3 reviews liked by CommodoreFez


Spider-Man 2 is easily my favorite superhero video game of all time. It takes everything I loved about the previous two entries, tosses out a lot of what I didn’t like, and builds on what’s left in meaningful ways. The story hits, the combat feels great, and open-world traversal has never felt this good.

Fast travel in Spider-Man 2 on the PS5 rules. You select a spot on the map, and the camera dynamically zooms into that position, instantly giving you control of Spider-Man swinging through the city. It’s incredible. Yet, despite that, I rarely ever used it because getting around the city is so damn fun and quick that I never wanted to stop. I didn’t think it would be possible but somehow Insomniac took the already fun swinging in Spider-man and Miles Morales and brought it to another level in Spider-man 2 with the addition of the web wings and other traversal mechanics.

Just like the traversal, the combat in the game gets a nice facelift with a slew of new fun abilities. The combat is not anything that dramatically different from the previous games but it still feels so damn good. It was only occasionally frustrating when enemies would have move priority over my big powerful attacks and ended up somehow canceling me out.

I’m not necessarily a big comic reader, but between the three live-action Spider-men, Spider-Verse, and all the random Spider-man cartoons, we’ve had no shortage of variations on Spider-man’s story. So it’s rad that Insomniac is perfectly comfortable breaking canon to tell its own story, and what a blast that story is. Even though a lot of the twists aren’t all that surprising, it’s still a really fun story and the voice-acting is fantastic.

My biggest complaint in the game is all the random minigames that distract from the fun shit you would rather be doing. I get that sometimes it’s fun to break up the gameplay so it doesn’t get repetitive, but bike racing, genome splicing, molecule identifying, and bee drone combat ain’t it gang. It’s baffling to me that Insomniac can make the best-feeling traversal in video game history and then also have the worst-feeling bike riding. I do appreciate that there are far fewer MJ stealth sections this time around, but there are still a few and while they’re a lot better, they still aren’t really that fun.

Aside from some annoying side activities, Spider-man 2 is an absolute blast to play. The traversal, combat, and story come together perfectly to create what is easily the new bar for superhero video games.

+ Somehow made Spider-man’s mobily even better, faster, and more fun than it already was
+ Combat feels fantastic with rad new abilities
+ Fantastic story that has no qualms breaking canon and forging its own path
+ Great audio design, music, and voice acting
+ Beautiful world design both graphically and in terms of making the city feel alive and lived in
+ Just an absolute blast

- Character models look dated
- Bad minigames that distract from the fun stuff you’d rather be doing
- Combat move priority occasionally annoying
- Some bugs that need to be worked out

I was just smiling ear to ear the whole time playing this. I'm so bad at Pac-Man and here comes a game that's taking great influence from pac-man to make a much easier to get into (thanks to the score-life system) and different beast that is much more tangible but just as interesting as the good ol' Namco game! Props to the creator still having that great different enemy behavior and especially with levels that provide different quick-thinking routing with their own mechanics without ever getting stale. Absolutely in love with the game's simple charm too, just so refreshing to see. Please do pick this up and give it some love it has all the heart in the world and such wonderful sensibilities to the genre ^w^

Legitimately one of the cleverest puzzle games I've ever played. Less than an hour long and free on Itch, HIGHLY recommended. Looking forward to the full version later this year!