Spider-Man 2 - Review

 Greater Together.

Console: PlayStation 5.

The only 'big-hitter' title from Sony Interactive Studios this year, Spider-Man 2, had quite a bit of pressure on it. Not only to be a great follow-up to the other Spider-Man games but to be that big hit that Sony was missing in 2023. The Sony 1st party release schedule has been very thin this year. Only VR games and expansions like Horizon Forbidden West: Burning Shores up until now. 

With the success of Insomniac's other spidey games, the high popularity of not only Peter Parker but Miles Morales after the Spider-Verse movies and a focus on Venom, the game had enough hype to be that success the PS5 needed. Judging by the sales, it is a hit but one that perhaps isn't as grand as people expected. 

Without further ado, let's dive into this game and see why this rather safe sequel is nonetheless a great one. 

A few years after Doctor Octopuss's incident Peter and Miles continue to protect the city as the Friendly Neighbourhood Spider-Men though continue to struggle to balance being Spider-Man with their 'normal' lives. Peter, due to his Spider-Man activities, can't hold a job and can't pay off the mortgage on the house Aunt May left him or build towards a future with MJ. Miles struggles with writing his college application and his mom dating again. 

Luckily, Peter's and MJ's old friend Harry Osborn returns to the city after miraculously recovering from his terminal illness, offering Peter a job as the co-head of his new startup company: the Emily-May Foundation. But Harry's recovery harbours a dark secret, and with a mysterious group calling themselves 'the Hunters' also entering the scene, the Spider-Men have their work cut out for them. 

There are some rough weeks ahead for our Spider-Men. 

The story of Spider-Man 2 is good. It's a complex, emotional story with really good thrills and character work but is also rather messy and has that same pacing issue as the first game does. 

Due to the great character work for all characters, not just Peter and Miles, the personal core of the narrative is strong. There is a strong interplay between the Spider-Men's personal and superhero life throughout the game. They are always playing into each other, strengthening both aspects and making them both stronger and feel both parts equally important. That's something superhero stories often struggle with. 

Peter's struggle with balancing his life and his inner darkness that the Venom symbiote pulls towards the surface and Miles figuring out his future also support each character's story well. Even if Miles is clearly not as important to this story as Peter (that most of his solo stuff are side-missions is a clear indicator of that) the 'dual Spider-Man' setup works narratively because of this. 

On to the other characters: I'm happy that MJ has her own stuff going on and has a clearly defined arc. For Harry, I find that his story is predictable. It's easy to see where he'll end up but it's nonetheless well executed and it does take an unexpected turn here and there. He doesn't get to his destination quite the way you think. The rest of the cast doesn't really get any noteworthy attention, the result of this game being too stuffed with characters. The game does have a lot of neat easter-eggs and twists on the comic lore which is nice and even got me by surprise more than once. 

I do take some issue with the use of Kraven, he gets paradoxally more development when he's offscreen than when he's on it, but he's still a good threat and the focus his hunt puts on the many supervillains leads to some fun superhero action. Of which, by the way, there's plenty of. Like the opening, for example, which is grand in both scale and techincial prowess. 

Because of all of this, even if the story is overstuffed with characters, the middle moves rather slowly and the feeling that the final moves too fast makes this a great story to play through. 

Doing the whole 'this is the gameplay' bit makes me feel like a broken record. Spider-Man 2 is one of those sequels that is pretty much the first game again, just with a different plot and some polish to its system but nothing that evolves the formula. 

You punch, kick, dodge and web in a combo system in which you fill up a special to unleash finishers. You can extend these punch and kick combos with the gadgets you craft and one of the new additions: character-specific abilities. Mechanical spider legs for Peter, venom strikes for Miles etc. These act the same as the gadgets but are more about damage compared to the support-focused gadgets.

The other noticeable addition is the new counter. Dodging isn't your only defensive option anymore. It functions as a normal block that, when timed just right, not only completely nullifies the attack but also stuns them. Since there are pros and cons to blocking or dodging, it adds another layer of strategy. I do find it weird that big 'shockwave' attacks can't be dodged but can be blocked. Quite opposite to what you'd think it would be. 

The oddity with the counter. 

The suit skills have been detached from specific suits, now acting as something of a 2nd skill tree that focuses more on increasing your health and damage output and such. The skill tree has been reworked and split into three so you have a shared section and one specific to each Spider-Man. 

Speaking of each Spider-Man, you can freely switch between when you're swinging through New York. Some side-missions are character specific but for the most part you can pick the Spider-Man you want and play through the game a them. Neat. The MJ stealth sections also return which I, just like in Spider-Man 1, I quite enjoyed. 

That's about it really. A true 'if it ain't broke, don't fix it approach'. Underwhelming, perhaps, but still a fun combat system. 

What you do with it is what matters. The city of New York is littered with side missions and activities for you to do that earn you tokens and other currency to spend on suits and upgrades. Said suit selection is pretty weak if you ask me but I don't really change suits much in these games anyway. I spend my tokes on upgrades which I feel is the better investment for a first playthrough than any cosmetics. 

But I digress, back to the activities: not much has changed here also. It's the same stuff as before but with some minor tweaks here and there. Swinging civilians to an ambulance after an assault, for example. Side-Missions include collecthatons, enemy rushes and more that are fun but once again aren't anything its predecessors haven't done before. Fun, but not overly stimulating, busy work that adds an extra hour or two of playtime after you're done with the campaign. 

I will say that there are some standout side-missions here through the 'Friendly Neighbourhood Spider-Man' app. From playing as Miles' deaf love-interest Haily to the very emotionally beautiful 'Howard' quest. Those are without a doubt worth your time.

 

The traversal deserves its own paragraph: the first game was praised for its web swinging and that system is still here, untouched. They didn't mess with it, just added something to it: gliding with the web-wings. It's not quite the same as flying, but it's close to the multitude of air currents that give you a lift and boost your speed to get around the map easily. I never felt the need to fast travel. I could get from one end of the map to the other in a reasonable timespan, finding a goodie or two along the way. Just don't expect to make any sharp turns. 

Graphics-wise, the game looks really good. The changes aren´t all that noticeable when web swinging around the city but that´s how the cookie crumbles with many PS5 games. The graphic leap between it and the PS4 just isn´t that big when a PS4 game was already pushing the hardware. That doesn´t mean that there aren´t any improvements, we have updated character models, better particle effects and a much bigger and detailed NYC with a lot more people. All nice things but not stuff that, in my eyes, makes a world of difference.

The character models, the facial animations combined with the motion capture performances, are quite clearly superior to the previous games. 

Stability-wise, I found that both the graphics and performance modes do what you expect from them without hassle. I´ve seen stuff floating around the internet like the ´Spider-Cube' but I encountered nothing of the sort. The most ´trouble´ I got into was briefly getting stuck inside a wall and two instances of out-of-sync subtitles. Small fry stuff. 

Conclusion

While not revolutionary in any sense of the word, Spider-Man 2 is still a great game. It has a well-written plot that, despite its pacing issues, tells a compelling and emotional narrative about finding balance in one's live. The gameplay remains fun and engaging with the counter and new abilities spicing things up just enough to make a difference. The activities are also rather familiar to what the other 2 games did but also some standout, creative and imaginative, side-quests. Add in some great superhero set pieces, the still oh-so enjoyable web-swinging, and now gliding, and the great graphics and you get yourself a superhero adventure worth playing.