Marvel's Spider-Man 2 is a true next gen exclusive. Not just with beautiful visuals, rock solid performance and the best DualSense implementation since Astro's Playroom; but also with some incredible additions to the core mechanics like Web Wings or the combat abilities and some of the best set pieces ever created in a video game. However, the story here needed much more work. Both of the main villains with Kraven and Venom disappoints due to low screen time and the lightspeed-like pacing. The second half feels rushed and this was definitely not what the Symbiote deserved. It's still a great game, no doubt about it. But it's my least favorite in the trilogy.
The Full Review(No Spoilers 1000%)
Greatness Awaits
Let's imagine that you created the perfect video game adaptation of one the most popular fictional characters in the world. Then let's imagine that you have created a spinoff that doubled down on the systems you have created on that first game and introduced a beautiful story featuring a newer, younger character. How do you follow that?
For Insomniac, the answer was to add more. More, more and more. And while it definitely pays off in the gameplay front, the story front is a little more complicated. Well, let me explain. Without spoilers, I promise.
As you have seen from the trailers, the story of Spider-Man 2 is about Kraven the Hunter's attack on New York and his great hunt. At the same time, Peter's best friend Harry returns from his "Trip to Europe" and brings a weird black organism with him. The story of Spider-Man 2 is very difficult to talk about. Because in it's third act structure, each act is so different from each other. They almost feel like 3 different games.
The first act of the game is the best in my opinion. It feels a bit like an animated show where each mission has a different standalone story but they are all connected to the larger Kraven story from one point or the other.
After the fantastic opening mission, the first act continues with more great explosive moments featuring both Spider-Men and also dives deep into both of their personal lives.
Closer to the end of the first act however, things starts to get weird as Insomniac plays with the Spider-Man lore in weird ways that I didn't liked much. Especially with Harry. He both feels like the original Harry we know from comics and movies but also feels completely different.
As you can imagine, the second act is where Peter gets the symbiote and Kraven's story comes to a close. To be honest, this second act felt short to me. Peter didn't have enough time with the symbiote to capture all the nuances of his personality's transformation. The first act was so massive that the second half felt short and rushed.
However, if we are talking about short and rushed content; the award goes to the third act. Unfortunately, the third act which is all about Venom and the symbiote is rushed incredibly. Yes, there is an imminent threat but action after action in each mission feels too much.
Both the second act and the third act completely loses the balance in Spidey work and personal lives of these characters. And Miles basically becomes a background character. So, let's now start getting into the characters a little bit.
This story is of course totally centers around Peter Parker. And to be honest, I loved what Insomniac does with him in this game. We all know that there will be a third game but if somehow there isn't, this game definitely closes off Peter's story in a meaningful and exciting way. However, his transition into evil with the symbiote felt rushed. We don't see the period where the symbiote makes Peter's life much easier and much better.
Almost immediately after he gets the symbiote, people around him starts talking about his personality changing. Because the symbiote enters the story so late. Out of the 31 main missions, the symbiote bonds with Peter in the 14th or 15th. Almost at the midpoint.
Either the symbiote should have appeared much earlier in the game or the second half should have been all about symbiote Peter and Kraven without Venom. Thankfully though, one person never disappoints. Yuri Lowenthal gives the performance of his lifetime and adds so much more depth to Peter in every scene and every part in the game.
But there is another Spider-Man we need to talk about. Miles Morales. I always thought that Miles would have his own side story with his own main villain that would wrap up before the Venom enters and he crosses paths with Peter. Unfortunately, that doesn't happen. He doesn't have much of a story of his own.
He has a character arc that evolves him into a better, greater person but that's basically it. That character arc is excellent by the way, don't get me wrong. But I wanted more for Miles. He really feels like a side character most of the time. Similar to Peter's case however, voice actor Nadji Jeter nails all of Miles' doubts about his future. Both his future as a student and as a hero.
Laura Bailey continues to do a great job as Mary Jane Watson but her screen time feels lowered compared to the original game. There is one great mission in the third act where we get a brilliant look at the events from her perspective and we do this without even playing with her but other than that, MJ doesn't have much to do here. JJJ is her new boss in this game at Daily Bugle and you might think that this will create some great scenes but it doesn't.
It gets resolved in like one or two scenes. The other big ally that's new in this game is Harry Osborn. He is a difficult character to talk about without spoiling anything because there are interesting things happening with him from early on in the game. But I can confidently say that this Harry portrayal might be my favorite. He really is the perfect friend for Peter Parker and the relationship between these two characters have been handled expertly. Graham Phillips did a great job with the acting.
Now let's talk about the villains. The game has a bunch of them. I believe there are more villains in this game than 2018 and Miles' villains combined. But Kraven and Venom are the main ones. And, both of them disappointed me. Starting with Kraven, it felt very interesting to see so little of him. His character model and animations are simply incredible. He really is a beast. And voice actor Jim Pirri also delivered all the time.
But Kraven appears like 6 or 7 times in the game at most. His presence is there through his new enemy faction and our characters talk about him a lot but he doesn't appear much. You can learn more about him from the side quests and there definitely seems to be an interesting storyline going with him but the game never focuses on it. Kraven is clearly wasted here.
And if we come to Venom, I will need to admit something to you first. It is impossible for me to tell you why I found him disappointing without spoilers. But a promise is a promise. And I will try my best.
One big problem with him is similar to Kraven. He doesn't appear much. He even appears less than Kraven however Venom does have an upper hand because he appears very late in the game. And that is also a problem. We don't get to spend much time with him.
But my biggest problem with Venom is his motivation. So, Insomniac already confirmed early on that Eddie Brock is not the host of Venom in this game. And that was not a lie. But for me, what I like about Venom storylines is that the symbiote is just like an enhancer.
Symbiote isn't evil, or he is not the main source of evil. The host is evil of wants to do bad things and the symbiote enhances those emotions and also gives it's host the power to achieve those evil ambitions. "They" are Venom. They together are evil.
In this game, the host is clearly just a victim. And symbiote is the evil entity. The symbiote wants to do bad things, the symbiote wants destruction and death and other things. Not the host. And that just kills the Venom character for me. Because it turns Venom into just another alien that wants to kill humanity or something.
Well, I guess I lied. I guess it was possible to tell you why I didn't like Venom in this game so much. However, let's give credit where credit is due. Tony Todd is so sick as Venom. He is, oh my god. He is so good. And the introduction of Venom, it's everything we wanted guys. It's everything Spider-Man fans wanted.
Okay, half of the review is done. Story, complicated. There are some good things but villains are clearly weak and that's why I didn't like it very much. The first half of the story was fantastic but the second half felt too rushed and too basic. Onto the gameplay, the part where Spider-Man 2 is perfect.
Gameplay consists of traversal, combat, stealth and puzzles. Let's check on them one by one. Traversal, is clearly the best traversal in any game ever created. All the great things from the first two games are included. Miles' Venom Jump and Venom Dash are also given to Peter so that he can use them in traversal. He doesn't use Venom though, he either uses Spider Arms or Symbiote to pull those moves.
But the real star is of course Web Wings. They are fantastic. Incredible. I heard some people saying that they made the game too easy. Just get into a wind tunnel and do nothing, you will get to where you want. That's, correct but it's just an option. Wind Tunnels gives you extra speed with the Web Wings but if you don't enter, you will still be perfectly fine.
And trying to learn how to combine Web Wings into the Web Swinging we got used to was a blast. It's easy to learn and easier to master. It's a great system and believe me, you will get better with it as you use it throughout the game.
There are also some extra moves like doing a loop or quickly turning right or left using the webs but they didn't add much to my flow of swinging to be honest. Slingshot is also added and it's a great way to start a swing with great momentum. There are also a bunch of Super Slingshot locations around the map that will give you a REAL boost. These are mostly used when crossing water and they feel great to use.
One final thing about traversal, Peter's animations have been completely changed. 2018's swinging animations seemed basic compared to what we got with 2020's Miles Morales so the team completely changed Peter's animations and air tricks. And they look awesome. Dive from a high point and push your left stick down to do an air trick. Then prepare to get mind blown, that's the coolest animation by far.
Combat, is also pretty amazing. It has the same fundamentals as the previous game but it has been updated in many interesting ways to create the perfect Spider-Man combat. First up, we now have a parry button. When the Spider Sense flashes red, we usually pressed circle to do a dodge. We can still do that but now we have a parry function if we press L1 when the red flashes as well.
The move is really cool but I played in the highest difficulty available in the first run which is Spectacular and the timing seemed pretty hard to get. Not in bosses, which we will come to that later. But in normal fights, it created a problem. Because there is so much guys. And parry is very important to get because especially brutes are very hard to take down without parrying them.
In the first game, you could web up brutes or send an impact web to them. Impact Web is not in the game so you can't do that. You can web them normally but they get off it quickly and with the aggressive enemies on your side, it's impossible to get your focus on them. You need to learn the parry window. And it was not easy in the highest difficulty available in the first run.(I say this because another difficulty opens up once you finish the game)
I think the parry mechanic is okay but too many things depends on it, we will follow this in a bit. The other big change or addition is the two ability wheels. Actually, one ability wheel and one gadget wheel. Gadgets returns but both Peter and Miles has the same 4 gadgets. Yeah, a lot of them have been cut. R1 is still our web shooting button but holding R1 gives us an option to also press one of the 4 face buttons, each corresponding to a different gadgets.
The new gadgets, I didn't like them very much. Upshot and Ricochet Web basically webs up enemies but that's not very useful because again, there are so many enemies you can't web them up and throw them anywhere.
Concussion Burst is not very useful at first but it becomes critical in the third act for a particular enemy type. And the last one is Web Grabber which is the most useful among the 4 and the only gadget I really liked. It pulls all the enemies close to where you put it, with upgrades it also pulls in the throwables and not only damages enemies but it also allows you to pull off one of your area of effect abilities.
Speaking of abilities. Now we came to the fun part. Holding L1 and pressing one of the face buttons will initiate an ability. You can't swap spots. For example, Venom Blast where Miles punches someone with yellow Venom abilities always stays in square. But each spot has 2 different ability you can put in. Using the same example, you can switch square with Chain Lightning. Miles' new blue Venom ability that will send an enemy flying back with electricity in him that will damage nearby enemies as well.
In Miles, you select between 4 yellow Venom abilities which all returns from his own game and 4 new blue Venom abilities. Peter has 10 new abilities(square and X offers you 3 different choices) that are all new. 4 of these are spider arms abilities and 6 of them are symbiote abilities.
All of the 18 abilities in total are fantastic and changes the rhythm of the combat in a very good way. There are also 2 ultimate abilities that you can do by pressing both analog sticks at the same time. For Miles, it's the returning Mega Venom Blast. For Peter, it's symbiote surge which is basically rage mode. That's pretty fun for sure.
One important thing that needed to change about the combat was boss battles and they did change. Unfortunately, it didn't eliminate the main issue with the previous game's boss battles.
They are still visually incredible but the same repetitiveness of the previous game's boss battles continues. In the previous game, we webbed up or thrown things at bosses to make them stunned and then punched them a few times.
In this game, we parry their attack and then punch them a few times. Of course, these boss battles are better because it actually feels like you are playing the game and they need more skill. But it still doesn't solve the issue of all boss battles being the same. Especially some later ones were just button mashing in the difficulty I played in.
Once you learn the handful of moves a boss has, you will repeat the same parry, attack move until the boss is defeated. We needed more variety with bosses and this game doesn't have that. It has many bosses though. Especially in the second half. And again, their presentation is really good. Their gameplay, not so much.
Both Traversal and Combat got huge upgrades and additions but how about the other two aspects of the gameplay loop? Stealth and Puzzles. Well, we don't have too much new things there.
Stealth is basically non existent in the main missions. Most of them forces you to go into action mode and as I said, the second half has a bunch of bosses so it's almost entirely action oriented. Stealth does have a big new tool though with Web Lines. This new gadget gives you the ability to create a web line you can walk and do perch takedowns on enemies, basically wherever you want to.
See a wall or a lamp or any solid surface? Press 2 buttons to create a web line and take down enemies quickly. You can even do double takedowns. This opens up the stealth in a way that the previous game never had before but it also feels lazy because now you don't have to look for places where you can get enemies from.
You simply press 2 buttons and take down anyone that goes under it. It gives a lot of freedom, yes. But it also makes stealth incredibly easy. And it was already pretty easy.
On the other hand, the puzzles have been completely changed but their intent is the same, keeping the pace in check. And I think they did their job. There is also not too many of them and they don't go for long.
So, traversal and combat got big updates that made them incredible while stealth and puzzles didn't get that much attention but they are not featured in the game much. Let's talk about missions a little bit. Both main and side missions.
The game has 31 main missions and while there are some who are basically one cutscene, most of them are full blown missions. And what can I say? They are incredible. The spectacle, the chaos, the surprises are there. However, sometimes it's too much. Especially, in the second half. The pacing is too fast and playing set piece after set piece lessens their individual values.
But as I said, Insomniac listened to the fans. They even went beyond the fans' wishes in some points. If you are a Spider-Man fan like me, there is AT LEAST one(most likely 3-4) moment where you will lose yourself. Just, absolutely lose it.
What about the side missions though? That was one of my most anticipated part of this game. 2018's Spider-Man had the classic open world repetitive stuff. While Miles Morales made things better by including a bunch of narrative focused side missions and featuring those repetitive ones less.
Spider-Man 2 goes for a combined approach. First up, we have a few different narrative focused side mission chains. The Flame mission chain is definitely the best with a great story that has shocking twists and turns. Cultural Museum chain is a little too simple but still fun with a great ending.
Brooklyn Visions chain is the most boring for sure but occasionally entertains. And finally we have 6 FNSM App Requests that are one offs. Similar to the ones in Miles, these are great and has good variety.
Then we get into the territory that is a little interesting. Many of the side quests themselves are the same things copied and pasted. But these does have a nice final mission that completes the side story arc in a nice way. Examples we have seen in the trailers includes Prowler Stashes, Kraven's Talon Drones, Spider Bots and even Photo Ops. You do the exact same thing in every one of these missions.
But they have a nice ending cutscene or sometimes a mission that finishes up that little storyline in a nice way. They are also usually about a particular character. It's pretty obvious that Prowler Stashes are about Prowler but we have many more smaller scale but still well known Spider-Man villains making an appearance. The side missions celebrates the Spider-Man lore in many different ways, sometimes in ways you will never see coming.
The map is bigger in this game by the way but that doesn't add anything too interesting to the game. More spaces to explore is cool though so I am okay with that.
Finally, let's talk about technical stuff and wrap up this review. The game looks absolutely gorgeous on the PS5. There are 2 modes with Fidelity and Performance. I played on Fidelity and it looked really solid. Both modes have Ray Tracing. While it looked good though, there was a problem. Especially in the first few missions, there were some places where the faces were awful. Not sure if it's a bug or not but it was really distracting and scary to think that the quality bar was very low.
However, most of the game is not like that. It looks very solid. It feels like a next gen game thanks to some of the craziest set pieces I have ever seen. Frame rate was also incredible. Locked 30. Did not feel any drop. Glitches however were a part of my experience. Nothing game breaking but tons of animation glitches were there. Not tons maybe but more than a few.
And the game crashed 2 or 3 times. One of my friends told me that his game softlocked at one point. So while the performance is rock solid, it seems like there are some errors and bugs with the game.
There is also the DualSense, PS5's best new feature. This game might use it the best after Astro's Playroom. It was sooo good. Not too much on the triggers. But haptic feedback was fantastic. I felt Miles' electricity, Peter's Spider Arms' strength and the tendrils of Venom. 3D Audio was nothing too impressive though. With a Pulse 3D headset the game sounded really cool but maybe they could have done a little bit more with that.
One last thing before the verdict, John Paesano is back as the composer and he is just wonderful. Venom's theme and especially Kraven's theme were my favorites.
Marvel's Spider-Man 2 is a true next gen exclusive. Not just with beautiful visuals, rock solid performance and the best DualSense implementation since Astro's Playroom; but also with some incredible additions to the core mechanics like Web Wings or the combat abilities and some of the best set pieces ever created in a video game. However, the story here needed much more work. Both of the main villains with Kraven and Venom disappoints due to low screen time and the lightspeed-like pacing. The second half feels rushed and this was definitely not what the Symbiote deserved. It's still a great game, no doubt about it. But it's my least favorite in the trilogy.
The Full Review(No Spoilers 1000%)
Greatness Awaits
Let's imagine that you created the perfect video game adaptation of one the most popular fictional characters in the world. Then let's imagine that you have created a spinoff that doubled down on the systems you have created on that first game and introduced a beautiful story featuring a newer, younger character. How do you follow that?
For Insomniac, the answer was to add more. More, more and more. And while it definitely pays off in the gameplay front, the story front is a little more complicated. Well, let me explain. Without spoilers, I promise.
As you have seen from the trailers, the story of Spider-Man 2 is about Kraven the Hunter's attack on New York and his great hunt. At the same time, Peter's best friend Harry returns from his "Trip to Europe" and brings a weird black organism with him. The story of Spider-Man 2 is very difficult to talk about. Because in it's third act structure, each act is so different from each other. They almost feel like 3 different games.
The first act of the game is the best in my opinion. It feels a bit like an animated show where each mission has a different standalone story but they are all connected to the larger Kraven story from one point or the other.
After the fantastic opening mission, the first act continues with more great explosive moments featuring both Spider-Men and also dives deep into both of their personal lives.
Closer to the end of the first act however, things starts to get weird as Insomniac plays with the Spider-Man lore in weird ways that I didn't liked much. Especially with Harry. He both feels like the original Harry we know from comics and movies but also feels completely different.
As you can imagine, the second act is where Peter gets the symbiote and Kraven's story comes to a close. To be honest, this second act felt short to me. Peter didn't have enough time with the symbiote to capture all the nuances of his personality's transformation. The first act was so massive that the second half felt short and rushed.
However, if we are talking about short and rushed content; the award goes to the third act. Unfortunately, the third act which is all about Venom and the symbiote is rushed incredibly. Yes, there is an imminent threat but action after action in each mission feels too much.
Both the second act and the third act completely loses the balance in Spidey work and personal lives of these characters. And Miles basically becomes a background character. So, let's now start getting into the characters a little bit.
This story is of course totally centers around Peter Parker. And to be honest, I loved what Insomniac does with him in this game. We all know that there will be a third game but if somehow there isn't, this game definitely closes off Peter's story in a meaningful and exciting way. However, his transition into evil with the symbiote felt rushed. We don't see the period where the symbiote makes Peter's life much easier and much better.
Almost immediately after he gets the symbiote, people around him starts talking about his personality changing. Because the symbiote enters the story so late. Out of the 31 main missions, the symbiote bonds with Peter in the 14th or 15th. Almost at the midpoint.
Either the symbiote should have appeared much earlier in the game or the second half should have been all about symbiote Peter and Kraven without Venom. Thankfully though, one person never disappoints. Yuri Lowenthal gives the performance of his lifetime and adds so much more depth to Peter in every scene and every part in the game.
But there is another Spider-Man we need to talk about. Miles Morales. I always thought that Miles would have his own side story with his own main villain that would wrap up before the Venom enters and he crosses paths with Peter. Unfortunately, that doesn't happen. He doesn't have much of a story of his own.
He has a character arc that evolves him into a better, greater person but that's basically it. That character arc is excellent by the way, don't get me wrong. But I wanted more for Miles. He really feels like a side character most of the time. Similar to Peter's case however, voice actor Nadji Jeter nails all of Miles' doubts about his future. Both his future as a student and as a hero.
Laura Bailey continues to do a great job as Mary Jane Watson but her screen time feels lowered compared to the original game. There is one great mission in the third act where we get a brilliant look at the events from her perspective and we do this without even playing with her but other than that, MJ doesn't have much to do here. JJJ is her new boss in this game at Daily Bugle and you might think that this will create some great scenes but it doesn't.
It gets resolved in like one or two scenes. The other big ally that's new in this game is Harry Osborn. He is a difficult character to talk about without spoiling anything because there are interesting things happening with him from early on in the game. But I can confidently say that this Harry portrayal might be my favorite. He really is the perfect friend for Peter Parker and the relationship between these two characters have been handled expertly. Graham Phillips did a great job with the acting.
Now let's talk about the villains. The game has a bunch of them. I believe there are more villains in this game than 2018 and Miles' villains combined. But Kraven and Venom are the main ones. And, both of them disappointed me. Starting with Kraven, it felt very interesting to see so little of him. His character model and animations are simply incredible. He really is a beast. And voice actor Jim Pirri also delivered all the time.
But Kraven appears like 6 or 7 times in the game at most. His presence is there through his new enemy faction and our characters talk about him a lot but he doesn't appear much. You can learn more about him from the side quests and there definitely seems to be an interesting storyline going with him but the game never focuses on it. Kraven is clearly wasted here.
And if we come to Venom, I will need to admit something to you first. It is impossible for me to tell you why I found him disappointing without spoilers. But a promise is a promise. And I will try my best.
One big problem with him is similar to Kraven. He doesn't appear much. He even appears less than Kraven however Venom does have an upper hand because he appears very late in the game. And that is also a problem. We don't get to spend much time with him.
But my biggest problem with Venom is his motivation. So, Insomniac already confirmed early on that Eddie Brock is not the host of Venom in this game. And that was not a lie. But for me, what I like about Venom storylines is that the symbiote is just like an enhancer.
Symbiote isn't evil, or he is not the main source of evil. The host is evil of wants to do bad things and the symbiote enhances those emotions and also gives it's host the power to achieve those evil ambitions. "They" are Venom. They together are evil.
In this game, the host is clearly just a victim. And symbiote is the evil entity. The symbiote wants to do bad things, the symbiote wants destruction and death and other things. Not the host. And that just kills the Venom character for me. Because it turns Venom into just another alien that wants to kill humanity or something.
Well, I guess I lied. I guess it was possible to tell you why I didn't like Venom in this game so much. However, let's give credit where credit is due. Tony Todd is so sick as Venom. He is, oh my god. He is so good. And the introduction of Venom, it's everything we wanted guys. It's everything Spider-Man fans wanted.
Okay, half of the review is done. Story, complicated. There are some good things but villains are clearly weak and that's why I didn't like it very much. The first half of the story was fantastic but the second half felt too rushed and too basic. Onto the gameplay, the part where Spider-Man 2 is perfect.
Gameplay consists of traversal, combat, stealth and puzzles. Let's check on them one by one. Traversal, is clearly the best traversal in any game ever created. All the great things from the first two games are included. Miles' Venom Jump and Venom Dash are also given to Peter so that he can use them in traversal. He doesn't use Venom though, he either uses Spider Arms or Symbiote to pull those moves.
But the real star is of course Web Wings. They are fantastic. Incredible. I heard some people saying that they made the game too easy. Just get into a wind tunnel and do nothing, you will get to where you want. That's, correct but it's just an option. Wind Tunnels gives you extra speed with the Web Wings but if you don't enter, you will still be perfectly fine.
And trying to learn how to combine Web Wings into the Web Swinging we got used to was a blast. It's easy to learn and easier to master. It's a great system and believe me, you will get better with it as you use it throughout the game.
There are also some extra moves like doing a loop or quickly turning right or left using the webs but they didn't add much to my flow of swinging to be honest. Slingshot is also added and it's a great way to start a swing with great momentum. There are also a bunch of Super Slingshot locations around the map that will give you a REAL boost. These are mostly used when crossing water and they feel great to use.
One final thing about traversal, Peter's animations have been completely changed. 2018's swinging animations seemed basic compared to what we got with 2020's Miles Morales so the team completely changed Peter's animations and air tricks. And they look awesome. Dive from a high point and push your left stick down to do an air trick. Then prepare to get mind blown, that's the coolest animation by far.
Combat, is also pretty amazing. It has the same fundamentals as the previous game but it has been updated in many interesting ways to create the perfect Spider-Man combat. First up, we now have a parry button. When the Spider Sense flashes red, we usually pressed circle to do a dodge. We can still do that but now we have a parry function if we press L1 when the red flashes as well.
The move is really cool but I played in the highest difficulty available in the first run which is Spectacular and the timing seemed pretty hard to get. Not in bosses, which we will come to that later. But in normal fights, it created a problem. Because there is so much guys. And parry is very important to get because especially brutes are very hard to take down without parrying them.
In the first game, you could web up brutes or send an impact web to them. Impact Web is not in the game so you can't do that. You can web them normally but they get off it quickly and with the aggressive enemies on your side, it's impossible to get your focus on them. You need to learn the parry window. And it was not easy in the highest difficulty available in the first run.(I say this because another difficulty opens up once you finish the game)
I think the parry mechanic is okay but too many things depends on it, we will follow this in a bit. The other big change or addition is the two ability wheels. Actually, one ability wheel and one gadget wheel. Gadgets returns but both Peter and Miles has the same 4 gadgets. Yeah, a lot of them have been cut. R1 is still our web shooting button but holding R1 gives us an option to also press one of the 4 face buttons, each corresponding to a different gadgets.
The new gadgets, I didn't like them very much. Upshot and Ricochet Web basically webs up enemies but that's not very useful because again, there are so many enemies you can't web them up and throw them anywhere.
Concussion Burst is not very useful at first but it becomes critical in the third act for a particular enemy type. And the last one is Web Grabber which is the most useful among the 4 and the only gadget I really liked. It pulls all the enemies close to where you put it, with upgrades it also pulls in the throwables and not only damages enemies but it also allows you to pull off one of your area of effect abilities.
Speaking of abilities. Now we came to the fun part. Holding L1 and pressing one of the face buttons will initiate an ability. You can't swap spots. For example, Venom Blast where Miles punches someone with yellow Venom abilities always stays in square. But each spot has 2 different ability you can put in. Using the same example, you can switch square with Chain Lightning. Miles' new blue Venom ability that will send an enemy flying back with electricity in him that will damage nearby enemies as well.
In Miles, you select between 4 yellow Venom abilities which all returns from his own game and 4 new blue Venom abilities. Peter has 10 new abilities(square and X offers you 3 different choices) that are all new. 4 of these are spider arms abilities and 6 of them are symbiote abilities.
All of the 18 abilities in total are fantastic and changes the rhythm of the combat in a very good way. There are also 2 ultimate abilities that you can do by pressing both analog sticks at the same time. For Miles, it's the returning Mega Venom Blast. For Peter, it's symbiote surge which is basically rage mode. That's pretty fun for sure.
One important thing that needed to change about the combat was boss battles and they did change. Unfortunately, it didn't eliminate the main issue with the previous game's boss battles.
They are still visually incredible but the same repetitiveness of the previous game's boss battles continues. In the previous game, we webbed up or thrown things at bosses to make them stunned and then punched them a few times.
In this game, we parry their attack and then punch them a few times. Of course, these boss battles are better because it actually feels like you are playing the game and they need more skill. But it still doesn't solve the issue of all boss battles being the same. Especially some later ones were just button mashing in the difficulty I played in.
Once you learn the handful of moves a boss has, you will repeat the same parry, attack move until the boss is defeated. We needed more variety with bosses and this game doesn't have that. It has many bosses though. Especially in the second half. And again, their presentation is really good. Their gameplay, not so much.
Both Traversal and Combat got huge upgrades and additions but how about the other two aspects of the gameplay loop? Stealth and Puzzles. Well, we don't have too much new things there.
Stealth is basically non existent in the main missions. Most of them forces you to go into action mode and as I said, the second half has a bunch of bosses so it's almost entirely action oriented. Stealth does have a big new tool though with Web Lines. This new gadget gives you the ability to create a web line you can walk and do perch takedowns on enemies, basically wherever you want to.
See a wall or a lamp or any solid surface? Press 2 buttons to create a web line and take down enemies quickly. You can even do double takedowns. This opens up the stealth in a way that the previous game never had before but it also feels lazy because now you don't have to look for places where you can get enemies from.
You simply press 2 buttons and take down anyone that goes under it. It gives a lot of freedom, yes. But it also makes stealth incredibly easy. And it was already pretty easy.
On the other hand, the puzzles have been completely changed but their intent is the same, keeping the pace in check. And I think they did their job. There is also not too many of them and they don't go for long.
So, traversal and combat got big updates that made them incredible while stealth and puzzles didn't get that much attention but they are not featured in the game much. Let's talk about missions a little bit. Both main and side missions.
The game has 31 main missions and while there are some who are basically one cutscene, most of them are full blown missions. And what can I say? They are incredible. The spectacle, the chaos, the surprises are there. However, sometimes it's too much. Especially, in the second half. The pacing is too fast and playing set piece after set piece lessens their individual values.
But as I said, Insomniac listened to the fans. They even went beyond the fans' wishes in some points. If you are a Spider-Man fan like me, there is AT LEAST one(most likely 3-4) moment where you will lose yourself. Just, absolutely lose it.
What about the side missions though? That was one of my most anticipated part of this game. 2018's Spider-Man had the classic open world repetitive stuff. While Miles Morales made things better by including a bunch of narrative focused side missions and featuring those repetitive ones less.
Spider-Man 2 goes for a combined approach. First up, we have a few different narrative focused side mission chains. The Flame mission chain is definitely the best with a great story that has shocking twists and turns. Cultural Museum chain is a little too simple but still fun with a great ending.
Brooklyn Visions chain is the most boring for sure but occasionally entertains. And finally we have 6 FNSM App Requests that are one offs. Similar to the ones in Miles, these are great and has good variety.
Then we get into the territory that is a little interesting. Many of the side quests themselves are the same things copied and pasted. But these does have a nice final mission that completes the side story arc in a nice way. Examples we have seen in the trailers includes Prowler Stashes, Kraven's Talon Drones, Spider Bots and even Photo Ops. You do the exact same thing in every one of these missions.
But they have a nice ending cutscene or sometimes a mission that finishes up that little storyline in a nice way. They are also usually about a particular character. It's pretty obvious that Prowler Stashes are about Prowler but we have many more smaller scale but still well known Spider-Man villains making an appearance. The side missions celebrates the Spider-Man lore in many different ways, sometimes in ways you will never see coming.
The map is bigger in this game by the way but that doesn't add anything too interesting to the game. More spaces to explore is cool though so I am okay with that.
Finally, let's talk about technical stuff and wrap up this review. The game looks absolutely gorgeous on the PS5. There are 2 modes with Fidelity and Performance. I played on Fidelity and it looked really solid. Both modes have Ray Tracing. While it looked good though, there was a problem. Especially in the first few missions, there were some places where the faces were awful. Not sure if it's a bug or not but it was really distracting and scary to think that the quality bar was very low.
However, most of the game is not like that. It looks very solid. It feels like a next gen game thanks to some of the craziest set pieces I have ever seen. Frame rate was also incredible. Locked 30. Did not feel any drop. Glitches however were a part of my experience. Nothing game breaking but tons of animation glitches were there. Not tons maybe but more than a few.
And the game crashed 2 or 3 times. One of my friends told me that his game softlocked at one point. So while the performance is rock solid, it seems like there are some errors and bugs with the game.
There is also the DualSense, PS5's best new feature. This game might use it the best after Astro's Playroom. It was sooo good. Not too much on the triggers. But haptic feedback was fantastic. I felt Miles' electricity, Peter's Spider Arms' strength and the tendrils of Venom. 3D Audio was nothing too impressive though. With a Pulse 3D headset the game sounded really cool but maybe they could have done a little bit more with that.
One last thing before the verdict, John Paesano is back as the composer and he is just wonderful. Venom's theme and especially Kraven's theme were my favorites.
Marvel's Spider-Man 2 is a true next gen exclusive. Not just with beautiful visuals, rock solid performance and the best DualSense implementation since Astro's Playroom; but also with some incredible additions to the core mechanics like Web Wings or the combat abilities and some of the best set pieces ever created in a video game. However, the story here needed much more work. Both of the main villains with Kraven and Venom disappoints due to low screen time and the lightspeed-like pacing. The second half feels rushed and this was definitely not what the Symbiote deserved. It's still a great game, no doubt about it. But it's my least favorite in the trilogy.