With the recent Spider-Man comics hitting an all time low due to a new character named Paul character assassinating a beloved fan-favorite and a controversial change in the PS5 remastered version and upcoming sequel. I felt it was time to try out Marvel’s Spider-Man by Insomniac. Been more than two decades of not playing any spidey games. The only ones I played back then were the Playstation One games. After twenty-six hours doing everything possible I must say. It is so amazing coming back to Insomniac's take on the Wall-crawler. Filled with enough uniqueness to feel fresh from the comics, TV shows and movies they garnered. First, let’s start with the good stuff.

Story actually surprised me a great deal. I expected an underwhelming one and instead received an almost spectacular and sinister plot. Keeping me interested as scenes pass by wondering what else is in store for our human arachnid. You play as none other than twenty-three year old Peter Benjamin Parker. A dude who still struggles to properly balance his workload as a lab assistant to Dr. Otto and stopping the next villain attack when the police can’t do it as his alter ego Spider-man, and helping the little guys of course. Still keeping his identity a secret to mostly everyone while spending time as a hero for the past eight years. All of this he has to juggle while internally dealing with the aftermath of breaking up with Mary Jane Watson. Close confidant, best-friend and at one time his girlfriend. Who is employed as a reporter for the Daily Bugle. Life ain't easy for the spider-menace! As one J. Jonah Jameson(JJJ) puts it. But the New Yorkers in the big apple appreciate his help, even if he’s battling a big corporate guy named Wilson Fisk with a contact in the police department named Yuri Watanabe. And oh boy do I get mixed up between the two since Yuri Lowenthal voices Peter Parker heh. You’ll see Pete struggling with his professional duties while dealing with the new villains popping up after Fisk is gone. It’s an engrossing tale I couldn’t stop playing to know what happens in the next scene. Where good o’l Parker luck strikes again leaving our webslinger hanging by the tightest of threads against past adversaries you can’t miss out on.

Gameplay is as satisfying as eating a pepperoni pizza from Eddie’s. Very tasteful. Although, best not to do Spidey tasks on a full stomach whilst swinging across the tall skyscrapers. I’ve never felt better swinging from street to street seeing iconic places like Hell’s Kitchen, Bar with no name, Avengers tower, Brooklyn bridge, Central Park and so many more. My nostalgia is getting to me from visiting the places back then in real life. Excusing the fictional areas. I had a lot of fun swinging and pushing myself to the limit in going faster, zipping across city buildings to reach my destination. So much so, I barely used fast traveling at all! And the amount of customization. Oh by the One Above all, it is freaking awesome! There’s a bunch of suits you can gain from the story and free updates the game has. A list of my favorites include: Scarlet, Raimi, Wrestler, classic, armor MK III, 2099 black, vintage comic book, last stand, spirit and cyborg. Other’s are good too, but these I spent the most of my time in. Interestingly some story suits/side activities you complete have suit powers. Think of these as ultimate abilities. Activating once you reach enough charge. You can web enemies quickly, charge focus(another bar to defeat enemies quickly and regain health), use iron tentacles, have a shield, gain massive strength, emit fire, summon holo decoys and even use an ability to quip enemies! Insulting their pride! Hah! These are not set in stone in various costumes to wear. You can assign whichever power suits your needs. Pun intended. Aside from these ultimate abilities you can also equip three passive skills. Like detecting enemies farther away using your radar. Earning more experience points from clashing with mobs, gaining more focus, not losing combo meter and I could say extra, but I’ll refrain. Sure I had to unlock them via tokens which are earned by side-activities you can do, but hey they’re pretty wicked! Speaking of experience. You can earn it by partaking in any activity, beating up goons, completing the optional content, continuing the main story etc. There is no shortage of points to earn, level up and gain skill points to spend on three skill trees. Adding new moves, passive abilities, and heck new traversal moves too. Seriously fella has a lot of tricks up his sleeve and experience under his belt. I bet he could teach new blood on the street how to be the next Web Menace! Oh boy better not to give JJJ any more fire.

Gadgets are also a nifty way to give players an edge in combat. Sticky bombs, electric bombs, gravity suspension bombs, drones etc. All help our webslinger have an ace up his sleeve and these can be replenished freely by eliminating foes. No need to constantly equip them. You have them all at your disposal during fights. Just make sure to unlock them first and upgrade them further if you constantly use them. Helps a bunch in beating countless mobs thinking they have a chance at defeating me? Honestly, after punching thug #65 to kingdom come these guys never quit huh.

Side activities I'm a bit mixed on, but I'll praise the ones worth doing. And discuss the downsides of some of them later on. First collecting backpacks throughout your playthrough is fabulous. The webhead will reminisce about the item in question upon finding backpacks of his youth. From Sandman in a vial, Lizard, Mysterio, Vulture, Shocker and even a very stinky gym t-shirt he forgot years to collect… God the smell. Suffice it to say all of these items are worth collecting, they inform the player on our protagonist's recent history and what he was doing at the time. Next, Research stations. A project conducted by Pete’s best friend Harry Osborn is a nice change of pace from protecting the citizens through science! Huh?! How?! Well, Harry’s stations all have different objectives to do. Usually related to pollution. Benjy gathers samples from contaminated air molecules, reducing pressure on pipes, finding bacteria samples, vaccinating fish etc. All these large scale labors are a disaster waiting to happen for the future ignorant citizens and my endeavors to prevent these future problems early on. Black Cat stakeouts have you finding a black cat plushie on rooftops as Felicia(who dated The P-man) gives off flirtatious “can you catch me spider” vibes. An alluring prospect to know some hidden details from Benjamin’s past during his tenure as his alter ego. Can you imagine how he would’ve reacted to meeting Felicia back when he was fifteen years old?! Bet the kid was stuttering like no tomorrow heh. Optional missions unlock as you progress through the story and most of them are worth completing. To aid citizens who ask our friendly neighborhood spider-man for assistance. One has a random upstanding citizen impersonating his hero persona to conduct helpful deeds to people in need. Another has you storming the castle, cooperating with a college fellow pinpoint missing people. There’s sixteen in total. Some of which chain together in multiple quest chains. Feels good helping out the little guy ya know? Taskmaster challenges provide an interesting challenge for those hoping to test an arachnid’s skills. Villain of the aforementioned name gives you a set of varied objectives ranging from combat, stealth, bomb, and drone. All of which you, my unlucky orphan, must try and solve each of them within a set amount of time. Do so, and you’re in for one hell of a surprise during your quest to finish them all. Really enjoyed these set of tasks mhhm.

Before I go into my final thoughts I have to talk about my mixed feelings. Not a positive or a negative, but for the sake of transparency I'll note them down below.

Conceptually I'm fine with the idea of the MJ stealth sections, but the execution seems lacking. Since it repeats a handful of times. With the same repetitive formula of evading enemies and moving forward with some changes here and there. Like more stealth variety than having to play spy. Like going in vents, investigating clues by interviewing people, assisting Peter like misdirecting a crowd so he can evade them and find a hidden spot to change into his alter-ego safely, asking questions a reporter does, she does some investigating regarding particular topics of interest near her, but I believe this was lacking. Needs lively substance not only in writing and in the gameplay design. As a character I think the writers made her out decently well. Although I would’ve liked her presence displayed beyond phone calls to Pete and vice-versa. Outside of some cutscenes Peter shares with her, MJ’s presence isn’t given enough attention to make me say she’s fantastic. Only decently above average performance in her sections of the game. Not horrible or bad, but in the good category. She’s there when he struggles and helps him out the most when he needs it. Personally I think some more scenes with her beyond stealth like healing Peter, going on dates, flashbacks of their past, aiding May. Him supporting her. All of these instances could’ve elevated her further and by extension the protagonist. And as a result make her sections more fleshed out, instead of repeating again for yet another spy section.

Repetitive open world structure akin to Ubisoft tasks. Insomniac’s other side-activities I felt were lacking and made me weary. Clearing out districts, hideouts, warehouses and outposts. They do not offer much to extend worldbuilding and lore. Take for example: More than a dozen hideouts to clear out. With six waves of enemies coming at me. As if an army has a chance of defeating me. Lacking banter from the fighting wall-crawler or many phone calls to update him on life outside of being a protector and sure. It is turbulent with barely any balance between managing his personal, job and hero duties. But I would’ve appreciated a different quest. Give me quests in F.E.A.S.T. to help Aunt May around. While sprinkling internal monologues like how collecting backpacks were done. Indirectly help Miles while he’s at school. Imagine Miles Morales slowly becoming a real friend to the person behind the mask by helping him with needing supplies, fending off some thugs by distracting or rallying his classmates to cheer him on. Slam a wrench in the combat systems by making all his gadgets inoperable or disabling his suit powers. Transforming him to become our marvel Jason Bourne/Jackie Chan/John Wick dude in a pinch using items around the environment to wack enemies. Yes he can use throwable items, but the man can’t wield any of them preferring to knock, punch and kick enemies to KO status.

Tired of beating thugs in waves? Then go on patrol and eliminate forty-plus each of thugs, demons, [redacted] & Sa%^* crimes spread throughout each district. I had to finish more than 120 of those to clear out the streets. And this was initially a nice way for patrol and having something to do when someone calls me or I listen to a JJJ podcast, yet these seem like padding. I did complete them all certainly, but comparable to my time in Ghost of Tsushima where clearing out camps and mongols felt like a tedious activity while not rewarding me the player enough with enough incentive to complete. Like better rewards, extend the worldbuilding, lore. Drop a minor villain here and there. Drop tombstone, chameleon, spot, hydro-man etc. encounters. Even worse to think about are these crimes will only pop-up if you swing a certain distance. They’re not displayed on the map at all times. You have to idly swing waiting for crimes to happen. Honestly, give me a notification from an app to let me know about crimes happening. This could be an easy fix by reducing the filler and adding plenty more unique encounters. Make me believe New York is threatened by these villains than some schmuck or goon being told to fight the resident superguy who webs enemies up on buildings. Come on man. What am I some dude with nothing better to do than fight petty burglaries with a ridiculous spider costume? Oh wait…

Might be a controversial take, but I think the relationship Peter has with Doc, while excellent throughout, perhaps avenues were feasible in regards to their segments. Implementing organic gameplay tasks than constant spectrograph and line mini-puzzles to do. Why can’t I complete some projects using artisal science? Combine their talents together with him building parts using different puzzles than resorting to the same ones again. These become egregious as I progressed further in the main story and optional content requiring Parker to once again complete these mini-games repeatedly. Sure there is an option in the settings to excuse them, a feature I never expected but came to rely on during the endgame. Yet this doesn’t alleviate the problem altogether, rather it is more of a band-aid than a proper solution. I think more unique segments had potential to bear fruit. Its why I credit Atomic Heart a lot by providing variety in the same category to keep the gameplay fresh and exciting. Not re-using the same formula again for the sake of consistency. If anything I’m more astonished that goons resort to similar practices to conduct their nefarious deeds. And while there are several outside the norm. These ultimately were outliers. I also think some more flashbacks between the two instead of me seeking dialogue points as I perused the lab for points of interest regarding their friendship/professional relationship. Bringing a more emotional weight than ever before. Adding more show, don’t tell.

Last critique I think some more time to develop villains/characters would’ve been better. We get to know plenty of a certain N$%&*%^(E Man which has interesting developments as we progress further into the game, yet others are left to the side-street in favor of giving other villains more screen time. I get it, I really do. To focus on these important characters than other adversaries lending more focus, yet I feel this could’ve been tweaked to give us more scenes perhaps to humanize them. Granted I haven’t delved deep into the comics to know their full interactions to go beyond one note villains into the complex categories, but still an attempt is possible to make them more of a threat and memorable than being used as tools then discarded. May, Miles, Harry, MJ by extension needed a bit more time in the oven to cook. Sure they have scenes in the game, but some of them perhaps needed supplementary scenes to push their characterization further.

Before I finish, I have to talk about the DLC’s. A solid return to the main game after seeing the mid-credits and post credit scene. Called the City That Never Sleeps. Taking place after the main story is done. Three episodes. For players hungry for more web-slinging and web-menacing action. The first, The Heist deals with a Black Cat’s troubles which your resident friendly neighborhood arachnid will have no choice but to assist, the second Turf Wars, occurs after the events of the Heist. Providing a decent filler, backed by the nice development of Yuri Watanabe. And third the final dlc begins Silver Lining stars none other than Silver Sable returning, giving trouble to our main character once again. Yet good guy Spidey is up for the challenge. Each DLC occurs chronologically. So best to go in release order or else you will be confused. By the end, I believe the post game content is a good conclusion to tie everything together before we depart into Spider-Man: Miles Morales. The episodes provide new enemy types, side-content and slightly new gameplay segments for fans after the ending. Worth completing to see what Peter after the base game. Seeing him assume another role and reinvigorating his friendship with one friend are a must see after learning his relationship with one female friend. The phone calls he has with a certain student provide wonderful if not humorous conversations to witness. And the side-quests, well most of them excusing Screwball because she’s pretty cringe. Have interesting lore/worldbuilding to eat up. Man my stomach was so full devouring the paintings in episode one, and the Symkaria hideouts, mystery crime investigations in episode three.

Moving on, If there are some last notable things to say before I head out. I would say Peter’s relationship with Doc. is a breathtaking fresh take on his character and their relationship with one another. I've seen other iterations in films and tv shows and I’m quite frankly shocked by how well Insomniac incorporates theirs. I enjoyed coming back to the lab and cooperating with his employer, took my sweet time scouring new points of interest to hear and have Pete reminisce on the fond memories he shared with him to create a better world. To help those in need and despite many hurdles and setbacks. The outcome of their efforts is so beautiful. It is such a joy and pleasure to witness the super bond they share. Sure it could be improved like I said earlier, but the base foundation the dev’s have created is nothing short of extraordinary. I am greatly looking forward to the potential of what’s to come. And if he does return. Oh man we're in for one hell of a superior storyline.

Sure I did experience some mixed feelings, yet this doesn’t detract much from the sheer strengths the game envisions and strides for. I am impressed by how engrossed I was by the storyline, how satisfying it was to sling and slap, kick, punch my enemies to victory. Even quipping and insulting a core part of Parker to whittle enemies pride, taunting them is a core tactic I’ll never get tired of seeing again and again. Hell JJJ’s podcast once again putting the web- warrior down, I actually can’t help but admire the sheer guts to do so. Curbing public perception against the masked menace sure takes dedication to keep going for over eight years huh Jonah. Never gets tiring hearing some trashy entertainment while defeating countless thugs. Kinda like listening to a podcast at work ya know. Except our webspinner is listening to JJJ while multitasking eh. “Dude is a masochist” - As one Brooklyn kid says.

Overall, I think I can safely say Marvel’s Spider-Man have done the impossible by reinvigorating my superhero inner childhood I’ve sorely missed ever since the Raimi trilogy ended, ever since the Webb (I just realized we had a director with Web in his name. Nice.) films were gutted and only until the Watts and Spider-verse have kept my love for the genre going instead of resorting back to cynicism as I grew older. It is heartening witnessing such an endearing videogame calling back to what I love since my childhood. The insecurity our Webhead undergoes, the sheer struggle in managing a proper life from his alter-ego, work and personal intertwining and intersecting at times when he least expects it, the sheer weight of responsibility and power he beholds to share with others in need is both incredibly admiring and awe-inspiring. Again and again he continues to become the Hero everyone needs yet does not seek the glamor or reward. He simply does. And this entry only solidifies his excellent qualities while taking adequate time to showcase he too is flawed just as the rest of us. Making him instantly relatable and personable to nearly everyone. The Amazing Spider-Man continues to be my favorite superhero of all time and while this entry is a spectacular return to form embodying all his greatest triumphs, a careful balance emerges to display his greatest hardships too. And these two in tandem create one hell of hook to watch out for in future installments. I can only expect we will dive into marvelous troubles and epic adventures. To any Spidey fan out there, this is a title that cannot be missed. And for any newcomer, I envy you greatly with one of the best stories I’ve ever seen in Spider-Man media.

8/10

Additional Material:
Marvel Spider-Man Ending thoughts - Spoiler thoughts + DLC included.

More than anything else, Spiderman 2018 manages to capture comfort, the comfort I felt from the paradox of the simple relatability, the grandiosity of the legend, and the urban relevance in the Sam Raimi movies I felt in childhood. And it still managed to add to that a flavor of color, craziness, and unpredictability that only comics can bring through all the tangential but welcome characters and turns that occur in the story.
Unlike other superhero stories, Spiderman is a legend rather than a myth, because he’s grounded in a real place, and represents a real culture amalgamation as opposed to a symbolic or representative one. Spiderman is every kid from Queens, trying to keep themselves afloat between jobs, tasks, trains, and personal relationships on the periphery of a city, a city that’s like a massive ship on water, and like the ocean it suspends above, navigating it is intense and unpleasant, but it’s somewhere that in the spaces between the wavering of loneliness and busyness, there’s a shadow of your own self that might guide you somewhere that you know you have to be but can’t quite find.
Peter’s story shows that regardless of what you are capable of, that will always be true, and that struggle will always exist.
Queens is probably the most diverse place on the planet. It is the single most diverse county in the most diverse city in the United States. There are more languages spoken in square meters in Queens than anywhere else in the world, with the number according to Google being 138 total languages in Queens (out of the 800 total spoken in New York City). 56% of Queens Residents are recorded as speaking a language other than English at home. Yet, despite this, I do think that Spiderman manages to cross those borders and be relatable toward the image of Queens. The reason is that Spiderman is a story concerned with the present, not the past or future, and it manages to transcend the need for backstory.
I’ll come clean, I’m from Queens, and I’m a child of immigrant parents. Many of my friends are children of immigrant parents. I can’t speak for them, but I think living with a background like that causes a kid to see their parents’ stories as something like a fairy tale, something that is very difficult to relate to and hard to identify with because of how different their present reality is, but yet it’s something that they can’t throw away, because the truth is America is a vacuum of culture which commodifies and devalues groups and identities, and leaves everyone in its system a grab-what-you-can scenario, like it’s economic system. Unlike its economic system, though, you can’t really buy or produce culture, because it’s not something that can be engineered by individuals; it needs communal ties and shared value systems, so American culture is a mercantilist culture system. In that lack of cultural context for the child of immigrants, unrelatable fairy tales are just one part in the search for context in the American Vacuum, and Spiderman is the legend, I think, for Queens that manages to transcend that gap, despite its cheesiness, schlockiness, and the fantastical notion of vigilantism in a mobilized state.

The story of Spiderman 2018 is what really managed to surprise me, even more so than the mechanics, because it manages to flesh out Peter’s internal life with his social encounters, personal overambitions, and boisterous inability to let people or conflicts reach him. It plays out the dichotomy of man and masked hero so well and it never manages to lose that comfort; the whole thing feels like a Christmas movie, even in times where I feel it shouldn’t.
There are real topics and problems showcased in the game, but they are often glossed over or too cleanly dealt with (violence(justice(police(the state that enforces violence decides the violence that is appropriate(the comfortable death of vigilantism(appropriation)))))), but I suppose that isn’t too far from the direction the movies take neither. Maybe this is too much to ask from a legend that exists to reinforce the identity of a state-supported culture. (I tend to not think so, hehe.)

The mechanics and systems here are also great, a little too great, and there were many times where I wished that I could’ve messed up more, done something that messed with me or shown me the side of this character that lets me mess up rather than lets me watch Peter mess up something in his own life. By that same token though, it did let me learn to appreciate a little the many ways the game allows to change up or add things to its traversal and combat on my own initiative, rather than the games, even if the basest form of play was still always acceptable, some self-propelled pizzazz felt fitting for the character. Initially I had thought about how I would design a Spiderman game, and how maybe I might have a system where there would be several types of materials buildings and things would be made of that each have a different relationship with web-matter, and you would individually slow down time and shoot webs at corners and places with different materials to see how that would affect your traversal until you get good enough at recognizing those patterns and can just fly off at your own speed. But, playing this game made me realize, Spiderman as a story isn’t really about that. The films or comics never really attempted that kind of heavy simulation of character or physical agency. Rather the story was always told in broad strokes, something that anyone can digest, and there’s nothing wrong with a story like that. Perhaps my idea was trying for designing a system where one could get to know what Spiderman thinks like when he’s moving, but the game’s system is more accurate to how the stories read in their respective mediums, and I have learned to get a sense of respect for that. Besides, this Spiderman isn’t new to this, and it isn’t exactly an origin story. It’s like a remix story, and a damn good one, I think. And the mechanics, its gadgets, modularized combat system, and various gameplay modes help contribute to that, I think.

The City of New York is also great, and it adds to my great personal strong attraction to representations of real places in video games, next to the pastiche New York from Parasite Eve, Yakuza’s Shinjuku and Osaka, TWEWY’s Shibuya, (and my own undergraduate thesis project’s small recreation of various areas of my university campus :P) But, I do wish they added Queens!!! It’s not accessible on the map!! And it was all over the films too, even the most recent one. Many of the streets I grew up in and worked around show up all around the various Spiderman films, and I was so excited to see them live through this game, but to no avail. Queens is so important for this character, just to be able to go there to destress from all the high flying action would’ve been great, even as side content.

To address the elephant in the room, Spiderman 2018 has a real problem. And that problem is its constant fellation of the NYPD. The game tries to run the angle of Spiderman having some tough times getting through to the coppers at first, and having some conflict as they often tell you they don’t need your help. It’s a classic superhero vigilante story line. But the game indulges in the bad egg argument and separates the fascist cops from the good cops by making them a separate entity and easily distinguishable and even throws them under a Russian leader to better distinguish a foreign enemy. Even ignoring those sentiments, pay attention to the camera, as it hovers and zooms over the NYPD logo in scenes, and pay attention to the mechanical significance given to uniformed characters in the quest systems and spawning crimes and information delivery system of the game. Not to mention the appropriation and friendly-ifying surveillance systems. It simply does not explore the breadth of these topics enough to be able say anything meaningful about them, and keeps them as set dressing for its comfortable story (albeit delightfully personable it may be) about the legend of relatability. Maybe the worst part of it, at least for me, was a random quip Peter made when fighting loose riker’s island inmates. I don’t remember what it was exactly and it’s too hard to find now, but it was something like “come on guys, just think of it as your home!” when referring to the prison he’s trying to beat them back into. A line like that just makes no sense with a correctional system intended to actually, yknow, rehabilitate people and help them eventually or hopefully reintegrate into society or a way of life that’s healthy for them and the people around them (not what the prison system in America actually does, but y’know, that is the theory, right?). Especially given that most people in the actual riker’s island are either pretrial defendants or serving short sentences, a line like that just has no place in either as a reflection of the real world, a reflection of American propaganda, or a reflection on Peter’s character. There’s just too many missteps in this game like that.

Finally I will give one last note on this game. That is that it turns out that all any open world game needs to make me want to play it continuously is give me a bunch of unlockable spidersuits to change in and out of as I play and let it actually stay on in the cutscenes. One of the greatest cosmetic features of any game in recent memory just cause it spans so much of the real history of the character’s stories.

My closing thoughts are that I want a game like this but for Superman, and I want it to be the total opposite. I want the story to be myth-like instead of legend like. I want it to focus on the unrelatable and alien aspects of superman’s character. And I want there to be ten fights in the game total.
Thank you

Assim como os jogos da série Arkham que eram a experiência definitiva com um jogo do morcego, Marvel's Spiderman entrega tudo que poderia se esperar de um jogo do teioso, sendo uma experiência definitiva, em todos os aspectos que se poderia esperar num jogo dele.

Esse jogo é lindo de morrer, poderia parar por aqui mas vou continuar. Eu desfrutei muito do que a oitava geração de consoles tinha a oferecer (exceto os exclusivos da Sony, coisa que estou fazendo agora), e ainda fiquei espantado, Nova Iorque é simplesmente maravilhosa nesse jogo, o design e modelos dos personagens beiram o insano, é absurdo. O combate apesar de ser bem simples e um tanto confuso de início, passa muito bem a sensação de estarmos controlando o Homem-Aranha, com muitos movimentos e acrobacias insanas, e claro tendo um web swinging absolutamente impecável e divertido. As boss battles não são necessariamente desafiadoras, mas todas são incríveis pelo espetáculo visual, simplesmente adorei todas, em especial as duas útlimas. Os personagens são incríveis, muitos dizem que o Peter desse jogo é a melhor incarnação que o personagem já teve fora dos quadrinhos, seu desenvolvimento é brilhante e tudo que fizeram com ele aqui foi simplesmente impecável. Os vilões... uau, só de ter vários vilões do Spidey na tela já é algo que enche os olhos, mas conseguiram fazer um capricho absurdo com eles, o Octavius foi simplesmente brilhante e fizeram um trabalho excelente com o Senhor Negativo, introduzindo um vilão pouco conhecido pra muita gente. A história é boa, não é um plot profundo ou mirabolante, mas algo que é regido por seus acontecimentos mais que qualquer outra coisa, tendo um baita mix de empolgação, alívio cômico e claro, ser emocionante.

Fico muito feliz de poder ter jogado esse jogo depois de todo esse tempo, as cegas sem ter tomado algum spoiler, e no fim sai mais do que satisfeito. O que poderia dizer de negativo é que os trechos em stealth foram, na falta de outra palavra, um saco. Agora é partir pro ''Marvel's Spider-Man: Miles Morales'', e chorar por não ter um PS5 pra jogar o próximo jogo.

Follows a very well-worn Spider-Man game formula. The expected mix of open-world web-slinging popularized by Treyarch and Batman: Arkham-style combat introduced by Beenox is present and accounted for. The biggest difference being that this isn't based on any movie. Of course, developer Insomniac Games have added their own personal touches to the experience in the form of things like an RPG leveling up system, upgradeable Spidey gadgets, special suit powers, and the ability to grapple towards and launch yourself from various points in the environment in what feels like a natural evolution of the movement mechanics found in their decent, but pretty underwhelming Sunset Overdrive. The most significant addition however is the inclusion of meaningful side-content for the first time in the wall-crawler's long career on home consoles.

As you progress a variety of optional tasks, challenges, and even small storylines will begin popping up across the map at regular intervals. Their quality varies wildly from legitimately entertaining (timed Taskmaster tests) to mundane (pigeon-catching), but I felt compelled to do them all regardless thanks to their relative brevity. This doesn't follow the Ubisoft structure of littering your screen with hundreds of icons to check-off. Rather, each activity type comes in handfuls to add just a few extra hours of playtime instead of keeping you busy for months on end.

What ultimately most makes this title worth picking up is its original story. Like I said earlier, this isn't some film tie-in, but also isn't set in any previously established continuity either. Insomniac have actually created their own universe complete with unique takes on the brand's history, characters, and lore. It leads to a tale that, while implementing a great deal of novel changes to deep-seated key elements, remains faithful to the true essence of who Spider-Man is with strong, surprisingly emotional writing that sets up so many exciting venues for them to go in the future. It's by far the greatest distinguishing part of the package.

The overall familiarity keeps this from being something I can truly rave about, yet at the same time stands as the reason I enjoyed it so much. I was transported back to the PS2 era over the course of this superhero adventure. Memories of playing the titles derived from the Raimi works and Ultimate came flooding back, and accompanied by the smoothest gameplay Parker has seen so far outside of the occasional glitches you'll encounter. As a result, I can do nothing than recommend that every web-head fan pick this up, even if only for the nostalgic feeling alone.

8/10

Playing this again for the second time - and especially right after GOD OF WAR: RAGNAROK - I think I'd say now that this is actually a fair bit below what the floor of our expectations should be for a mega-Triple A event game nowadays. Not a bad game in any functional sense, and its best feature (the truly excellent traversal system) almost guarantees it a thumbs-up all by itself, but it is nevertheless riddled with flaws, shortcuts, lazy design elements, and baffling / oversights, and I'm going to go ahead and complain about them in a bulleted list here:

- Number one, it really is SPIDER-MAN: ARKHAM CITY, down to the littlest design elements. And while it's no crime to take inspiration from an excellent game, a lot of the smaller details cribbed from it do come off as quite lazy in their reuse. There are a lot of "oh, come on" moments

- Although it must be said, there's one big thing they didn't lift from ARKHAM. That game took place in a fantastical crime-nightmare world packed with easter eggs and references and impressive details around every corner - this one takes place in a rigorously realistic facsimile of New York City packed with absolutely nothing of any interest at all

- The scale of everything is all over the place - doors, fuseboxes, items, wildlife (pigeons the size of dogs), even characters - here's Spider-Man fighting villain The Scorpion, listed in-game as 6' 3"

- The music is straight up bad. Like, I don't even have the vocabulary to criticize orchestral score, and I don't think I've ever been in this position with a big-budget full-orchestra movie-like OST, but yeah, it sucks, it's bad

- The writing is pretty poor on a macro- and micro-level. Big story stuff like Dr. Octavius' heel turn - which is foreshadowed for SO long but then feels absurdly rushed and unbelievable when it finally does happens - is inexcusably clumsy and more or less breaks the game's story in two, but also just character dialogue is dopey and unrealistic

- Taken as an overall thing, both plot and story are laughably pedestrian and cartoonish and just nothing in the end. It's actually kind of surprising how basic it is. Sub-MCU stuff. Like, there are three-episode arcs of the '90s cartoon that look like The Wire compared to this

- combat's fine, but it doesn't match ARKHAM at all. In those games, you press a button at the correct time, and you can bet your life that what you want to happen is going to happen, it's so tight it's like a math problem. Here, a little loosey-goosey, delay-y, systems tripping over each other-y. Overall not nearly as satisfying

- There are a lot of villains present, which is awesome and necessary, but good God, their designs are hideous, just terrible. Almost seems a few years out of date with how ugly and tech-y everyone is. Greebled nonsense, feels like getting stabbed in the eyes

- this is a Remaster-specific gripe, but having played both, the new face model for Peter sucks. He looks wooden and unexpressive and has this very punchable constant smirking, looking-down-his-nose thing going on. I actually quite liked the original guy. Not sure that I buy Insomniac's reasoning for replacing him, either - he just looks like Tom Holland and it's hard to believe that's a coincidence

So, I played this again to prepare for MILES MORALES and 2, and I'm hoping that those are stronger. The fact that I've 100%ed it twice should and does say something about this game's baseline playablility and value, but again, I think we should be expecting quite a bit more from the mega-prestige hyper-realistic performance-capture-ass industry-shaking titles. So what I'm saying is .... triple-A Games Awards bait ......... Be Greater

This is just a generic ass open world game with spider-man, the combat is pretty good and the story is also pretty good but the stealth is genuienly terrible and the segents where you play as anybody except for spider-man are also terrible espcially the puzzles that you can just skip. And perhaps the most praised part of the game being the web slinging is to me pretty fun at first but then becomes mind numbing since its pretty much all automated making for just brain dead expirence where you win so matter what instead of having to actually get better at the mechanic. But in the end the story is decent and so is the combat and the game looks fantastic but the soundtrack sucks the varitey in gameplay also sucks and the open world objectives are boring ubisoft styled collectables that just aren't fun at all.

In Spider-Man, Insomniac have done a fantastic job of taking the formula popularised in Rocksteady’s beloved Arkham games and adding their own fresh take to make this game so much fun to play. First and foremost, web swinging through New York is pure bliss. Movement is so fluid and manages to stay engaging through the depth in this system. The fact that New York is an amazing playground, full of life, memorable landmarks and gorgeous vistas makes the world even more of a joy to traverse. The city is truly breath-taking, and the wonderful audio design only adds to this. It’s just a shame that the side missions and activities that fill this environment are very repetitive (though, you do get fantastic cosmetics for completing these), especially as they are copied and pasted countless times throughout the city. Less of these side missions which had more care paid to making them unique would’ve made for more memorable diversions from the main story.

The main story itself engaged me for the most part. There are genuinely some really emotional moments in the story and the dialogue and radio calls you get throughout really help with the world building. The story does have its flaws and there are some pacing issues but overall I enjoyed it. In terms of what you’ll be doing during the story, it boils down to traversal, stealth and combat encounters, with the occasional puzzle thrown into the mix. The stealth in this game, even on the highest difficulty setting felt a bit too easy to me, lowering the stakes, as you have so many powerful tools to take out enemies and there is no real risk of you dying like in the Arkham games if alerted armed guards engage you in combat. Combat itself is sublime, with the gadgets, verticality and movement all gelling together for visceral and immersive gameplay. There is a lot of variety to the enemy designs too, somewhat helping prevent these encounters get too repetitive.

Insomniac’s Spider-Man often had me grinning from ear to ear thanks to its gameplay systems being so much fun. It’s by no means perfect and struggles with quantity over quality syndrome and some pacing issues, but its still an incredibly well polished package that fully deserves the commercial success it has had.

2018 Ranked
Ranked Open World Recommendations

J. Jonah Jameson was right.

(Heavy spoilers follow)

What would be nothing more and nothing less than a derivative bare minimum ubigame is brought low by its gross mishandling of its story and many of its characters.

To begin with, this is a reality in which Peter Parker has been Spiderman for well over ten years (putting him around the 27 years of age mark) but somehow he still has the trappings of a teenager and his only enemies have been Kingpin, Shocker, Electro, Rhino, Scorpion, Lizard and Vulture. No Doc Ock (though he is introduced in this game), no Venom and, most egregiously, no Goblin: his defining nemesis, key in his formation as a superhero, and he's not in the story for a whole decade of spider business. Yes, this game does provide the soil for the green villain's genesis but it's simply absurd to not make him instrumental in Peter's growth.

No Goblin then, and no Gwen Stacy either, whose existence (and more importantly: her death) is conspicuously absent from the backstory, which begs the question of exactly what drama has Peter lived through to mold his character as a self-sacrificing hero. At least Uncle ben is still dead, though off-screen, long ago and never really explored or even mentioned beyond a few weightless musings here and there. The game reads like yet another origin story, but it premises itself as anything but, with lots and lots of baggage and history between characters already, resulting in a very jarring narration.

Aunt May's character has been nothing short of vandalized: she has now been rewritten as some kind of no-nonsense charity CEO, which sorely detracts from the kind, fragile motherly figure Peter feels responsible towards; this May doesn't need anyone's help, and this once again knocks items off Spiderman's superproblems list. Furthermore, not only does Peter almost never refer to her as "aunt", bafflingly preferring to call her "May" (which surely must have confused newcomers as to who exactly she is to him) but the fact the ending reveals that she was all along aware of the fact that Peter was Spiderman, and that she admired him for it, is simply absurd: the original Aunt May's distaste for his secret identity was an essential point in deepening Peter's cognitive dissonance regarding his double life, the removal of which damages his characters almost irreparably. There is no conflict in Peter's life, no hardship coming from his secret identity beyond maybe trying to reconcile with his ex girlfriend Mary Jane. There is some compelling drama with Doc Ock near the end of the game, but it doesn't account for the missing decade of, well... nothing.

Much like with Aunt May, the writers' fretful insecurity about not knowing what to do with the character of Mary Jane shines through, how they had no idea on how to present her as a pivotal, meaningful, emancipated character. Their solution was to rewrite her from a successul fashion model (which evidently just won't fly as a Disney age aspirational profession) into a crack investigative journalist always on the edge of a felony arrest ("Hey girls, fuck the rules, live dangerously!" -Walt Disney 2018). This of course wasn't enough to exorcise any possible spectre of controversy about female empowerment, so they have her directly partake in the violence, making her sneak around criminal lairs and high security compounds like Sam Fisher, silently zapping trained paramilitary commandos in the back with a taser gun in one of her many, many interludes serving to break up the monotony of Spiderman's gameplay. In short, they turned Mary jane into Lois Lane from the movie Man of Steel: she even looks exactly like a young Amy Adams, down to the vestiary and hairdo she wore in the film.

While web slinging around the city you will hear a number of broadcasts by J. Jonah Jameson (here a radio pundit) in which he comments on recent events and expresses his contempt for Spiderman. Whereas in any other piece of Spiderman fiction it always was impossible to relate to JJJ, patently wrong as he has always been written, blaming Spidey for things that were not his fault, here it's difficult to listen to his monologues (which the game lets you toggle off, assuming you'd find them irritating) and not find yourself nodding here and there when he points out the damage that Spiderman does to the city on a regular basis either via clumsiness or cavalier overconfidence.

The ludonarrative dissonance this commentary spotlights is pretty glaring: in one particular mission, Spiderman is trying to catch the leader of a terrorist cell as they rob one of Kingpin's weapon stashes inside of a Manhattan highrise. Once he is spotted, the baddies attempt to flee by helicopter, at which point Spiderman webs the chopper (in itself a dangerous action since there is a busy street underneath) and this quickly escalates to a rocket knocking down a giant construction crane, which demolishes several nearby buildings before being webbed into inertness. A piece of it gets stuck on the web attached to the helicopter, which causes a wrecking ball effect, causing further destruction (and likely victims) around the city. Result: more damage than 9/11, when sticking a spider tracker on the fuselage of the helicopter would have sufficed, but since the game needs an Uncharted-style set piece, here we are, and JJJ is proven correct, since this happens every other mission.

Thing is, such setpieces are necessary, since the core of the gameplay is as bland and monotonous as they come: no effort was made to come up with anything original to freshen up a formula that had been tired and overdone for a decade by the time of the game's release. Move around Manhattan in a manner lifted straight from 2009's Prototype (incidentally also set in Manhattan) repeating ad nauseam a loop of activating towers with a minigame pilfered from Batman Arkham City to reveal the map, running into crime incidents to resolve (a couple different types at most) and bagging a myriad of different collectables clearly marked on the map and none of which is any fun to get. Do they at least reward you with anything good? Not really. You use them to upgrade gear you don't really need and unlock suits that serve little purpose aside from sheer cosmetic appeal. A few sidequests appear here and there but they are hardly worth the time.

Particularly hilarious are the backpacks that Spiderman has apparently left around the city years before. Not only are these still stuck to the wall without the web having dissolved, but they contain mementos from Peter's private life, sometimes going as far as his ID card or student pass bearing his name and photo. Imagine being a construction worker refurbishing a rooftop and finding a backpack clearly belonging to Spiderman (the web, the web!) with his secret identity revealed by the items within. They couldn't come up with less nonsensical ideas for collectibles? Silly!

Story missions are the highlight of the package, with a genuinely good character arc for Doc Ock and a suitable amount of visual spectacle. However, it's hard to shake the feeling that the game sits there spinning its wheels for the better part of the first and second acts, wasting the player's time with pointless minigames (hey look, it's Pipemania again!) and tedious missions in between the decent ones. The rogue gallery of villains is uninteresting to say the least. Kingpin and Shocker show up for one boss fight each and are never seen again, and the aforementioned Rhino, Scorpion, Electro and Vulture are hardly the most compelling villains, as is Mr Negative, whose arc is passable, but not given any interesting conclusion before or after the credits roll. These Sinister Six are more like the Spiritless Six.

Combat is, once again, stolen straight out of the Arkham series. Now, I was never a fan of Batman's X,X,Y,X,X style of automatic combat, but at least there it was done properly. Here, trying to vault over or slide under one of the many enemies that are impervious from the front is a proper chore that will fail far too often for its own good. Encounters boil down to interminable waves of identical enemies to dispatch the same way, with easy and repetitive boss fights peppered throughout, all boiling down to the same soup of "dodge dodge until the boss gets tired, then press triangle and button mash. Rinse and repeat". the final encounter of the game has you sit through the exact same five second dodge, punch and slam loop for a good three minutes.

You will want to avoid the tedious combat as often as possible, which brings us to yet another thing lifted from (you guessed it) the Arkham franchise: the stealth. Spiderman can zip up to rafters and flagpoles and use them as perches to stealth takedown enemies the same way that Batman can, though in a much more simplified manner: there are no floor grates or vents and there is no crouching, so any ground level action is discouraged, only leaving perch takedowns and web tripmines (whatever they are). It's simplistic and doesn't even work properly: sometimes you will have an enemy right below you, having made sure nobody can see him being taken down, and the prompt to do so just will not appear, forcing you to move to another position hoping the game will like it more. Fiddly and frustrating.

Even the web slinging itself has problems. while it's generally fit for purpose in simulating Spiderman's trademark mobility, it sometimes just won't respond to commands. Whereas previous Spiderman games tended to fudge the web slinging by letting Spidey attach himself to things off screen that may or may not have been there, this game chooses to be a stickler for realism: if an object isn't there, you won't be able to hook on to it, meaning you will plummet face first to the ground. this is not a massive problem in practice, since there is no fall damage whatsoever, but when the game arbitrarily decides that the floor is lava (like in a particularly dreadful dream sequence) you will find yourself missing a swing and dying, ever so more noticeable when the absence of consequences is removed.

One last mention for the music: the composer sure was proud of the five notes of the main theme, as you hear them on a constant loop in one form or another the entire game. The worst offender is the traversal music that flares up whenever you are not with your feet planted firmly on the ground, which is 90% of the time. You will become nauseated by the constant repetition of the (awfully generic) jingle, which is paradoxically so forgettable that you will not manage to recall what it sounds like even after being drilled with it non-stop for 20 hours. Thankfully the third act of the game features a far more somber tone, including a much more lowkey score, meaning you will actually be able to hear yourself think for a change.

Marvel's Spiderman is a derivative, unimaginative affair, ridden with inconsistencies, a plot that makes no sense due to the careless changes made to established lore and gameplay that fails to impress in any way, having been done often and better before.

Marvel's Spider-Man stands as a remarkable achievement even five years after its release, capturing the essence of Spider-Man as a character and delivering a compelling narrative centered around the destructive nature of revenge. With its exhilarating and powerful web-slinging mechanics, captivating narrative, and top-tier action combat, this exceptional and immersive superhero game surpasses expectations, and stands firm in being the standard for the superhero genre.

Firstly I need to talk about arguably the most important aspect that continues to impress today: the web swinging. Despite the passage of time, the thrill of swinging through the city never wanes. I found myself continuously pushing the boundaries of my web-slinging abilities, executing daring dives from towering buildings and seamlessly transitioning between parkour-like wall runs and swift web maneuvers. The numerous outposts scattered throughout New York, where I was able to engage in intense combat against hordes of enemies, also remains as satisfying as ever. Additionally, the inclusion of activities like collecting backpacks and capturing snapshots of landmarks during swinging sessions adds enjoyable pit stops along the way. Even the spontaneous crimes that arise, allowing me to swiftly intervene and then move on, reinforce the feeling of being the friendly neighborhood Spider-Man. The game's focus on being a local hero, protecting one's own city, rather than jetting off to far-flung locations for various missions, further solidifies this sense of grounded heroism. In this regard, it evokes a similar feeling to that of Arkham Knight, where the game centers around defending the streets of Gotham City.

It also goes without saying that Marvel's Spider-Man is a visual and auditory delight all these years later. The attention to detail in the character models, animations, and environmental design is remarkable. The city of New York is a vibrant and living backdrop, complemented by stunning lighting and weather effects that further enhance the immersion. The musical score, composed by the talented John Paesano, perfectly captures the essence of Spider-Man, evoking a sense of adventure, heroism, and emotional resonance, especially when it comes to the main theme.

Another standout feature of Marvel's Spider-Man, however, lies in its captivating storytelling. I believe it surpasses most of the movies in terms of crafting an engaging narrative that feels fresh and innovative. Witnessing the transformation of Otto Octavius into the legendary Doc Ock throughout the course of the game is heartbreaking and deep. Uncovering the tragic backstory of Martin Li intertwining with his alter ego, Mr. Negative, is just something you can't help but feel empathy towards. These two characters showcase the complex nature and destructive power of their revenge-driven motivation.

Another shoutout goes to the game's exceptional portrayal of beloved characters like Peter Parker, MJ, and Miles Morales. The writing and voice acting bring these characters to life, showcasing their distinct personalities, strengths, and vulnerabilities. The relationships between the characters are explored with care and nuance, adding emotional depth to the narrative. The inclusion of Miles Morales as a central figure is a welcome addition, as his unique abilities and perspective provide a fresh dynamic to the gameplay and story. Despite some minor shortcomings in the missions involving MJ and Miles, they do not detract significantly from the overall experience, and I found myself fully invested in the journey and development of these iconic characters.

When it comes to the actual combat, I couldn't get enough of the satisfying combos. It is absolutely peak action. The fluidity and responsiveness of the controls make it a joy to execute sequences like a devastating punch followed by a graceful dodge, an uppercut from behind, a quick two-hit combo, a swing kick, and finally, a web toss to dispatch another enemy. This level of versatility in Spider-Man's attacks and gadgets truly rivals the combat mechanics of the Arkhamverse, which undoubtedly served as a significant inspiration for this creative decision. In fact, I found myself enjoying the combat in this game even more than in Miles Morales' standalone title, especially once the upgrades for Spider-Man's gadgets are unlocked, resulting in truly exhilarating battles. Another thing to give props to is the stealth. Despite my general disinterest in stealth mechanics in games, this title manages to infuse enjoyable elements of stealth, allowing me to creatively incapacitate enemies with webbing or perform powerful kicks to the head for swift takedowns. Experimenting with gadgets like impact webs and trip mines adds another layer of strategy, and it allowed me to maintain distance while having fun effectively neutralizing adversaries.

Marvel's Spider-Man represents the quintessential superhero game, a remarkable and effective ending of the hit-or-miss Spider-Man titles of the past that were often tied to movie releases. Yuri Lowenthal's portrayal of Spider-Man is, in my opinion, the definitive interpretation of the character to date, imbuing him with both terrifying strength and combat reflexes that rival those of Batman in the Arkhamverse. I even find myself reading the actual comics with his voice in my mind, because it's just so perfectly fitting. The exceptional musical score, top-tier voice acting, and seamless controls further enhance the overall experience. Without a doubt, this game has secured its position as my favorite superhero title and one of my all-time favorite games, leaving me eagerly anticipating the release of its sequel.

The game that'll make you feel like the web-headed.

Everyone was waiting for a good game of the web-headed as TASM 1 and 2 we're both kinda shit, until in 2018 Sony gave us this masterpiece of a game that will really make you feel like you're the legend of Spiderman, the combat is really satisfying, many times I found myself just swinging around the city forgetting about any problem I could have. Or replaying the main story as even tho its not the best story given to us about spiderman is still a really solid and more importantly a fun one, a really must play if you're a fan of the character.

Nossa, esse jogo é sem dúvida nenhuma um dos melhores jogos que eu já joguei em toda a minha vida. Sempre fui um enorme fã do homem aranha desde pequeno, a ponto de sempre estar falando sobre o quão forte e incrível ele é. Quando descobri a existência desse jogo eu basicamente surtei e decidi que precisaria jogar essa obra prima. Quando tive a oportunidade me diverti tanto e fiquei tão feliz que acabei zerando ele mais de 2 vezes e zerei todas as DLCS. No final de 2023 descobri a existência das platinas e me senti obrigado a platina-lo e faze-lo minha primeira platina da vida. Platinado com orgulho, assim como todas as DLCS. Com certeza um dos meus jogos favoritos de todos os tempos. Super recomendo!

there aren't very many games I can say have become less and less appealing the more time I've spent with them and thought about them, and in that short list is spider-man '18. I could not put this game down when I started playing it as the cliche held true: this really does make you feel like spider-man. you can use the webs in combat, swing around freely, climb up elevator shafts, and fly around in situations that really do feel straight out of a marvel movie. on an initial playthrough the cracks in the formula aren't quite as apparent especially if you don't bother to grind the optional content, and the twists to the story alone carry interest. the ending is excellent as well: the boss fight is very poor but they gave peter some touching moments that made it worth getting so far, with sequel hooks set up to boot.

once I dove in the grind for platinum is where everything fell apart. it's no secret that this game is a pretty obvious ripoff of rocksteady's arkham series, and it's immediately obvious from the first few hours of the game. each area of the game has some major flaws:

the combat is clunky and never gets any better, even after fully upgrading spidey's abilities. the game does a good-natured attempt to incorporate more of a character action-feel with launchers and juggling, but it's still a beat-em-up at its core, with mashing out melee attacks while dodging at opportune times being the name of the game. on normal brutes this isn't so bad, but as the game continues and more enemy types are introduced there are some very frustrating mechanics introduced. the heavy enemies especially are a chore... why do they literally slide across the ground during their attack wind-up when they aren't close to you? it looks sloppy and indicates insomniac was more concerned with adding challenge to the combat rather than fleshing it out in any meaningful way

there's an argument to be made that the arkham combat also isn't great, but I don't think there's really a question that arkham stealth is much much better than spider-man stealth. the game virtually plays these sections for you by telling you exactly when it's safe to take down an enemy, and there's so many vantage points that you will never run out of places to perform easy one-button takedowns from. they might as well be QTE sequences. the MJ/miles stealth sections also suck, though that was common knowledge even when the game released.

none of the boss battles in this game are particularly good, even later on when you get to fight some villain tag-teams. virtually all of them are some variation on "wait for an opening and stun them somehow, and then do an auto-combo" over and over again, which is especially tedious when the method of stunning is literally just to throw webs.

open-world manhattan is such a cool idea... and you end up basically just seeing the skyline as you swing around, as virtually no time is spent on the ground. I almost feel bad for the people who invested so much time into modeling this city, as there's no exploration to be had. the game might as well be a giant open box with markers telling you where collectables and missions are

the story... god the story. it's hard to view this outside of the lens of the trump era (this game released halfway through his term), as the landscape of superhero media had changed so drastically from the arkham era, where the stories were rooted in the glossy grit of mid-00s post-dark age comics. elements such as JJJ being an alex jones-esque podcaster after leaving the daily bugle are simply too tied to this era of american politics to view otherwise. the catalyst for many elements in the story is the avarice of norman osbourne, who is both mayor and business magnate in this universe. he drives the backstories of multiple key supervillains who seek to take revenge on him, and spider-man is left as a lapdog for osbourne and his police force to go around beating the shit out of terrorists while doing epic "if you hate osbourne so much, you should have voted him out!!" quips. the game also does its best to make NYC look like a war zone of constant shoot-outs, robberies, property destruction, and etc., which is thrown into stark relief by literally every non-criminal citizen of the city being a soy "I Fucking Love Science" millennial cariacture, including peter himself. it's a bizarre juxtaposition that makes the story feel like it doesn't explore the facets of spider-man's life and the constant strife in NYC both physically and politically in any meaningful way beyond setting up villains and moving the story forward.

the best part of this game by far is the traversal: the web-swinging feels so good and so many options are given as to make even just idly swinging around a joy. even the traversal and bomb challenges, which require insanely good execution to achieve top marks in, kept me coming back to improve my times. kudos to them on making this aspect so good as to make the rest of the game worth playing in comparison tbh.

I've been harsh on this game and for good reason: it's got a smug aura to it frankly that is entirely undeserved for a game that cribs this much from earlier titles and refuses to innovate in any meaningful way. what I will say is that the actual story missions are rather fun and are worth trying, it's just virtually everything else in the game that lacks any merit. can't recommend this one beyond an initial playthrough (and maybe a plat, this is a pretty easy plat overall)

This is my favorite game of all time and my most played single player game. I've played through the original about 10+ times and the remaster about 5.

There's not really anything I can say about this game that hasn't been said already. Insomniac made something truly amazing here. The best version of Spider-Man/Peter Parker we've gotten since the Spectacular Spider-Man cartoon in 2008.

As a massive Spider-Man fan this game means a lot to me. It's a love letter to the character and I can't wait for the sequel.

🎮 Platform: PS5
⌚ Time played - 29h (platinum main game + 3 DLC fiished. Yea i did this at mad speed :) )
⭐ Score: 4.3/5
🏆Trophy completion - Plat the main game. Definitely a fun plat and would recommend though the crime missions got repetitive after a while and my brain shut off. Thought the plat was fun, I did not feel like i needed more of this content so I did not 100% the 3 DLCs.
📚 Full Review:
The gold standard to me for any super hero game is the Arkham Series. Though this game does not live up to that benchmark in every aspect there are some aspects it does and some where it falls short. One can definitely see the influence of that game here.

- I found the main story to be pretty interesting and gripping and one of its highlights. It felt like a real thought out story, which alot of games don't seem to do anymore. The DLC story was fine, nothing out of the ordinary.
- The combat became repetitive and the stealth missions lacked variety. It always ended up slam a guy from the air, web him, or lure him with webs. This was imo mediocore.
- Swinging through NY is generally very smooth and was always fun even after the 20th hour.
- The non Spiderman missions with alternate characters were fine, but not anything i was looking forward to.

I will take a break and hit up Miles Morales next.