Spider-Man (PS4)

With Red Dead Redemption 2 coming out this month, it's finally time for me to cave and buy a PS4... and this one is definitely on my list to get.

I spent an ungodly amount of time playing Spider-Man 2 on the PS2 back in the day and I've heard nothing but good things about the new one.

And not only do we have the Avengers tower, but Sanctum Sanctorum too! ❤️

so you never had the pleasure???

Well, you stopped playing those Spidey games at the wrong time because they actually mended that with the Spider-Man 2 and Spider-Man 3 games. I, too, played those PS2 games a ton when I was younger, but as someone who also had this enormous desire to be like Spidey and swing around NYC, the second PS2 game let me do just that and I loved every second.

I'm sure this new game is ten times more exciting, but damn if I don't feel some nostalgia thinking back on playing those games. Even if trying to fight Doc Octopus on the train made me blow a few blood vessels in my brain way back when - it was so worth it.

Alright, so I finally finished the game and let my thoughts on it marinate a bit. So here’s my thoughts...

This is one of my new favorite games. Does it have some minor bugs and issues? Sure, but it is otherwise the most perfect game you could possibly expect out of Spider-Man, and just a near perfect game in every single regard.

The story is just fabulous. It immediately got off to a great start for me, starting off where I’ve always wished a Spider-Man film would do, and just jumps to where Peter has already been Spider-Man for 8 years. I loved this, as not only did it place great confidence in your ability to keep up - and was keenly aware how familiar we are with Pete and Spidey, but it shows what a fully formed character he is that he can just exist, and lose nothing in translation. The world that this game sets up is the perfect encapsulation of the heart, humor, grandness, and body horror of Spidey’s universe.

And this might very well be the best onscreen portrayal of Pete/Spidey yet. While I love Tom Holland as Spidey, Yuri Lowenthal is to him what Kevin Conroy was to Batman. He absolutely nails the awkward, stumbling, hopelessly lovable dorkiness of Pete in his everyday life, and also nails the hyperactive, sassy, borderline savage sarcastic bite when he dons the mask. And I absolutely love, that despite taking place in the suit a majority of the time, that they still retained Pete’s incredible relatability, and the clear strain caused by his double life. Spider-Man may be pure wish fulfillment, but it’s the struggling young man with good intentions filling that role that gives it most of its weight.

It helps that he’s surrounded by a cast of great supporting characters, some of which are the best interpretations of them yet. MJ does fall a bit into the constant damsel in distress mold (many of which by her own direct doing), but I was surprised and delighted by just how much agency they give her in the main events, and what effortless chemistry she shares with Pete and Spidey, who may be the main attraction, but this game really makes her feel like a true partner. Miles Morales gets some of the best heart to hearts with Pete/Spidey, and shows promise for greater things to come. Aunt May is just perfect (although closer to Sally Field than Rosemary Harris), and Norman Osborn - whose been elected the Trumpian mayor of New York - oozes sinister charm and intrigue. Yuri Watanabe, the police captain and Pete’s eye the sky, is just phenomenal as the straight man to Pete’s shocking knack for weirdness (“Spider-Cop”). And Otto Octavius feels as perfectly played as he was with Alfred Molina. There’s such a power and heartbreaking tragedy to his character, especially given how much time Pete spends as his assistant outside the suit. There’s this very tender and naturally built surrogate father dynamic to their relationship, and when Otto eventually snaps and has to become Doc Ock, it makes it all the harder to see a man like him take such a turn.

This is a game that also really tests how well you know your Spidey lore. There’s a lot of fan service to the game, but never to the degree that it calls unwarranted attention to itself. Like the Arkham games, it brings many of Spidey’s most iconic elements and storylines into one seamless whole, with nods to the most obvious, and most obscure moments in his history. You’ll have characters like Electro, Rhino, and the Sinister Six that everyone knows, but most of the game features Mister Negative as the lead villain, and even includes characters like Silver Sable and Tombstone. Screwball, of all people, plays a prominent role in one of the game’s best side missions. This level of detail increases if you factor in the podcasts hosted by JJJ in Limbaugh mode (by way of J.K. Simmons impression), where he tries making an analogy on Black Cat, that also has sly references to Man-Wolf (JJ’s son, John). And of course, we gotta have a Stan Lee cameo.

As for the gameplay, I’ve already given my thoughts on it in the original post, but it just never lost its novelty for me. For all the good Spider-Man games I played (or didn’t play, as this thread became more about SM2), none have ever captured for me the thrill and the speed of living out my fantasies as Spidey. Web swinging has got to be my favorite video game transportation method since... Ever? You don’t even have to wait to fulfill that fantasy, as you jump headfirst into the swinging. Even with the third-person camera (and I still wish there was an FPS mode), the sensation and the exhilaration I get from diving to the ground and swinging at full speed, narrowly zipping between skyscrapers, bouncing off of ledges and rooftops, and scaling the Empire State Building gave me euphoria that a game hasn’t made me feel in a long time. It’s so good, I have never wanted less to use a fast travel mechanic in my life, and if it weren’t for one instance in which I was forced to, I wouldn’t have. This is a game I can easily picture myself popping into my PS4 and going “I feel like web swinging today.”

And I wish there was an option to put my own music in, because swinging to “Thunderstruck” is kick-ass.

This gets an added boost by the combat, and the pure fluidity of Spidey’s actions and abilities. This is one area I really preferred this to Arkham, because while I love Arkham’s stealth, Spidey’s is more satisfying - and speedy - to me. Being able to jump between lamp posts and ledges, taking out enemies by hanging them from my perch is the most satisfying feeling in the world. But if you decide to forgo stealth, and just go in guns blazing, then you have such freedom and variety to pick from, with tons of creative gadgets, lots of combos, dodges, and finishers to make things faster, and weaving web-swinging and throwing makes it all the flashier. Some of the combat did depend a bit on randomly generated content, but it’s RGC where I can hop off a street light and land a face kick to a dude, so I can let it slide.

The gameplay also has moments where you get to play as non Spidey characters, which vary in their execution, but most of them are terrific deviations from the usual mold. And the boss battles are awesome, putting you up against some of Spidey’s greatest enemies, all of them heavy hitters with unique methods of attack and style. Electro likes to use generators, so you have to take them out to stop the shockwaves. Scorpion can cling to walls like Spidey can, so you have to get him on the ground to take him out. They’re epic in staging, and big on catharsis.

And I hate how the “content” of most open world games usually tend to be nebulous, procedurally generated, and repetitive busy work, but not Spider-Man. There is a lot to do in this game, almost all of it built from the ground up, offering you plenty of variety, and some fantastic breaks from the main story. Some of my favorite missions were going off to search for missing college students, where your knowledge of the game’s geography was put to the test. They’ve really gone above and beyond in making Manhattan feel like it’s own character, where you can spend so much time just staring off into the distance, and taking in the stylized scenery (in addition to the Avengers tower, watch out for Sanctum Sanctorum and the Wakandan Embassy). There’s a ton of customizables you can get by reaching certain milestones, like getting cool skins of alternate Spidey suits (playing in the Iron-suit from Infinity War was awesome).

And as I’ve said before, this is a game I love for letting me live out my wildest childhood fantasies. Batman was never a fantasy I wanted to live out. I never wanted to drive the Batmobile through Gotham and beat criminals with my gadgets, I did want to swing above the city narrowly zipping between buildings, and this gave me the closest realization of living out that dream without actually doing it. That wonder and novelty never went away for me the whole game, and when I think of Amazing, Spectacular, and Ultimate Spider-Man, this is exactly what I want to see.

So yeah, this is easily one of my favorite games I’ve ever played, and probably the best game Insomniac has ever made. I can’t wait to try out all the DLC they have planned.

And hell yeah, I want a sequel, and of course this game’s got post credits clips to tease it. I mean, it’s gonna be hard trying to capture lightning in a bottle again, but I have faith that Insomniac can do it.

And give me some more villains, too! Next time I want Goblin, I want Mysterio, Kraven, the Lizard, I’d even like to see them tackle Venom. They could, too, since symbiosis gets tossed around at one point.


TL;DR version: Play this freakin’ game!

Finally finished the City That Never Sleeps DLC (and earned a Platinum at Long last), so I got some thoughts.

So with three separate chapters of DLC, all tied together by one continuous story, this plays like a mini-sequel to the original game. It’s set months, maybe only a few weeks after the original game’s ending, with several crime families, particularly Hammerhead, taking up the mantle left in the absence of Kingpin. Along the way, we meet up with an old flame in Black Cat, take the war to the Maggia crime family, and Silver Sable returns to reclaim her stolen weaponry.

It gives me exactly what I wanted; more fun stuff to do in a world I love spending time in. It gives you more of what was great, with a few new twists and some nice new story expansion to go with it.

Starting with side missions, we have returning favorites like the base invasions where you take out hordes of enemies. We also have RNG crimes to stop, that have familiar robberies and car chases, but also new ones like convoy protections and bomb disposals.

Some of them are city-wide fetch quests, including fetching lost paintings stolen by Walter Hardy (the original Black Cat), and one that has you find a number of archive tape recorders, that progressively paint a very grisly portrait of a job gone wrong, leading to an unnerving ending note for one of the game’s main characters.

But by far the best ones were the new challenges set up by Screwball, that have you fulfill various tasks (combat, bomb disposal, stealth takedowns). My favorites had to be the inventive Gadget challenges, wherein you’re restricted to only two of your gadgets, and have to use them to take your enemies out quickly. I love that, as not only did it make it even more fun and rewarding, but gave me ideas of mixing up new gadgets for future combat.

As for the main mission, what starts as a simple heist in the first chapter, soon becomes an all out turf war in the streets, followed by Sable’s technology wreaking havoc on the streets, and Spidey and Silver forming an uneasy alliance to stop Hammerhead.

The Heist is definitely the most relaxed chapter, and the one with the most emphasis on character intimacy, especially now that we finally see Black Cat in the flesh. I’ve said it before, I love Black Cat, and she’s so awesome here. She’s Pete’s antithesis, but that’s what makes her so perfect for him. Especially with the twisty web of secrets she weaves, that keep you guessing what her ultimate end goal is all the way through.

Things take a more city-wide scale in Turf Wars, where Hammerhead and his men start raiding the Sable technology, so they can be the most powerful crime syndicate in the city. All the while, Yuri Watanabe is your companion, and rapidly starts to lose it as this case and war goes on longer, showing a frightening new shade to her character. Hammerhead is not much of a great villain. An intimidating one, but feels like a less effective version of Tombstone from the main game.

Than things get epic in Silver Lining, in which we form our alliance with Silver Sable. This is the least interesting of the three, despite what a great duo of opposites Spidey and Silver are, but the story feels the least focused with some disparate threads, and shaky pacing. Also, whatever intimidation Hammerhead had as a villain is now completely gone, as he full on regresses into a clunky mechanical monster, to the point that the climax is on the ridiculous level of the Abomination fight from The Incredible Hulk. It’s not a strong ending for a multi-chapter arc, but at the least the end credits stinger is really sweet.

So I had a lot of fun playing through these chapters, and reminding myself why this is one of my favorite games of all time.

Now hurry up and get to the TRUE sequel! I want Mysterio, Goblin, Kraven, The Lizard, etc. Give me more!