Questy
4 reviews liked by Questy
15
(Non-spoiler review, but the third paragraph contains minor spoilers for the second half of the game)
I probably shouldn’t have made Silent Hill: The Short Message my first foray into the Silent Hill franchise, and although it shares no connection to the other entries, I wish I would’ve played those first to be able to give more insight into how well it stands against them, but the damage is done… so whatever! I’m not going to go too deep into this one, as it’s a free—two hour horror game akin to some random steam indie, and I don’t want to spend too much time thinking about this—honestly? Complete and utter fucking waste of potential.
The idea of a self-contained, standalone, high-budget horror game aiming to convey a brutally honest and sincere story of anguish with mental health undertones is brilliant, but the execution is shockingly piss poor here. At times—most times… it feels as if this was written by a film student without a single creative bone in their body. It’s generic, with blatantly underdeveloped themes due to its tight—not even two hour—runtime, and its worst aspect is how on the nose the writing is; throwing constant talking points at you with the subtlety of a sledgehammer. Some people are excusing and chalking this up to how short the game is, and that’d make sense—clearly that’s part of the issue, but it’s still an issue. It doesn’t matter if there’s a reason for a particular shortcoming… a shortcoming is still a shortcoming. And for me personally, if a game is talking at you rather than guiding you through the experience… it becomes exhausting to play. “Bullying is bad”, “Suicide is not the answer”, “Talk to people you’re close to about your problems”, is it me or did I just get transported back to 2017 when Netflix’s 13 Reasons Why released? Like fuck me! Come up with something more interesting to say about such complicated issues. I know this isn’t the best comparison, but a game called Gris delved into similar topics and was substantially more subtle and in-turn meaningful about them—and not only that, it had gameplay that meshed well with its writing and aesthetic to a degree. But that’s on the completely opposite side of the spectrum as people said it felt too abstract; and I guess that’s a line these games have to toe sometimes… but I much prefer the latter.
And it pains me to say all of this, because there are some good ideas at play here. Specifically the whole child abuse angle, I think the game does well to showcase the dread of having to endure a parent’s—a monster’s spiraling mental stability; circumstances continuously worsen until you finally break and all of their mistakes ripple into the rest of your life… leaving you to pick up the pieces. Like a dark cloud hanging over you, chasing you through every step of the way known as life—every loud thud, getting closer and closer; wondering if you’ll ever escape them... It’s a haunting metaphor that the game doesn’t fully pursue, as I’m sure “the monster” is linked more so to Anita’s friend: Maya, as they both share the same sweater—rather than her mother. I suppose the metaphor works both ways. Maya and Anita’s mother are two sides of the same coin, both events drastically propelled Anita’s life into chaos and pure misery; so I think it makes sense if they’re both chasing her throughout the maze, acting as a personification for life itself. But that’s sadly where the positives end. The 15 points I gave has everything to do with that thread. Whereas everything to do with the: “I’m ugly”, “She gets more likes and followers than me” story is woefully inept at conveying anything engaging… at least for me. And I’m not saying real people don’t experience feelings like that—they obviously, very much do! It’s sometimes hard not to when so much of your life is based around seeing the highlight reels of other people’s lives in the form of social media, but a game isn’t real life—and I don’t think it has any business portraying something so mundane with nothing new to say. I genuinely think my personal experience with bullying is more creative, and it feels weird to power scale “bullying”, but fuck me if it isn’t true! You’ll have to take my word on that one though, I am not elaborating further… But that’s pretty much the entire reason why the story didn’t click with me; and so the ending with the clear, hopeful sunrise directly contrasted against the bleak and fog-filled start menu… didn’t feel earned to me. It’s a nice way of conveying an arc of sorts, but at the same time… was it impactful enough to make me care about it? Nope, I can’t say that it was. But that’s not even the worst part… the gameplay is.
I’m not well-versed with walking sims, I don’t think I’ve ever really played one for longer than a few hours. But as far as I can tell, there doesn’t seem to be much here? It’s very linear in the way that the player is literally tasked with going from one room/hallway to the next, to look at notes, which more often than not will trigger a chase section—you then complete it, and the cycle restarts. It’s nothing groundbreaking—in fact, it’s among the most generic gameplay loops I’ve ever seen; and along with all the issues I’ve gone over forms a really dull experience. Its most aggravating aspect are the aforementioned chase sections. These are little “puzzles” that you have to solve by finding the correct door in a maze while outrunning a monster. And there’s definitely something exhilarating about them; running—but seemingly never being able to escape it, hearing those powerful footsteps bang against the concrete floor every step of the way—right behind you, while you slowly open doors and what-not… but when it’s so heavily rooted in trial and error—which it is, it becomes a slog. The final chase is the most guilty of this, because you’re essentially running through countless rooms that all look the same trying to find five random photographs, and if by chance you die then you'll have to repeat the entire thing; and I can’t emphasize this enough… it’s BORING, it’s AWFUL, it’s HEADACHE INDUCING. I had exactly zero fun with it.
The funniest thing by far is that Silent Hill: The Short Message is basically a UE5 tech demo… with the one huge downside being that it runs like complete fucking ass! The FPS go from the high 50s to the 30s very often due to how many assets are on screen. I’m convinced there’s forced motion blur too? But I’ve seen nobody mention this so I can’t be sure, all I know is that turning the camera felt like shit—and I couldn’t see anything. Lip syncing is also terrible, although maybe that’s intentional? Either way, it doesn’t look good and makes focusing on the cutscenes difficult because I’m constantly distracted by its weird visuals. And if this is what the future of UE5 looks like for the Playstation 5… then I don’t want it. I’d rather get a technically competent UE4 game with consistent performance that doesn’t take me out of the experience. I don’t think UE5 is viable for this console generation, as the only way to achieve stable performance would be through very heavy-handed upscaling techniques that we’ve seen plenty of games use so far ahem Jedi: Survivor, ahem Final Fantasy XVI; and both of these are using older engines! So yeah... but maybe on the Playstation 6!
All in all? This game made me want to kill myself.
Playtime: 1.6 hours
Every Game I’ve Ever Played - Ranked (By Score)
Playstation Exclusives - Ranked
Silent Hill - Ranked
2024 - Ranked
(Non-spoiler review, but the third paragraph contains minor spoilers for the second half of the game)
I probably shouldn’t have made Silent Hill: The Short Message my first foray into the Silent Hill franchise, and although it shares no connection to the other entries, I wish I would’ve played those first to be able to give more insight into how well it stands against them, but the damage is done… so whatever! I’m not going to go too deep into this one, as it’s a free—two hour horror game akin to some random steam indie, and I don’t want to spend too much time thinking about this—honestly? Complete and utter fucking waste of potential.
The idea of a self-contained, standalone, high-budget horror game aiming to convey a brutally honest and sincere story of anguish with mental health undertones is brilliant, but the execution is shockingly piss poor here. At times—most times… it feels as if this was written by a film student without a single creative bone in their body. It’s generic, with blatantly underdeveloped themes due to its tight—not even two hour—runtime, and its worst aspect is how on the nose the writing is; throwing constant talking points at you with the subtlety of a sledgehammer. Some people are excusing and chalking this up to how short the game is, and that’d make sense—clearly that’s part of the issue, but it’s still an issue. It doesn’t matter if there’s a reason for a particular shortcoming… a shortcoming is still a shortcoming. And for me personally, if a game is talking at you rather than guiding you through the experience… it becomes exhausting to play. “Bullying is bad”, “Suicide is not the answer”, “Talk to people you’re close to about your problems”, is it me or did I just get transported back to 2017 when Netflix’s 13 Reasons Why released? Like fuck me! Come up with something more interesting to say about such complicated issues. I know this isn’t the best comparison, but a game called Gris delved into similar topics and was substantially more subtle and in-turn meaningful about them—and not only that, it had gameplay that meshed well with its writing and aesthetic to a degree. But that’s on the completely opposite side of the spectrum as people said it felt too abstract; and I guess that’s a line these games have to toe sometimes… but I much prefer the latter.
And it pains me to say all of this, because there are some good ideas at play here. Specifically the whole child abuse angle, I think the game does well to showcase the dread of having to endure a parent’s—a monster’s spiraling mental stability; circumstances continuously worsen until you finally break and all of their mistakes ripple into the rest of your life… leaving you to pick up the pieces. Like a dark cloud hanging over you, chasing you through every step of the way known as life—every loud thud, getting closer and closer; wondering if you’ll ever escape them... It’s a haunting metaphor that the game doesn’t fully pursue, as I’m sure “the monster” is linked more so to Anita’s friend: Maya, as they both share the same sweater—rather than her mother. I suppose the metaphor works both ways. Maya and Anita’s mother are two sides of the same coin, both events drastically propelled Anita’s life into chaos and pure misery; so I think it makes sense if they’re both chasing her throughout the maze, acting as a personification for life itself. But that’s sadly where the positives end. The 15 points I gave has everything to do with that thread. Whereas everything to do with the: “I’m ugly”, “She gets more likes and followers than me” story is woefully inept at conveying anything engaging… at least for me. And I’m not saying real people don’t experience feelings like that—they obviously, very much do! It’s sometimes hard not to when so much of your life is based around seeing the highlight reels of other people’s lives in the form of social media, but a game isn’t real life—and I don’t think it has any business portraying something so mundane with nothing new to say. I genuinely think my personal experience with bullying is more creative, and it feels weird to power scale “bullying”, but fuck me if it isn’t true! You’ll have to take my word on that one though, I am not elaborating further… But that’s pretty much the entire reason why the story didn’t click with me; and so the ending with the clear, hopeful sunrise directly contrasted against the bleak and fog-filled start menu… didn’t feel earned to me. It’s a nice way of conveying an arc of sorts, but at the same time… was it impactful enough to make me care about it? Nope, I can’t say that it was. But that’s not even the worst part… the gameplay is.
I’m not well-versed with walking sims, I don’t think I’ve ever really played one for longer than a few hours. But as far as I can tell, there doesn’t seem to be much here? It’s very linear in the way that the player is literally tasked with going from one room/hallway to the next, to look at notes, which more often than not will trigger a chase section—you then complete it, and the cycle restarts. It’s nothing groundbreaking—in fact, it’s among the most generic gameplay loops I’ve ever seen; and along with all the issues I’ve gone over forms a really dull experience. Its most aggravating aspect are the aforementioned chase sections. These are little “puzzles” that you have to solve by finding the correct door in a maze while outrunning a monster. And there’s definitely something exhilarating about them; running—but seemingly never being able to escape it, hearing those powerful footsteps bang against the concrete floor every step of the way—right behind you, while you slowly open doors and what-not… but when it’s so heavily rooted in trial and error—which it is, it becomes a slog. The final chase is the most guilty of this, because you’re essentially running through countless rooms that all look the same trying to find five random photographs, and if by chance you die then you'll have to repeat the entire thing; and I can’t emphasize this enough… it’s BORING, it’s AWFUL, it’s HEADACHE INDUCING. I had exactly zero fun with it.
The funniest thing by far is that Silent Hill: The Short Message is basically a UE5 tech demo… with the one huge downside being that it runs like complete fucking ass! The FPS go from the high 50s to the 30s very often due to how many assets are on screen. I’m convinced there’s forced motion blur too? But I’ve seen nobody mention this so I can’t be sure, all I know is that turning the camera felt like shit—and I couldn’t see anything. Lip syncing is also terrible, although maybe that’s intentional? Either way, it doesn’t look good and makes focusing on the cutscenes difficult because I’m constantly distracted by its weird visuals. And if this is what the future of UE5 looks like for the Playstation 5… then I don’t want it. I’d rather get a technically competent UE4 game with consistent performance that doesn’t take me out of the experience. I don’t think UE5 is viable for this console generation, as the only way to achieve stable performance would be through very heavy-handed upscaling techniques that we’ve seen plenty of games use so far ahem Jedi: Survivor, ahem Final Fantasy XVI; and both of these are using older engines! So yeah... but maybe on the Playstation 6!
All in all? This game made me want to kill myself.
Playtime: 1.6 hours
Every Game I’ve Ever Played - Ranked (By Score)
Playstation Exclusives - Ranked
Silent Hill - Ranked
2024 - Ranked
This review contains spoilers
76
Oh boy. I don’t even know how I’m going to review the entirety of this game, but I’ll try my best—so bear with me. I have a lot to say, I’ve written the most notes I’ve ever had for a game, and I’ll be going through most of what this game has to offer in excruciating detail so sorry in advance for the massive essay that you’re about to read—or won’t, I can’t really blame you.
So. Marvel’s Spider-Man 2. Is it good? Fuck yeah. Does it have industry-leading visuals—from the animations to the cinematics to the all-encompassing presentation? Fuck. Yes. Does it improve upon its predecessors in every comprehensible way? Also. Fucking. Yes. But does it do anything particularly… new? Does it reinvent the wheel? Does it improve any gameplay mechanics—any side content in big, substantial ways? Ehhhhhh. Not really. I’m not going to lie and pretend like I was expecting more, because I actually wasn’t… my expectations for this game were perfectly met. I never thought it’d massively improve the web-swinging, or give combat more flair and diversity. I never thought it’d make the open world feel more lived in or brimming with detail. So I’m not that disappointed, I’m perfectly content with what we got—I mean, this is a game I gave a four star rating to—a low four, but a four nonetheless. This is a great game; however that may change with subsequent playthroughs. So from here on out, I’ll be breaking everything down—from the swinging, to the combat, story, characters, side content, and so on.
The swinging. Yes, it has improved, and I fear it’s gonna be tough going back to the first two games because it’s just an absolutely monumental step-up (but not in the ways that matter). The speed is three times as fast, and that alone would make the last two games obsolete; but on top of that they also add things like the web wings, loop de loops, and corner tethers. And as I said before, it’s a huge improvement—I mean shit, you fly through the city like you’re Superman, constantly weaving through buildings and alleyways at insane speeds; all while doing tricks and precise movements. It’s a lot of fun. And this may be an unpopular opinion, but the corner tether is my favourite addition. In the first game I was missing the feeling of being able to change directions while maintaining momentum, and now that I can—it opens up the skill ceiling and makes every swing impactful. When it comes to the web wings, I don’t like abusing them too much—since you easily can; so using them in tandem with the swinging—like for example, quickly activating them after letting go of a web in hopes of clearing a rooftop by barely staying above ground, is when they’re at their best and feel meaningful. Loop de loops are pretty good too, although I wish you could use them whenever you wanted, without diving—and multiple times during a single web swing; because as they are now, it’s purely for a speed boost and does little to nothing for style. And this is sadly where the positives end. This game is missing so much in regards to traversal. It took five whole years to make—a pretty standard life cycle of a AAA open world game; but given that huge amount of time, I wanted more. I wanted more innovation, more things to do, more mechanics to learn and master over the course of my playthrough… and I got none of that. How come Spider-Man 2 (2004), Ultimate Spider-Man, and Spider-Man: Web of Shadows still have more swinging mechanics? Where’s web climbing? Where’s wall running (down)? Where’s the ability to wrap around buildings? Where’s the ability to run along the ground while holding a web? Web zipping up? Pole swinging? And it goes on and on… I can only imagine how long-lasting this game would be if it had all of those things, I can’t even fathom the amount of insane variations and combinations that you could pull off, and it would lead to a far more interesting and memorable experience than whatever we got here. Just imagine the possibilities. The only things they added to actual web swinging are loop de loops and corner tethers… That’s it! Two new mechanics… and no, the slingshot and the wings don’t count as one has nothing to do with webs, and the other is only a stationary boost. This can be applied to all three games, but something that should’ve been in this one, and only in this one… is a unique style of swinging when using the Symbiote. And of course, they fumbled it… what a fucking missed opportunity. I’m genuinely annoyed that they didn’t do that. Why? Like I get that they have to design a whole new animation set, but it’s part of the package when you center your story around this arc. I should feel Peter’s anger, his frustration, his power. It should feel different and have more weight. But it doesn’t. It’s literally just a suit gameplay-wise. I’ll talk a little more about this in the combat section, because this applies there too… So while there are improvements to the swinging, it’s still severely lacking a lot of things that would truly elevate it and make it great; and I imagine it won't be long until I get bored of it.
So with combat, many of the same things can be said; there are improvements, but it’s still lacking moves and mechanics that won't let it flourish into something that’s able to keep my attention for more than two playthroughs. There are some new enemies: robot dogs, talons, symbiotes, and both the hunter and flame factions have a few enemies that will encourage you to play differently due to their moves. But for the most part, there aren’t too many enemies that will challenge you in unique ways, you’ll be using the same moves that you have been using for the past two games. It’s just more of the same. The skill tree offers a decent amount of upgrades, but most are very miniscule additions that won’t change up encounters in meaningful ways. A lot of them have to do with air combat, and it’s just stuff like: bounce them off the ground, web zip behind them, slam them into the ground… it’s all just very gimmicky and not something I used a lot. I really like the yank upgrades though, casually yanking enemies off of buildings or over obstacles was very fun and has a lot of comedic potential due to the ragdoll physics. They also add a parry attack—which I was a bit skeptical of for the first 10 hours or so, but once you get the hang of it—it’s actually quite rewarding and satisfying, so no complaints there. But one massive improvement over the last two games are the gadgets. They no longer feel like cheating, and are instead in service to the flow of combat; they have better activation, which is done with the right bumper instead of manually bringing up a wheel that slows everything down. But okay, coming back to the symbiote suit… it offers nothing in terms of gameplay. Yes, there are some abilities and a rage meter, but those aren’t exclusive to the suit. Don’t get me wrong, I did actually like the abilities! (All of them! Even the arms and venom powers). They’re fun. But I wanted new animations for when you’re using the suit, I wanted Peter to feel more unhinged and violent, with punches and kicks that you can feel he’s not holding back on; and I don’t mean I want him fucking killing people, of course not—but there should be a difference, as there was in Web of Shadows. Like you can’t even switch to the symbiote via a button press like you could in that game! That’s something that should’ve absolutely been in here, it’s literally a requirement as every other Spider-Man game that features a symbiote story has done it (except Ultimate I guess). And I’m shocked that more people haven’t brought this up anywhere. To be completely honest, the symbiote is this game’s biggest disappointment gameplay-wise. There’s nothing there. It’s just a shame because I don’t know when we’ll get another symbiote story that’ll properly utilize that aspect in the gameplay department. I can’t understate how happy I was about the difficulty increase though! I feel like the first game’s “ultimate” is this game’s “amazing”, which really puts into perspective how easy the first game was. I genuinely had a harder time with some of the bosses, which are thankfully miles better than in the previous game. They’re not as scripted as they were before, with more of a focus on actually… fighting the villains; instead of stunning them only to then spam the same four attacks over and over again. It’s refreshing. I love the health bars too! Supporting my point even more, since it actually feels like a fight and less like a controllable cutscene.
“We’re going to heal the world.”
The story of Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 is the best thing about it. It’s the only reason I gave it this high of a score. I love the first two acts, with the third dropping off in quality due to some creative decisions; but still keeping the jaw dropping spectacle and emotion that made it special in the first place.
The first act largely focuses on Sandman, introducing and developing Peter and Harry’s friendship, and setting up Kraven and his hunt. In typical Spider-Man fashion, it opens up with a boss fight that is entirely a flex on Insomniac’s part… these developers are fucking wizards—the whole segment is pure spectacle and a showcase of their tech. The moment when Miles gets flung across New York, and slingshots back is insane, and was in large part implemented to showcase the power of the PS5’s SSD. And yeah, shit was wild. I was in awe. As much as I love these big set pieces, I also like the slower—more deliberate bits where you play as Peter or Miles. Walking through May’s house and Miles’ apartment adds a lot to these characters, especially to Peter—as May’s house lets us see his history a bit more, not to mention the countless references to his early days as Spider-Man. Even the bike ride and the high school flashbacks with Harry are meaningful in establishing this universe’s relationship between the pair; and at times reminded me of a coming of age movie. Friendship, nostalgia, bonding. It’s all there, and their chemistry instantly made me love them as a pair. I think this is the best Harry we’ve seen since, like, the original 60s comic run—for me anyway. And on the other end we have Miles. His story is generally much weaker than Peter’s imo. Don’t get me wrong, I like it—but not nearly as much as Peter’s. At this point he’s struggling with writing his 500 word essay—which by the way… what the fuck? I’d have that done in 30 minutes! But the game is clearly trying to juxtapose the typical Spider-Man formula, Peter is the adult mentor now: dealing with mortgages, prioritizing relationships. Whilst Miles is taking on the more standard Spider-Man storytelling approach: writing an essay, tunnel focusing on Martin Li, etc. It’s all things Peter was doing back in his highschool days, and I like that shift. It’s clever. The two interacting is wholesome, and I love the little moments: the fist bumps, the hugs, the casual conversations, it’s a heartwarming dynamic. I haven’t been talking much about Kraven thus far, and there’s a reason for that; I wouldn’t say he’s a big part of the story. Sure, he acts as the catalyst for everything that’s happening, but he’s never given much screen time or development besides some notes in his mansion. He does propel the story forward though, like with the carnival segment. We get our introduction to the symbiote suit thanks to him, and there’s a moment during this bit that’s one of my favorites from the game. It’s when Peter is trying to save the people on the rollercoaster—everything keeps going wrong, he’s running out of strength, out of time, and he says “I’m sorry” to one of the civilians. It’s a rare look at a Spider-Man who can’t save someone; and I know he always loses people, but I mean a regular civilian… he always saves those, right? And Yuri Lowenthal’s delivery there was just nothing short of brilliant. The pure desperation in his voice hit me so hard. And it’s funny that Harry finds out Peter is Spider-Man in such a casual way during this very moment, which brings us to the end of act one with the rooftop scene. It’s also a good time to mention just how good Harry’s theme is… full of wonder, aspiration, and hope. John Paesano cooked so fucking hard with this motif, and the score in general.
“It makes me a better Spider-Man”
With the start of the second act, we’re delving more into symbiote territory—with Kraven and Lizard becoming more of the focus. This isn’t to say that Kraven becomes more of a character, because he doesn’t, not really. He’s still being used as the catalyst for every story beat; but now the game is amping up with the set pieces and general story-esque stuff. This is when Insomniac takes a shot at telling an Agent Venom story for a bit, Harry doesn’t don the name or anything, but it’s clearly the inspiration—suit and all. And this is honestly one of my least favourite sections. The segment where you infiltrate a hunter hideout with Harry to rescue Tombstone dragged on for way too long. It was just wave after wave of countless enemies, it felt endless; and it just got stale because I hadn’t really unlocked many skills at that point, so I was essentially just spamming the most effective attacks in hopes of finishing that fucking mission as quickly as possible. But it was worth it, because straight after we get a cutscene of the symbiote stealing Peter’s logo—which was awesome! But shortly after this, we get the return of an MJ mission… and fuck me, man. It wasn’t good. I don’t want to play as MJ in a Spider-Man game, plain and simple. I know that Insomniac wants to show that she’s just as capable and strong, but from a purely gameplay perspective, it sucks, and it’s not fun; I don’t care how many gadgets you give her. But thankfully it leads into a great segment where you’re desperately trying to save Dr. Conners, when Peter gets stabbed by Kraven. And this is of course how he gets the symbiote. I love this moment, it’s so satisfying to immediately hear Yuri go into bully mode. I like the little touch of Peter not knowing how to give the symbiote back because deep down he really doesn’t want to; I don’t think it was purely the symbiote’s doing. During this you get to see him use it more and more, slowly becoming obsessed and addicted to it—after seeing that it can change outfits on command, subtly help via a mind of its own, and of course induce passive bonuses like more strength, speed, etc. You even get the first little taste of the suit taking over when a hunter surrenders, and in response Peter literally chucks him through a window, I find it weird how Peter recognizes that it wasn’t his doing—I feel like they should’ve just let him not acknowledge it, considering it’s never brought up again? But whatever. Past this point is the start of the Lizard mission, where you’re tasked to search Conners’ home; and there’s immediately something different about this one. Peter is angry. You can hear it in his voice. He’s frustrated that the hunters are targeting someone who’s only trying to be a better person and live a normal life, someone who misses his family, and you get the sense that his downward spiral has truly begun; specifically after this mission, as that’s when he starts speaking new lines when fighting crime, and just generally starts being a complete asshole. My personal favourite is “A break-in? I’ll break them!”, it’s mean, blunt, and straight to the point—as he should be during this whole segment. I also noticed how the swinging music is now a twisted and more menacing version of the default track which perfectly reflects Peter’s mindset at this given point. This is a slight nitpick, but I wish civilians reacted differently to Peter when he’s on the streets. It’s very out of character when you approach them and are given the exact same gestures that he would normally use without the suit—but I digress. After finishing the second Lizard mission is when his arc is in full force, he’s arrogant, cocky—and in denial about how much damage he’s causing. Now I know what Yuri meant when he said he researched the behaviours of addiction… he even starts saying shit like “Destroy us?” and “So let’s see who we can help out here!” which is so fucked but SO cool at the same time. Although I found it strange how these are the only two instances where he refers to himself and the symbiote as a pair, he never says “us” or “we” ever again after this, and I wish it was more of a naturally occurring thing. After Peter goes to sleep, and the symbiote starts wearing his body (which actually reminded me of the Spectacular Spider-Man show, easily one of the best adaptations of all time), you’re forced to do a second MJ mission! And… I surprisingly liked this one? It progresses the story in a meaningful way and actually has a reason for existing, unlike the other two. Seeing Peter act like a raging monster is terrifying, and placing you in the shoes of MJ works well in establishing him as a threat. The chase section adds to this even further, and is the first time we get to hear Tony Todd—who is a great choice to play Venom. But I honestly think this should’ve been the only MJ mission in the game, for the reasons I mentioned. After this mission, Peter wakes up on a bench and for a second I thought they might do a little nod to Tobey Maguire’s iconic dance scene… sadly that didn’t happen. I actually wanted a few more references to other symbiote stories that have happened throughout the years. I was genuinely disappointed that we didn’t get a side mission where you chase down Shocker while Peter is completely losing it. I was surprised by how dark this story got though, Harry leaves Peter a voicemail saying that he’s basically going to die if he doesn’t get the suit back, and Peter is just like “I wonder if Harry really needs the suit” Like Peter??? He’s going to fucking die. I love seeing the jealousy kick in with Harry when Peter talks with Norman, it’s such a classic part of any Spider-Man story; and I can’t wait to see how that dynamic plays out in the third game. At this point I was so invested in Peter’s story that whenever it switched to Miles I was left a bit bored. His confrontation with Li was good, but when you pair these two stories up together, his is noticeably weaker for me. But I still liked his boss fight; and the Kraven one leading up to Peter vs Miles was fantastic too. There’s so much good dialogue when Miles and Peter are fighting, it’s genuinely heartbreaking hearing Peter struggle this much, and I can’t stop saying it—but Yuri fucking crushes it. And a little part of me died when he took off the suit, because I knew the game would only go downhill from there, and it sure did!
“We… are… Venom!”
I don’t have much to say about the third act. It’s the obligatory city takeover scenario from like every Spider-Man game. It’s okay. I liked playing as Venom, that was a nice little surprise. He has a ton of well choreographed moves, and it’s fucking rad as hell that you can snap someone’s spine in half, or bludgeon them with a mace. I’m intrigued about a potential Venom spin-off game, but how exactly would that work if it’s set in the same universe? He’s dead. But honestly I’m down for whatever Insomniac cooks up. Him eating Kraven’s head was insane, and I feel like it’s a little tease from Insomniac in regards to their upcoming Wolverine game. But that’s about everything I liked. Apart from the Venom boss fight and some touching moments between Peter and Harry in their final minutes. I’m just not entirely sure I like this version of Venom. He’s depicted as more of a hive-minded creature that doesn’t exactly have its own personality, who wants to take over the planet; instead of being someone who just really fucking hates Spider-Man? And that’s fine, some people might like that—but I didn’t. It wasn’t really Venom to me, it’s almost like Spider-Man was an afterthought to him? And it didn’t work for me. Part of me wishes they went with a more traditional story involving Eddie; and I know you’ll always get the people that say “But they’re trying to do something original!” and to that I say… who the fuck cares? Original doesn’t always mean good, I’d much rather just have a story that works because it’s been proven to work before; than something that’s trying way too hard to be subversive. That’s an issue I have with Insomniac as a whole, they always try to go outside the box and do a bunch of new shit that more often than not doesn’t work. And it’s like… do they know that we’ve never actually seen a straightforward adaptation of the Venom story on screen? I mean sure there’s Spider-Man 3 (which wasn’t even fucking good), the 90s cartoon, and arguably Spectacular, but that’s it! And they could always change some minor things to not make it 1:1. But what they did here… that ain’t Venom to me; and all that for a story that I’m sorry to say… is still predictable. Apart from that there’s also that weird little section where MJ becomes Scream? I don’t know how that works, but sure! I felt like I was fighting more against the level design than her in the boss fight though. On the topic of MJ, I honestly dislike how much she’s involved in these two games. And no, I don’t hate her as a character. I just think Insomniac completely butchered her characteristics to the point where she doesn’t even resemble herself from the comics; this adds to my point that I brought up earlier—they always try to subvert characters and stories just so they can say they’re being “oRiGiNaL” but oh my fucking god. She’s straight up boring. She isn’t a good character. They’re trying way too hard to make her traditionally badass, she already was in the comics! Why change that? She was literally fighting off countless symbiotes in the finale of this game, and it comes off as borderline laughable. The weird thing is, I don’t know why they killed off like five iconic Spider-Man villains in this, while reforming the rest. I understand why they showed Scorpion being killed by Kraven, that’s fine—it adds to his character and makes him more threatening, but Rhino? Shocker? Vulture? Electro? Those weren’t even on screen, and it’s just like… Spider-Man has no villains left. The rest were reformed too: Sandman, Mysterio, Mr Negative, and I actually do like this theme throughout the game, I’m in support of it. But pick one, don’t kill off all his villains and reform the rest. That leaves no one apart from D-listers. Who does he have left? Carnage and Green Goblin, that’s it. It’s a weird decision, plain and simple. I’m mixed on the ending too, I think I know where this franchise is going long term, and I’m not happy about it. Peter decides to focus on being Peter Parker at the end, leaving Spider-Man behind—at least temporarily, until Green Goblin shows up. Aaaaaand, eh. You see, I play these games primarily for Peter, so I’m not looking forward to the third game being mostly about Miles and Silk—assuming she actually gets her powers. I don’t know. I mean she might be an interesting character, I know nothing about her, so I’m actually excited about the prospect of playing as a Spider-Woman, that shit’s pretty cool. But I still want Peter at the center because he’s who I grew up with and like the most. But I’ll be extremely surprised if Peter doesn’t retire at the end of the next game; I mean that’s obviously where it’s going, right? All his villains are either dead or reformed, he’s thinking about proposing to MJ, he’s prioritizing Peter Parker, and he’s taking a supposed break; and if Silk gets introduced then there really won’t be a reason for him to be Spider-Man anymore considering that’s two Spider-People looking out for the city. So yeah, I’m mixed on it. But either way, I’m looking forward to Insomniac’s take on Green Goblin in the next game, I’m just hoping it’s not that fucking awful Ultimate version of him. Please be the costume version, I beg! If they do the monster one I’m fucking done with Insomniac.
When it comes to the side content, I’m very mixed on it. There are a handful of good missions, that showcase Insomniac’s brilliant writing—and those missions are so Spider-Man; but on the other hand, you have countless duds that are repetitive, plainly boring, and in some cases worse than the previous two games. I’ll start off with the bad stuff. The talon missions start off fun, but soon get boring due to there being no variation, it doesn’t help that the web wings steer almost automatically, meaning these missions get incredibly easy. And this actually brings me to another good point: which is the fact that after three whole games… there still aren't any races. This is a fucking Spider-Man game, and there aren’t any races. Uhm, Insomniac??? What were they thinking exactly? It seems like a no-brainer to me, imagine like 30 or so races that scale in difficulty (Ultimate style) that aim to target different swinging mechanics; some are web wing oriented, some require you to effectively use the corner tether in tandem with the loop de loops, etc. It’s just wild to me that I’ve seen nobody bring this up. It’s just a colossal-sized missed opportunity. There are these photo missions that you have to do for Robbie, and they’re like a worse version of the landmarks from the first game. I don’t fucking care what Robbie has to say about loving NYC for the 20th time. The EMF experiments are fine, but get a bit stale due to there being only like three variations of them, I preferred the research stations; although they do have a nice payoff with Harry giving a final speech that actually got me pretty emotional. That’s a trend you’ll see with many of these; the fact that the missions themselves are boring, but the payoffs make them worth it. Symbiote nests and hunter bases are okay, but again—they’re like a worse version of the bases from the first game, and got pretty boring due to the repetitive combat system. Speaking of the combat system: crimes. Oh, they’re worse. They are for sure worse than in the previous two games, there’s less variety, and some like the car chases have been completely dumbed-down to two button presses… like what the fuck? Absolutely not. But enough with the negatives, let’s talk about the good side missions! There are some like the Sandman crystals, Spider-Bots, and Prowler stashes that are undeniably repetitive, but take almost no time to do, so I can’t really fault them. And they all manage to have nice payoffs that are entertaining to watch. Helping Sandman find peace, getting an interesting little Spider-Verse cutscene with Delilah, and a wholesome Uncle Aaron scene that shows him truly letting go of his Prowler persona and moving in above Miles’ apartment. These were easy enough and fun to do. The Mysteriums are another set of combat based missions, leading to a visually rich, and downright trippy boss fight with “Mysterio” that features you swinging in an upside down New York which was a joy to do. The flame missions were some of my favourite, they were the most cinematic of the bunch, and teaming up with a darker version of Yuri (Wraith) was fun. I loved the Carnage tease. I’m wondering how they’ll incorporate him into the story though. I think it’s most likely going to be a DLC, I don’t see them waiting all the way up until the third game just to do another symbiote story. So finally, we’ve arrived at the best missions; and those are the FNSM ones (although only like three of them). My third favourite was “Find Grandpa”. Peter sitting down on a bench, and just… talking with someone is so Spider-Man to me, and is exactly everything this character stands for. It was heartbreaking hearing Earl reminisce about proposing to his wife, all while he’s losing himself to his illness. It’s just brilliant. My second favourite was helping out an aspiring photographer, as it gave us a flashback with high school Peter biking his way to the daily bugle to deliver some photos to Jameson. This one was hilarious, and it’s literally just because Jameson was yelling at Peter the entire time. And it’s pretty obvious which one was my favourite… Yes it’s the Howard one. I don’t even need to say why, it was—again, so Spider-Man to me; all for the same reasons the “Find Grandpa” mission was brilliant too. And doing both of these missions with the TASM2 suit was the perfect choice. The other FNSM missions weren’t that memorable, and the Brooklyn Visions ones were also pretty boring because of the monotonous objectives; although I did like the two cultural museum missions that showed a lot of real artists and musicians, which was cool. So overall, most of the side content is filled to the brim with repetitive objectives that fail to be consistently engaging, but have some standouts that showcase good writing, and emotional payoffs.
I want to talk about some missing features, since this game was very clearly rushed out the door. My main complaint is the missing weather/time of day change; I would give anything to be able to use the classic symbiote suit while swinging during a stormy night. I know they’ll most likely implement it in December, but as it is now—the swinging gets boring purely because of the repetitive time of day. You also can’t replay missions, listen to the JJJ or Danikast podcasts, see a social media tab, or play NG+. I just wish NG+ was in here at launch because the game doesn’t take long to beat, so it’d be nice if you could jump right back in. My other big complaint is the suit selection. They… for some reason… didn’t do one symbiote variant per suit; again, it’s just another missed opportunity that seems like a no-brainer to me, and instead of doing this, they add a bunch of awful suits and on top of that—stupid variations of those suits. No symbiote advanced 2.0? But mustard coloured? Hell yeah! Who the fuck wanted this? And it’s also wild to me that Miles literally has more symbiote suits than Peter… uhhh like what???? Miles has 12, while Peter only has 10—and that’s being generous! He actually only has seven (I was counting the black and white variations of some suits). They also removed a lot of suits from the first game: Spider-Armor Mk. 1-4, Dark, Noir, Secret War, Stealth (one of my favorites), Vintage, Scarlet Spider II, ITSV, Future Foundation, etc. All of these were great, and got switched out for so many fucking dreadful ones. Oh and Miles gets a new suit at the end, and it's one of the worst Spider-Man suits I've ever seen in my life. Kill me. I hope all of these things get implemented through future updates, because if not—it’ll forever be an unfinished game.
So lastly, that brings me technology/face models/bugs and general technical stuff like that. The first thing I noticed was how incredible the controller felt in my hands. The adaptive triggers and haptic feedback never fails to impress, and makes everything so much more immersive; I actually loved how it emulated a beating heart during the “Peter’s dying” section. Just incredible. And Insomniac constantly showing off with their data streaming tech is beyond impressive; when you’re chasing Black Cat as Miles, you’re going through so many portals to different sections of the map, and even to fucking Antarctica at one point; it’s so cool. I also appreciated the dedication to giving players the option to turn off swing assist, which is obviously nice because having options is always good. Personally I played the entire game at swing assist level three, and it was a lot better than the default 10; because it gives you a lot more freedom and just makes it more challenging. Sadly I’m not really a fan of the face model changes; Peter is great—I actually prefer it to the original. But MJ specifically looks really off now; and no! I’m not part of the whole “Women are ugly now!!!” group that are pushing that narrative within the games industry. Fuck those people. I just mean that her face sorta lands in the uncanny valley area, and the eyes are strangely static? Whereas before she had a lot of expression. Her hair is a very clear downgrade from the first game too, as it looks really grainy? I think they just needed a bit more time to work on the faces in general; because almost everyone except Miles and Harry have a lot of moments where they look strange. Oh and I hate JJJ’s new face, he looks really weird when compared to his picture in the previous games. I can’t stop laughing at it. And finally, there were quite a lot of bugs that I experienced. Mostly visual but a few softlocks that made me restart my checkpoint, but it’s not that big of a deal because it takes literally one second to reload.
So yeah, these are my thoughts on Marvel’s Spider-Man 2. Quite a lot of unpopular takes here so try not to get triggered over them, it’s only my opinion! But nonetheless, I’m still excited about Insomniac’s take on these characters and their future within this franchise. If you’ve read this far, thank you—and I hope you got something from it. But I am never writing another review this long. It probably came off as very jumbled and disjointed but whatever!
Playtime: 29.4 hours
Every Game I've Ever Played - Ranked (By Score)
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Spider-Man - Ranked
Insomniac - Ranked
2023 - Ranked
Oh boy. I don’t even know how I’m going to review the entirety of this game, but I’ll try my best—so bear with me. I have a lot to say, I’ve written the most notes I’ve ever had for a game, and I’ll be going through most of what this game has to offer in excruciating detail so sorry in advance for the massive essay that you’re about to read—or won’t, I can’t really blame you.
So. Marvel’s Spider-Man 2. Is it good? Fuck yeah. Does it have industry-leading visuals—from the animations to the cinematics to the all-encompassing presentation? Fuck. Yes. Does it improve upon its predecessors in every comprehensible way? Also. Fucking. Yes. But does it do anything particularly… new? Does it reinvent the wheel? Does it improve any gameplay mechanics—any side content in big, substantial ways? Ehhhhhh. Not really. I’m not going to lie and pretend like I was expecting more, because I actually wasn’t… my expectations for this game were perfectly met. I never thought it’d massively improve the web-swinging, or give combat more flair and diversity. I never thought it’d make the open world feel more lived in or brimming with detail. So I’m not that disappointed, I’m perfectly content with what we got—I mean, this is a game I gave a four star rating to—a low four, but a four nonetheless. This is a great game; however that may change with subsequent playthroughs. So from here on out, I’ll be breaking everything down—from the swinging, to the combat, story, characters, side content, and so on.
The swinging. Yes, it has improved, and I fear it’s gonna be tough going back to the first two games because it’s just an absolutely monumental step-up (but not in the ways that matter). The speed is three times as fast, and that alone would make the last two games obsolete; but on top of that they also add things like the web wings, loop de loops, and corner tethers. And as I said before, it’s a huge improvement—I mean shit, you fly through the city like you’re Superman, constantly weaving through buildings and alleyways at insane speeds; all while doing tricks and precise movements. It’s a lot of fun. And this may be an unpopular opinion, but the corner tether is my favourite addition. In the first game I was missing the feeling of being able to change directions while maintaining momentum, and now that I can—it opens up the skill ceiling and makes every swing impactful. When it comes to the web wings, I don’t like abusing them too much—since you easily can; so using them in tandem with the swinging—like for example, quickly activating them after letting go of a web in hopes of clearing a rooftop by barely staying above ground, is when they’re at their best and feel meaningful. Loop de loops are pretty good too, although I wish you could use them whenever you wanted, without diving—and multiple times during a single web swing; because as they are now, it’s purely for a speed boost and does little to nothing for style. And this is sadly where the positives end. This game is missing so much in regards to traversal. It took five whole years to make—a pretty standard life cycle of a AAA open world game; but given that huge amount of time, I wanted more. I wanted more innovation, more things to do, more mechanics to learn and master over the course of my playthrough… and I got none of that. How come Spider-Man 2 (2004), Ultimate Spider-Man, and Spider-Man: Web of Shadows still have more swinging mechanics? Where’s web climbing? Where’s wall running (down)? Where’s the ability to wrap around buildings? Where’s the ability to run along the ground while holding a web? Web zipping up? Pole swinging? And it goes on and on… I can only imagine how long-lasting this game would be if it had all of those things, I can’t even fathom the amount of insane variations and combinations that you could pull off, and it would lead to a far more interesting and memorable experience than whatever we got here. Just imagine the possibilities. The only things they added to actual web swinging are loop de loops and corner tethers… That’s it! Two new mechanics… and no, the slingshot and the wings don’t count as one has nothing to do with webs, and the other is only a stationary boost. This can be applied to all three games, but something that should’ve been in this one, and only in this one… is a unique style of swinging when using the Symbiote. And of course, they fumbled it… what a fucking missed opportunity. I’m genuinely annoyed that they didn’t do that. Why? Like I get that they have to design a whole new animation set, but it’s part of the package when you center your story around this arc. I should feel Peter’s anger, his frustration, his power. It should feel different and have more weight. But it doesn’t. It’s literally just a suit gameplay-wise. I’ll talk a little more about this in the combat section, because this applies there too… So while there are improvements to the swinging, it’s still severely lacking a lot of things that would truly elevate it and make it great; and I imagine it won't be long until I get bored of it.
So with combat, many of the same things can be said; there are improvements, but it’s still lacking moves and mechanics that won't let it flourish into something that’s able to keep my attention for more than two playthroughs. There are some new enemies: robot dogs, talons, symbiotes, and both the hunter and flame factions have a few enemies that will encourage you to play differently due to their moves. But for the most part, there aren’t too many enemies that will challenge you in unique ways, you’ll be using the same moves that you have been using for the past two games. It’s just more of the same. The skill tree offers a decent amount of upgrades, but most are very miniscule additions that won’t change up encounters in meaningful ways. A lot of them have to do with air combat, and it’s just stuff like: bounce them off the ground, web zip behind them, slam them into the ground… it’s all just very gimmicky and not something I used a lot. I really like the yank upgrades though, casually yanking enemies off of buildings or over obstacles was very fun and has a lot of comedic potential due to the ragdoll physics. They also add a parry attack—which I was a bit skeptical of for the first 10 hours or so, but once you get the hang of it—it’s actually quite rewarding and satisfying, so no complaints there. But one massive improvement over the last two games are the gadgets. They no longer feel like cheating, and are instead in service to the flow of combat; they have better activation, which is done with the right bumper instead of manually bringing up a wheel that slows everything down. But okay, coming back to the symbiote suit… it offers nothing in terms of gameplay. Yes, there are some abilities and a rage meter, but those aren’t exclusive to the suit. Don’t get me wrong, I did actually like the abilities! (All of them! Even the arms and venom powers). They’re fun. But I wanted new animations for when you’re using the suit, I wanted Peter to feel more unhinged and violent, with punches and kicks that you can feel he’s not holding back on; and I don’t mean I want him fucking killing people, of course not—but there should be a difference, as there was in Web of Shadows. Like you can’t even switch to the symbiote via a button press like you could in that game! That’s something that should’ve absolutely been in here, it’s literally a requirement as every other Spider-Man game that features a symbiote story has done it (except Ultimate I guess). And I’m shocked that more people haven’t brought this up anywhere. To be completely honest, the symbiote is this game’s biggest disappointment gameplay-wise. There’s nothing there. It’s just a shame because I don’t know when we’ll get another symbiote story that’ll properly utilize that aspect in the gameplay department. I can’t understate how happy I was about the difficulty increase though! I feel like the first game’s “ultimate” is this game’s “amazing”, which really puts into perspective how easy the first game was. I genuinely had a harder time with some of the bosses, which are thankfully miles better than in the previous game. They’re not as scripted as they were before, with more of a focus on actually… fighting the villains; instead of stunning them only to then spam the same four attacks over and over again. It’s refreshing. I love the health bars too! Supporting my point even more, since it actually feels like a fight and less like a controllable cutscene.
“We’re going to heal the world.”
The story of Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 is the best thing about it. It’s the only reason I gave it this high of a score. I love the first two acts, with the third dropping off in quality due to some creative decisions; but still keeping the jaw dropping spectacle and emotion that made it special in the first place.
The first act largely focuses on Sandman, introducing and developing Peter and Harry’s friendship, and setting up Kraven and his hunt. In typical Spider-Man fashion, it opens up with a boss fight that is entirely a flex on Insomniac’s part… these developers are fucking wizards—the whole segment is pure spectacle and a showcase of their tech. The moment when Miles gets flung across New York, and slingshots back is insane, and was in large part implemented to showcase the power of the PS5’s SSD. And yeah, shit was wild. I was in awe. As much as I love these big set pieces, I also like the slower—more deliberate bits where you play as Peter or Miles. Walking through May’s house and Miles’ apartment adds a lot to these characters, especially to Peter—as May’s house lets us see his history a bit more, not to mention the countless references to his early days as Spider-Man. Even the bike ride and the high school flashbacks with Harry are meaningful in establishing this universe’s relationship between the pair; and at times reminded me of a coming of age movie. Friendship, nostalgia, bonding. It’s all there, and their chemistry instantly made me love them as a pair. I think this is the best Harry we’ve seen since, like, the original 60s comic run—for me anyway. And on the other end we have Miles. His story is generally much weaker than Peter’s imo. Don’t get me wrong, I like it—but not nearly as much as Peter’s. At this point he’s struggling with writing his 500 word essay—which by the way… what the fuck? I’d have that done in 30 minutes! But the game is clearly trying to juxtapose the typical Spider-Man formula, Peter is the adult mentor now: dealing with mortgages, prioritizing relationships. Whilst Miles is taking on the more standard Spider-Man storytelling approach: writing an essay, tunnel focusing on Martin Li, etc. It’s all things Peter was doing back in his highschool days, and I like that shift. It’s clever. The two interacting is wholesome, and I love the little moments: the fist bumps, the hugs, the casual conversations, it’s a heartwarming dynamic. I haven’t been talking much about Kraven thus far, and there’s a reason for that; I wouldn’t say he’s a big part of the story. Sure, he acts as the catalyst for everything that’s happening, but he’s never given much screen time or development besides some notes in his mansion. He does propel the story forward though, like with the carnival segment. We get our introduction to the symbiote suit thanks to him, and there’s a moment during this bit that’s one of my favorites from the game. It’s when Peter is trying to save the people on the rollercoaster—everything keeps going wrong, he’s running out of strength, out of time, and he says “I’m sorry” to one of the civilians. It’s a rare look at a Spider-Man who can’t save someone; and I know he always loses people, but I mean a regular civilian… he always saves those, right? And Yuri Lowenthal’s delivery there was just nothing short of brilliant. The pure desperation in his voice hit me so hard. And it’s funny that Harry finds out Peter is Spider-Man in such a casual way during this very moment, which brings us to the end of act one with the rooftop scene. It’s also a good time to mention just how good Harry’s theme is… full of wonder, aspiration, and hope. John Paesano cooked so fucking hard with this motif, and the score in general.
“It makes me a better Spider-Man”
With the start of the second act, we’re delving more into symbiote territory—with Kraven and Lizard becoming more of the focus. This isn’t to say that Kraven becomes more of a character, because he doesn’t, not really. He’s still being used as the catalyst for every story beat; but now the game is amping up with the set pieces and general story-esque stuff. This is when Insomniac takes a shot at telling an Agent Venom story for a bit, Harry doesn’t don the name or anything, but it’s clearly the inspiration—suit and all. And this is honestly one of my least favourite sections. The segment where you infiltrate a hunter hideout with Harry to rescue Tombstone dragged on for way too long. It was just wave after wave of countless enemies, it felt endless; and it just got stale because I hadn’t really unlocked many skills at that point, so I was essentially just spamming the most effective attacks in hopes of finishing that fucking mission as quickly as possible. But it was worth it, because straight after we get a cutscene of the symbiote stealing Peter’s logo—which was awesome! But shortly after this, we get the return of an MJ mission… and fuck me, man. It wasn’t good. I don’t want to play as MJ in a Spider-Man game, plain and simple. I know that Insomniac wants to show that she’s just as capable and strong, but from a purely gameplay perspective, it sucks, and it’s not fun; I don’t care how many gadgets you give her. But thankfully it leads into a great segment where you’re desperately trying to save Dr. Conners, when Peter gets stabbed by Kraven. And this is of course how he gets the symbiote. I love this moment, it’s so satisfying to immediately hear Yuri go into bully mode. I like the little touch of Peter not knowing how to give the symbiote back because deep down he really doesn’t want to; I don’t think it was purely the symbiote’s doing. During this you get to see him use it more and more, slowly becoming obsessed and addicted to it—after seeing that it can change outfits on command, subtly help via a mind of its own, and of course induce passive bonuses like more strength, speed, etc. You even get the first little taste of the suit taking over when a hunter surrenders, and in response Peter literally chucks him through a window, I find it weird how Peter recognizes that it wasn’t his doing—I feel like they should’ve just let him not acknowledge it, considering it’s never brought up again? But whatever. Past this point is the start of the Lizard mission, where you’re tasked to search Conners’ home; and there’s immediately something different about this one. Peter is angry. You can hear it in his voice. He’s frustrated that the hunters are targeting someone who’s only trying to be a better person and live a normal life, someone who misses his family, and you get the sense that his downward spiral has truly begun; specifically after this mission, as that’s when he starts speaking new lines when fighting crime, and just generally starts being a complete asshole. My personal favourite is “A break-in? I’ll break them!”, it’s mean, blunt, and straight to the point—as he should be during this whole segment. I also noticed how the swinging music is now a twisted and more menacing version of the default track which perfectly reflects Peter’s mindset at this given point. This is a slight nitpick, but I wish civilians reacted differently to Peter when he’s on the streets. It’s very out of character when you approach them and are given the exact same gestures that he would normally use without the suit—but I digress. After finishing the second Lizard mission is when his arc is in full force, he’s arrogant, cocky—and in denial about how much damage he’s causing. Now I know what Yuri meant when he said he researched the behaviours of addiction… he even starts saying shit like “Destroy us?” and “So let’s see who we can help out here!” which is so fucked but SO cool at the same time. Although I found it strange how these are the only two instances where he refers to himself and the symbiote as a pair, he never says “us” or “we” ever again after this, and I wish it was more of a naturally occurring thing. After Peter goes to sleep, and the symbiote starts wearing his body (which actually reminded me of the Spectacular Spider-Man show, easily one of the best adaptations of all time), you’re forced to do a second MJ mission! And… I surprisingly liked this one? It progresses the story in a meaningful way and actually has a reason for existing, unlike the other two. Seeing Peter act like a raging monster is terrifying, and placing you in the shoes of MJ works well in establishing him as a threat. The chase section adds to this even further, and is the first time we get to hear Tony Todd—who is a great choice to play Venom. But I honestly think this should’ve been the only MJ mission in the game, for the reasons I mentioned. After this mission, Peter wakes up on a bench and for a second I thought they might do a little nod to Tobey Maguire’s iconic dance scene… sadly that didn’t happen. I actually wanted a few more references to other symbiote stories that have happened throughout the years. I was genuinely disappointed that we didn’t get a side mission where you chase down Shocker while Peter is completely losing it. I was surprised by how dark this story got though, Harry leaves Peter a voicemail saying that he’s basically going to die if he doesn’t get the suit back, and Peter is just like “I wonder if Harry really needs the suit” Like Peter??? He’s going to fucking die. I love seeing the jealousy kick in with Harry when Peter talks with Norman, it’s such a classic part of any Spider-Man story; and I can’t wait to see how that dynamic plays out in the third game. At this point I was so invested in Peter’s story that whenever it switched to Miles I was left a bit bored. His confrontation with Li was good, but when you pair these two stories up together, his is noticeably weaker for me. But I still liked his boss fight; and the Kraven one leading up to Peter vs Miles was fantastic too. There’s so much good dialogue when Miles and Peter are fighting, it’s genuinely heartbreaking hearing Peter struggle this much, and I can’t stop saying it—but Yuri fucking crushes it. And a little part of me died when he took off the suit, because I knew the game would only go downhill from there, and it sure did!
“We… are… Venom!”
I don’t have much to say about the third act. It’s the obligatory city takeover scenario from like every Spider-Man game. It’s okay. I liked playing as Venom, that was a nice little surprise. He has a ton of well choreographed moves, and it’s fucking rad as hell that you can snap someone’s spine in half, or bludgeon them with a mace. I’m intrigued about a potential Venom spin-off game, but how exactly would that work if it’s set in the same universe? He’s dead. But honestly I’m down for whatever Insomniac cooks up. Him eating Kraven’s head was insane, and I feel like it’s a little tease from Insomniac in regards to their upcoming Wolverine game. But that’s about everything I liked. Apart from the Venom boss fight and some touching moments between Peter and Harry in their final minutes. I’m just not entirely sure I like this version of Venom. He’s depicted as more of a hive-minded creature that doesn’t exactly have its own personality, who wants to take over the planet; instead of being someone who just really fucking hates Spider-Man? And that’s fine, some people might like that—but I didn’t. It wasn’t really Venom to me, it’s almost like Spider-Man was an afterthought to him? And it didn’t work for me. Part of me wishes they went with a more traditional story involving Eddie; and I know you’ll always get the people that say “But they’re trying to do something original!” and to that I say… who the fuck cares? Original doesn’t always mean good, I’d much rather just have a story that works because it’s been proven to work before; than something that’s trying way too hard to be subversive. That’s an issue I have with Insomniac as a whole, they always try to go outside the box and do a bunch of new shit that more often than not doesn’t work. And it’s like… do they know that we’ve never actually seen a straightforward adaptation of the Venom story on screen? I mean sure there’s Spider-Man 3 (which wasn’t even fucking good), the 90s cartoon, and arguably Spectacular, but that’s it! And they could always change some minor things to not make it 1:1. But what they did here… that ain’t Venom to me; and all that for a story that I’m sorry to say… is still predictable. Apart from that there’s also that weird little section where MJ becomes Scream? I don’t know how that works, but sure! I felt like I was fighting more against the level design than her in the boss fight though. On the topic of MJ, I honestly dislike how much she’s involved in these two games. And no, I don’t hate her as a character. I just think Insomniac completely butchered her characteristics to the point where she doesn’t even resemble herself from the comics; this adds to my point that I brought up earlier—they always try to subvert characters and stories just so they can say they’re being “oRiGiNaL” but oh my fucking god. She’s straight up boring. She isn’t a good character. They’re trying way too hard to make her traditionally badass, she already was in the comics! Why change that? She was literally fighting off countless symbiotes in the finale of this game, and it comes off as borderline laughable. The weird thing is, I don’t know why they killed off like five iconic Spider-Man villains in this, while reforming the rest. I understand why they showed Scorpion being killed by Kraven, that’s fine—it adds to his character and makes him more threatening, but Rhino? Shocker? Vulture? Electro? Those weren’t even on screen, and it’s just like… Spider-Man has no villains left. The rest were reformed too: Sandman, Mysterio, Mr Negative, and I actually do like this theme throughout the game, I’m in support of it. But pick one, don’t kill off all his villains and reform the rest. That leaves no one apart from D-listers. Who does he have left? Carnage and Green Goblin, that’s it. It’s a weird decision, plain and simple. I’m mixed on the ending too, I think I know where this franchise is going long term, and I’m not happy about it. Peter decides to focus on being Peter Parker at the end, leaving Spider-Man behind—at least temporarily, until Green Goblin shows up. Aaaaaand, eh. You see, I play these games primarily for Peter, so I’m not looking forward to the third game being mostly about Miles and Silk—assuming she actually gets her powers. I don’t know. I mean she might be an interesting character, I know nothing about her, so I’m actually excited about the prospect of playing as a Spider-Woman, that shit’s pretty cool. But I still want Peter at the center because he’s who I grew up with and like the most. But I’ll be extremely surprised if Peter doesn’t retire at the end of the next game; I mean that’s obviously where it’s going, right? All his villains are either dead or reformed, he’s thinking about proposing to MJ, he’s prioritizing Peter Parker, and he’s taking a supposed break; and if Silk gets introduced then there really won’t be a reason for him to be Spider-Man anymore considering that’s two Spider-People looking out for the city. So yeah, I’m mixed on it. But either way, I’m looking forward to Insomniac’s take on Green Goblin in the next game, I’m just hoping it’s not that fucking awful Ultimate version of him. Please be the costume version, I beg! If they do the monster one I’m fucking done with Insomniac.
When it comes to the side content, I’m very mixed on it. There are a handful of good missions, that showcase Insomniac’s brilliant writing—and those missions are so Spider-Man; but on the other hand, you have countless duds that are repetitive, plainly boring, and in some cases worse than the previous two games. I’ll start off with the bad stuff. The talon missions start off fun, but soon get boring due to there being no variation, it doesn’t help that the web wings steer almost automatically, meaning these missions get incredibly easy. And this actually brings me to another good point: which is the fact that after three whole games… there still aren't any races. This is a fucking Spider-Man game, and there aren’t any races. Uhm, Insomniac??? What were they thinking exactly? It seems like a no-brainer to me, imagine like 30 or so races that scale in difficulty (Ultimate style) that aim to target different swinging mechanics; some are web wing oriented, some require you to effectively use the corner tether in tandem with the loop de loops, etc. It’s just wild to me that I’ve seen nobody bring this up. It’s just a colossal-sized missed opportunity. There are these photo missions that you have to do for Robbie, and they’re like a worse version of the landmarks from the first game. I don’t fucking care what Robbie has to say about loving NYC for the 20th time. The EMF experiments are fine, but get a bit stale due to there being only like three variations of them, I preferred the research stations; although they do have a nice payoff with Harry giving a final speech that actually got me pretty emotional. That’s a trend you’ll see with many of these; the fact that the missions themselves are boring, but the payoffs make them worth it. Symbiote nests and hunter bases are okay, but again—they’re like a worse version of the bases from the first game, and got pretty boring due to the repetitive combat system. Speaking of the combat system: crimes. Oh, they’re worse. They are for sure worse than in the previous two games, there’s less variety, and some like the car chases have been completely dumbed-down to two button presses… like what the fuck? Absolutely not. But enough with the negatives, let’s talk about the good side missions! There are some like the Sandman crystals, Spider-Bots, and Prowler stashes that are undeniably repetitive, but take almost no time to do, so I can’t really fault them. And they all manage to have nice payoffs that are entertaining to watch. Helping Sandman find peace, getting an interesting little Spider-Verse cutscene with Delilah, and a wholesome Uncle Aaron scene that shows him truly letting go of his Prowler persona and moving in above Miles’ apartment. These were easy enough and fun to do. The Mysteriums are another set of combat based missions, leading to a visually rich, and downright trippy boss fight with “Mysterio” that features you swinging in an upside down New York which was a joy to do. The flame missions were some of my favourite, they were the most cinematic of the bunch, and teaming up with a darker version of Yuri (Wraith) was fun. I loved the Carnage tease. I’m wondering how they’ll incorporate him into the story though. I think it’s most likely going to be a DLC, I don’t see them waiting all the way up until the third game just to do another symbiote story. So finally, we’ve arrived at the best missions; and those are the FNSM ones (although only like three of them). My third favourite was “Find Grandpa”. Peter sitting down on a bench, and just… talking with someone is so Spider-Man to me, and is exactly everything this character stands for. It was heartbreaking hearing Earl reminisce about proposing to his wife, all while he’s losing himself to his illness. It’s just brilliant. My second favourite was helping out an aspiring photographer, as it gave us a flashback with high school Peter biking his way to the daily bugle to deliver some photos to Jameson. This one was hilarious, and it’s literally just because Jameson was yelling at Peter the entire time. And it’s pretty obvious which one was my favourite… Yes it’s the Howard one. I don’t even need to say why, it was—again, so Spider-Man to me; all for the same reasons the “Find Grandpa” mission was brilliant too. And doing both of these missions with the TASM2 suit was the perfect choice. The other FNSM missions weren’t that memorable, and the Brooklyn Visions ones were also pretty boring because of the monotonous objectives; although I did like the two cultural museum missions that showed a lot of real artists and musicians, which was cool. So overall, most of the side content is filled to the brim with repetitive objectives that fail to be consistently engaging, but have some standouts that showcase good writing, and emotional payoffs.
I want to talk about some missing features, since this game was very clearly rushed out the door. My main complaint is the missing weather/time of day change; I would give anything to be able to use the classic symbiote suit while swinging during a stormy night. I know they’ll most likely implement it in December, but as it is now—the swinging gets boring purely because of the repetitive time of day. You also can’t replay missions, listen to the JJJ or Danikast podcasts, see a social media tab, or play NG+. I just wish NG+ was in here at launch because the game doesn’t take long to beat, so it’d be nice if you could jump right back in. My other big complaint is the suit selection. They… for some reason… didn’t do one symbiote variant per suit; again, it’s just another missed opportunity that seems like a no-brainer to me, and instead of doing this, they add a bunch of awful suits and on top of that—stupid variations of those suits. No symbiote advanced 2.0? But mustard coloured? Hell yeah! Who the fuck wanted this? And it’s also wild to me that Miles literally has more symbiote suits than Peter… uhhh like what???? Miles has 12, while Peter only has 10—and that’s being generous! He actually only has seven (I was counting the black and white variations of some suits). They also removed a lot of suits from the first game: Spider-Armor Mk. 1-4, Dark, Noir, Secret War, Stealth (one of my favorites), Vintage, Scarlet Spider II, ITSV, Future Foundation, etc. All of these were great, and got switched out for so many fucking dreadful ones. Oh and Miles gets a new suit at the end, and it's one of the worst Spider-Man suits I've ever seen in my life. Kill me. I hope all of these things get implemented through future updates, because if not—it’ll forever be an unfinished game.
So lastly, that brings me technology/face models/bugs and general technical stuff like that. The first thing I noticed was how incredible the controller felt in my hands. The adaptive triggers and haptic feedback never fails to impress, and makes everything so much more immersive; I actually loved how it emulated a beating heart during the “Peter’s dying” section. Just incredible. And Insomniac constantly showing off with their data streaming tech is beyond impressive; when you’re chasing Black Cat as Miles, you’re going through so many portals to different sections of the map, and even to fucking Antarctica at one point; it’s so cool. I also appreciated the dedication to giving players the option to turn off swing assist, which is obviously nice because having options is always good. Personally I played the entire game at swing assist level three, and it was a lot better than the default 10; because it gives you a lot more freedom and just makes it more challenging. Sadly I’m not really a fan of the face model changes; Peter is great—I actually prefer it to the original. But MJ specifically looks really off now; and no! I’m not part of the whole “Women are ugly now!!!” group that are pushing that narrative within the games industry. Fuck those people. I just mean that her face sorta lands in the uncanny valley area, and the eyes are strangely static? Whereas before she had a lot of expression. Her hair is a very clear downgrade from the first game too, as it looks really grainy? I think they just needed a bit more time to work on the faces in general; because almost everyone except Miles and Harry have a lot of moments where they look strange. Oh and I hate JJJ’s new face, he looks really weird when compared to his picture in the previous games. I can’t stop laughing at it. And finally, there were quite a lot of bugs that I experienced. Mostly visual but a few softlocks that made me restart my checkpoint, but it’s not that big of a deal because it takes literally one second to reload.
So yeah, these are my thoughts on Marvel’s Spider-Man 2. Quite a lot of unpopular takes here so try not to get triggered over them, it’s only my opinion! But nonetheless, I’m still excited about Insomniac’s take on these characters and their future within this franchise. If you’ve read this far, thank you—and I hope you got something from it. But I am never writing another review this long. It probably came off as very jumbled and disjointed but whatever!
Playtime: 29.4 hours
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RoboCop: Rogue City
2023
Review for the Demo Version of the Game
So I played about an hour of this... and I gotta say I'm not at all impressed by a single aspect. It's less than a month out from release, and if the end product is anything like it is now then uhhhhh… this isn't going to be reviewed well.
Let's start off with what it gets right: Peter Weller. This man is awesome. Hearing his voice again took me back to when I was a kid watching the original movie for the first time; he's as great as he ever was. Second, I think the game looks good—visually, albeit with a lot of bugs that I hope get ironed out on launch, especially the god awful blurriness on reflections when DLSS is enabled. I also think it does a good job at recreating these incredibly iconic locations that every Robocop fan knows; the streets of a dimly lit Detroit, with neon signs perpetuating through every road—every building, its massive skyscrapers comprised of generic offices—and of course, breakable windows that you can throw goons out of. It’s also appropriately gory. It screams Robocop, at least in a couple of ways. But I think that’s where the positives end.
The game is a stutter fest, you can’t go 30 seconds without missing frames at least a couple of times. I wouldn’t exactly call it unplayable, but I certainly wouldn’t call it playable either… it’s somewhere in the middle. The core issue is that the game is just, really, really empty? It plays more like a tech demo than something that the average person can just open up and have fun with. The gameplay is monotonous, with side-objectives that are straight out of an average Ubisoft game, but dare I say Ubisoft has always managed to make those tedious objectives at least a little bit fun? Here it’s: talk to this person, give him a ticket, objective ends. It’s just not fun, and the fact that I got bored after an hour says a lot about the quality of those missions. The main story isn’t much better judging by the first hour. It's shooting room after shooting room—and hey, that’s Robocop! I get it, it's cool! But I can already tell that these gameplay systems aren’t deep whatsoever, they’re going to get boring very quickly—at least for me. There’s also the usual array of upgrades that you can purchase with skill points; I got some sort of dash in my playthrough, and it was very underwhelming. But back to the point of the game feeling empty, there’s almost no music in here… the iconic theme plays while you’re mowing down goons, but when you’re roaming the streets—it's pure silence, or walking through the police department—all you can hear are the very stock-sounding keyboards, phone rings, etc. It feels so incredibly cheap, and why does a game about Robocop feel cheap? This character deserves more than that; and I obviously know that the budget limitations aren’t on the devs, but the fact that nobody can greenlit a AAA Robocop game is beyond me. Even the facial animations are horrid, they can’t deliver any sort of emotion, and the mediocre voice acting doesn’t help. I can’t really judge the story by how much of it I saw, but it seems like it could lead somewhere interesting, somewhere with a lot of heart—so there’s that; but yeah, this is going to be a miss for me.
So I played about an hour of this... and I gotta say I'm not at all impressed by a single aspect. It's less than a month out from release, and if the end product is anything like it is now then uhhhhh… this isn't going to be reviewed well.
Let's start off with what it gets right: Peter Weller. This man is awesome. Hearing his voice again took me back to when I was a kid watching the original movie for the first time; he's as great as he ever was. Second, I think the game looks good—visually, albeit with a lot of bugs that I hope get ironed out on launch, especially the god awful blurriness on reflections when DLSS is enabled. I also think it does a good job at recreating these incredibly iconic locations that every Robocop fan knows; the streets of a dimly lit Detroit, with neon signs perpetuating through every road—every building, its massive skyscrapers comprised of generic offices—and of course, breakable windows that you can throw goons out of. It’s also appropriately gory. It screams Robocop, at least in a couple of ways. But I think that’s where the positives end.
The game is a stutter fest, you can’t go 30 seconds without missing frames at least a couple of times. I wouldn’t exactly call it unplayable, but I certainly wouldn’t call it playable either… it’s somewhere in the middle. The core issue is that the game is just, really, really empty? It plays more like a tech demo than something that the average person can just open up and have fun with. The gameplay is monotonous, with side-objectives that are straight out of an average Ubisoft game, but dare I say Ubisoft has always managed to make those tedious objectives at least a little bit fun? Here it’s: talk to this person, give him a ticket, objective ends. It’s just not fun, and the fact that I got bored after an hour says a lot about the quality of those missions. The main story isn’t much better judging by the first hour. It's shooting room after shooting room—and hey, that’s Robocop! I get it, it's cool! But I can already tell that these gameplay systems aren’t deep whatsoever, they’re going to get boring very quickly—at least for me. There’s also the usual array of upgrades that you can purchase with skill points; I got some sort of dash in my playthrough, and it was very underwhelming. But back to the point of the game feeling empty, there’s almost no music in here… the iconic theme plays while you’re mowing down goons, but when you’re roaming the streets—it's pure silence, or walking through the police department—all you can hear are the very stock-sounding keyboards, phone rings, etc. It feels so incredibly cheap, and why does a game about Robocop feel cheap? This character deserves more than that; and I obviously know that the budget limitations aren’t on the devs, but the fact that nobody can greenlit a AAA Robocop game is beyond me. Even the facial animations are horrid, they can’t deliver any sort of emotion, and the mediocre voice acting doesn’t help. I can’t really judge the story by how much of it I saw, but it seems like it could lead somewhere interesting, somewhere with a lot of heart—so there’s that; but yeah, this is going to be a miss for me.
Exoprimal
2023
A Capcom game where you travel back in time in a mech suit to fight dinosaurs who are traveling forwards in time so an evil AI can harvest their blood and use it to power rich people's houses.
It's a stupid, wacky, over-the-top amazingly fun time. I don't often like multiplayer games, and I especially don't often like hero shooters. Capcom manages to avoids the many many pitfalls of games of this ilk by prioritizing fun over everything else. Microtransactions are there, but they are inobtrusive and wholly unnecessary. Most importantly, every single suit - every Assault, every Tank, and every Support - is fun as hell to play. They all feel unique and satisfying as hell, both in PvP and PvE. Most brilliantly of all, it's quick and easy to swap suits mid-match to fit the current scenario, and there's no better feeling than realizing how to handle a tricky encounter, swapping over, and leveling the playing field.
It took me 60 matches and 25 hours on the dot to finish Exoprimal's campaign. I played a few hours with friends who were behind me, without that I would've finished in closer to 50 matches and 20 hours probably. But I didn't mind a single one of them. After a slow early game the variety spiked tenfold, and the vast majority of matches I played were unique and had really fun arrangements of enemies and hazards. Very rarely was I not having a good time.
To top it all off, Exoprimal has a few 10 player cooperative Raids. These Raids are the most fun I've had with a video game all year, full stop. They are chaotic, they are difficult, and they are incredibly cool. Every system sings beautifully in these moments, and they always feel special when they come up.
There's been a lot of shit slung around this game, and it's not hard to see why. From a distance it looks like the kind of awful, soulless market drivel that the Capcom that made Resident Evil 6 would put out in hopes of earning the Call of Duty audience or something. But play the game, stick with it, and you've got the most fun and rewarding multiplayer game since the initial launch version of Overwatch. It's well worth your time, and with it being on Gamepass you've got nothing to lose.
Strongest 4/5 game I've played in years.
It's a stupid, wacky, over-the-top amazingly fun time. I don't often like multiplayer games, and I especially don't often like hero shooters. Capcom manages to avoids the many many pitfalls of games of this ilk by prioritizing fun over everything else. Microtransactions are there, but they are inobtrusive and wholly unnecessary. Most importantly, every single suit - every Assault, every Tank, and every Support - is fun as hell to play. They all feel unique and satisfying as hell, both in PvP and PvE. Most brilliantly of all, it's quick and easy to swap suits mid-match to fit the current scenario, and there's no better feeling than realizing how to handle a tricky encounter, swapping over, and leveling the playing field.
It took me 60 matches and 25 hours on the dot to finish Exoprimal's campaign. I played a few hours with friends who were behind me, without that I would've finished in closer to 50 matches and 20 hours probably. But I didn't mind a single one of them. After a slow early game the variety spiked tenfold, and the vast majority of matches I played were unique and had really fun arrangements of enemies and hazards. Very rarely was I not having a good time.
To top it all off, Exoprimal has a few 10 player cooperative Raids. These Raids are the most fun I've had with a video game all year, full stop. They are chaotic, they are difficult, and they are incredibly cool. Every system sings beautifully in these moments, and they always feel special when they come up.
There's been a lot of shit slung around this game, and it's not hard to see why. From a distance it looks like the kind of awful, soulless market drivel that the Capcom that made Resident Evil 6 would put out in hopes of earning the Call of Duty audience or something. But play the game, stick with it, and you've got the most fun and rewarding multiplayer game since the initial launch version of Overwatch. It's well worth your time, and with it being on Gamepass you've got nothing to lose.
Strongest 4/5 game I've played in years.