incidents that spawn change to fit in with what has transpired. It’s a nice feature to see the consequences of the game effecting the world, whether it be the destruction of certain buildings, fires getting put out from derailed trains, sand littered across the streets or even towering symbiote nests. A lot of the exposition comes from the frequent podcast monologues that come through in the form of podcast snippets. As most of the side stuff feels hollow and doesn’t lend much to the story but it kinda sets up what I assume was supposed to be DLC or future instalments. Such as the weak 4 part flame cult story which implies Carnage is coming, or the feint nod to Silk at the end. Miles feels shoehorned into the main story a lot of the time just because he’s there as the second spider man and the relegation isn’t deserving. Especially when to flesh his purpose out more a lot the side stuff is specifically for him. And it fucking sucks. It adds a bit more to the story of the districts themselves rather then him. The rewards aren’t worth it either.
Now the web slinging fun of the first one is just as smooth and fluid in this sequel. It even has the additional bonus of web wings so you can glide around the city faster. There’s up-drafts and slipstreams a plenty to cover hundreds of meters in no time. With the additional unlockable skills that help make snapshot corner turns, mid jump boosts and faster launches from each swing. Honestly it’s immensely satisfying.
The game at its core much like the Batman Arkham series is a bit of a rhythm fighter game. With basic string of combos, parry and well timed dodged from the indicators. Just following that you’ll beat most enemies no problem. Now add in the special abilities, whether it’s Peters mechanical spider arms, symbiote surge or anti-venom moves, or Miles faster more dps based evolved venom moves. You have some of the tightest and fluid combat in gaming. Not to mention that they look great to execute as well. You still have your four trusty gadgets to help out as well and if all else fails you can web them up. Which also feeds into your focus bar which allows for healing and insta finishers. By the end of the game both characters are super over powered, you can decimate any encounter with no trouble. This canonically feels right though as an average guy with a lead pipe shouldn’t pose much of a threat to either of the Spider-Men.
I wasn’t enamoured with the main plot as the first third of the game takes a long time to do a lot of nothing. Then when it does start to pick up it finishes as fast as it started. You only get one mission to play as Venom which just feels wrong. In which you bite off Kravens head who was pitched as the big bad of the game, he mostly does fuck all. Outside of killing most of the sinister six in the background for no real reason. Again Miles doesn’t do much but kinda acts as a convenient plot point when required. Even MJ gets a couple of missions again which honestly don’t improve from the terrible outing in the first game.
I could be in the minority here but I found most of the side stuff shit and inconsequential to the overall game. I like a game like Ghost of Tsushima where the side bits are worth while the add something to the story, character or extra skills. These mainly did none of those things and at best only alluded to future story lines. Which isn’t the worst thing but when that’s all they do it just feels like you’re missing a good chunk of the game. The only collectibles are the spider bots which are dotted around and I’ll leave that conclusion spoiler free. Cause fuck me was it worth it, no.
Overall I’d rate this game a respectable 7/10, Positively Tasty.
This is in every sense a triple A game it looks, plays and feels the part. But we have a bigger map this time round which feels emptier. A story that’s been done several times over and is paced pretty poorly not adding anything of particular interest. The momentum from the the first game seems to have gone. If the games portrayal of Spider-Man himself wasn’t so good, along with the superb combat and web swinging it really wouldn’t be great. I’m hoping part 3 ties up more story threads and has a more engaged world where the side content feels worthwhile. Instead of just insinuating another known villain is coming. Don’t get me wrong it’s a decent length for a game and I did enjoy it, it never felt like a slog but it’s not exactly the sequel I was hoping for.
Released 20th October 2023 on Sony Playstation 5.
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