It's been about 5 months since the release of this game, and I feel it's a good time to revisit my old review. In hindsight, the hype had gotten the better of me and clouded my judgement. I still stand by my 10/10 rating PERSONALLY, but I also stand by the fact that this game is about a 7 objectively, and as time has gone on, I have constantly and begrudgingly become more fucking pissed off at this piece of shit game.

I'm a gigantic Spider-Man fan, and not the "TikTok kind" that is so popular nowadays. Y'know, the ones who have seen a couple of the movies and maybe watched the Ultimate Spider-Man cartoon and thus brag online about how they're "huge fans". I've wasted most of my teenage years reading comic books and specifically ALL of Spidey's comics. And while they all obviously range from créme de la créme to... Well, Zeb Wells and Nick Spencer, I still feel like on some degree, Peter Parker is pretty consistent in all of them. It's an understatement to say Spider-Man is my favorite fictional character of all time and that I love him to death, and that obviously makes me the target audience for a Spider-Man game... Right?

I'd like to preface this by saying that I really like Insomniac's Spider-Man and his world. While I disagree with a few things, namely Mary Jane's portrayal and the introduction of Miles Morales so early on, I still feel like Insomniac DOES get who Peter Parker is and what his stories are all about. And what solidified him as one of the GOATs is the ending of the first game, where Peter does what he couldn't do in One More Day. He sacrifices Aunt May and just... Lets go. He grows. And that's what made me truly love him. To see a Peter accept the weight of his responsibilities and grow into one of the definitive iterations of Spider-Man was quite endearing and amazing. I also enjoyed Miles, if a little bland, and the supporting cast was pretty good. Mostly the villains, but the others were serviceable enough. I have spent thousands of hours on PS4 and PC combined on the first game, and it's my second favorite Spider-Man game. Is that enough? That's enough.

All this to say, I was completely on board for this game and full of hype. I'm not that huge of a fan of the symbiote storyline, especially because no one ever adapts the actual symbiote and just adapts the TAS and Raimi versions, but I was hella excited and mostly curious to see Insomniac taking a shot at it. Hell, I pre-ordered the game! The only game I've ever pre-ordered is, wouldn't you know it, Marvel's Spider-Man. I was in the forefront, foaming at the mouth to get this game which was supposedly gonna be the end-all be-all of Spider-Man games, the game that would end the dumb debate that Spider-Man 2 is actually the best one (it's not), the game that would bring justice to its characters and their 60 years of stories.

Yeah... About that.

TL;DR Game is unfinished, buggy, has terrible characterization and lacks any sort of charm that made the first one so beloved. The story is written for a casual audience that doesn't know the character and has so many plot holes you'd think Mole Man passed through here.

Love for a game should NEVER cloud objective judgement over it. My favorite game of all time is Life is Strange, and while I absolutely recognize that it's FAR from perfect, I love it nonetheless. And Insomniac, those sly dogs, had it easy. Like Sam Raimi once said, "kids come to this picture and Spider-Man is their hero, [...] anyone you put in the superhero outfit and you play the heroic horns on the soundtrack, they're gonna look up to as their hero, you just get that unearned, it's not fair but it really is true... So you have an obligation to bring your character to the level that's worth their admiration, you get it without having paid for it, so the job of making the movie in some ways is paying for it". Insomniac doesn't have to do shit, they could make the worst Spider-Man game ever but dumbasses (me) are still gonna keep buying it because it's fucking Spider-Man. They didn't earn anything, people just buy their Spider-Man games cause of, you guessed it, Spider-Man! Which means they should have a moral obligation to make the game up to the standards that people expect for a character as iconic and beloved as the gool ol' webhead. And here's where Insomniac already loses me.

Let's look at it from a gameplay perspective first. The game is, in almost everything in that regard, an upgrade from the first one in terms of mechanics. The swinging is still fun as ever and the new option to change swinging difficulty is cool, if a little useless. Barely anything changes, really, but it's nice that you can smash your head on the floor if you don't calculate everything. Fall damage is... Cool? Doesn't change much and doesn't add that many stakes, honestly. But it's nice to have the option.

The suit selection is really pathetic and lackluster. Almost half of the slots are taken up by movie suits that were in the previous game, and even ones that no one asked for. Like seriously, who asked for the fucking Night Monkey suit? It's obvious that Insomniac wanted to make everyone happy by having every movie suit, but it sucks that we have to sacrifice stuff like the ol' trusty Spidey armor and the Big Time suit, especially when a suit slot is taken up by something like a goofy ass Peach Momoko suit. And I like Peach Momoko! But what is that suit doing here? It's also limited by the fact that they wanted Miles and Peter to have the same number of suits... Which makes zero sense. Peter has been around for six times as long as Miles, it's obvious he's gonna have more suits. And even then, a lot of Miles' suits are taken out. The animated suit from his solo game looked so freakin' good and yet, it's nowhere to be found here. And that's glossing over the digsusting looking "Evolved suit" that he gets towards the end of the game. An Adidas ad, in my Spider-Man game? What is this, Web of Shadows?

Foreshadowing. Anyway, the map may be much bigger but it has very little to offer. I love that they added Queens, it's seriously amazing, and going back there for the first time since 2005, back in Ultimate Spider-Man, was amazing. I liked the layout and it's pretty accurate, obviously scaled down a bit but that's fine. It looks great, and that's the problem. It's mostly just there and serves little purpose other than a few missions taking place in it. Even something as simple as going into Peter's house, something you could do in the TASM2 game of all things, is only allowed in one mission. So I don't understand why they added the second island other than to show it off. Hell, if anything I'm angry that they made THAT but not Washington Heights? It's never represented in Spidey games for some reason, give me some Washington Heights rep :(

The enemy bases are fine, a bit of a downgrade from the first game but I was never fond of them, and so are the sidequests. They're on par with the first game for the most part but they have much higher highs and lower lows, whereas the first game was much more consistent. That's not to say that there aren't missions that I loved purely for their production value. I liked Howard's side mission, hell I loved it, but it's a sign of what's to come. The only way that mission works is if you suspend your belief to the point where you can seriously believe that there's a magic illness that you know will kill you in a few minutes, allowing you to say goodbye one last time. It's a mission that comments on, as corny as that sounds, the beauty of life and I loved it but if you put your glasses on, you'll see it's basically impossible for it to be real and can only happen in a pre-determined narrative. As for other stuff, Wraith's storyline is fine. I don't really like her character and she makes zero sense but they handled Cletus Kassidy well. Mysterio's storyline is also a bit weird because like, I understand what they were going for but having Miles be locked in to play them takes away from the fact that Mysterio has a history with Peter. There's also the Brooklyn Visions quest which are... So pathetic. They reek of corporate mandated progressive quests that I have a hard time taking them seriously at all. They're corny as hell and only work in a Disney Channel setting, if anything. There's also the random crimes which have been either completely simplified to the point where their skill requirements are null or made so boring and tedious that you don't even stop to do them.

So to give a brief overview of all of that, the crimes, challenges and bases have taken quite a step down as there's less variety in them and the replayability of the bases is non-existent. Collectibles are about the same and the sidequests are sometimes a bit better and sometimes a bit worse. Carnage and Mysterio obviously are more memorable due to the characters featured and their higher production value, but that's about it. There's also many smaller features, like quality of life stuff, that are completely missing. The social feed from the first game was an interesting window into the perspective of an average person living in New York during the events of the game. In fact, a lot of it was actually well written and felt authentic to interactions and exchanges that you often find on the internet. And while I realize it wasn't that important of a feature, it was cool to have and yet it's nowhere to be seen here. It's such a shame because it would have been really cool seeing people's thoughts on the symbiote invasion and black suit Spidey. There's also a lack of character bios, which is baffling because there's no reason for them not to be here. I loved reading them in the past two games because they were written from Peter's and Miles' perspective, but there's nothing here. It would have been very useful, especially for several characters who really could have used some more backstory.

There's also the podcasts, which are... Horrid. They are clearly written by people who don't understand JJJ's character and just want to make him a full on Alex Jones parody, while Danika is the wonderchild internet SJW or whatever who always says the right thing. It's boring and uninspired. I read somewhere that someone thought it would have been really cool to replace Danika with a Flash Thompson podcast where he praised Spidey and talked about different happenings from the past, and I honestly love that idea. I love Flash Thompson and I would kill to have him be an actual character in this game, rather than a boring easter egg in a flashback.

One of the most important parts of the game, gameplay wise, is combat. And combat is very fun, still too repetitive to be comparable to Batman Arkham or even Sleeping Dogs, but they added some tweaks and moves that make a lot of difference. When you fight, there's a 99,9% chance your combo will start by you knocking the enemy in the air and then beating them down while floating like a beautiful butterfly, and since that's a good majority of the game, Insomniac made air combos much more dynamic. You have a bounce, you have a dodge under mid-air, you have a follow up to the swing kick and you can juggle enemies much more easily than the first game. That doesn't mean ground combat isn't great either, because I'll admit I freakin' love bashing bad guys into red paste by spamming the attack button while they're against a wall. Yes, I'm mentally insane.

But on the other side of the coin... The combat abilities. God. Damn. It. I wasn't completely against the iron arms at first, I thought it was an interesting evolution of the character based on what he had done in the last one, and I liked to think we would get an explanation as to why he has them, the reason being that Peter feels like he never does enough and has to keep up as much as he can and overcompensates for everything. Or maybe he would build them to make up for his lack of a symbiote suit. But instead, the game has NO explanation of the iron arms, they just appear and we're supposed to accept it. Let me make it clear: a man who cannot even afford rent for a one room apartment manages to create nano-tech so advanced that it can materialize out of thin air. It's honestly hilarious because the developers also seem kind of "embarrassed" about it? The arms are never used in the story, even in situations where they would genuinely save the day (i.e. Coney Island). And that's without even mentioning how dumb they are in-game. The abilities are a cool concept but the cooldown strips away the fun of them because you have to wait 30 seconds for them to pop up again, when it could have been like in Miles' game where you can use any ability as long as you have the meter, and finishers are stored in another slot. They also look so dumb and half the time don't even target the right enemy, making the combat sorta frustrating and imprecise. The symbiote abilities, on the other hand, at least visually make sense and look cool.

So now not only do we have an MCU-ified Spider-Man with nano-technology, we are also canonically stuck with it. And to the thumbsuckers going "just don't use them if you hate them that much", okay you doofus, I would if they weren't super-imposed all the time. If I parry, they pop up, if I want a boost while in mid-air they pop up, if I go walk my dog they pop up. Oh, and let's not forget that they also took away most of the gadgets and left the dumbest and most boring replacements for them. It sucks so much ass and I can't think of a good reason they would have done this except for the obvious one. They had to make it more like the MCU to make it more marketable, just like with the Peter face change.

The faces. Good lord the faces. I was fine with the face change when it was first announced. I was okay with it because it didn't impact me that much. It looked decent in Miles Morales and a bit weird in the Remastered, but I chalked it up to my brain thinking about the original one every time he showed up. But now, it's been about 4 years from the face change. We've had time to accept it, and grown to love it. "Love" it. Right.

To all you motherfuckers out there who said they didn't change Peter's face to make him look more like Tom Holland, I dare you not to compare them in the flashback sections. It's insane how much they look alike, in fact it's not insane it's downright ABSURD. Back when the first game was being made, the main Spider-Man was Andrew Garfield so they got a guy that resembled him in some way, John Bubniak, and he was PERFECT. Genuinely such a perfect look for Peter and the voice fit him so well. Then, since the current one is Tom Holland, Insomniac clearly realized they needed a bit of brand synergy so the casual gamer would link them just by looking at it. Remember when people cried about Marvel's Avengers and Guardians of The Galaxy not looking at all like the MCU? Yeah, exactly. Dumb complaints from people who have never even looked in the general direction of a comic book.

And I wish Peter was the worst of this. He may look awful and his face is completely wrong, but he looks like Brad Pitt compared to the other ones. Harry is fine, I kinda like his redesign, even though I do miss the older one. I also miss Scott Porter, he's my GOAT :( I actually think Miles looks the best out of all of them simply because you can tell he was animated with care for every subtle detail, so that's nice.

And then... Mary Jane. I'm sorry for the actress, and I know she has come out and said she had jaw reconstruction surgery, but they botched her so bad in the game. I'm not one of those cringy coomers who go "OMG THEY MADE HER WOKE BY MAKING HER UGLY #REDPILLED" like some of you weirdos out there, but it's fucking abhorrent what has happened to her. Mary Jane is a SUPERMODEL. I don't get why everyone wants to turn her into Lois Lane when she has always been this fun-loving, gorgeous redhead who looks like the kind of girl who never stops partying. Underneath that, she's a whole different beast, but it's always worked in the comics so why can't it work here? Would it be objectifying to make her a model? It's just a job! But even if we take all of that out of the way, even if we say "she's a normal person who works as a journalist so she can't look like the hottest woman on Earth", I genuinely cannot excuse the way she looks. The animations of her face look so bad that you'd think Dingo Pictures made them, her Jaw gives the Crimson Chin a run for his money and her fashion sense is god-awful. She looked great, beautiful, gorgeous even in the first game. I loved her design, she looked like what a modern Mary Jane would look like in my head, and then they went and redesigned her for some reason and she looks awful. So we pair a Peter who looks like he's maybe 21 at max with a Mary Jane who looks in her late 30's, coupled with the fact that they're written horribly. What do we get? One of the worst parts of this game.

Mary Jane Watson and Peter Parker are not Mary Jane Watson and Peter Parker. I don't think the writers know who the fuck these characters are and the most exposure they've gotten about them is probably, like... The Raimi movies? Maybe not even that. In the first game, Mary Jane complained about the fact that Peter held her hand too much and looked out for her. From our perspective, it makes sense that she's just talking crazy because we witness first-hand what the baddies are willing to do to get what they want, so her complaints are understandable but ludicrous too. It's human, and I liked that. If anything, I see a lot of similarities between her and Skyler from Breaking Bad, both being love interests who people hate because they actually have a point which goes against the protagonist. And thus I really liked MJ and Pete last time. But that's the thing. I didn't like THESE MJ and Pete, I liked the first ones. Everyone of importance has changed face models to the point where the first game and this one feel like they take place in different universes and it makes me so disconnected from the narrative because this feels like such a random recast. I loved those characters that I associate with a certain face model, and now not only are they written completely different, they also look completely different. I feel detached from them and it sucks because the most important part of any Spider-Man story is the conflict between characters that you know and love. But here, we have a different faced Peter, a difference faced Mary Jane and a different faced AND voiced Harry. So at the end of the day, all of the time I spent in the past game getting to know and love them is null and void because they're not who I fell in love with. And again, I really really liked MJ and Pete in the first game. But then in this one, for some reason, they have this tension between them that is so weird and off-putting. They do not act like two people in a relationship, they act like they have to be nice to each other because both of them are too uncomfortable to actually say that they don't like being in a relationship. It's weird and it's never explained, they have these cute moments that feel so sterile. I remember smiling like a dumbass in the first game's DLC when they said "I love you" to each other, and I was hoping that would get expanded here but... Nope. Nada. What we DO get is a Mary Jane who says nothing of importance and her only goal is to be the best reporter at the Daily Bugle. That's all there is. And to those screaming that she has depth and just keeps it all bottled up inside, I'm gonna ask you this very simple question. Who is Mary Jane Watson?

I genuinely mean it. Who is she, outside of Peter's girlfriend? Do we know anything about her? About her past? About her family? About her friends? MJ's past is such a HUGE part of who she is in the comics, it explains all of her behaviors and puts into perspective how much she is hurting. Like Peter, she has also lost someone because of her lack of responsibility, Obviously that is VERY MUCH reducing it but that's the jist of it. The reason they work together so well is because they both have such complex lives that, when put side by side, match. But in the game, all we know is that MJ is a reporter and she loves Peter and Harry. That's it. When New York goes to absolute shit because of the symbiotes, we don't hear her being worried about her Aunt Anna, or her sister, or her friends. She is a nobody and acts as a simple plot device. All of her playable sections only exist to have her help Peter. MJ has nothing going on in her life outside of supporting Peter. The game tries to comment on this by having her complain (as a brainwashed monster, mind you) about her job and having to help Peter all the time, but it's not enough to simply acknowledge these problems. You have to fix them.

It's clear that the intention of Mary Jane becoming Scream is to have her vent her frustrations about life and Peter, but it doesn't work for three reasons. Firstly, we know that the symbiote is capable of making people act differently from their normal selves, so it's hard to believe what she's saying is true. Secondly, the lack of setup is astounding. Apparently, MJ hates her job now. Even though she wanted it so bad in the first game that she repeatedly almost died for it. Even in this very game, she gets so upset when her story doesn't get published, but after one discouraging Skype call from JJJ she wants to quit? Thirdly, just like the first game, the conflict between MJ and Peter is lopsided. Due to Insomniac being so afraid and unwilling to give Peter any negative traits, it has always been difficult to take MJ's complaints seriously because really, Peter wasn't being overbearing or overprotective, he was actually supportive of her work, even giving her gadgets to help her sneak around. And even for stuff like the Charles Standish situation, that was a complete misunderstanding and the blame of the situation falls entirely on MJ since she's the one being unreasonable.

Something similar happens here, where MJ is mad at Peter for not being able to pull his weight and not being supportive of her and her goals. But that's bullshit! He tries his hardest to get a job and is only ever kind and encouraging to her whenever she brings up her work. So the issue is not that Peter is an unsupportive boyfriend, the issue is that MJ can't communicate her feelings properly. But that's not a character flaw, that's a genuine writing flaw because it's clear they didn't know what they were supposed to do with her. It's funny because people who say that the complainers are just nerds who wanted her to be hot and have no character ironically defend a non-character. I've seen cereal boxes have more personality and depth than this Mary Jane, and it sucks because I genuinely believe we'll never get a good adaptation of her EVER. The 90's show version was good and so were Spectacular and TNAS, but other than that we're drier than the Sahara Desert.

So all of that to circle back to their relationships. They don't talk like a couple, in fact no one in this game talks like they're anything more than acquaintances. All, and I mean ALL, of the characters act like nerdy youth pastors. Like many people have already said, they talk like they know their employers are listening. It's hilarious because it's true, it really is. They are all such goody two-shoes that it's laughable when they try to sound "bad". These are New York natives, dude! NEW YORK! You do not make it in New York if you don't try to grow a backbone and at the very least stand up for yourself. Miles doesn't talk like a black kid who grew up in NY, and the flashback where Peter is riding his bike and telling off on people is goofy as hell. I understand that Insomniac doesn't want to offend anybody but all I ask for is for writing that makes ME decide if I like that character or not, not some pre-determined "well, Harry is nice because he has this charity foundation and he's super cool and he is very nice and never says anything bad and he loves Peter". Miles also pisses me off so bad because whenever Peter says he's too busy to talk to him and ignores him, Miles is like "aw man, Pete, that sucks" and never fucking tells him that he's an asshole. MJ is also a very generic love interest who can take care of herself, so let's put a check on that in the clipboard so we can be labeled as "progressive". As for the other characters like Hailey, Rio, Ganke... Uhm... Yeah no that's it. There's no other supporting character. Cool. So just like, all of them act super nice and sweet to each other like it's a fucking Nickelodeon show. None of them have an edge or some sort of character introspection. Peter is just a good guy who wants to do good, Miles is just a good guy who wants to do good, MJ is just a good gal who wants to do good, Harry is just a good guy who wants to do good. There is no introspection, no interesting side that we get to see.

And again, it's laughable when they try to make Peter sound evil. 80% of the things Peter says while under the influence of the symbiote, he would have genuinely said himself in the 70's-90's comics. I like Peter being a super nice person, but this version is just so plain that it makes white bread sound like a five star dish. Which is why this rendition of the symbiote storyline sucks. Previous adaptations of the symbiote storylines (which veer off from the comic book one) all work because they use Peter's existing character flaws to show how the symbiote makes them worse. Even Spider-Man 3 of all things does a good job of showing that Peter is being selfish, arrogant and dismissive before getting the symbiote. So when he's wearing it, these negative aspects are brought to the forefront and he's forced to confront the consequences of his own actions and vanity. That is NOT what happens in this game.

Peter gets the symbiote after getting literally one-shot by Kraven (no comment on that, really) and the symbiote moves from Harry to Peter. It almost instantly starts to affect Peter's mind, which is weird considering it didn't do that at all when it was on Harry. It's also odd because Insomniac's Peter is one of the nicest versions of the character, so there are no negative traits to focus on and to exaggerate. Instead, the symbiote essentially brainwashes him into a different person altogether to create conflict, which feels so forced and artificial, especially because it happens in just a few days. Peter goes from normal to batshit crazy way too quickly, and it's made even worse by the fact that Peter has zero moments of introspection and self-reflection.

Every adaptation of the symbiote where it affects Peter's mind ends with him realizing that the symbiote is manipulating and twisting his mind, thus pushing him to his breaking point and realizing that to beat this darker side, he must overcome his negative emotions. This doesn't only show how incredible Peter's will-power is, but it also shows that he's a smart guy who can figure out when something is wrong with him. Take for example in Spectacular Spider-Man, when Flash tells him off and Peter goes "if Flash Thompson is starting to make sense, then something is completely wrong". It works because Peter is constantly self-conscious and he would realize after a while that all the people in his life are shunning him because of his behavior. He's built his entire sense of morality around being responsible so he should notice when he's not being responsible, yet this never happens. Even when he realizes the suit is alive (which should have been obvious from the start for someone like him), he still keeps using it with no reservations. So combine the symbiote making Peter cartoonishly evil with his inability to realize that something is very clearly wrong with him and you end up with a character that looks like a total fucking moron.

And I know that the immediate defense is that this isn't a showcase of Peter's ineptitude but instead a showcase of the symbiote's ability to manipulate people, but I do not buy that excuse at all. Let's look at how the story tries to justify this. There's a bit in the story where we get to go into Peter's mind as the symbiote takes hold, and this is where we see that Peter allegedly feels a sense of frustration at how villains and criminals he puts away often end up breaking out and committing more crimes. This feeling is alleviated by the symbiote, who proposes that they just kill them. You might have noticed that i said "allegedly" because Peter himself shows no indication that he feels that way. There's a whole entire side-story dedicated to Peter staunchly defending the point of not killing criminals to the point where he has to fight his former friend over it. The second reason as to how the symbiote was able to get such a strong hold of Peter's mind is that May's death is still in Peter's head and he's still mourning the loss of his surrogate mother. And the symbiote somehow vaguely uses this to get Peter to do things...? Once Harry becomes Venom, the symbiote uses the voice of Harry's mother to trick him into going along with the symbiote goal. It's a really interesting concept that is not utilized at all. The symbiote should have been using this on Peter to string him along, maybe even convincing him to kill criminals and super villains. I feel like that would have been a really interesting twist on the symbiote story, one that would make use of what the previous game set up to better serve the narrative. But we don't get that.

Instead, the symbiote makes Peter big mad and then Miles goes "this isn't you!" and beats it out of him. Speaking of, what does Miles do in this game? Right, nothing. He's probably the flagship Insomniac style character, that is to say a generica nice, well-meaning character with no real substance. This isn't new to this game, but in the earlier entries it made sense because he was still somewhat coming into his own, but here it stands out so much more because he's the co-protagonist. Or at least... He's supposed to be. He's barely in this game, he's completely divorced from the main story until almost the end. He's not there in MAJOR points of the story and it would have been fine if he spent his time doing interesting stuff but he doesn't. Miles spends most of his time NOT writing a 500 words essay (which is a weird ass plot point that pretty much never gets resolved) and is tasked with doing some of the meaningless side stuff like the Mysterio sidequest or the Museum of Black History stuff. He's also the one who gets to interact with Black Cat, and that brings me to my next point.

The Black Cat mission really REALLY highlights how uninteresting and underexplored Miles is as a character. Peter says that Miles should take care of Felicia because Miles is a new face so she'll listen to him... More? What? Wouldn't she respond better to the guy she's known for years and literally dated? And after the mission's done, I have to ask how it would've gone down differently if Peter went instead. And that's the problem. It wouldn't. It would have been the same because both Peter and Miles are super nice and would be willing to help her out. We know this for sure because we literally saw this happen in the last game, even when she was straight up lying to him, Peter still helped her and he's obviously willing to do the same here. So why did Miles have to go do this instead?

Well, because Insomniac realized they needed to give Miles SOMETHING to do. Anything, really. Outside of the main story, Miles is busy trying to get over his hatred of Mr. Negative, the man who killed his father. This is a legitimately interesting plotline and it's definitely one of the highlights of the game's story. Miles is in a similar position to what Li found himself some time ago, both being granted extraordinary powers and both having the chance to use them to take revenge on the man responsible for the loss in their lives. Li succumbed to his anger and vengeance, yet Miles chooses to move on, showing Li a new path away from anger and hate. He doesn't quite forgive Li, but he can't keep hating him. And that story is legitimately touching and cool and a great take on two characters that, let's be real here, sucked in the comics. And then we get back to the symbiote storyline and it's complete dogshit!

Back to the main point, Miles is barely involved in the main plotline and he basically just swoops in at the end to fight Peter and save the day. And that's what pisses me off so much. The whole reason Peter's ability to reflect on his actions has been removed is because if Peter was capable of signle-handedly repelling the symbiote, Miles would have nothing to do in this story. I think a much more obvious and easy solution would have been to give Miles the symbiote instead because then it would directly tie into his growing hatred and frustration, but even that isn't a great idea. The problem with the story is not even the story itself but the context surrounding it. Take for example the game's ending. Miles and Harry DO NOT know each other. They have pretty much never interacted except for maybe twice and they have no emotional relation. And a significant part of the finale hinges on the conflict between these two and it's REALLY hard to take it seriously because there is no real relationship between them. Harry, or rather the symbiote, is jealous of Miles for taking Peter away from them, but like... There is no buildup to it. We're just supposed to believe it.

And that's also one of the OTHER biggest failings of this game. Miles and Peter's relationship. I'm not even sure what their relationship is supposed to be. It's not a teacher and student because we've never seen Peter teach Miles anything and at this point, Miles is much much stronger than Peter. Like seriously, I think it's actually Peter who seems to need teaching since he's constantly getting tossed around like a ragdoll with Miles coming in to save him. For example, the Spider-Verse movies have Peter and Miles actually feel like friends, and because of the age gap Peter fits into the mentor role much better. I think it's that age gap that makes their relationship in the game so awkward. They're far enough that they're not really peers, but they're still too close in age for Peter to be the old guy because they're both still really young.

They also don't feel like friends either, they treat each other more like co-workers. People who only hang out with each other because they have to. And yet, the narrative plays it out as if these two are already super close and that we already believe that. So it makes no actual effort to show that they are really friends, and I say that because strangely enough the narrative actually DOES believe that they are close to each other. That's how their relationship is presented. The Peter boss fight hinges on you believing in their relationship but it ends up feeling emotionally hollow and sterile because it's a relationship that barely exists on screen. It also fails because there's no actual tension or conflict between the two. Peter is not actually jealous of Miles and his extra abilites, he doesn't actually think that Miles is getting in the way of him doing his thing, he doesn't actually have an insecurity problem from getting saved by Miles all the time, it's just the symbiote being evil because the plot demands it. If Peter was allowed to have some kind of negative aspects to his character, if he was allowed to not agree with Miles on everything, if he was allowed to not be a little bitch and blindly say yes to anything MJ says, if he was allowed to be honest and even "edgy" with his feelings then maybe this fight could have been interesting, but he's not so it doesn't.

Another huge missed opportunity to build a relationship between these two is with the Mr. Negative subplot. Peter should be able to relate to Miles and what he's going through because, in some way, Peter also went through something incredibly similar with Uncle Ben's death. Peter could tell him about the guy who killed Uncle Ben and how he felt about it and what he did. But he doesn't. He just generically says "shucks, we'll get him next time" and "hang in there, pal". You see what I mean when I say these two don't feel like close friends? And the same goes for Harry.

I love the relationship between Peter and Harry, it is genuinely one of the best parts of the game. They're such wholesome and adorable friends who you can TELL love each other like brothers. It's great and Insomniac nailed that. Which is why I don't buy for a single second that there would be any miscommunication between them. As stated in the game, they've known each other since they were pretty much little kids. They have known each other for almost two decades. They have been best friends for longer than most Fortnite fans have been alive. And yet, when Peter is VERY CLEARLY BEING MANIPULATED BY THE SYMBIOTE, Harry doesn't realize. Hell, MJ doesn't even realize. How in the fuck do you not notice when your best friend is clearly being manipulated by something or someone? Especially someone like Peter, of all people! The characters are all WAY too relaxed when the symbiote first appears. Both Peter and Miles sort of shrug off this super evil-looking unexplainable black mass and it's extremely strange. When Peter and Harrry have their sleepover they say they're going to test out the symbiote but they don't. They really don't. Because if Peter had used any of the tech of that facility to run tests on the symbiote, he would have found out that it's a living creature and would have freaked out about it. But then, the rest of the story obviously wouldn't have been able to happen, so instead they just vaguely screw around for a bit before going to sleep. I know this sounds super nitpicky, but Peter is a SCIENTIST, he should be interested in examining what the symbiote is and it's completely out of character that he doesn't. Harry's able to turn the suit into a very intricate set of tactical armor despite having very little control over the symbiote abilities and even copies the appearance of Peter's suit, and no one bats an eye. And again, even when Peter gets the symbiote, NO ONE realizes that it's altering his mood. Even if you're the biggest moron in the world, you would realize that the suit is changing with time as Peter's own mental fortitude is decaying. Like, it's just a visual thing, you can literally just look at the suit and see that it's morphing. But because the story needs everyone to not realize it, Peter's anger and edginess is chalked up to him being stressed out, completely ignoring how out of character that is. Like christ dude, he's genuinely tweaking out of his mind!

I've known my best friend for a decade. We've gone through high school together, we've gone on vacation together, we've lived some of the greatest moments of our lives together, we've spent so much time together that I consider him as more than a brother. And not to toot my own horn, but I'm pretty much always a very generous and nice person to basically everyone, just like Peter is. If one day, I suddenly started being all moody and irascible, my best friend would notice in half a minute and ask me what's going on. Because we know each other like the back of our hands and we can be honest with each other. But Peter and Harry seemingly know one another almost exclusively on a surface level. It's so weird because the way they're written, it sometimes makes you feel like they genuinely ARE best friends, but that's not often. There's never a "your mom" pun or a weird inside joke that only they can understand, they act like they're scared of hurting each other's feelings all the time which results in a sterile relationship where both of the characters sound like they're walking on eggshells to avoid offending the other.

And that explains the game's greatest mistake: Venom. Harry is not the sole reason as to why it fails, but it's a big part of it. Also, notice how I've glossed over Kraven because while I don't necessarily dislike him, I think he is played up to be TOO much of a bad guy to the point where you have a hard time believing it. Seriously, this asshole took down half of Spidey's rogues gallery by hand? Everything he says is badass as all hell and I won't deny that, but it sucks because he's built up to be this big unstoppable force when we all know that he's just filler for when the real main event kicks in. And this version of Venom... My god, he's REALLY bad.

Venom is as bland as they come. No one seems to ACTUALLY know what Venom acts like and who he is so we're stuck with the TAS and Raimi interpretations 'till we die. "Uhhh well the symbiote is uhhh EVIL because it uhh it's BLACK and ALIEN and uhhh it uhh it HATES SPIDER-MAN because uhmmm yeah he wants to TAKE OVER THE WORLD AND TURN EVERYONE INTO SYMBIOTES!". Ignoring the fact that it is literally impossible for a symbiote to do that because it cannot have that many offsprings (which I can gloss over, it's a comic book nitpick that's not that big of a deal), it's insane to me that we get Venom on screen for a total of like 30 minutes in the entire game and we never even know what he wants. We don't know if it's controlling Harry or if Harry is evil or if he is being manipulated by the symbiote (I know he hears his mom's voice but that's not the point). We just know he wants to take over the world like he always does in videogames where Venom is present. How boring and one-note.

On a positive note, his design is really good, definitely one of the best we've gotten in the past few years and THANK GOD HE ACTUALLY HAS THE CHEST SYMBOL. Tony Todd is also so freakin' good and so wasted because of that. He's genuinely too good for how bad this Venom is. I mean it, I hate this Venom with a passion and it all starts with Harry.

Harry's goal in life is to "heal the world", whatever that means. It's a very vague sentiment but one that you can understand because he really is just trying to make the world a better place. The symbiote twists this mission statement to fit its own goals of covering the world in symbiotes and-- Okay, he's just the Lizard from The Amazing Spider-Man 1. He's a big dumb monster that wants to turn everyone into the same thing he is because he thinks it'll make everyone better, except he's much worse than the Lizard! Because at least, HE made an actual case for why he wanted to do this. Venom doesn't. And Peter never makes an argument against him either. He never says that the symbiotes will rob people of free will and make the world a worst place, he just goes "we've got to get that thing off of Harry" and that's it. That's their whole conflict. Venom is just a big dumb monster that wants to take over the world and it's so SO dumb.

They also try to shoehorn a little bit of conflict between Peter and Harry by having Harry be jealous of Peter because of the love Norman has for him, but like... Where does that even come from? It doesn't factor into the story at all, if anything it feels like a holdover from a different version of the script that no longer makes sense. It's a tired trope that comes out of left field and makes me wonder if the writers have ever even seen any other piece of Spider-Man media outside of the movies, because it's seriously uncanny how many parallels this game has to the Raimi movies and The Amazing Spider-Man movies.

But even if we ignore all of that, the most common defense for this Venom is that he's a new take on the character and that people only dislike him because he's not exactly like his original comic counterpart. So let's break this down.

To start, I will admit that part of the reason I don't like this Venom at all is that he isn't ANYTHING like what the character was in the comics. This isn't my entire reasoning for it but I'd be lying if I said that it wasn't part of it. I really like Venom so, y'know, I kinda wanted something that was at the very least evocative of the character in the comics. But what is Venom like in the comics?

Well, there are four different ways you can interpret the character that make Venom who he is. The first one is that of a psychotic stalker and it's how Venom was first portrayed. It's probably the most popular version and I understand why. The combination of the symbiote's strength, its knowledge of Peter's personal life and its ability to bypass Peter's Spider-Sense made Venom a uniquely dangerous and terrifying foe. Unlike most villains, Venom could strike whenever, wherever and there was very little Peter could do about it. So this first version of Venom exists only to torment Peter with his sick sense of humor usually centering around his perverse obsession with killing Spider-Man.

The second way you can interpret Venom is that of the goofy anti-hero and it's the role Venom took on after he started his path to redemption. Thinking that what he's doing is the right thing, Venom engages in bizarre and sadistic behavior that would be seen as completely demented if not for the fact that he's usually doing these things to criminals and supervillains. As a result, Venom's silliness and more sinister sense of humor is more prominent here, and I can think of no better example of it than the Playstation 1 Spider-Man game by Neversoft. In that game, Venom legitimately thinks he's doing the right thing. He believes that Spider-Man stole technology from the Science Expo and needs to be punished for his crimes, so Venom's insane solution to this is to kidnap Spider-Man's wife and put her in a death trap to force him to come out and fight him. Because to Venom, this is a totally rational strategy that makes perfect sense.

The third way is that of the dark, evil mirror to Spider-Man. Peter stands as the ultimate symbol of responsibility, so this Venom stands as the ultimate symbol of irresponsibility. A person who can't take responsibility for their actions, instead choosing to blame their misfortunes on anyone and everything around them. The most obvious examples I can think of in mainstream media for this is Spider-Man 3's version of Venom. In that movie, he's a sleazy scumbag with no redeeming qualities, largely because this version's personality was primarily inspired by the Ultimate version of Venom who also fills this role. Both of these versions of Venom directly parallel Peter, being as scummy and self-serving as Peter is selfless and heroic. They also always have some sort of childhood connection, like in the Ultimate universe where their parents were friends and scientists together, those same people actually CREATING the symbiote in that universe. So it hits even harder when Venom says "our fathers died to create me" because you know the emotional weight behind that.

Ideally, a good interpretation of Venom should be able to be a mixture of all three of these. A psychotic stalker born out of an inability to take responsibility for his failures, but one with a twisted sense of honor and humanity that leaves the door open for a redemption down the line.

Now you might have noticed that I didn't mention the fourth way, and that's because the fourth way you can interpret Venom is the evil goo monster angle. Some evil goo fell on the host and he became an evil goo monster. That's all that is. I think you can see how uninteresting that sounds, and I want you to guess which one this game goes with.

I've gone through all of this without ONCE mentioning Eddie Brock, who in the comics is not only the host of Venom but IS Venom. I'm so tired of people thinking Venom is just the goo and the host doesn't matter, like the Tom Hardy movies. Venom is the combination of Eddie Brock and the symbiote, there's no going around it. When Peter's wearing the symbiote, we don't call him Venom, so why should we call anyone BUT Eddie Venom? I'm not one of those crybabies who hate that it's not Eddie in the game, but if you're not gonna have the most iconic host for the symbiote then at least make the substitute half as good! Regardless of all that, the reason I haven't mentioned Eddie until now is that I wanted to show that, funnily enough, it isn't really about him specifically. When it comes to Venom, any character could be a good Venom if given the proper setup to genuinely take on the role and challenge Peter. It's just that Eddie already has the motivation, backstory and personality to create Venom, since he is the original version of the character. The inherent problem with removing Eddie Brock from the symbote equation is that the version of Venom you end up with is nearly always going to be the fourth way you can interpret it, it being the evil goo.

Now, to be fair, there are versions of Venom that keep Eddie Brock and still fall into this category, I'm not saying that Eddie is an inherently better choice and that no other option is possible. But what I'm saying is that replacing the symbiote host with someone else requires a lot more narrative and character justification to make up for what is lost. It's this extra work that this game's version of Venom doesn't even bother to do, and that's because it takes cues from other interpretations without understanding them.

Insomniac's version of Venom is not an original creation. Venom being a childhood friend of Peter's is taken from the Ultimate comics, Venom being Harry is specifically taken from the Ultimate cartoon (OF ALL PLACES), Harry being sick, as I already mentioned, was already done in The Amazing Spider-Man 2, and Venom initiating a symbiote takeover of New York was already done in Web of Shadows. Everything done with Venom here has already been done before somewhere else and, arguably, better. So while this take may be new in the sense that it's a new combination of previously existing ideas, it is not inherently a new take. And when it comes to new interpretations, I'm actually quite open to them. That's why I think the symbiote, if anything, should have gone to Miles instead. It would have ACTUALLY been a new spin on the story and it would have allowed for new things to be done with Venom. For example, in the comics, the symbiote copied Peter's powers. I'm not sure why every single interpretation ever glosses over this, but the only reason Venom can do what he does is because he copied Peter's powers. So they could have taken this a step further and have Venom absorb Miles' invisibility (although in the comics, the symbiote can turn invisible) and venom powers, maybe even taking its name from THOSE venom powers. Sidenote, how come no one ever comments on that? Like, no one ever even makes a small joke about Venom and Miles' venom powers, that's weird.

Anyway, that would have been at least something new and different, something that would have made the "evil goo hurr durr" angle at least tolerable. But instead, we get this black turd with no real motivation other than wanting to take over the world. And I know a lot of people get upset whenever you dismiss this version of Venom as a mindless monster hellbent on taking over the world, but that's just what it is. A lot of people argue that Harry is the one with control over Venom, with his worldview being warped by the symbiote and NOT the symbiote simply puppeting Harry around for its own needs. So let's discuss this, because it's actually pretty funny. Harry is NOT in control. There are two main pieces of evidence to support my claim, the first being that we can see exactly when Harry is in control and when he's not. When Venom first forms at Oscorp, he's completely non-verbal until the arrival of Kraven. If Harry was the one in control there, then wouldn't he be speaking instead of behaving like a mindless animal? Once Kraven shows up, Venom starts to talk to him and the subtitles credit him as Harry, so I think that Harry's brain at this point starts to wake up, becoming fully aware once he kills Kraven. Harry is the dominant personality from this point up to the confrontation with MJ at May's house. That's where Venom gets his name (which is never explained, at least make him say the classic "we are like poison to you, Peter... That's why we call ourselves Venom!" or something) and we don't see Harry again until the finale. So I think that once Venom names himself, Harry is completely gone and the symbiote becomes the dominant confrolling force. The second piece of evidence is that during the finale, when the symbiote is peeled back to show Harry's face, the emotion Harry expresses is... Confusion? He has no idea what's going on and it's clear he hasn't been in control for a while. Like I said, the symbiote's been at the wheel since his encounter with MJ and once he's freed up, Harry starts protesting against the symbiote's actions. What more do you want to show that Harry isn't in control?

The most obvious counterpoint to my argument is that Venom speaks as if he is Harry. He reminisces about his time with Peter in high school, he goes out of his way to try and get Peter on his side and expresses anger at his father for not accepting him (which again, it's so confusing because Norman has literally given everything he possibly could to Harry and clearly loves him no matter what). So if that's the symbiote in control, then why would it care about any of this? At this point, my theory is that the symbiote is more like a parastic body snatcher, if you get what I mean. It aims to fully replace its host using its host's memories and personality as a base for its existence. So Venom does all these things because it's accessing Harry's memories and trying to become him. But that's not the truth at all. The truth is that this is simply bad writing. Insomniac were unsure of whether they wanted the symbiote to be evil mind-controlling goo with its own agende or if Harry should have actual reasons to be angry at Peter and his father, therefore turning to the symbiote. Unsure of what direction to go in, and probably scared of making Harry have some sort of edge or personality, they just went with both and the end result is a mess.

In the end, the story is rushed and there's no way around it. You, as a creative director, cannot say that "we didn't add the black suit in the first game because we felt it deserved its own story" when THIS is the story they had in mind. The pacing is all over the place, there are many unexplained plot points (like the meteorite which just randomly pops up to serve as Chekov's Gun) and the characterization is non-existent and almost insulting. It's absolutely insane to me that this Peter has gone from one of my favorite adaptations of the character EVER, to probably one of the worst, up (or rather, down) there with the Ultimate and 2017 shows. The symbiote arc lasts for a few days when it should be at the very least a week or two, and that makes it jarring because everyone acts like it's been months since it happened. Peter becomes corrupt way too easily and way too fast, and then he's all like "well sorry guys" and everything is magically okay, because there is nothing he should apologize for. He has no dark side, and that makes him boring.

The writing is not nearly as good as the first game. Hell, I can't remember any quips other than the "fresh out of honey" one, and I could name half of the ones in the first game by heart! I think that comes down to the fact that Insomniac had to prove themselves to the public by making the very best Spider-Man game they could, so they worked their asses off and made the first one with love and care and understanding of the character. But this game just feels like a generic AAA superhero game that is made with the mission statement of making the most money possible. I swear, there has to be some sort of Halo Infinite horror story behind the production of this fucking thing because there is no way the budget was this high and yet it's so buggy, lackluster and story-less. I mean it, we really REALLY need comic book writers back in the writing room for videogames because what the fuck is going on. First Arkham Knight, then this, then Suicide Squad. It's clear that whoever is writing just aims to make the most generically enjoyable story possible, and that makes all of the characters feel like cardboard cutouts. They are all super basic and there is very little development except for Peter and Miles dealing with grief. Woohoo, MJ is now a... Podcast host? Great development, take five everyone. Miles has the best arc in the game and yet, he was left off to the wayside a lot.

Another thing that bothers me is that the power levels are off the charts. Kraven can kill almost all of the Sinister Six, one shots FUCKING SPIDER-MAN, gets beaten by symbiote Spidey, and then Miles beats Peter. So does that mean that Miles is stronger than all of them? I mean, he is the one who beats Venom in the end fight (which THANK GOD we couldn't fight Harry as Peter, cause that would have been too emotional and made too much sense) so what's the deal here?

And then, as the cherry on top and the sole reason why I went back and re-reviewed this game after 6 months, the latest update. With the latest update, Insomniac added features that people were clamoring for. New Game Plus, replayable missions and bases, changing time of day, changing tendril colors, two... Just two? Okay-- Two new suits. And that's it. So in 6 months, we got about a quarter of the features we were asking for, and not only that but we got features that were already in the last game by DEFAULT. Miles Morales shipped with literally all of that. New Game Plus, replayable missions and bases and changing time of day were all in the Miles Morales base game. It's clear that the developers were rushed and while I can really excuse and understand that, because it sucks that publishers force developers to release unfinished games just to meet deadlines... I also think the core issues with the game go beyond the concept of time constraints. They had five fucking years to make this game be their magnum opus and yet, what we get is something that is technically marvelous but deep as a puddle.

And sure, the average Joe who buys the game won't care about all of these nerd ramblings and will be content with the game because he recognizes Venom from the cartoons and thinks he's super cool. He will be happy that the game is the equivalent of a Fast and Furious movie because that's what the average Joe likes. But even if the original game was a bit on that side as well, it made up for it with how much heart and love for the character you could feel. You could genuinely tell that Insomniac wanted to make die-hard Spider-Man fans happy and they had managed to. But sadly, they had to bend over and accept that to make more money, they had to make a game that would appeal to a bigger audience. And that meant giving up on any sort of depth and just making cool set pieces so wanna-be Spider-Man fans would go "WOOHOO THIS IS THE GREATEST GAME EVER" without even knowing the character. I realize how gatekeep-y I sound right now but I don't care, it's fucking criminal that Insomniac can get away with it and nobody bats an eye. If a book was adapted into a movie and wasn't faithful at all, everyone would go nuts and get super angry and boycott the creators, and yet when that happens with a comic book, no one cares. It's a sad truth that we have to live with. Comic book media is, depressingly, not made to appeal to us comic fans. They're made to appeal to people who would bully others who read comic books in high school.

So in the end, as much as it truly pains me to say it, once the honeymoon phase is over, the new coat of paint wears off and it's clear that we're just playing another Spider-Man game, when this could have been THE Spider-Man game. This game is inferior to the first one in almost everything except the graphics and traversal. It breaks my heart because I was repping this game all the way until release and yet, it's clear it was rushed and didn't have the same passion behind it as the first one. It was just a corporate mandated AI-written shlock of cool scenes and action moments. If you're a Spider-Man fan, you will like or maybe even love this game. But if you're THE Spider-Man fan, you will be heartbroken beyond belief. And as I said, I stand by my 10/10 personal rating because my favorite past time is listening to music while getting my thoughts together and swinging through NY. And this game gives me that in every way, and I love it. But I can't in good faith recommend this game for anything more than its gameplay. And that just makes me sad.

I have serious doubt that Insomniac will nail the third one, but I'm an idiot so I will buy it regardless. Here's hoping that in five years, I can come back to this review and tell myself I was wrong. But until then, this is how it is. A Spider-Man game, who dared to be great... And failed.

Superman and Batman are my favorite superheroes, other than Spider-Man. I have read hundreds of comics with them, fallen in love with them. I replay the Arkham games yearly. I've rewatched the Justice League shows more times than I can count. I love these characters to death.

Anyway, in this game fucking Boomerang almost pisses on Flash after shooting him in the head.

Rocksteady, go fuck yourself.