Back for more, and just as good (for the most part) as the rest.
Spider-Man 2 is a curious entry — the second of three, technically — of Insomniac’s Marvel’s Spider-Man offering, merging canon equally as plotting the course of its own orignal work. Things are familiar, yet not.
I’ve rated Spider-Man as highly as Spider-Man Miles Morales, and this entry is no basically no different. This is really Batman Arkham City; Insomniac has liberally borrowed from Rocksteady’s Arkham franchise in terms of combat and structure, and has continued to do so when it comes to traversal. Regardless of what it’s called, you can fly now.
In this iteration — as in every other — Insomniac gets it. This is the core of Spider-Man merged with the direction of Miles Morales and continually moving the story forward in intense, highly-stylised fashion. It’s second to none in that respect.
On the other hand, it’s more of the (very well done) same. Mary Jane’s sections are weird — yet disconnected — much like Hailey’s. With MJ, there’s an initial emphasis on stealth as per the original, but it weirdly transitions into Mary Jane as the protagonist in a third-person shooter. It’s out of place… and once you realise you can shoot through solid objects, but enemies’ projectiles can’t hit you, you’re golden.
Miles is a hero in his own right — I personally enjoyed Miles Morales the game more even though I’ve a 40-year-old soft spot for Peter Parker — but a whole bunch of work in making him self-confident and wiser than he started is undone when he has to become a sidekick to Peter. That’s simpy becasue of the nature of the tale Insomniac is trying to tell. It’s as inconsistent as Peter’s writing is when he’s under the influence of the symbiote. And yes, there’s a symbiote: Sony’s marketing has made this clear.
One second Peter-symbiote is punk rock, nonchalant, laying waste to New York and giving zero shits about its inhabitants. The next, he’s worried about harming a fly. There’s no indication of internal struggle whatsoever, so it’s just a roll of the dice. I chalk that down to the nature of Insomniac’s side missions; you never really know where you’re going to be in the main arc, so Peter has to be both, yet not.
Combat is annoying — you grow so powerful (I can’t even imagine how power creep will impact Spider-Man 3 and from post-credits scenes that’s absolutely happening) that you’re used to mowing down swathes of enemies without any problem whatsoever, but a boss battle throws up constant invisible barriers that go against everything you’ve learned. Insomniac’s design is top-notch in every other area, but it’s this obvious handicap that throws you out of immersion. Like doing too many side missions in one string, boss battles also just feel like the same experience over and over again, separated by cutscenes.
In fact, every boss battle feel the same: annoyingly cheap and underproduced. Your own progression doesn’t matter; you’re not finding weak spots and fighting effectively. Instead, you’re just getting hit by things you feel like you had properly dodged or parried, but in a chain that’s seemingly unstoppable. Using triangle to launch yourself into a baddie is second nature at some point, but in boss battles they basically teleport around the combat area and avoid you as if Dr Strange was helping them out.
Last Arkham reference here — and fitting, I think: the last boss battle is as anti-climactic as that of Arkham Asylum.
That certainly doesn’t mean that Spider-Man 2 is a bad game. Far from it; it’s phenomenal. Despite its failings, its closing scenes brought a literal tear to my eye, paying homage not only to Spider-Man’s decades long history but to the story Insomniac itself has been telling in these 3 — maybe 2.5? — installments.
You absolutely need to play Spider-Man 2. Insomniac is the pinnacle Sony studio, showing off not only what it can do, but what the PS5 itself can do. I hope you like Ratchet & Clank Rift Apart‘s portals, ’cause they’re about to take your mind for a spin.
Spider-Man 2 is available now on PS5.
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Spider-Man 220 October 2023PS5 |
Spider-Man 2 was reviewed using a retail code on PS5, as purchased by the reviewer. Click here to learn more about Stevivor’s scoring scale.
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