This review contains spoilers
first off: i platted this game in 29 hours, on October 31st. its been an arduous few days since then irl, combined with how i beat the story on the 24th, my thoughts aren't as fresh as they couldve been. i may forget things i wanted to talk about initially.
how the HELL did this game get away with a T rating? if this is age appropriate insomniac, what kinda dark shit are they cooking for wolverine???????
so Spidey 2018 is one of my favorite games ever, ive always loved spider-man as a character , and as i reconfirmed in my replay of the base game + dlc and miles earlier, i still love those games. theyre emotional stories with great themes, backed up by a fun arkham inspired combat system and a fun traversal system. i was hyped af as a 14 year old agenda for the first game, i remember playing it so many times. you can read my other insomniac spiderman reviews for more on my experiences, since this is for the sequel. this game improves upon every single aspect of the first, its insane.
lets start with the stealth missions. MJ says shes not made of glass in the first game after pete flees with her from the sable base. the funny part of that is she definitely is made of glass in that game... in SM2 she plays like a stealth oriented 3rd person shooter, shes a total badass who can dodge, sprint, shoot, and taze. i love how they made Sable the one who taught her these skills, adds another layer of worldbuilding.
ive never had a problem with the traversal in 2018 besides a bit of clunkiness and how autopilotv it was, but it made you feel like someone who was spider-man for 8 years 9 times outta 10, so i didn't care. they introduced a slider to the physics/handholdiness of it, which is great for those who didnt like it. i eased up on the slider at like 6 or 8, i cant remember, but i wasn't really feeling the skill ceiling of 0 assist. the option's still there for those that want it.
another thing i disliked about the first game was how half it's gadgets felt useless, here theyve completely revamped the gadgets system, all 4 have massive combo potential with the other new addition, these 4 unique moves for each spider-man. these are a ton of fun and aren't too hard to charge up, peter has the symbiote/anti-venom abilities and the iron spider arms, both are satisfying to use. the combat for pete has defenitely switched closer towards miles' style, where theres a larger focus on brawls and combos rather than tactical uses of gadgets, but these abilities swapped the spider-men's playstyles enough with these 4 abilities for me to care about to care about them being slightly homogenized. i do have one negative with this homogenization, though. but ill save that for the negatives section. [author's note, i do not remember what this negative was. writing this review over 2 weeks'll do that to ya]miles, on the other hand has these blue electricity attacks now, because of his relation to martin li. keeping with the use of his venom attacks from his game, theyre a lot more crowd control focused.
i played on spectacular difficulty and found it really easy still, though it was fun as fuck regardless, still one of my favorite combat systems, it's so much fun to play with enemies as if theyre toys.
they let you play as venom in this game, that's sick as fuck, especially seeing harry bite off kraven's head at the end, you know what you're dealing with at that point, that level was basically fucking horror, the symbiote in general is total nightmare fuel. its fucking disgusting seeing it's tendrils and the nasty texture it has, the way it slowly drives the host insane... the mj mission where you run from peter is peak.
i think now's a good time to talk about the bosses. all of them are peak. theyre actually hard now and have unique attack patterns and strategies, like how symbiote bosses revolve around finding objects that produce loud noises to weaken them. despite the combat being too easy on Spectacular difficulty, the bosses were honestly really challenging, took me a good few tries on all of them. my favorite is definitely peter vs miles, it's such a great moment...
which leads me to the story. peak. if i had to answer what the first game's main theme is, id probably say trust and betrayal. throughout the story of SM1 peter gets betrayed over and over, again by those he trusts most, but even so there's an undercurrent of trust. miles trusts peter with his secret of spider powers, MJ trusts pete enough to give him another shot, aunt may trusts peter to make the right choice with the cure. pete even has to trust doc ock with his identity. in sm2 there's a running theme of escapism throughout. miles escapes from his student duties by being spider-man, harry escapes from his illness with the symbiote, norman blames spider-man for harry's coma, escaping from the truth. and most of all, there's peter at the center of this narritive of escapism. he fucking dies, and the symbiote chooses him. he's literally escaping his fate, for one, but the symbiote changes him, he believes he can escape the trauma that comes with being spider-man with the symbiote, he can save everyone, be everything to everyone, he could have saved May. it's such a good narrative element that just climbs to a crescendo with the peter vs miles fight, miles has a reason to be the one to stop pete, he was running away from how he felt about Li for the longest time. speaking of Li, his relationship with miles is peak. i love how they developed him into a man broken by his actions, and make miles question what the best route is, if he deserves a second chance or not. Kraven is also a fantastic villain, im glad that he was THE main villain for most of the story, it makes the game better paced compared to it's predecessor since it's only juggling 2 villains. his insane worldview is really fleshed out, im really pleased how he was revealed to be a dying man who can't grapple with his diagnoses because of his upbringing. venom is also really well developed, since even tho you dont see venom venom for most of the game you see the mindset harry is forced to take as well as how the symbiote works, subconsciously building the personality of what will become venom. i love the development that mj and pete have throughout her scream fight, it's really well developed. the ending where pete takes a break from being spider-man is really deserved, it's honestly kinda sad that people are getting pissed about it, like dude miles is pretty well developed by now, not only that but being spider-man is such a curse, why can't you let pete be happy? the post-credits set up a lot and im excited to see where the trilogy ends!
as for negatives, i dislike how the web gadgets are homogenized between the spider men and i hate the new faces. the side content often felt really undercooked, tbh. there were great quests like The Flame, which had a B-plot type vibe to it, similar to Turf Wars in the dlc of 2018. that quest introduces Carnage and what happened to Yuri, so i think it would've been better to either integrate it into the main story, or have it be chapter xyz of the inevitable dlc, which i probably'll play on launch. none of the side content compares to those quests lol, it really feels like cut main story content that's imperative to the narrative theyre gonna tell in the future. hey i just rhymed haha. anyway, other standouts include the Howard and Grandpa quests, theyre pretty emotionally rewarding, esp the Howard one. the flashback bugle mission is really cool, too.
Marko's memories are busywork 100 percent, not even hard but i loved the story they provided, it's nice to see so many humanized versions of these villains. the spiderverse sidequest was cool but using a guide to get a collectible that doesnt show up on my map was less than fun. i didn't like much of the other side content, the target drones had a semi cool payoff but i was listening to music because the act of getting to that payoff was fucking boring, so when i got to Chamelon or whoever I ain't pay attention lol. the blinds/bases are fucking mehhh... i was really excited for the boss rush they were hyping up with the rest of Kraven's family, that'd actually be a nice reward to doing the bases that are less fun than 2018. but no, you just get an audio call about how theyre dead. there's also less bases than in 2018+ dlc. the symbiote nests are frankly awesome endgame content, actually difficult when i rarely had otherwise(we will get to this). so yeah, side content gets a 6.5/10.
i know tons of people love suits in spider-man games but man i dont give a fuck about them, honestly. i love the advanced suit(i always prefer the canon outfit in games) but the look of the advanced suit outmaches any of the other suits in the game. there's a lot of selection if you like that, though. lots of people trashing Miles' new suit, I don't think it looks that bad, it doesn't blend well with the world but it's unique and it's his. i still prefer the base suit he had, and kinda hope The End suit would be his canon suit going forward, shit's cool af(ironic i know after i say suit selection doesn't matter). on a tangentially related note, there's no fucking way the identities of the spider-men couldn't be figured out. Peter's always taking his mask off and Miles' evolved suit shows off his hair. lol
also some of you calling those sidequests woke... it's not the best representation and kinda feels hamfisted most of the time but if that ruins the masterpiece of a story for you, i think you have more important problems to deal with.
i know that's a huge amount of negatives, but in my heart of hearts i can't give this anything but a 10. it's the perfect follow up story-wise, even more emotionally gripping and even if the gameplay isn't challenging, it's a ton of fun to plow through enemies. i love this game, i loved my time spent with it, what more could i ask for?
also, i have no other place to put this but the aesthetics of this game are beautiful, new york in 60fps is so fucking cool, not to mention the Venomscape that nyc looks like in the last few hours. the game crashed relatively few times, as well. i did get spider cube tho, epicsauce. i wouldn't mind a martin li spinoff game that goes over his internal conflict. but i know that wouldn't happen.
how the HELL did this game get away with a T rating? if this is age appropriate insomniac, what kinda dark shit are they cooking for wolverine???????
so Spidey 2018 is one of my favorite games ever, ive always loved spider-man as a character , and as i reconfirmed in my replay of the base game + dlc and miles earlier, i still love those games. theyre emotional stories with great themes, backed up by a fun arkham inspired combat system and a fun traversal system. i was hyped af as a 14 year old agenda for the first game, i remember playing it so many times. you can read my other insomniac spiderman reviews for more on my experiences, since this is for the sequel. this game improves upon every single aspect of the first, its insane.
lets start with the stealth missions. MJ says shes not made of glass in the first game after pete flees with her from the sable base. the funny part of that is she definitely is made of glass in that game... in SM2 she plays like a stealth oriented 3rd person shooter, shes a total badass who can dodge, sprint, shoot, and taze. i love how they made Sable the one who taught her these skills, adds another layer of worldbuilding.
ive never had a problem with the traversal in 2018 besides a bit of clunkiness and how autopilotv it was, but it made you feel like someone who was spider-man for 8 years 9 times outta 10, so i didn't care. they introduced a slider to the physics/handholdiness of it, which is great for those who didnt like it. i eased up on the slider at like 6 or 8, i cant remember, but i wasn't really feeling the skill ceiling of 0 assist. the option's still there for those that want it.
another thing i disliked about the first game was how half it's gadgets felt useless, here theyve completely revamped the gadgets system, all 4 have massive combo potential with the other new addition, these 4 unique moves for each spider-man. these are a ton of fun and aren't too hard to charge up, peter has the symbiote/anti-venom abilities and the iron spider arms, both are satisfying to use. the combat for pete has defenitely switched closer towards miles' style, where theres a larger focus on brawls and combos rather than tactical uses of gadgets, but these abilities swapped the spider-men's playstyles enough with these 4 abilities for me to care about to care about them being slightly homogenized. i do have one negative with this homogenization, though. but ill save that for the negatives section. [author's note, i do not remember what this negative was. writing this review over 2 weeks'll do that to ya]miles, on the other hand has these blue electricity attacks now, because of his relation to martin li. keeping with the use of his venom attacks from his game, theyre a lot more crowd control focused.
i played on spectacular difficulty and found it really easy still, though it was fun as fuck regardless, still one of my favorite combat systems, it's so much fun to play with enemies as if theyre toys.
they let you play as venom in this game, that's sick as fuck, especially seeing harry bite off kraven's head at the end, you know what you're dealing with at that point, that level was basically fucking horror, the symbiote in general is total nightmare fuel. its fucking disgusting seeing it's tendrils and the nasty texture it has, the way it slowly drives the host insane... the mj mission where you run from peter is peak.
i think now's a good time to talk about the bosses. all of them are peak. theyre actually hard now and have unique attack patterns and strategies, like how symbiote bosses revolve around finding objects that produce loud noises to weaken them. despite the combat being too easy on Spectacular difficulty, the bosses were honestly really challenging, took me a good few tries on all of them. my favorite is definitely peter vs miles, it's such a great moment...
which leads me to the story. peak. if i had to answer what the first game's main theme is, id probably say trust and betrayal. throughout the story of SM1 peter gets betrayed over and over, again by those he trusts most, but even so there's an undercurrent of trust. miles trusts peter with his secret of spider powers, MJ trusts pete enough to give him another shot, aunt may trusts peter to make the right choice with the cure. pete even has to trust doc ock with his identity. in sm2 there's a running theme of escapism throughout. miles escapes from his student duties by being spider-man, harry escapes from his illness with the symbiote, norman blames spider-man for harry's coma, escaping from the truth. and most of all, there's peter at the center of this narritive of escapism. he fucking dies, and the symbiote chooses him. he's literally escaping his fate, for one, but the symbiote changes him, he believes he can escape the trauma that comes with being spider-man with the symbiote, he can save everyone, be everything to everyone, he could have saved May. it's such a good narrative element that just climbs to a crescendo with the peter vs miles fight, miles has a reason to be the one to stop pete, he was running away from how he felt about Li for the longest time. speaking of Li, his relationship with miles is peak. i love how they developed him into a man broken by his actions, and make miles question what the best route is, if he deserves a second chance or not. Kraven is also a fantastic villain, im glad that he was THE main villain for most of the story, it makes the game better paced compared to it's predecessor since it's only juggling 2 villains. his insane worldview is really fleshed out, im really pleased how he was revealed to be a dying man who can't grapple with his diagnoses because of his upbringing. venom is also really well developed, since even tho you dont see venom venom for most of the game you see the mindset harry is forced to take as well as how the symbiote works, subconsciously building the personality of what will become venom. i love the development that mj and pete have throughout her scream fight, it's really well developed. the ending where pete takes a break from being spider-man is really deserved, it's honestly kinda sad that people are getting pissed about it, like dude miles is pretty well developed by now, not only that but being spider-man is such a curse, why can't you let pete be happy? the post-credits set up a lot and im excited to see where the trilogy ends!
as for negatives, i dislike how the web gadgets are homogenized between the spider men and i hate the new faces. the side content often felt really undercooked, tbh. there were great quests like The Flame, which had a B-plot type vibe to it, similar to Turf Wars in the dlc of 2018. that quest introduces Carnage and what happened to Yuri, so i think it would've been better to either integrate it into the main story, or have it be chapter xyz of the inevitable dlc, which i probably'll play on launch. none of the side content compares to those quests lol, it really feels like cut main story content that's imperative to the narrative theyre gonna tell in the future. hey i just rhymed haha. anyway, other standouts include the Howard and Grandpa quests, theyre pretty emotionally rewarding, esp the Howard one. the flashback bugle mission is really cool, too.
Marko's memories are busywork 100 percent, not even hard but i loved the story they provided, it's nice to see so many humanized versions of these villains. the spiderverse sidequest was cool but using a guide to get a collectible that doesnt show up on my map was less than fun. i didn't like much of the other side content, the target drones had a semi cool payoff but i was listening to music because the act of getting to that payoff was fucking boring, so when i got to Chamelon or whoever I ain't pay attention lol. the blinds/bases are fucking mehhh... i was really excited for the boss rush they were hyping up with the rest of Kraven's family, that'd actually be a nice reward to doing the bases that are less fun than 2018. but no, you just get an audio call about how theyre dead. there's also less bases than in 2018+ dlc. the symbiote nests are frankly awesome endgame content, actually difficult when i rarely had otherwise(we will get to this). so yeah, side content gets a 6.5/10.
i know tons of people love suits in spider-man games but man i dont give a fuck about them, honestly. i love the advanced suit(i always prefer the canon outfit in games) but the look of the advanced suit outmaches any of the other suits in the game. there's a lot of selection if you like that, though. lots of people trashing Miles' new suit, I don't think it looks that bad, it doesn't blend well with the world but it's unique and it's his. i still prefer the base suit he had, and kinda hope The End suit would be his canon suit going forward, shit's cool af(ironic i know after i say suit selection doesn't matter). on a tangentially related note, there's no fucking way the identities of the spider-men couldn't be figured out. Peter's always taking his mask off and Miles' evolved suit shows off his hair. lol
also some of you calling those sidequests woke... it's not the best representation and kinda feels hamfisted most of the time but if that ruins the masterpiece of a story for you, i think you have more important problems to deal with.
i know that's a huge amount of negatives, but in my heart of hearts i can't give this anything but a 10. it's the perfect follow up story-wise, even more emotionally gripping and even if the gameplay isn't challenging, it's a ton of fun to plow through enemies. i love this game, i loved my time spent with it, what more could i ask for?
also, i have no other place to put this but the aesthetics of this game are beautiful, new york in 60fps is so fucking cool, not to mention the Venomscape that nyc looks like in the last few hours. the game crashed relatively few times, as well. i did get spider cube tho, epicsauce. i wouldn't mind a martin li spinoff game that goes over his internal conflict. but i know that wouldn't happen.