This review contains spoilers
The gameplay is far from exciting, taking several pages out of the Ubisoft game-lengthener handbook: fetch quests, combat challenges, landscape photography. The most exciting parts were the Vulture/Electro fight and the Rhino/Scorpion fight which makes me hope there's another good Spider-Man game out there somewhere that isn't bloated with needless busywork. That's not what I want to talk about though, what I have the most to complain about is the story.
I'm still so bewildered by this bizarrely fascistic Spider-Man character, perhaps the most tone-deaf pro-cop Spider-Man to date. We're talking about the man who volunteers at a homeless shelter, but gleefully hands drug addicts over to the police, and views Doctor Octopus as evil for his plan to cure Vulture's spine cancer, help Rhino get out of the suit he's trapped in, pay off Scorpion's debts, and turn Electro into pure energy. Doctor Octopus is addressing the root cause of the crimes, and Spider-Man is throwing authoritarian force at it. It would almost be a perfect metaphor if not for the fact we're supposed to be rooting for Spider-Man.
The story also lacks confidence in itself as Mr. Negative is thrown to the side multiple times to make way for the more well-known Doctor Octopus. Perhaps if the twist were that Doctor Octopus was pulling the strings from the beginning it would have more weight to shift focus to him but no, we just stumble into his storyline almost like an afterthought.
The DLC doesn't improve much either, chapter 2 especially which documents the downfall of Yuri. The massacre she commits at The Bar With No Name, the attempted murder of Hammerhead, and the serial killer chase ends with the reveal that Yuri has decided to start killing anyone she sees as criminal. Even in the face of this, Spider-Man's trust in law enforcement is unshaken. Even Sable gets a redemption arc after forcibly taking over New York City and then leaving her mercs to commit all manner of crimes. It's insane to think a game this accidentally (I hope) propagandistic came out in the modern age.
Such a frustrating experience all around, especially considering how long I had to wait to play this.
I'm still so bewildered by this bizarrely fascistic Spider-Man character, perhaps the most tone-deaf pro-cop Spider-Man to date. We're talking about the man who volunteers at a homeless shelter, but gleefully hands drug addicts over to the police, and views Doctor Octopus as evil for his plan to cure Vulture's spine cancer, help Rhino get out of the suit he's trapped in, pay off Scorpion's debts, and turn Electro into pure energy. Doctor Octopus is addressing the root cause of the crimes, and Spider-Man is throwing authoritarian force at it. It would almost be a perfect metaphor if not for the fact we're supposed to be rooting for Spider-Man.
The story also lacks confidence in itself as Mr. Negative is thrown to the side multiple times to make way for the more well-known Doctor Octopus. Perhaps if the twist were that Doctor Octopus was pulling the strings from the beginning it would have more weight to shift focus to him but no, we just stumble into his storyline almost like an afterthought.
The DLC doesn't improve much either, chapter 2 especially which documents the downfall of Yuri. The massacre she commits at The Bar With No Name, the attempted murder of Hammerhead, and the serial killer chase ends with the reveal that Yuri has decided to start killing anyone she sees as criminal. Even in the face of this, Spider-Man's trust in law enforcement is unshaken. Even Sable gets a redemption arc after forcibly taking over New York City and then leaving her mercs to commit all manner of crimes. It's insane to think a game this accidentally (I hope) propagandistic came out in the modern age.
Such a frustrating experience all around, especially considering how long I had to wait to play this.