It's a fantastic game and a fantastic sequel, but it feels a bit too "safe" and doesn't ever really reach the heights the first game did.

Off the bat, this game does the same thing Miles Morales did in that it takes away some of your movement options, which is just incredibly not fun. There's no good reason for Peter and Miles to have to relearn how to point launch, and making me do so for the third game in a row is kind of a pain. Same with combat -- while Miles gets most of his venom powers back pretty quickly, you start with no gadgets, and that just feels shitty. In favor of the gadgets I will say that the reduced number of gadgets compared to the first game is a plus. I actually used all of them now, instead of just two or three as I did in the original. Side content is also a lot more hit and miss. There's fewer "challenge" type sidequests (which personally I think was an improvement, but that's a matter of taste), but also fewer engaging sidequests in general. There's some that really stand out, storywise, and a one type that I thought was a lot of fun and I wished there'd been more like that in the main game, but overall, they're pretty meh. Finally, and probably most egregiously, it takes a frustratingly long time before you get the Symbiote. Additionally, once you get it off, Venom's really only around for about three or four hours of gameplay, and that's assuming you do all the side content that unlocks at that point.

Despite all that, it's a genuinely good game. Particularly when it comes to the story: it was great, emotional, and above all, fun. And really, despite all the words I just wrote about the flaws, they're all comparatively minor. The game is a blast to play, and I highly recommend it.