After much anticipation, “Marvel’s Spider-Man” was released Sept. 7 exclusively on the PlayStation 4.
It was developed by Insomniac Games, the team responsible for the original PlayStation 1 “Spyro the Dragon” trilogy and the “Ratchet and Clank” games, among others.
The game has had a long development cycle in an effort to make it have the best quality of any game based on the webslinger that came before it. It’s an open world game, taking a similar approach to the much loved “Spider-Man 2” from 2004.
So how does it stack up? First and foremost let’s talk about the story. There will not be any spoilers here.
Insomniac has stated that the story takes place in their own Spider-Man universe that doesn’t have any ties to another movie, TV series or game. With that freedom they have cherry picked different aspects from the comics and blended them together to create a really unique take on the webhead.
Peter Parker is 23 and has eight years of being Spidey under his belt. He’s already graduated college, worked at and quit the Daily Bugle, entered in and out of a relationship with Mary Jane Watson and is seeking out a career that will make a real difference in the world.
This is a big change from what we’re used to, since almost every incarnation of Parker in the last 10-20 years has been him as a high school student and we have to get through his origin story and his romantic struggles with Mary Jane.
He’s also already defeated many of his biggest enemies and put them in jail. Scattered throughout the city are 55 backpacks that fill in some of the gaps of the last eight years, usually containing pieces of a villain’s costume or an artifact Parker used to beat them, along with his thoughts on them. It’s a great incentive to explore the city and helps build the lore of this universe. As a huge Spider-fan I found these to be awesome.
The first mission of the game has you fight Kingpin and arrest him. It’s a great way to start off the action right off the bat while serving as a tutorial.
Kingpin’s arrest sets off a chain reaction where every crime group tries to take his position as the biggest dog in the yard.
From that point Peter has to battle a new gang called the Demons, and try to figure out what their motives are and who their leader is. Along the way he balances interactions with Mary Jane, Aunt May and working for Dr. Otto Octavius.
It’s a story that really manages to capture the tug of war Peter is trapped in. His obligations to those he loves often have to take a backseat to help citizens in need.
As it goes on, the story twists and turns until reaching a huge climax toward the end. The stories of Peter, MJ, Aunt May and Miles Morales all intersect with each other to create an emotional grand finale.
Overall, the story is great, as it takes a lot of risks. It is full of emotional gut punches and awe-inspiring set pieces. However I did have a few issues with it.
For one, the middle section of the game can drag a bit, as you start to switch characters and play through mandatory stealth sections (which I hate). The boss battles and big spectacles are also unevenly spread out, which makes the pacing of the game feel off.
Another issue is that some of the big twists that come are pretty predictable if you know anything about Spider-Man (it doesn’t help that Insomniac spoiled who Mr. Negative was months before release). Yet predictable doesn’t mean bad, as all the twists are executed perfectly.
The other main element of the game is the mechanics of how it plays. You primarily do two things in this game: traverse the city by swinging around and fight bad guys.
The swinging is fantastic, as it takes the model created for “Spider-Man 2” and perfects it. You will swing off of buildings and can see your web attached to it, but you can also use the trigger buttons to zip to points on buildings and jump off them at high speeds.
It’s all about momentum and it’s easy to keep it going. Traveling through the city is a blast and never feels like a chore due to how effortless and fun the swinging is.
The combat is great as well. It also builds on the mechanics started in “Spider-Man 2” as you attack enemies and dodge their movements to fill a focus bar.
In addition, your webs manage to trap enemies and leave them open to being thrown around of will stick them to the ground, to cars or to walls. Spidey also has a wide variety of gadgets at his disposal, like a drone that shoots enemies, a web that electrocutes them and a web bomb that traps all the bad guys in an area.
It’s a very deep combat system that feels incredibly satisfying to use, and this is only made better by the suits in the game.
There are 28 in total that can be unlocked and most of them carry a special ability. They can make you bulletproof for a few seconds, create a decoy, unleash a sonic wave that knocks out enemies or one that makes you invisible.
You can also unlock mods to the suit that increase health, reduce damage or give you advantages in combat over time, and you can use three of them at once. The level of customization is impressive for a third person action game.
More impressive is all the activities you can do in the city. This includes tracking down the movements of Black Cat, beating races and combat challenges for the Taskmaster, solving random crimes throughout the city, taking out safehouses of the many factions in the game or even taking pictures of landmarks through the city.
It’s a lot of stuff to do the increase the playtime, and they all serve an in story purpose as well as give you tokens to buy new suits and combat abilities. For the most part, everything you do in the beautiful open world of New York will benefit you.
So in the end, how does the whole package stack up? Well, it’s definitely the best Spider-Man game ever made, and feels like a labor of love toward the character and his fans.
The open world is massive and a lot of fun to explore. The story is fantastic and crafts its own universe by using the best elements from several different incarnations of the webslinger. And the gameplay is easy to pick up and rewarding to master.
This definitely sits as my favorite game of the year so far and is a worthwhile purchase for anyone that enjoys the wall-crawler, or just a good superhero game/story. It lives up to the hype and then some.
Henry Wolski
Executive Editor