This review contains spoilers
As a big Spider-Man fan, this game hits it out of the park and I feel so lucky to get to live in a time where I get to enjoy these Insomniac Spider-Man games.
On a technical level, wow! This game is phenomenal. The instant load times, smooth frame rate, and improved movement are top notch. Graphically (apart from Mary Jane’s face), scope, and gameplay-wise this is next level. Playing as symbiote Spider-Man feels great and powerful. My only real issue regarding gameplay is that I was a little bummed to not see some staple Spider-Man gadgets return.
All that praise being said, I did find some real issues with the narrative and characters.
The pacing felt all over the place with a lot of the most pivotal story moments and character developments feeling sloppy and not fully earned. It was almost as if Insomniac tried to cram too much into one game and didn’t give certain character moments and relationships time to breathe.
This was especially apparent to me regarding Miles who often felt tacked on to the story as opposed to an integral part. His dialogue and stakes feel really poorly written when compared to what Peter goes through, and when you start to get near the end and it becomes clear that a goal of this game is to start the transition of Miles becoming THE Spider-Man, it becomes glaringly obvious that Insomniac dropped the ball a bit on this end.
Despite these issues the game is still brilliant and a lot of fun, but with a story that feels inferior to the first, you can’t help but feel just a tiny bit disappointed.
8.5/10
On a technical level, wow! This game is phenomenal. The instant load times, smooth frame rate, and improved movement are top notch. Graphically (apart from Mary Jane’s face), scope, and gameplay-wise this is next level. Playing as symbiote Spider-Man feels great and powerful. My only real issue regarding gameplay is that I was a little bummed to not see some staple Spider-Man gadgets return.
All that praise being said, I did find some real issues with the narrative and characters.
The pacing felt all over the place with a lot of the most pivotal story moments and character developments feeling sloppy and not fully earned. It was almost as if Insomniac tried to cram too much into one game and didn’t give certain character moments and relationships time to breathe.
This was especially apparent to me regarding Miles who often felt tacked on to the story as opposed to an integral part. His dialogue and stakes feel really poorly written when compared to what Peter goes through, and when you start to get near the end and it becomes clear that a goal of this game is to start the transition of Miles becoming THE Spider-Man, it becomes glaringly obvious that Insomniac dropped the ball a bit on this end.
Despite these issues the game is still brilliant and a lot of fun, but with a story that feels inferior to the first, you can’t help but feel just a tiny bit disappointed.
8.5/10