I spent a lot of time honing my critical thinking with BG3's Honour Mode at the end of last year, then started my year by finishing Alan Wake 2, which had a heavy story and at one point scared me so bad that I had to take constant mini breaks to regain my composure. While I'll write those two games off as amazing and unforgettable, I wanted something a little more easygoing for my next title. Seeing as how Spider-Man 2 was the last game before checking off playing all 2023 GOTY nominees, it was a perfect choice.
I read a lot of reviews that considered SM2 a "mid" sequel and that it didn't belong on the GOTY list, so I went in with tempered expectations. I should do that more often because I enjoyed it much more than expected! I wanted a fun MCU-level story that had simple gameplay, which is exactly what I got.
The story was your typica Marvel level story with multiple villains all culminating into one epic blowout at the end, but the way they incorporated each villain into portions of the game made sense based on story progression. I really liked Kraven's character. Knowing nothing about him from the comics, I liked his intimidation factor and there's always something satisfying about overpowered villains who just hunt for fun instead of having a singular goal. Another character that stood out was The Lizard. His exhilarating chase scene on the river was one of my favorite parts of the game. Insomniac did such a fantastic job with the seamless transition between cutscenes and gameplay.
Moving onto overall mission structure, this is where I docked half a star. I know how the formula works, I enjoyed the first SM and Miles Morales, but it was more of the same. Watch cutscene and beat up some bad guys. Zip here to do a task and beat up some bad guys. Fly some bee drones and beat up some bad guys. It's NYC, I know the enemy types are limited, but there was nothing exciting about the combat loop. These criminals really be criminaling.
The last thing I want to mention is the traversal. SM2 might be the only open world game where I only used fast travel maybe once or twice (but when I did, the seamless transition was a serious chef's kiss). The traversal is absolutely fantastic and I couldn't get enough. It was fast, fluid, and fun. The amount of skills they added in for traversal made it even better, you could hit a wall and get your momentum back immediately. By the end of the game I could stay up in the sky forever! Spider-Man can basically fly.
Overall, the only issue I had with this game was the stale mission structure, but that was overshadowed by the actual fluidity of combat itself, seamless cutscene to action transition, fun Hollywood level movie experience and overall beautiful world. In true MCU form, the post credits cutscene have me looking forward to Spider-Man 3!
I read a lot of reviews that considered SM2 a "mid" sequel and that it didn't belong on the GOTY list, so I went in with tempered expectations. I should do that more often because I enjoyed it much more than expected! I wanted a fun MCU-level story that had simple gameplay, which is exactly what I got.
The story was your typica Marvel level story with multiple villains all culminating into one epic blowout at the end, but the way they incorporated each villain into portions of the game made sense based on story progression. I really liked Kraven's character. Knowing nothing about him from the comics, I liked his intimidation factor and there's always something satisfying about overpowered villains who just hunt for fun instead of having a singular goal. Another character that stood out was The Lizard. His exhilarating chase scene on the river was one of my favorite parts of the game. Insomniac did such a fantastic job with the seamless transition between cutscenes and gameplay.
Moving onto overall mission structure, this is where I docked half a star. I know how the formula works, I enjoyed the first SM and Miles Morales, but it was more of the same. Watch cutscene and beat up some bad guys. Zip here to do a task and beat up some bad guys. Fly some bee drones and beat up some bad guys. It's NYC, I know the enemy types are limited, but there was nothing exciting about the combat loop. These criminals really be criminaling.
The last thing I want to mention is the traversal. SM2 might be the only open world game where I only used fast travel maybe once or twice (but when I did, the seamless transition was a serious chef's kiss). The traversal is absolutely fantastic and I couldn't get enough. It was fast, fluid, and fun. The amount of skills they added in for traversal made it even better, you could hit a wall and get your momentum back immediately. By the end of the game I could stay up in the sky forever! Spider-Man can basically fly.
Overall, the only issue I had with this game was the stale mission structure, but that was overshadowed by the actual fluidity of combat itself, seamless cutscene to action transition, fun Hollywood level movie experience and overall beautiful world. In true MCU form, the post credits cutscene have me looking forward to Spider-Man 3!