Miles Morales is an underdog story. Enemies in combat, people on the street, and all of Miles does refer to him as just a side grade spider. This story is about Miles developing the confidence to be Spiderman WITHOUT Peter. And it sets that up well. With Peter being gone with MJ in Symkaria (nice callback to the last game) it's left for Miles alone to patrol the city... the same city. It's now winter break and it's snowing but this game is basically just a beefed up standalone expansion.

The story of this game is a lot more personal than the last one. Miles still lives with his mom so it isn't like Aunt May giving you a call every so often. Miles and his mother bond over the loss of their dad/husband and Miles' best friend is staying over winter break with him. This is even expanded more with Miles' uncle being the Prowler and his childhood best friend being the Tinkerer (which I admit surprised me as much as it shouldn't have). So with this story being more personal and I always being someone rooting for the underdogs, why does it feel so done before? The Tinkerer vs Roxxon dynamic is almost identical to the Octo vs Osborn dynamic of the last game. Where one person is trying to stop an evil person for their own reasons but is doing it in a radically evil way. The last mission honestly saved the story for me with such a well done character building moment between Miles and Phin, along with Phin's regret as the fight going on and her sacrifice made me shed a tear. I'm a sucker for this kind and I felt horrible for Miles. The way Phin says "I'm sorry" and Miles says "It's okay" as they are falling after Phin has caused so much chaos felt so real and tugged at my heart strings. But Phin was also acting ridiculous! Even crazier than Otto was. Even the Roxxon guy says over the intercom how stupid this plan is, explaining that they will just rebuild after the insurance from a terrorist attack. For me to really enjoy this story I have to pretty out of character actions that can only happen from the need to drive the plot. There was stuff like that in the last game, it's almost a trope of superhero media. Letting emotions get in the way of critical thinking, but Phin's decision here to not trust Miles that the reactor has been modified even though he's clearly NOT working for Roxxon is just stupid. I still shed a tear cus again I'm a sucker for Miles and Phin's dynamic but it felt a little forced. I had to push that one out. Aunt May's passing in the ps4 game had me sobbing uncontrollably in comparison, and she's in the game about as much as Phin.

Miles' new "venom" abilities are nice but he has less gadgets overall so I found the combat rather impactful but not as interesting? In the first game I developed different strategies for different enemies as the game went on. Being able to prioritize target enemies I found bothersome and quickly dispatch groups. Miles Morales plays much more like a brawler. I almost NEVER switched off the spiderwebs. It's just racking combos until you can use a venom attack and that takes out everyone, no matter how big they are or if they're blocking, as well as making you invincible.

With Miles camouflage abilities the game is a lot more stealth heavy but I honestly prefer the first game stealth. This game still goes off the same either you are good to take down an enemy or you aren't type of stealth. The first game allowed you to bend these rules more with the trip mines and impact webs, allowing you to take out 2 people who were two close to separate. While here you just have camo to let you sneak around easier. You do have trip mines but they're electric so they can only be used on electrical panels or on 1 single target, making everyone raise their detection.

By the time I felt done I was just over 10 hours in and if I had focused the story a little more I would have been done a few hours quicker. I love Miles as a character and while he has some great arcs, I do feel that there isn't enough run time to flesh out some characters and the story overall played it a little too safe.

100%ing the last game lowered my enjoyment a little so this time I just got any extras I wanted (the bodega cat suit) and called it quits. This game is hard to put an ending note on because it has a lot of the charm as the first game but still oozes the feeling of "been there, done that". I only started using fast travel at the absolute end of the last game for the collectables. But here I was using it the second I unlocked it. For it being what it is (a game sized stand alone expansion basically) I think it's good. It's a good stepping stone in-between the first and second game.

Other things I liked and didn't mention:
-You get to pick a vinyl to play for dinner
-There were TWO separate missions about saving cats (the cats are very cute)
-Cat Bodega Suit (although they play a low mixed stock cat meow sound like every 10 seconds idk why)
-Prowler suit is a Prince reference and looks badass
-Robot Peter calls robot Vulture a racist
-Soundtrack has a nice blend of hip hop and sampling along with the more standard triumphant hero music
-Running into Peter and Doc into the past (I knew this was coming but still it was funny to see Peter and Miles bump into each other and also bittersweet to see Peter and Octo talk before everything went down)
-Miles has lesbian friends
-Prowler boss fight
-This game's color palette. Even the sewer has this charm and character to it
-The final boss fight reminded me of Revenge of the Sith (both location wise and theming, very dramatic and chilling)
-The big blizzard during the final mission increases stakes a lot
-Crimes are a lot less repetitive with you only needing to do a crime ONCE. Not doing that crime 5 times per area. Just once ever
-The mission system made me feel a lot more connected to the people of the city since your following special requests, meaning you get a mix of the serious and silly while all feeling real
-You get your swinging / movement abilities back FAST (all it takes it 3 short trials, which is good for this not being a full sequel)
-That one ign review clip

Miles é, desde o jogo anterior, muito carismático. O jogo vai bem em apresentar sua relação com o Harlem, uma pena que com os vilões não seja da mesma maneira, a moça e o bilionário são insuportáveis e incapazes de causar algo além de repúdio (não dá maneira que se espera de vilões).

NY em neve é linda, mas rapidamente se torna enjoativa, perdendo os contrastes do primeiro jogo. E embora ele se atente em alguns pontos repetitivos do jogo anterior, é tão curto que fica difícil julgar.

Outra situação, foi que ocorreram alguns bugs no áudio, onde eu não ouvia os personagens e outros no mundo, atravessando objetos. Nada tão crítico, mas aconteceram algumas vezes.