This review contains spoilers
ive been on a hot streak recently(not counting midcode which has been dropped for the forseeable future lol).
been itching to play this game and dlc + miles again for a while, only compounded by spiderverse. sadly i dont have a ps5 so spiderman 2 will need to wait a while, but anyway.
5 or so years ago when this game came out i played it religiously, this is either my 5th or 6th full playthrough of the game. two of those were on the hardest difficulty, and i also 100%ed the game on two different occasions. i hadnt played the game since december 2019 but it still felt fresh in my head, remembering all the setpieces, predicting dialogue that ive heard many times before. all very nostalgic.
this playthrough was played on hard, and i died very few times. i struggle to say that the game is too easy, considering my history with it and how i have at least 80 hours with this combat already(not counting miles which adds another 20 to total...) but even with it being "easy" for me, the gameplay loop is way too fun. i remember this was my favorite action combat system, and im glad to say it still holds up. the quick thinking, dodging, combos, finishers, webs, gadgets, it all comes together for this perfect flow of combat. you get lost in the swing of things(heh).
there are a lot of little nitpicks i have. major one being the bosses are underwhelming and dont play to the strengths of the combat system. it's just "web/throw thing at boss, go in for finisher." repeat 3 or 4 times. the doc ock boss ive never been a fan of, i always died to it a lot in the past, but here well it still pissed me off a bit i realized it was more of the same and the only reason i died back then was wanting it to be over. its a pretty big flaw when your player wants to skip one of the highlights of your game to get back to the fun part. as much as i love the combat it's kinda clunky in some areas, at least the auto lock on is. i found myself swing kicking to the wrong enemy(in some cases no enemy at all) because the soft lock on system was really fucky. speaking of swinging, as fun as it is, its really clunky. all you really do is hold r2 and because thats the only button for swinging you can easily get stuck on buildings or do the wrong animation unintentionally. it feels very auto pilot, and while i cant deny how slick the animations are and the overall flow, it does leave a bit to be desired. this game's version of miles pales to the spiderverse counterpart, and the miles' game story felt like it was trying to retread spidervere's success with a shittier miles but ill save all that until i replay miles lol.
miles and mj missions get harped on a lot but honestly they arent that bad. i found it fun to try and speedrun them, which probably wasn't the intended way to play them but it does add some spice to what would be boring pace killers. if you got the mj stun gun, hacking app and the lures for all of them theyd be a lot more fun probably.
as for the story, i really liked it. i was always a fan of it when i was younger, but being like, 13 or 14 i didnt pick up on why i liked it. ive always liked double life/vigilante shit, as a kid i didnt pick up on that stuff, i just thought spiderman was "cool". now that im older and have a grasp on why stuff connects with me i have a better idea of why i like this story. all spider man stories revolve around growing up and being the best version of yourself, doing the right thing because you can, even with superpowers you still have human struggles, swallowing your pride... i could go on and on but they resonate with me x10 nowadays beyond the cool factor of beating up bad guys. this game's story is no exception, and while some might not like it's simplistic/ "by the books" nature, i find it really good. it had a simple vision and it got all the parts of what makes a spider man story to work together, oozing with a bunch of passion.
yuri did a great job as spiderman and the advanced suit is probably my favorite spiderman suit. i touched on how great the animations and combat were already. the music swelling as you swing is a great touch, i love the game's main theme as well. the og face model is amazing, i def prefer it to the hollandized remaster model... it looks so much older and fits this game's peter way more.
i would say it doesnt reach the heights of either spiderverse movie, but comparing them feels wrong. they had different visions and succeeded in their own ways. i remember playing miles and thinking the story was mid, so im curious how the replay for that will go. first i gotta get through the dlc though.
im glad to say i liked the game as much as i did when i was a kid, maybe even more now that im older. a great spider man game and story.
been itching to play this game and dlc + miles again for a while, only compounded by spiderverse. sadly i dont have a ps5 so spiderman 2 will need to wait a while, but anyway.
5 or so years ago when this game came out i played it religiously, this is either my 5th or 6th full playthrough of the game. two of those were on the hardest difficulty, and i also 100%ed the game on two different occasions. i hadnt played the game since december 2019 but it still felt fresh in my head, remembering all the setpieces, predicting dialogue that ive heard many times before. all very nostalgic.
this playthrough was played on hard, and i died very few times. i struggle to say that the game is too easy, considering my history with it and how i have at least 80 hours with this combat already(not counting miles which adds another 20 to total...) but even with it being "easy" for me, the gameplay loop is way too fun. i remember this was my favorite action combat system, and im glad to say it still holds up. the quick thinking, dodging, combos, finishers, webs, gadgets, it all comes together for this perfect flow of combat. you get lost in the swing of things(heh).
there are a lot of little nitpicks i have. major one being the bosses are underwhelming and dont play to the strengths of the combat system. it's just "web/throw thing at boss, go in for finisher." repeat 3 or 4 times. the doc ock boss ive never been a fan of, i always died to it a lot in the past, but here well it still pissed me off a bit i realized it was more of the same and the only reason i died back then was wanting it to be over. its a pretty big flaw when your player wants to skip one of the highlights of your game to get back to the fun part. as much as i love the combat it's kinda clunky in some areas, at least the auto lock on is. i found myself swing kicking to the wrong enemy(in some cases no enemy at all) because the soft lock on system was really fucky. speaking of swinging, as fun as it is, its really clunky. all you really do is hold r2 and because thats the only button for swinging you can easily get stuck on buildings or do the wrong animation unintentionally. it feels very auto pilot, and while i cant deny how slick the animations are and the overall flow, it does leave a bit to be desired. this game's version of miles pales to the spiderverse counterpart, and the miles' game story felt like it was trying to retread spidervere's success with a shittier miles but ill save all that until i replay miles lol.
miles and mj missions get harped on a lot but honestly they arent that bad. i found it fun to try and speedrun them, which probably wasn't the intended way to play them but it does add some spice to what would be boring pace killers. if you got the mj stun gun, hacking app and the lures for all of them theyd be a lot more fun probably.
as for the story, i really liked it. i was always a fan of it when i was younger, but being like, 13 or 14 i didnt pick up on why i liked it. ive always liked double life/vigilante shit, as a kid i didnt pick up on that stuff, i just thought spiderman was "cool". now that im older and have a grasp on why stuff connects with me i have a better idea of why i like this story. all spider man stories revolve around growing up and being the best version of yourself, doing the right thing because you can, even with superpowers you still have human struggles, swallowing your pride... i could go on and on but they resonate with me x10 nowadays beyond the cool factor of beating up bad guys. this game's story is no exception, and while some might not like it's simplistic/ "by the books" nature, i find it really good. it had a simple vision and it got all the parts of what makes a spider man story to work together, oozing with a bunch of passion.
yuri did a great job as spiderman and the advanced suit is probably my favorite spiderman suit. i touched on how great the animations and combat were already. the music swelling as you swing is a great touch, i love the game's main theme as well. the og face model is amazing, i def prefer it to the hollandized remaster model... it looks so much older and fits this game's peter way more.
i would say it doesnt reach the heights of either spiderverse movie, but comparing them feels wrong. they had different visions and succeeded in their own ways. i remember playing miles and thinking the story was mid, so im curious how the replay for that will go. first i gotta get through the dlc though.
im glad to say i liked the game as much as i did when i was a kid, maybe even more now that im older. a great spider man game and story.
NOWITSREYNTIME17
9 months ago