Marvel’s Spider-Man allows you to take control of Spider-Man as he tries to keep New York CIty safe. The game starts with Spider-Man helping the police arrest Fisk in a well constructed, action packed tutorial sequence. You would think that taking down the biggest crime lord in New York would give Spicer-Man a break but it quickly turns out to be the catalyst that would see New York under siege from several well known enemies from Spider-Man’s past. Overall, I really enjoyed the main story. It felt like it would make a great story arc in a Spider-Man comic and is also able to maintain a great balance between keeping the story accessible to newcomers to the Spider-Man universe and paying a little fan service, with cameos, to long-time Spider-Man fans.
The main story is only a small part of the game. Marvel’s Spider-Man has a lot of side quests, activities and collectibles for you to get sidetracked with. Initially, the side quests and optional activities are quite varied, such as a mixture of fighting criminals and using your gadgets to support the research stations. However, once you get about half way through the game, you start to see a bit of repetition in these tasks. For example, you will start the game being able to uncover Fisk’s hideouts. There aren’t that many on the map and is easily doable in the first act of the game. So, you clear them and move on to the second act, which reveals another factions' hideouts, which have to be dealt with in the same way as the Fisk hideouts. This happens three times throughout the game with just the hideouts alone- same thing just cosmetically different looking enemies. I personally would have preferred either fewer side activities with more variety in the tasks. That being said this is only a small negative, as these are all optional activities and there were plenty of tasks that I really enjoyed, like exploring New York city in order to take pictures of famous landmarks.
Speaking of exploring the city, let’s talk about the mechanics. Web swinging is easily one of the best aspects of the game and Insomniac Games should be praised for how well they implemented it. I found myself just enjoying building up my swing speed and performing aerial acrobatics through Hell’s Kitchen. The other mechanic that I felt was well implemented was the spidey sense. It is very similar to the combat mechanic in the Batman Arkham games but it still feels like it fits into a Spider-Man game. I also like the implementation of suit powers and gadgets, which allow you to play Marvel’s Spider-Man the way you want to play.
The final two elements of the game I want to talk about are the setting and the music. Insomniac Games have done a great job in creating a city that feels like a city. As you swing by on your way to your next crime scene, you will hear the citizens of New York yell out to you, car horns and subway trains. You will experience the city through different times of the day and in all weathers- all of this just helps to immerse you into the world of Spider-Man. I also like the fact that Insomniac Games avoided the temptation of making this a huge sprawling open world game. Yes, New York city is big but you can still web swing from one end of the city to the other in a reasonable amount of time. The final thing I want to briefly mention is the music. John Paesano has done an incredible job with Marvel’s Spider-Man’s musical score. It fits so well and gives the game an epic cinematic feel. I love the soundtrack so much that I have saved it on Spotify so I can listen to whilst writing these game reviews.
I think it is pretty clear that I thoroughly enjoyed my time with Marvel’s Spider-Man. It is clear that Insomniac Games had spent a lot of time and care in creating a game that feels like it is part of the Spider-Man universe, rather than a game that has Spider-Man in it. Some of the quests do feel a little repetitive but that is a small part of the experience and did not detract from my experience. Overall, I highly recommend Marvel’s Spider-Man, especially of you are looking for a game to play on your PS4.
The main story is only a small part of the game. Marvel’s Spider-Man has a lot of side quests, activities and collectibles for you to get sidetracked with. Initially, the side quests and optional activities are quite varied, such as a mixture of fighting criminals and using your gadgets to support the research stations. However, once you get about half way through the game, you start to see a bit of repetition in these tasks. For example, you will start the game being able to uncover Fisk’s hideouts. There aren’t that many on the map and is easily doable in the first act of the game. So, you clear them and move on to the second act, which reveals another factions' hideouts, which have to be dealt with in the same way as the Fisk hideouts. This happens three times throughout the game with just the hideouts alone- same thing just cosmetically different looking enemies. I personally would have preferred either fewer side activities with more variety in the tasks. That being said this is only a small negative, as these are all optional activities and there were plenty of tasks that I really enjoyed, like exploring New York city in order to take pictures of famous landmarks.
Speaking of exploring the city, let’s talk about the mechanics. Web swinging is easily one of the best aspects of the game and Insomniac Games should be praised for how well they implemented it. I found myself just enjoying building up my swing speed and performing aerial acrobatics through Hell’s Kitchen. The other mechanic that I felt was well implemented was the spidey sense. It is very similar to the combat mechanic in the Batman Arkham games but it still feels like it fits into a Spider-Man game. I also like the implementation of suit powers and gadgets, which allow you to play Marvel’s Spider-Man the way you want to play.
The final two elements of the game I want to talk about are the setting and the music. Insomniac Games have done a great job in creating a city that feels like a city. As you swing by on your way to your next crime scene, you will hear the citizens of New York yell out to you, car horns and subway trains. You will experience the city through different times of the day and in all weathers- all of this just helps to immerse you into the world of Spider-Man. I also like the fact that Insomniac Games avoided the temptation of making this a huge sprawling open world game. Yes, New York city is big but you can still web swing from one end of the city to the other in a reasonable amount of time. The final thing I want to briefly mention is the music. John Paesano has done an incredible job with Marvel’s Spider-Man’s musical score. It fits so well and gives the game an epic cinematic feel. I love the soundtrack so much that I have saved it on Spotify so I can listen to whilst writing these game reviews.
I think it is pretty clear that I thoroughly enjoyed my time with Marvel’s Spider-Man. It is clear that Insomniac Games had spent a lot of time and care in creating a game that feels like it is part of the Spider-Man universe, rather than a game that has Spider-Man in it. Some of the quests do feel a little repetitive but that is a small part of the experience and did not detract from my experience. Overall, I highly recommend Marvel’s Spider-Man, especially of you are looking for a game to play on your PS4.