i do not think i will ever forget the first time i played dishonored, it was a game left on my dads' late friend's xbox 360. i never actually managed to finish it on that 360, like a lot of stuff i played on it, but god do i remember it. i wouldn't finish dishonored until my dad eventually just showed up one day with a copy of definitive edition on ps4, and it was a great experience. i've since put in like 4 different playthroughs and each time it's very enjoyable. great world, great visuals, great characters. really good stuff.

Metal Gear solid is something truly special. Its undoubtedly one of the greatest games ever to have been created, innovated on so many levels, and created one of the most beloved stories in gaming. Yet, i am conflicted on what to think of it. i feel like to accurately describe my feeling for it, i need to get the bad out of the way first, so here goes:

As you might expect from a shooter game made this long ago, the aiming and gun controls feel very jarring to use today, and aiming can often feel like mashing the button and hoping it works. This is made worse by the fact that aiming outside of first person mode means you can only aim in the directions you can walk, witch is very limited.

The game is very cryptic and often barely tells you where to go or what to do or doesn't at all, meaning there will be situations where you will have no idea what to do. this is made worse by the fact that many objectives in the game require you to backtrack to much earlier areas that you would think you would be done with. the game would be extremely frustrating to play without a guide, and still can be with one.

More on this later, but the stealth game-play is actually very good, and so are most boss fights, aside from the fact that at the start of most of them theres a gimmick to defeat the boss that the game doesn't tell you so your left scrambling through a few game overs to figure out what to do. The major problem with the game-play is more prominently shown on disc 2; any time not on a stealth or boss fight, the in game combat is extremely clunky, and scripted evens barely work, the worst examples of this being the rage inducing fight with liquid snake and the machine gun battle that follows after, every button just doesn't quite do what you want it to do and you'll get several deaths that don't feel like they were your fault.

That was just the beginning of flaws that this game has, but if your able to overlook and struggle through those sections, believe it or not, you are indeed in for one of the most special gaming experiences of all time. Everything in this game feels so ahead of its time in everyday. to this day i get chills or would even tear up while watching some of the cut scenes. the dialogue has its flaws, but overall the games story is extremely dedicated to the direction it takes, and the anti nuclear weapons awareness and messages hold true to this day.
Now to touch on the technical aspects of the game itself,(aside from scripted segments) this game is a masterpiece. the mood on shadow Moses island is set the moment you reach the docks at the beginning of the game. the use of fog, lighting, animation, and incredible textures make this one of the best looking play station games ever, and it still looks great to this day. The game-play (aside from the shooting controls) is also incredible. the stealth sections work incredibly well and are intuitive to control, and super engaging. the score of this game is also incredible.

Overall, MGS1 is an imperfect and aged masterpiece. despite its flaws, no other game of its time came even close to what this game achieved, and i believe this game was one of the biggest steps to games being more than just games, but also seen as a form of art in every way. it may be gruelling and frustrating and make you want to through your controller from time to time, but if your able to push through, your effort is 100% rewarded. even if only once, i would recommend every person who likes video games to try this game at least once. its really something special, and i would go farther than to say its one of the greatest video games ever made, but one of the greatest pieces of art ever made. This game has definitely left a permanent impression on me and i will never forget it.

Reviewing this now since i will probably never beat this game.

As someone who as only very recently gotten into fighting games through the street fighter series, when i saw this at the thrift store for 15$ i figured why not give it a try. In the end i can say i can see why this game is so highly praised, especially when i consider when it came out. The graphics are absolutely incredible and though i am way worse at this than i am street fighter, the game-play has a sort of fluidity to it that is very hard to explain, you really just have to feel it for yourself. There are plenty of modes to play, in fact probably more than i ever will be able to play.

My personal problems with the game come with the inputs. While i think it is super cool that each character has such a wide range of moves, it is very, very difficult for me to remember which ones do what when i am playing, as someone who only as of recently can just barely handle all the moves in street fighter. Still, this is just an issue with me and not really with the game.

Overall i think this game is excellent and probably one of the best multiplayer games on the playstation, though it can be a bit frustrating when I'm completely one-sidedly crushed by my friends who are somehow 10 000 000 times better at the game than me.

So my dear friend BungVulchungo absolutely loves this game, to the point where he couldn't stop talking about it after he played it. So it had me pretty excited to play it myself. While I can't say I loved it as much as he did, I did have a really good time.

I'd say the absolute best aspect of this game is its presentation. Its absolutely spectacular and was something I definitely loved. Really makes the game feel unique in that aspect. I also really enjoyed the exploration and puzzles. Every time I got to a new section, I was excited to just explore the place. The OST is pretty nice too, minimal for the most part but it works. While I didn't totally understand everything about the story, I thought it was told in a pretty cool way.

Sadly I did have some issues/nitpicks that hold it back from being amazing. I honestly didn't find the game that spooky. Idk, it definitely had some nice atmosphere but as a horror game it's definitely weak on the scares. I said I really enjoyed exploring each area, and while I do...they also dont feel too memorable because they aren't connected like for example the Spencer mansion or even Luigis Mansion 1 lol. Idk, I just prefer how those games did it personally. While I didn't dislike the combat, it's not amazing and can be annoying when multiple enemies are around. In those instances, I usually tried to evade them. One last little nitpick is while I liked reading the optional notes and texts, whenever the nation stuff was brought up..I just didn't care. I cared more about the Replika and Gestalt way more. Also this game did have some boss fights and I can't say I loved or disliked any of them. They were fine I felt.

I did really enjoy this game but it does have some faults I feel. I got the promise ending and I'm kinda thinking about going back to get the true ending once I replay Luigi's Mansion. Maybe I will maybe I won't idk but I did enjoy this game overall.

7.5/10

Yeah, "comprehend"...

I could talk in depth about the soundtrack, or the artwork. It’s all excellent.
But I’d rather talk about what the game is trying to say.

It's a game about a descent into a new age.
It's a game about how the internet affects our view on storytelling.
It's a game about believing the net.
It's a game about the strive for perfection and cleanliness in modern day society.
It's a game about killing your past.
It's a game about how the ignorant masses turn a blind eye to things that don't align with their worldview.
It's a game about saving the life.
It's a game about crime.
It's a game about forgiveness.
It's a game about necessary evils.

Ultimately,
I think it's a game about comprehension.

Once you have observed all this game has to offer, do you get it?
I like to think I “got” what it is about. But I doubt I’ll ever be sure.
But speculation and the opportunity to draw your own conclusions is what makes this game tick.

I went through a couple of ideas whilst writing up this review. But scrapped a bunch because they were too pretentious or didn’t really highlight the games’ strengths.

You just read the final review I came up with. Could you imagine how pretentious the other ones must’ve been?

Bravo Suda

The short version is, that Star Ocean: The Second Story R is a good remake of a PS1 classic that includes a lot of helpful features and tools to make this a good way to experience the game for the first time. With updated graphics that are quite appealing in the HD Pixel art era that other remakes like Live A Live have been utilizing. There are a lot of interesting ideas that are explored in Star Ocean Second Story R, and it is something other RPGs could learn from.

The long version, is that the gameplay can suffer from being incredibly unbalanced due to the way that the IC system interacts with the combat system. The IC system offers interesting ways to have characters do out of combat actions that all interact with each other in very interesting ways that then help your characters get stronger. Leveling up alchemy gets you materials to then craft into accessories and blacksmith into armor and weapons when you have enough party members with high levels of crafting. Your writing skill allows characters to write books that help other characters to learn these IC skills faster, and publish specialty books that earn you money through the game at publication houses, and cooking gives you very good healing items with effects that can improve other stats. Beyond these are many more combinations that fit into this addictive system. However, the major problem is the combat system is also reliant on this, as there were large difficulty spikes which make it so that the game seems to want you to be investing large amounts of time into leveling these stats up when the game itself is incredibly short outside of the grinding. It is fluff to expand game time when the actual amount of content as far as the main story is short even if it can be fun fluff. The issue is it not being optional by the last dungeon and being required to actually stand a chance against the final boss, let alone the upgraded and enhanced final boss.

Characters were initially interesting, but in the latter half of the game they fall off and are weaker than PS1 contemporary characters, with some of the weakest female characters I can think of from that era. Rena while being a good character, suffers heavily from being an optional protagonist who is so reliant on her other optional lead Claude who is clearly written as the main lead of the story. So much so that when large emotional moments happen for Rena, they are often ignored in favor of Claude to give him more moments even on Rena's route when Rena arguably goes through much more traumatic things than him. It is very much ripe with the feeling that Claude is the main character, and Rena is just an optional character you can play as for a second play through if you really want to. The different paths also don't feel as distinct as I would have liked, with only minor differences between each route, which usually just results in Rena getting kidnapped and trying to escape vs. Claude rescuing her. The major difference being then in the PAs, the system by which small side stories appear for characters. On paper PAs are incredibly interesting, but they fail in the end due to a few limited factors. First, they are very short, and not significant moments for characters most of the time. Secondly, they are very congested, usually getting a lot at the very moment you unlock a new character, before becoming sparse and empty until the latter half of the game, where there are again very few of them. There could definitely be more of them. Finally, they also highlight how shallow the writing is for the women characters, with all of them being either boy crazy, hysterical, or clumsy in a cutesy way to the point where there were no women characters in the party that escaped unscathed. There are two NPC women that actually do anything to the plot that are not mothers, boy crazy, or something similar, and both nearly die. It is that dire. The men for their credit usually have more fun scenes and are more enjoyable to watch PAs of.

A lot of this is cut in favor of the various different endings of the game, which come in the form of different character pairings based on which characters in your party have the highest affinity like the Fire Emblem series. However, similar to the PAs, while there are 99 different endings like the game boasts, they are too short and feel very insignificant compared to the Fire Emblem endings that usually use paragraphs of text to convey things in a better manner that feels more conclusive. Many of the ones that I had gotten feel rather disconnected from the actual central ending which is the same. It might have been that I had just gotten some poorly written ones, but that 4 of the 99 that I had gotten were so rushed, short, and inconclusive that they left me feeling kind of hollow at the end is staggering, especially as I repeat how short the central scenario of the game ended up being.

Star Ocean: The Second Story R has very interesting and fun gameplay that for the time of the original release of the game was something that made it competitive with its contemporaries despite its relatively lower level of storytelling and characters. However, in the modern day with a remake of it, it just highlights all those flaws that other games have learned from since then.

"This is a shelter. There's nothing to steal. Get out." and he did! - A secret dialogue when Aunt May talks to a promising Brooklyn Kid from 2018's Marvel’s Spider-Man.

This conversation is incredibly important and details how strong May’s willpower is to face off a major villain all by her lonesome. And her nephew Peter Parker AKA Spider-Man also inherits the strong willpower to face off dangerous adversaries. And the sequel is no different giving off the same phenomenal faceoffs, secret dialogue, and payoffs. Speaking of face-offs. The Spider-Men will struggle against new foes on the hunt with a different flair from the earlier. Like noticing sand in the air… Hmm… Strange… Guess the forecast for the day is sandy, with little chance of rain. A pity. Still what remains from the foreboding skies is a bolder game from the previous installment with new developments and reaching higher wings alongside venomous tidings. And yet a question arises whenever any game receives a sequel and follow-up. Is it better? And 2020’s Marvel's Spider-Man: Miles Morales? The short answer is yes. And the long answer is a bit complicated to call this almost everything I wish for.

Before I start I have to say I’m no expert regarding how sequels do a stronger job than the predecessor. In my eyes the next entry has to meet certain criteria to call itself worthy. I won’t bore you with the exact standards because sequel principles vary for every other individual and everyone has their own values on which they can base. To put it simply and succinctly I’ll say if any of ‘X’ improves that the earlier entry didn’t. Then that should be enough. I’ll attempt to condense my thoughts as to why Marvel's Spider-Man 2(MSM2) exceeded my expectations to the point I think it is a spectacular must-play for those who enjoyed the first and follow-up game. Without any spoilers. I’ll try to vaguely reference without hinting at anything concrete. If I fail to do so, you have my permission to send me to the dark dimension. First, the story. Moving past the sinister plot in the beginning and set up with Morales in the follow-up. Two strives to enrich the player in becoming not just Spider-Man within the game, but the man behind the mask. A focus on Peter Parker's desire to become a better person while Miles struggles to become a better Spider-Man. It features new villains kraving for a final hunt, a return of a scaly foe, and one para-. Man New York City can’t catch a break huh? Gotta stay positive and not negative with the webhead's rogue gallery eh?

Gameplay is a solid step up from eating decent pizza from before. Now we're having quality dishes served for NYC’s finest without a certain J. Jonah Jameson(JJJ) harping on our heels. Same but with improved combat and traversal mechanics. The former received new abilities to utilize like spider arms reminiscent of Parker's greatest enemy. Switching between the older and wiser web dude to a Brooklyn kid. So, you can’t go wrong playing as either a mentor or a fresh dude on the block to help the innocent. Morales has youthful, vibrant enthusiasm for taking on his new role from his debut and MSM2 demonstrates a wonderful way of how he is coming to terms with helping beyond Harlem for close to a year since his debut. As you progress further you can unlock new abilities once you accrue enough experience, allocating tokens for new suits and gadgets. These help instrumentally and leave a nice way to keep the gameplay fun factor fresh and exciting. Costumes allow you to customize each protagonist's looks with favorites like Cat Bodega and Scarlet + 2099 suits with classic into and across the spider-verse outfits. Honestly, there’s plenty to unlock to suit your needs heh. Gadgets return, a tad bit simplified from the many weaponry you could utilize, but it's not a downside since you have new abilities to utilize. Both arachnids have their skill trees with a shared linked tree to take advantage of new combat moves on foolish baddies. Super cool. The latter concerning traversal introduces a new form of travel in the form of webwings. And I kid you not, I felt like I was transported back in my childhood playing Spyro once again except taking inspiration from the guiding wind mechanic from Ghost of Tsushima in the form of wind tunnels to guide and accelerate our web slingers across blocks and tall skyscrapers. The new addition is very satisfying to a degree I find myself forgoing fast traveling multiple times to woop in delight as I soar to the skies and keep my arms by my sides to keep my speed in tip-top form. Ah, magnificent. Man if Vulture or Shocker were here, I bet we could fly circles around them.

Side activities (including city-wide collectibles) are a remarkable improvement. In the past I had mixed feelings about them as a whole since there were some activities worth completing to become a taskmaster with some caveats. In the 2020 game, they for the most part improved on the side content a vast deal. Here they’ve taken a sensational upgrade, with minor blemishes I’ll discuss later. Without going into too much detail to prevent spoilers. Mysteriums, photo ops, M. memories, Flame, FNSM App, prowler, EMF experiments, cultural museum, Brooklyn visions, and hunter blinds/bases are satisfying to complete in my honest opinion. To give a brief praise why: Mysteriums offers both a visual treat and somewhat of an extension from 2019’s Far From Home film concerning a mysterious baddie. Taking on handicap challenges to defeat within each location. Photo ops return. You gain cool NYC lore from Pete’s old Daily Bugle coworker Robbie Robertson. M. Memories, offers a melancholy monologue from the man who has sand, offering the big question of why he’s here and what he was doing. Moving on, The Flame quests is a nice departure from the pleasant vibe of the city, detailing a very serious tone and atmosphere bringing a familiar companion back to spice up moments. Love the companion of which I wont to say the name, but I’ll keep it as a surprise. The development the individual undergoes with Parker is a must-see and offers a tantalizing tease of a possible DLC. Anyway, the friendly neighborhood Spider-Man app returns taking cues from 2020’s excellent side-content to help the troubled New Yorkers in the Big Apple is without a doubt spectacularly strong. They’re not the most fleshed out, not visually stunning nor are they dropping maximum compelling narratives with eyes glued to the screen nor do they offer awesome scenes with the funnest gameplay inside. Instead, what is here is simply helping your everyday citizens. And while others might see this as “meh not worth it then!” I assure you if I were to rank all the optional content. This would easily be at the top. Two requests in particular brought home an excellent display of the man behind the mask to help the people in need. Howard and the Grandpa's request demonstrate the little things of simply talking with a person in need resulting in I would say superbly profound dialogue I witnessed. I want to say so much more here and why I appreciate these two requests in particular but I’ll refrain. Suffice it to say, please complete them. The other quests from the app are also beneficial to do to a lesser extent displaying humorous & serious content.

Prowler stashes. A banger job to showcase more conversations between Miles and his uncle. Very nice re-connecting filled with bonds, love, redemption, and greater insight into the brotherhood between Miles' father and his brother. Excellent addition from the 2020 follow-up. EMF experiments, please forgive me for not saying the acronym, but again a pleasant surprise for when you learn-ingame. This features creative tasks to do in a similar vein to the research stations in the first installment. Here were charged with healing the world. Using methods to help citizens via finding alternative sources of food, preventing pollution, and providing new means to make the world a better place. Much like how Pete and Doc did with their start-up. Terrific to do featuring different tasks like blasting wasps, testing out a new bike, and more. Man, I couldn’t get enough of these. Cultural Museum surprised me considerably in enriching the player on notable African-American idols while intertwining an investigation spearheaded by none other than Miles and his mom. Finding clues as to who would try to steal priceless artifacts related to music. Nice to see them not just for culture learning, but bonding with his mom. Brooklyn Visions is a series of simple, yet creative tasks on Miles' high school to help his fellow students. Sneaky Insomniac pulling inspiration from Talos Principle puzzles, a rescue, a very heartwarming quest to help a student help facilitate a proposal for homecoming, etc. Lastly, Hunter blind/bases offer a classic clearing out hideouts, but I felt they’re more reduced in quantity and far less in numbers which is a smashing plus in my books because the previous game featured them too much imo. You also get a nice slice of lore background upon completing them. So worth it to complete. And it is cool to flex out new powers to test on foolish goons who still think once again they have a chance at defeating the spider-bros. Seriously, these guys never learn…

Speaking of learning, the devs learned quite a lot since their debut with the webslinger back then. I am over the moon to say there are plenty of interactions of the men behind the mask to show, don’t tell. And this is huge because at the core of the wall-crawler is a man who continues to struggle to manage his personal and hero life. His relationships with Mary Jane Watson and Harry Osborn, two lifelong buddies, are instrumental in giving him the push and nudges he needs to support him and vice-versa. I witnessed endearing flashbacks back in high school, I spent a well-earned break with my loveable comrades in an amusement park. Taking the time to wisely, but gently push Miles to remember his college application. And partake in an old memory with none other than JJJ. These memories are vital to Pete’s mental health and maintaining a healthy balance. It is something that was touched upon earlier, but I felt it coming more into fruition here to a high degree. This coupled with interesting gameplay sequences like finer stealth sections and not drawn out added a stronger tie to the plot while delicately embracing bonds, friendship, brotherhood, and even love. Magnificent to witness and playthrough.

Also, I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I like JJJ’s podcast. Shocker I know. I didn’t before since dude continues to be a douchebag. But the sheer amount of mental gymnastics the man has to go through to tear apart the Web menace/s is quite frankly amusing to hear. More so to listen to how he included Miles in the equation with Spider-Men. But I have to give props to him. Due to one segment in the game, which made me go “Huh I didn’t think of him that way before.” A layer was peeled off upon completing the segment and in a way brought a shaky new light to him. So here’s to you Jonah I’m giving you the praise for doing that. Although, I can never forgive you for smearing Pete’s name over the years… manchild never quits having a hate mode for all things web-like.

Before I forget I have to confess on coming into this game doubting how much Miles will contribute and I’m glad to report how wrong I was to think of that. There are plenty of main story and optional quests to undertake which do a sizzling job of contextualizing the kid becoming a man, and transitioning his life from high school to college all while maintaining healthy relationships with family. Despite hurdles along the way, he manages to help his mentor in becoming a reliable partner. Shows no fear in telling the truth and admits when he’s wrong to become a better person. Struggles internally with understandably traumatic episodes with unresolved emotions toward someone I shall not name. But here, we see so much relatability emerge and how the human element of Miles shines brightly among the darkness. And most of all he’s not alone, others think highly of him and support him when he needs it. Like Hailey. There is a wholesome segment regarding her which made me reminiscent of Jet Set Radio Future oddly enough. Pretty rad.

Before I move on, I must talk about the fantastic accessible settings the game features. QTE autocomplete, puzzle/explicit hints with skipping, chase assist, dodge/parry timing increased, swing/parkour mode, tricks mode, and turning off visual effects like motion blur and depth of field is an absolute godsend. I kid you not I abused these settings without an inch of shame so much so it increased my enjoyment of every aspect of the game to the nth degree. No more failing chases, no more head-scratching puzzles! There are loads of different and varied ones you can complete so it feels good to try and solve them before resorting to the skip option. Moving on, forgiving dodge/parry mechanic, auto web-slinging, and turning off unneeded visual effects help so much in making the hero’s life easier. Don’t get me started on the quick-time events. I love watching the cutscenes uninterrupted without the requirement to press a button. I get it if others like that, but for me, I prefer a smooth scene to watch, soak in the dialogue, and take a breather from intense action sequences. At least it's not Hideo Kojima long cutscenes to movie length here… Despite the fact, that I love long cutscenes heh.

As much as I love the game. I did have some mixed feelings. Not a positive or a negative, but for the sake of transparency I’ll note them below, since I think these elements could’ve been improved, cut, or redone. Let's start with the big one.

Two villains needed more screen time and development which was another case I talked about previously for the 2018 game. And while I didn’t make a review(yet) of Miles Morales I completed the game twice to get a feel of them. From what I could ascertain, the 2018, 2020, and 2023 arachnid games share similar problems with not enough focus on antagonists/s which I won’t name. Twist the knife deeper and attack one of either spider’s family/friends, more depth to the bad guys, more missions. Additional screen time and development. Etc. While MSM2 improves tremendously in doing something for past foes. An element I liked to see. Nonetheless, I was hungry for everything above on my suggestions regarding the two. However, I think the devs do a good job of fleshing out enough of the rest you’ll come across later.

MJ stealth missions are back and while I was dreading their possible resurgence, I have to admit it does improve a bit from the original formula. Thankfully not dragging out too much while giving her enough new tools to help. Their frequency of coming back to these sections is enormously lessened too. Granted I believe they could’ve forgone with some of this or implemented other changes than a back to the old rinse and repeat method. The director sure ain't caring a whole lot it looks like, which I think speaks volumes about her stealth sections. So perhaps it’ll change in a possible third entry? Though considering his words I heavily doubt it. Would love to be wrong though.

Several activities needed major improvement. Such as Spider-Bots return in certain parts of the game and as a collectible to collect which I love, but this time I'll discuss strange spider-bots in random parts of NYC to capture. I find it mega lacking since both web dudes will say a brief comment and a very short note in the collections menu. Felt this could be improved like how finding backpacks included a nugget of lore for past Spidey villains. They could’ve added a recording from where the bots originated to confuse Parker and Morales on why the information being extracted feels so unfamiliar and familiar. Nonetheless, the reward for collecting all of them is such a tease for fans. So I recommend it despite my thoughts on it. Furthermore, one optional activity is rinse and repeat following a drone. With barely any payoff in the end. Nice to know the outcome, but I think this could’ve been constructed differently to make the gameplay more engaging. Thankfully there is a button you can press in the menu to skip the activity altogether, yet this is merely a band-aid instead of a proper solution. The [redacted] nests are pretty repetitive time-limit challenges to complete by preventing enemies from destroying a device to destroy said nests. An easy alternative would’ve been to include more lore/worldbuilding here or replace it by having our heroes rescue our allies. Granted I will give credit for making it a cleanup task to do.

Finally, there is a stretch of the game I won’t pinpoint while excellent in its execution I think the section needed more time fleshing out. At least two to five plus hours more to let the events that occur settle in and explore more complicated nuances in what happens in friendships/family. This ties into the [redacted] nests from earlier along with more missions to showcase devastation, further ramifications of a character's actions, and worthwhile optional content related to it. Why not a side mission to save some close friends? Family? Heck, even JJJ. Introduce new enemies taking advantage of the city and criminal team-ups. I had heavy nostalgia despite the fact I’ve barely played any Spider-Man games. And there’s one in particular this game takes large inspiration among other things like the films.

One silver lining to all these mixed feelings I have that it doesn’t impact my overall experience too much. The full package of controlling either Spider-Men and living their private life is as gratifying as it is to see their hero life continue among troubled times. Which reminds me of one quote that the dev’s continue to hit time and time again to marvelous effect. “-nothing ever turns out 100 percent OK; he's got a lot of problems, and he does things wrong, and I can relate to that.” From a Stan Lee interview with the Chicago Tribune. We see constant internal and external forces continuing to batter our strong-willed protagonists to the point I was left on the edge of my seat at times. Saw them during their darkest moments. Leaving me filled with dread and anxiety. Yet despite these tumultuous emotions. There is careful thought, precision and passion in crafting original new material while taking great cues from classic sources we know like Raimi’s Spider-Man 3. among certain liberties with one of their IPs to excellent effect. Making MSM2 almost like a careful love letter without treading on familiar material to utilize. Embracing realistic and surprising scenarios sending my eyebrows nearly to the top of my hairline and my eyeballs close to expelling from my sockets. So you could say I was pretty impressed by how far Insomniac continues to twist the narrative to make it both compelling and impactful to newcomers/ veterans well used to spidey lore. And boy oh boy are we in for one hell of a ride with a spectacular duo. If this is how much Insomniac upgraded after several years, I can only shudder at how much a third possible entry would reach in the future.

8.5/10

Additional Material:
Why Miles is the MVP - Major spoilers to endgame, good focus on Miles parts.
Villains and %^&$ - Same warning as above, related to what I discussed early on villains doing something
Black Suit $%^* - Same warning as above - Related to my last point in mixed feelings
Discourse on Peter and Miles - Same warning as above - I’m hesitant to link this since I think its kinda controversial in the fandom, but I think its good food for thought. Regardless, I agree with OP.
Marvel Spider-Man 2 & Raimi’s Spider-Man 3 scenes compilation - Same warning as above. Related to my point on Raimi above. I love it.
MJ in Spider-Man 1 vs. Spider-Man 2- minor spoilers, but meme sums up her performance to a T.
If this Be My Destiny - Fascinating look on early Spidey and one of his most defining traits.
My spoiler thoughts throughout the game up to the post-credit scene - same warning as above
Spider-Man’s Marriage- Not related to MSM2. But this recent news is so uplifting I have to share it since we’ve been in major dark times ever since Paul was introduced in the comics. Finally, good news.