Spider-Man 2(2023) Review

I enjoyed both the 2018 and Miles Morales Spider-Man games while I don't think they are great games and far from the best Insomniac has to offer, I view them no differently as a film director I enjoy going to Hollywood and making a superhero movie that generally pleases everyone more so than providing  games that provide anything revolutionary or have any standout game design, outside of the solid narrative especially if you are a superhero and especially Spider-Man, they are enjoyable if play it safe superhero open world games. 

I wasn't particularly hyped for this upcoming sequel since I don't get hyped for games anymore and I especially try to avoid getting my expectations too high to the point where the game can't possiby reach my expectations, it's something publishers do to garner money and it's a trick I stopped falling for a years ago then there is the fact that Spider-Man himself has been so overexposed in recent times that I am starting to get sick of him not as much as Batman but he is up there. It's like listening to a song you like on repeat, the more you listen to it, the more it starts to annoy you more then it brings joy. I am getting off topic here, but I played this game at all because Insomniac is one of if not my favorite developer that is still going in the industry today, and I played Spider-Man 2 to support them since outside of Song of the Deep, I got varying degrees of enjoyment from all of their games I have played. 

So with all that out of the way, what did I think of Spider-Man 2 on Playstation 5? I'd say like it's predecessors, it's solid but nothing too mind blowing and I don't really mind since I go into any game expecting to at least get some enjoyment out of it, and luckily with Spidey 2, I had a good time even if the game can be messy in ways 2018 and Miles Morales were not particularly when it comes to story and since I mentioned it, the story in Spider-Man 2(2023) while not terrible and is far from something I'd consider to be overly repulsive is a step down from 2018 and Miles Morales. 

I am going to be overly negative when describing this part of the game and before I start being that, I will say that the voice acting, music, cutscene cinematrogaphy are all well done enough to the point where Spider-Man 2's story while entertaining in the moment starts to fall apart the moment where I put any thought into it. 

The big problem with Spidey 2's story is that it's bloated, very much so. It takes the typical sequel approach and adds in even more sub plots and villains compared to 2018 and Miles Morales. 

The start of the game is already questionable enough as is, for one the game gives you a recap on what happened previously but it's only a rough outline of what happened, it doesn't go over the DLCs and Miles Morales or at least not effectively as they should. I wouldn't say this is on the levels of the Kingdom Hearts series but it does stand out. If you want to start the Insomniac Spider-Man games at this latest entry then I highly suggest you don't, you will be lost very quickly. 

And speaking of someone who has beaten the 2018 and Miles Morales twice and not the DLCs, already I starting to ask questions, where did Sandman come from? It's a decent opening sequence but I am just wondering where did Flint Marko come from and what's his relevance to the overall story. It gets even more questionable that he acted crazy because Kraven was hunting him and he never pops in the main questline again. 

Speaking of Kraven, he kills many of the villains in the 2018 Spider-Man game off screen with Scorpion being the exception, and to add insult to injury, you can even miss the details of the deaths of characters like Electro and Vulture through audiofiles that not every player will find. This already off to a bad start. 

Coming from someone who is a massive fanboy of the fictional trope known as the "Worf Effect" it feels rather weak that in spite of Kraven being hyped as this big bad threat, only Scorpion is shown being killed on screen and it did get a kick out of me when I saw it but at the same time, couldn't you have improved this by say, having either Peter, Miles, or Mary Jane watch from affar and then have Kraven solo all of Spidey's rogues all at once? Kraven in this story wants a challenge after all and someone worthy of killing him so this would make far more sense to have the Sinister Six team up and challenge Kraven at once and then have them all die when they team up? It does a better job at establishing Kraven as a threat and showing the power gap between Kraven and the Spider-Men and on top of that, the villains have their deaths shown. 

All though Kraven isn't a terrible character in this game, he really comes off more of as a plot device to shove a wedge between Peter Parker and Harry Osborn more so than coming as an interesting villain, if the game didn't subvert the Worf Effect like I mentioned earlier, Kraven would've at least been a more threatning and memorable plot device villain much like Dragon Ball Z's Nappa, but instead his motivations isn't explored all that much since most of his screen time and character interactions are spent fighting people, he comes off as one note so when Venom kills him, while the death and boss fight were decent enough, it's hard to really feel anything. 

Then there are other issues with the story like the lack of any exploration for the side characters, many complained about the Mary Jane stealth sections and while I found the complaints to be overly harsh since MJ's stealth segments are some of the most forgiving forced stealth segments you can find in gaming, it's hard to connect to her plight of her being unappreciated by Peter Parker since her boss fight in late in the game while a decent fight and she is well acted is hard to get behind is a plot point that comes out of left field since MJ from what I can tell was mostly fine with Peter up until that boss fight. 

Speaking of more underdeveloped characters, Norman Osborn is a villain that managed to surivive from 2018 to the sequel and he is a massively underdeveloped, what was the point in having Norman step down as mayor? He's does even less than what he did in 2018 and the only character traits he shows is being a concerned father. He never breaks out or show anything else outside of being that, so he is another character who is one note, and it's a shame since Norman Osborn is one of if not my favorite Spider-Man rogue. There was a scene at the end where Norman gets angry and starts smashing everything around him in a hospital because of Harry's fate and I wished there was more of that throughout. 

I feel like you could improve this by having Norman remain as mayor of New York, and have him use Kraven the Hunter and his gang to thin out the criminal element of the city, it can have an actual mayor in the story since mayor in Spidey 2 never shows up and it explains the lack of law enforcement in Spider-Man 2 and it helps Norman and Kraven be more interconnected to the story while possibly fleshing both villains out more. 

Other underdeveloped characters include Martin Li who has a face turn out of nowhere and becomes a good guy in less than 5 scenes. His rivalry with Miles only exists so it can give the latter something to do. I do think Martin Li's voice acting does a good job at selling his scenes even though the writing can be MUCH better. 

There is also the Lizard who suddenly now shows up on screen in the Insomniac Spidey continuity much like Sandman only really exists to be a villain to keep Peter and Miles busy and later help the two later on. He loses any agency once he stops being the Lizard. 

I also forgot to mention Black Cat gets in a romantic relationship, and gets a dimension hoping artifact so Insomniac can shove in a mission where they can use their dimension hoping tech from Ratchet Rift Apart in their game and she never pops up again or plays a big role in the story. 

So after all this criticism what does save this story from being completely bad outside of the presentation. I'd say the symbiote and Harry Osborn stuff is pretty well done. 

This is in large part due to the presentation but I did think Harry and Peter's relationship were decently fleshed out, there's a good amount of interactions between Harry and the rest of the cast. Harry's motivation and his eventual heel turn is believeable considering there was a pretty enjoyable flashback mission where the viewer is shown how important Emily Osborn is to Harry and how desperate Harry is just to make sure he doesn't end up like the former. 

The Symbiote itself was integrated well into the story since it was build up as far back as Spidey 2018 so he doesn't come out of left field. The acting sells much of it and I did like how Peter especially how the more story goes becomes more and more dependant on the Symbiote which and how crazy and derenaged Peter gets because of it, and it does a good job into leading into Harry Osborn's eventual descent into madness. If there is one geniune saving grace in Spidey 2's writing, it's this. 

It's one of thing in Spider-Man 2's narrative that feels reasonably fleshed out in a myraid of half backed ideas. 

So the story is of Spidey 2 is a step down from the previous games, so how is the gameplay? 

I'd say this is where Spider-Man 2 is an improvement over the original. I don't think is great much like the past games but as far as improvements are concerned, there is just enough here to have the moment to moment gameplay feel solid and enjoyable. 

I'll start with traversal first and while it isn't overly differently from past games, the additions of web wings, makes it much more dynamic and fluid. I loved the wingsuit in Just Cause 3 and 4 and since there won't be a new JC game for a while if ever, Spidey 2 is about as close as it gets to a stand in for those games. The whole dynamic of staying in the air as much as possible while trying to not touch the ground is just as good in Spidey 2 as it does in those games. 

There is more traversal options and even the ability to turn off swing assist but I never bother with them since like in past games, there isn't a whole lot of main missions outside of maybe a few chases and the final boss where you will need to use the extra traversal abilities and those are the missions I mainly played. Traversal was still good as far as getting around the city from main mission to main mission but I wish the actual campaign made use you the advanced movement options more. 

The combat is also an improvement and since combat is what you will mainly be doing in story missions, it is good that moment to moment combat has far more going on compared to past games...in the first couple of hours and mid campaign. 

What I like about combat in 2 is that it forces you to use you abilities more since the two Spider-Men can only get hit probably 2-4 times tops and it is a game over doubly so if you belined it to story missions like I did. 

In Spidey 2018, once you got the ability to do double takedowns, combat became trivial and too easy for my tastes, you can hit enemie, spam gadgets build up combo meter and then do takedowns but since in Spider-Man 2 enemies hit super hard, you got to dodge even more so now, use more gadgets and abilties and do everything in your power to crowd control the hordes of enemies to avoid landing one hit on you. 

One other thing is that gadgets and abilties have shortcuts now, and the game teaches them to you in the story missions unlike say Batman Arkham City and since enemies hit super hard, this means actively use these shortcuts to crowd control groups as much as possible. 

There is also a parry now, and the window for it is super forgiving, and this may annoy some people but since I rarely if ever use parry mechanics in games outside of say the God of War trilogy, I am surprised I even used the ability at all and they will especially help during bosses and because of this, they are far dynamic and have more going on than Batman Arkham and the Middle Earth games' boss fights do. 

With all this and how much Kraven's gang's have enemies types that has the player constantly make decisions on who to take out first. For example, do you get the Hunter goons who is constantly sniping you or do you take out the robot dogs who is jamming your ability to do special moves? You also need to take care of flying drones more too as well as enemies you need to parry, rocket launcher enemies you also need to take care of, there is also big goons and bigger goons who you need to parry more just to damage, I did wish the latter showed up more often. 

Since enemies also take away much of your health upon getting hit, this also makes focus health recovery more important, you could do finishers but since I am not super great at following the "beat" of melee combat games even games like this and I occasionally miss a dodge, now I have to ask myself, do I finish off a low level goon right away or do I save that finisher for a health recovery in case if I accidently get hit? 

I won't even deny that I died a fair number of times, not a super amount but the combat was challenging enough on the default difficulty that I didn't feel like I sleep walking through encounters. This could be a different story is you did all the side missions as you were doing the main story like with many open world games. 

This is where my issue with the combat lies, outside of the game challenging the player with their low hp pool, the combat and enemies start to get one note after a point like many open world games of it's type, the lack of situational depth can make the game feel samey and dull especially when you factor in that I primarily did story mission and the game took me 25 hours to finish to credits and the game doesn't always sustain itself in that time. 

Much of Spidey 2 is combat, setpiece, traversal and then traversal setpiece. The missions just like the missions of it's genre tend to get one note since the designers can't slowly have a smooth difficulty curve or at the very least any change up the scenarios of gameplay since they have to accomodate for players who interacted with the open world. This one big reason why I don't consider the Spider-Man games among Insomniac's best among their other games. 

Overall, while Spider-Man 2 in terms of story is overly bloated and lacks any coherent focus, the presentation makes it decent enough while viewing it in the moment, the Symbiote story and the interactions between Peter Parker and Harry Osborn does much of the writing's heavy lifting. The gameplay is a solid improvement over 2018 and Miles Morales but still isn't anything mind blowing, this is large part of due to open world genre trappings. I enjoyed Spider-Man 2 but not without burn out and me asking many questions along the way.