Foreword:

I’m back. I promised I’d return, and with that I promised I’d return with a review of a much newer game. I hope everyone had a wonderful (and late) Christmas and new year, and I hope that you all enjoy this review. I admit it’s odd for me to review the older game in a series and work backwards but I feel as though it’ll be much easier for me in this case. I hope you have a wonderful evening and I hope you enjoy my first review of the year. And now back to the review.

Intro:

So sandman was the reason New York had an orange sky back in June, that makes so much sense now.

Contrary to popular belief: I like superheroes. I’m not the expert on them nor am I gonna act like I am but I think I know a decent amount about them. And what’s one superhero series I like? Well it would have to be sp- fantastic four. I adore the fantastic four but Spider-Man is a close second, and it also happens to be the more popular of the two. Spider-man, the series about some random teenager called Peter Parker who gets bitten by a radioactive spider and then turns into Scott the woz…with superpowers. In terms of spider-man games, they’ve never really…been that brilliant. That was until insomniac came into the picture. But we can talk about the original later. Just the original. Just the original game on the PS4.

Story:

Alright so where are we. I’m not gonna go too in depth but to summarise, Harry Osborne, remember him? Yeah neither do we, is now finally out of treatment for his disease and can now see Peter again. What a romance! Harry sets up a foundation for them where they can help people and find a cure for everyone. But uhh then the 19 inches of venom come in and uhh…anyway what’s going on with miles?

Just an fyi: if there’s one complaint I have it’s probably miles’ side to the story. It’s not that interesting. It can be summed up with: it happened. Most of the ‘plot points’ are just set ups for side missions which I’ll get into later. But essentially he learns that revenge isn’t a great thing to seek and he ends up kinda making up with Martin li from the last game. Honestly that’s his whole story and it doesn’t interest me that much.

Back to Peter, the 19 inches of venom end up affecting him and kraven ends up believing that venom (or venom attacked to Peter) is his ‘final hunt’. Though eventually miles gets it off of him. But then it ends up joining with Harry again and uhh. Yeah them 19 inches go crazy. So then Peter and miles have to track him down and stop his mini inches from ‘curing’ New York. And that’s spider-man 2 In pretty much 2 minutes.

Combat:

Damn they really upped the combat here, huh? It’s pretty much kinda the same as the last few games, though Peter and miles have some cool new moves they can try out.

Peters symbiote abilities are really cool but they do not beat miles’s new abilities. They mainly come from li as that is one of miles’s big plot points yet the moves are actually pretty interesting and feel like a much needed breath of fresh air from his standalone game’s abilities (and they also make a return!) overall the gameplay isn’t changed too much but is a pretty cool step up.

Gameplay in general:

Swinging is back and is as great as ever and now we have a new thing to manoeuvre around New York with: the wingsuit. You know when people ask can pigs fly? What about spiders? Cause that’s just the thing I want to see happen when I try to get into bed and see a spider fly over me. I mean it’s definitely a new way of getting around New York and it helps in some areas.

How could I forget the side quests? These are definitely some of the best and worst parts of the game for me. The flame cultist side quest is actually really interesting, though it left me on a MAJOR cliffhanger. Which I won’t spoil for people but geez. I hope it does manifest into some form of dlc. The whole jazz side quest is ok as well. I only know miles davis so uhh, most of this unfortunately went over my head. The Brooklyn visions side quest is pretty dull but you get a nice suit. Don’t even talk to me about the spider bots side quest.

Before I bore you with more of that I’m gonna be real: all this stuff sort of happened. None of the side quests were really that interesting and most of the time kind of blew over my head. Not to say they were bad or anything, just not that interesting.

Characters:

“That’s like getting a shotgun for a haircut”

I really did want to like the characters in this game, and they aren’t necessarily that bad. I mean considering I gave the game 4 stars, I certainly didn’t find them insufferable. There were a good cast of characters and it’s best I get them out of the way first.

Kraven was a really good villain. Like if there was a way of giving me a really good first villain for the second game it’s kraven. He was hyped up well by insomniac as well and I found him to be a really interesting character. Whether he beats out li is another matter but I still really enjoyed what he did and what he signified in the game.

Speaking of whom, I quite liked li in this. He was sort of needing a redemption arc, or at least that’s how I felt, and I’m glad he got it. I shit on the miles story a little bit but li really did steal the show for that. I’m just so glad he realised what he needed to do and now looking to better himself.

Hell I’ll even make the argument Peter was a pretty good character. Like I was much more invested in his story. The symbiote slowly changing him made it seem really believable for his character and his slow dive into it controlling him. The same sort of goes for Harry, though he’s still a weak character if you ask me.

Wait, Harry Osborne, a weak character? How could you say such blasphemy! I don’t know he’s just not that interesting. His whole story arc just isn’t that interesting for me. I knew what was gonna happen and in the end it just annoyed me because of how predictable it was, well that is until the end. Venom takes him over yadayada. And then miles brings him back, because the last redeeming quality would’ve been to teach Peter a lesson but nope.

Miles uhh, yeah. He does shit to be honest. He mainly sets up side quests and only has a big plot with li which I’ve already discussed and I hate to sound like the 19 inches of venom is talking but all he really does is get in the way sometimes. Near the end he’s a hell of a lot more helpful but that’s the problem, he’s a little too helpful. Though I’m not gonna blame him for saving Harry as much as it is a little bullshit. And also who actually thought his new suit was good. ‘Miles morales original’. It’s funny cause I saw that exact same style in the Nike store 5 days ago

…man just fuck what they did with mj’s model.

Conclusion:

So we made it. Overall, it was certainly an experience which didn’t disappoint. Whilst it’s definitely better than miles morales, I feel the original still tops it, just because of its brilliant array of ideas. Whilst they are still here, the messages get a bit thrown around, couple that with a few weak stories and barely and gameplay tweaks and you should be setting up for a mid game. Yet I still enjoyed it. After all is said and done, I do hope spider-man 3 can explore more ideas and maybe that dlc can finally answer some questions. Like whether carnage knows who candice is?

Decent game, fine combat, good Peter story, fuck the spider bots, nice to see yuri again, 19 inches of venom