My thoughts on Marvel’s Spider-Man 2
Peter Parker might be the OG Spider-Man but Miles Morales is the MVP in this one.
I didn’t play the first Spider-Man game in 2018, there, I’ve said it. After playing Spider-Man: Miles Morales in 2022, I still didn’t understand much about Peter Parker until I played Spider-Man 2! This game is just incredible. There’s a lot I liked about it that I was very eager to write about in this review and I have to start by saying it’s the best Spider-Man (and the best superhero) game I’ve played.
As you might know, I don’t go over a game’s narrative in my reviews to avoid spoiling it for those who haven’t played. I just tell you about the things I love about a game in hopes that it’ll make you want to play the game as well. So for this game, I LOVED the gameplay. Miles Morales was a fun game and the whole Christmas vibe made it more immersive with snow and Christmas trees etc, it looked very cool.
However, Insomniac took everything good about the first Spider-Man game and Miles Morales and then improved on it in Spider-Man 2. Web swinging feels much more relaxing and the pace at which you move in the air is swifter and faster than it was in the previous games. Swinging was OK in Miles Morales but at some point, you’d easily get bored of it. In Spider-Man 2 however, New York City has never looked this vibrant in a game as far as I know.
The city looks alive and they’ve increased not only the number of pedestrians but also the number of cars and dozens of activities, literally making it a city that never sleeps. Web swinging during the day is superb. It’s far more beautiful in this game than it was in previous games, but at night, I prefer to swing around at night in Spider-Man: Miles Morales. The snowfall and the Christmas spirit bring out the beauty of the city. I haven’t even talked about the characters yet but if you’re a massive Spidey fan, then the improved swinging in this game is enough to make you pay for it, even if that’s the only thing you’d be doing. That’s how cool it is this time.
Up next we have the characters… sigh. I’m just going to say it, Peter Parker might be the OG Spider-Man, but Miles Morales is the MVP in this game for me. I must admit that I didn’t quite connect with Miles when I played Miles Morales but I liked him. But after playing Spider-Man 2, I gotta say I love the kid and I love his relationship with everyone around him including Peter. I also think Miles has cooler abilities than Peter. And unlike Peter, I believe Miles is yet to scratch the surface of what he can really do.
But all this isn’t to take anything away from our good old neighbourhood Spider-Man. I liked Peter as well and frankly I think he pulled off the best jokes throughout the game. Although I didn’t like how he sort of neglected Miles after his reunion with Harry, but I also loved how he realised how important Miles was to not just him, but to the city.
One of the best things about Spider-Man 2 is that you get to play as other characters not just as Peter or Miles. Certain missions will see you play as MJ and you’ll also play as Venom. And no, not Spider-Man wearing a Venom suit but Venom itself. This brings me to the fact that the Symbiote is a villain to be reckoned with in this game. Two villains piqued my interest at the start of the game — Kraven and Sandman — but when Venom came to the scene, you just know they’ve raised the bar. Kraven is a tough son of a gun as well. I think I liked his parts more than I did that of any villain, and I understood his motive for doing what he did.
Venom just proved to be the stronger and far more deadlier villain in the long run and I don’t think just one Spider-Man could’ve gotten the job done. It took two of them and some extra hands to put down the unflinching Symbiote. I didn’t see MJ as a playable character coming and was quite surprised when I realised they were letting me use her on several ground missions that required you to sneak around with a Taser weapon and avoid being seen. Even at that, there were times when she became a badass that knocked enemies down when even Peter said “You’re so cool".
I found the enemy NPCs to be more interesting this time around as opposed to how they faired in Miles Morales. Some of the words they uttered were pretty funny, which reminded me of the hilarious druids from the Star Wars Jedi games. The villains I mentioned in this review are the ones you’ve probably already seen in some of the game’s official trailer clips from Sony or Insomniac. There are other villains in the game that I don’t want to tell you about until you play yourself.
There are many times when Spider-Man 2 didn’t even feel like a Spider-Man game. There are lots of interesting missions where you can simply hang out with friends without the suit and still have a good time. If you simply want to play the game for the story as I did, you’ll have a great time as it takes about 15 hours or less to complete the main story. But I suggest you aim for 100% completion because there’s just a whole lot of stuff for you to do in New York City with two Spider-Men, both of whom have incredible abilities.
I played the game on the PS5 and the DualSense controller can really enhance the gameplay with haptic feedback and speakers that you can often hear more than your own headphones. Some games are just better on the PS5 because of the DualSense controller and Spider-Man 2 is one of those games. I saw some fans getting upset when it didn’t win Game of the Year and quite frankly I don’t think Spider-Man 2 is GoTY material. Here me out, it’s a fantastic game and if a sequel comes out right now for $100, I’d whip out the cash and pay for it to step into the shoes of Miles Morales or Peter Parker once again but I don’t think the game’s story was up to par when discussing GoTY material.
Some stories hit you to the core because you can relate to the characters and the pain they feel. Such a game I would say is The Last of Us Part 2: Remastered or even my personal favourite Ghost of Tsushima. I think both of these aforementioned games have better stories than Spider-Man 2. The best way to enjoy Spider-Man 2 is to play the game as a supernatural/superhero story.
Hell, there’s even an Avengers building in New York City this time which is a nice Easter Egg to tease what could be in Spider-Man 3. We might be seeing some new faces or not. But one thing I believe will happen is that one Spider-Man cannot save the world and more often than not, he’ll always need help.
Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 checks all the boxes for me. A captivating story, with interesting characters, fearsome villains and a vibrant city. I cannot wait to see what Insomniac games have in store for us in what could be “the final chapter" and there’s a lot more to come from the story of Miles Morales and Peter Parker.
