HOT DAMN!!!!! Ok so obvious shit out of the way first this game is packed to the brim with color and energy and the art style is definitely hitting the chord of being something like a niche mini series of a show that happened in the early 00s that had this as a tie in game that somehow crossed dimensions over to us in present day... does that sound insane? MAYBE!!!! IDC THIS SHIT WENT HARD AS FUCK!!! And here's why

A rhythm action game is a unicorn of a mashup that honestly i dont think ive ever seen done in this exact way, everything from the environments that bustle and bounce along to the beat of the world around you.. to the beat of your allies and enemies attacks its all SO! FUCKING! A D D I C T I N G! Sometimes id find myself genuinely just lingering around areas for much longer, my play times for these levels that are around maybe 30 minutes a pop each sit around an hour and do you know Why?????? I LOVE TIMING MY SHIT TO THE BEAT, I LOVE GETTING THAT TRIPLE DASH IN EVEN IF I DONT NEED IT, SOMETIMES HANGING ON IT FOR MINUTES ON END ITS SO G O O D

The story also makes a lot of use of this, each boss syncs up with the beat and theyre ALL fun in my opinion. Like youd expect them to run out of steam or something at some point but they Always manage to do something DIFFERENT with each one, now im not completely dicksuckin the game by sayin youll see never before seen concepts before for those boss fights constantly but its lavishly presented in a way thats so fresh and figuratively AND literally keeps the beat going and doesnt dwell too long on one verse. Even the structure for which you approach the bosses can be pretty different as well!!!!

The Story absolutely knows what it is and takes as much opportunity as it can to just get to the point, be pretty funny and even in a cheesy way tug at my heart TBH. It's not winnin any awards in that ballpark, sure, but this is actual candy for your retinas...

Final Thoughts: this shit is STILL unreal to me. a day 1 announcement and release game that shows up and manages to have so much content even after you beat it w/o being trickled in free dlc or paid dlc at all... the OST, the art style the sounds the gameplay oh my fucking god. It's a beautiful taste of early 00s action gameplay like what i felt experiencing via Devil May Cry but weirdly more enjoyable to me... i think what choked me up the most about this game too was that the story and gameplay are all so to the point and the message in it is so pure.. that i think it actually hit at the perfect time in my life. Seeing all these weenies be friends made me taste something, and at first i thought it was envy.. and then i thought harder about it for hours until it clicked that its not Envy but in awe at how this game reminds me of better days. It reminds me of having a tight friendgroup where everyone feels there for each other, it reminds me of how vibrant things felt and how they can Still Be if you seize your own beat in a myriad of others in society. Because if you lose that? It's all just noise, the hardest thing to overcome in the game. Each enemy individually is easy pickings, but in high numbers you cant lose your beat.. that rhythm that guides you and cuts harder than any swing of your guitar.
This game is the first ever that I think has made it sink in that while im thinking about all of these things..
Im getting old :\ ... but thats Good because that means I can appreciate shit like this immensely more than I would if I was a preteen or a kid for the reasons i stated
And I STILL have content to see.....
FUCk.

The game is at least worth one shot if you're a fan of spider-man.

There's a good chunk of variety in suits, including suits from most of the spider-man movies, from 2010's "Amazing spider-man" duology to Kino like Raimi's Spider-man trilogy to of course the MCU costumes from 2016-recently updated No way home suits in the PC version. and other additions like the Toku-inspired Spidey suit, Spider-punk, Negative Spider-Suit, cel-shaded comic book-esque spidey, etc. Including being able to add in mods on the PC version, there's going to be an endless amount of variety to choose from, and you can choose your own "Suit ability" which ranges from increased damage, bulletproof, reflecting bullets, being able to regenerate your combat meter which can be used for health by pressing down on the D pad or whatever key you've binded to, or can use it to use instant takedowns.

The Swinging does feel great albeit far more simple than expected, i thought it would be a shit ton of combinations to swing around New york but, it just seems right trigger to run and swing, Dualshock's X or A depending on the controller to shoot little webs to move yourself forward or dust yourself off and boost yourself upwards when you fumble to the ground, and maybe RT and LT to leap into edges of buildings, or miscellaneous things on rooftops like water tanks. and you can do cools spins and rolls by holding onto Square or Xbox's X button after you level up a little bit. and the charge jump is back (though you need to unlock it) so you can easily to swing back into action. Im satisfied of what they come up with, especially animations but there's a lot more room for improvement in terms of button placement, especially when it comes to parkour or what movements you can pull off by swinging.

Leveling up is a breeze, almost too generous even with one of the suit mods granting you extra XP before even doing the final mission, to the point of having 4 left over skill points after maxing out all of the skill trees. Only thing to worry about if ever is the other miscellaneous things like research points, challenge tokens, base tokens, Backpack tokens, crime tokens and landmark tokens to buy new suits (except the movie ones and other additional ones come with this version) and gadgets to help along the way. and Even that's easy to do via roaming around the city and pick off bases here and there in wave arena styled fights against enemies, doing side missions, taking photos of landmarks, etc.

Just wish that tedious ass things weren't there, tedious shit that you likely have heard of (the eternal MJ and Miles "stealth" sections) or things like Sable's soldiers at the later half just wind up being so damn annoying, particularly those with the jetpacks and those who just deplete your health in nanoseconds with guns or laser rifles. Had gotten me to use the damn bulletproof suit ability because of how annoying it is, like i never died during any of the major boss fights yet i fucking die constantly to those. or those enemies with whiplashes where they can catch you mid air and slam your ass into the ground while everyone else is shooting you, leaving no chance to dodge and ruining your combat flow more than the jetpack sable mercenary goons.

The other usual shit that's usually in modern open worlds like collectibles or "ubisoft towers" (just like the name implies, towers that are required to uncover the map fully, infamous on being mediocre ubisoft open worlds) dont feel as boring or mind-numbingly dull as i would've initially thought thanks to the swinging mechanics but i can definitely live without them.

The story starts strong but then it does take a while to start up again but damn when it hits by the 2nd half, it goes full speed ahead. You'd know what's gonna happen if you've seen a spider-man story before, be it movies or comics so there's no surprises here but the execution is genuinely good, Puts the first 2 MCU spider-man solo films to shame just on the fact that they take shit seriously and not taking the piss. Particularly when it comes to peter's identity, where here its treated more emotionally vs with those films its just played up for laughs and makes peter look so fucken incompetent.

Its emotional, well acted enough to where it didn't make me go "wtf that's cheesy" (well main story anyways, i know about the screwball broad and i really didn't like her like many reviewers) and its intense, especially when (without spoiling it) the city goes to shit and its total chaos and you have to stop it. You go from maybe stopping a few criminals in car chases and robberies and drug deals to full blown riots and snipers everywhere NONSTOP. and when i say nonstop, i mean getting this close to another campaign mission marker then hearing another NYPD dispatch and going "Aw fuck, not again".

The boss fights were actually piss easy like I've said before, didn't die once during a boss fight and i almost did with the shocker and that's mainly due to me figuring out how to dodge properly, but after that, it was almost embarrassingly easy.

Same with the combat for the most part (except those damn laser beaming/whip lashing bastards that deplete your health before you can even blink) I found myself getting 100x combos with a generous window even with the usual goons, goons with guns and big grunts compared to the arkham series where the momentum and the combo meter is just gone in the second you slow down. and just like the swinging i thought you can be able to pull off more moves other than the usual punching, webbing enemies up, swing em around, etc., makes me miss some web of shadows type shit where you can just straight up surf on a dude, Maybe when Spider-Man 2 (Insomniac) comes with peter getting the inevitable Venom/symbiote suit, there's gonna be some gnarly combos. but its serviceable here.

Overall, There's nothing completely egregious about this game, its good but it can be better. Helps that i play it on PC, running buttery smooth on my rig for the most part at 60fps, making the combat helluva lot more responsive. Would've said this is serviceable and gave it a 3 and a half stars but The story, the animations, the lived in world where there's more NPCs here than there are in certain open worlds nowadays and Graphics bump it up to a 4. One of the better "modern" Sony (PS4/PS5 era) exclusives atm.

INCREDIBLE 2d run and gun platformer that is a masterpiece in art direction achievement but I cant give this shit a 5/5 in confidence because i actually really dont like the run and gun segments, i adore the bosses,
if the game was just a boss rush game id be completely fine with that but holy fuck i dont like the non-boss stages(excluding ms chalice's ghost punch romp)
Also the parry is a piece of shit sometimes the damn thing doesnt even register
I can excuse nearly every boss in the game bc its that good tit-punch energy, but MAN what a fucker
its great though, esp with your wife. or your friend if you aint got one of those layin around

i think this is the sorta game you need to be a teenage boy to really get into. its entire appeal is its tryhard edge - if you don't like the game's humor, it won't work. if you have fond memories of playing xbox live, the iraq war, and watching south park, it'd probably do it for you. the actual game really isn't worth talking about much either, it's about as crudely made and tedious as its very funny and very smart jokes. there's a lot of freedom in how you go about your day, kinda like the world's stinkiest immersive sim. you'll only find the gameplay and the wacky scenarios therein fun if you fuck with the writing. i don't. not gonna pretend there's nothing to this one, but i'm not seeing it.

also when i quit it after 13hrs of playtime steam fucked up and said i played 130hrs, making it one of the most played games and forcing me to remove it from my account out of shame.