This review contains spoilers
This is what a video game sequel show be! An improvement over the original, but doesn't deviate to the point where it's unrecognizable. Spider-Man 2 is just about as perfect of a sequel as you can get. Everything is refined. Combat, exploration, map traversal, graphics, load times, story, characters, side quests and their respective stories, everything! There are a lot more Spider-Man villains involved & some new playable characters I was not expecting to play as (you don't really play as them for long, but it's nice they got their own sections).
While this game does many great things, there two things holding it back. One's a nitpick, but the other is an overarching problem that honestly makes me want to lower the score.
Nitpick: Like the first one, there are some mini-games & MJ sequences. I consider this a nitpick because they're not as frequently or "bad" as the ones in the first. The MJ sequences are kind of fun because you got a gun this time and it's not purely hide & seek. The bee drones are fun as well. The molecule & plant hexagon puzzle is alright I guess. I do see the point of view where these sequences kill any replay value or incentive to start a New Game +.
The Big Problem: I know a lot of friends who've fallen out of gaming because they're too long. Long as in they're more like movies with how many cutscenes there are. Spider-Man 2 does not fall under this problem. The game is very fast-paced, but not just in gameplay, but also the story. I'm probably the only one who thinks this, but the story feels kind of rushed. Not the whole story, but some bits here & there.
First, I want to talk about when Peter gets the Symbiote suit. The symbiote is supposed to make Peter stronger, but takes away his humanity. Makes him heartless & mean. That happens here, but there's not really a build-up. Peter just starts getting mad. In Sam Raimi's Spider-Man 3, Peter was angry before he got the symbiote suit because he found out Sandman killed Uncle Ben. When the symbiote bonded with Peter, it just fueled an already existing anger. In the Spectacular Spider-Man animated series, Peter was undergoing a lot of stress with school, his job & getting paid enough so he doesn't go broke, Aunt May getting a heart attack & being in the hospital, & all his previous villains breaking loose & forming the Sinister Six. We all know that stress can lead to anger. Again, the symbiote fueled the anger that was already there. In Spider-Man 2 PS5, there's nothing building up to Peter's descend. He snaps instantly. The only logical answer I have is that the symbiote was already pissed so it just transferred over that anger to Peter, but that doesn't really make any sense because Harry's had it before & his nut never cracked. I don't know maybe I'm thinking too deep.
Black Cat makes an appearance, albeit a very brief one. Wish we could have spent a little more time with her, flesh out her arc more but I guess I should have bought the DLC in the first one for that. Oh well...
Another criticism with the pacing is the ending. Very underwhelming in my opinion. It's cool to see Venom get wings, but his boss fight & the way he went out was kind of anti-climatic. The final boss with Doc Ock was epic, the stakes were high, the emotions were running, I was on the edge of my seat. Against Venom, not so much. The boss fight was easy, it ended with Miles & not both of them together for some reason. Hell, it would have been more awesome if MJ got in the action, too. But, no. Venom dies because you stick a meteorite inside a microwave. Lame sauce. I'm glad Harry lived & I'm curious to see if you're going to fight him all over again as the Green Goblin. However, I would have much preferred the symbiote not get destroyed & Harry could learned to control it & we get a playable Agent Venom character in Spider-Man 3. Instead, it seems Spider-Woman will be the third Spider-Hero we play as. I understand why Venom had to die. He's clearly too badass, strong & evil to stay alive, but the execution left a bad taste in my mouth.
I'm willing to overlook the pacing for the aforementioned problems & not dock off a point. However, my final criticism with the pacing, the one I'm considering lowering my score further is how quick the game is & how that correlate with the price. I live in Canada. I bought this game for 103.47 CAD (this includes taxes). For you Americans, this is about 75.47 USD. Pretty expensive! I'm not trying to stay afloat poor, but I'm not spending a million dollars a day rich. 100$ is a lot of money that could go into a lot of things far more important than ONE video game. If I spend that much money, I better be spending weeks trying to 100% the game. I 100% completed Spider-Man 2 in 4 days. Really? Game's got to last longer than that. This game does not feel worthy of $100. For the first time ever, I feel scammed buying a video game. So much so, that I'm considering returning the game for a refund. Normally, I leave it on the shelf for display, but here's where I draw the line. I love most of the video games I played! The ones I don't were either free on PS Plus or came cheap. To have a video game I genuinely enjoyed & spent a lot of money on make me feel this level of unsatisfaction is unnerving to say the least. Now I'm contemplating selling all the other games I haven't touched since beating them. I don't want to for emotional attachment, but money is king. I don't know I'm still considering my options.
Alright, let's ignore my dull contemplations with a vibrant recap. Overall, Spider-Man 2 PS5 is a perfect sequel & an absolute must-play if you own the PS5. If you're a Spider-Man fan, you'll definitely love this. I would even go so far to say this is THE SPIDER-MAN story (as in this feels like all the comics mashed together into one, and it's epic!) I had a great time playing this, even though it's giving me a mini existential crisis (if I can call it that).
While this game does many great things, there two things holding it back. One's a nitpick, but the other is an overarching problem that honestly makes me want to lower the score.
Nitpick: Like the first one, there are some mini-games & MJ sequences. I consider this a nitpick because they're not as frequently or "bad" as the ones in the first. The MJ sequences are kind of fun because you got a gun this time and it's not purely hide & seek. The bee drones are fun as well. The molecule & plant hexagon puzzle is alright I guess. I do see the point of view where these sequences kill any replay value or incentive to start a New Game +.
The Big Problem: I know a lot of friends who've fallen out of gaming because they're too long. Long as in they're more like movies with how many cutscenes there are. Spider-Man 2 does not fall under this problem. The game is very fast-paced, but not just in gameplay, but also the story. I'm probably the only one who thinks this, but the story feels kind of rushed. Not the whole story, but some bits here & there.
First, I want to talk about when Peter gets the Symbiote suit. The symbiote is supposed to make Peter stronger, but takes away his humanity. Makes him heartless & mean. That happens here, but there's not really a build-up. Peter just starts getting mad. In Sam Raimi's Spider-Man 3, Peter was angry before he got the symbiote suit because he found out Sandman killed Uncle Ben. When the symbiote bonded with Peter, it just fueled an already existing anger. In the Spectacular Spider-Man animated series, Peter was undergoing a lot of stress with school, his job & getting paid enough so he doesn't go broke, Aunt May getting a heart attack & being in the hospital, & all his previous villains breaking loose & forming the Sinister Six. We all know that stress can lead to anger. Again, the symbiote fueled the anger that was already there. In Spider-Man 2 PS5, there's nothing building up to Peter's descend. He snaps instantly. The only logical answer I have is that the symbiote was already pissed so it just transferred over that anger to Peter, but that doesn't really make any sense because Harry's had it before & his nut never cracked. I don't know maybe I'm thinking too deep.
Black Cat makes an appearance, albeit a very brief one. Wish we could have spent a little more time with her, flesh out her arc more but I guess I should have bought the DLC in the first one for that. Oh well...
Another criticism with the pacing is the ending. Very underwhelming in my opinion. It's cool to see Venom get wings, but his boss fight & the way he went out was kind of anti-climatic. The final boss with Doc Ock was epic, the stakes were high, the emotions were running, I was on the edge of my seat. Against Venom, not so much. The boss fight was easy, it ended with Miles & not both of them together for some reason. Hell, it would have been more awesome if MJ got in the action, too. But, no. Venom dies because you stick a meteorite inside a microwave. Lame sauce. I'm glad Harry lived & I'm curious to see if you're going to fight him all over again as the Green Goblin. However, I would have much preferred the symbiote not get destroyed & Harry could learned to control it & we get a playable Agent Venom character in Spider-Man 3. Instead, it seems Spider-Woman will be the third Spider-Hero we play as. I understand why Venom had to die. He's clearly too badass, strong & evil to stay alive, but the execution left a bad taste in my mouth.
I'm willing to overlook the pacing for the aforementioned problems & not dock off a point. However, my final criticism with the pacing, the one I'm considering lowering my score further is how quick the game is & how that correlate with the price. I live in Canada. I bought this game for 103.47 CAD (this includes taxes). For you Americans, this is about 75.47 USD. Pretty expensive! I'm not trying to stay afloat poor, but I'm not spending a million dollars a day rich. 100$ is a lot of money that could go into a lot of things far more important than ONE video game. If I spend that much money, I better be spending weeks trying to 100% the game. I 100% completed Spider-Man 2 in 4 days. Really? Game's got to last longer than that. This game does not feel worthy of $100. For the first time ever, I feel scammed buying a video game. So much so, that I'm considering returning the game for a refund. Normally, I leave it on the shelf for display, but here's where I draw the line. I love most of the video games I played! The ones I don't were either free on PS Plus or came cheap. To have a video game I genuinely enjoyed & spent a lot of money on make me feel this level of unsatisfaction is unnerving to say the least. Now I'm contemplating selling all the other games I haven't touched since beating them. I don't want to for emotional attachment, but money is king. I don't know I'm still considering my options.
Alright, let's ignore my dull contemplations with a vibrant recap. Overall, Spider-Man 2 PS5 is a perfect sequel & an absolute must-play if you own the PS5. If you're a Spider-Man fan, you'll definitely love this. I would even go so far to say this is THE SPIDER-MAN story (as in this feels like all the comics mashed together into one, and it's epic!) I had a great time playing this, even though it's giving me a mini existential crisis (if I can call it that).