Honestly I think I've figured out the reason I've rated this game 4 stars and not any higher on previous playthroughs, a lot of people accuse the game of being repetative, and they're right, but there is a way to make it not be repetative.
The problem is the open world, this playthrough I ONLY did the story missions and didn't do a single side-task or mission, and it was the best experience I've had with the game, to the point where I've even bumped it up a point, just for this playthrough. The open world is just full of slightly unsatisfying collectibles, ubisoft towers and combat encounters that are just fighting the same basic enemies over and over, so a lot of people won't bother to experiment with the combat and find all it has to offer, because these basic enemy encounters level you up to the point where it makes the more difficult enemies easy enough to take out with the same basic moves, the game sabotages itself.
You know what, I'm bumping it back down to four, the open world is 40% of this game, and it constantly tries to get you to explore it even if it makes the experience worse.
At the very least you get to use what I can now confidently call (only just) the best web-slinging in a spider-man game, it perfectly characterises a spider-man who's been doing this for a decade, you have a huge variety of input and timing based moves you can use to get around, and even if you literally can't fail or suffer in any meaningful way (other than losing speed and momentum), once you're stringing together moves in the right ways you enter a tetris-esque flow state. Compare this to the more challenge-oriented Spider-Man 2, which is much more basic in what is on offer in terms of traversal but pushes in on that speed and less on the momentum, that game asks you to reach a perfect and specific equelibrium in the exact correct way even in the open world, whereas this is more of a, as I said previously, flow state, a really fun and satisfying way to get around the open world, with the challenge that Spider-Man 2 offers only being available (and superceded in the later portions of the game) during the challenges and missions in the campaign and open world, and it's an approach I much prefer.
Playing only the campaign and no open-world tasks at all greatly improved my experience of the combat, and it makes me wonder if the level designers and the open world designers were even in communication, the speed and times that it adds new enemies and moves and the pacing is absolutely perfect when playing it this way. Just as I was wishing for more of a challenge with thugs it introduces the demons, whereas in previous playthroughs I was so sick of the thugs I'd roll my eyes when I saw them. Then, on beating Martin Li Sable is introduced and her fantastic multitude of ground and air enemies. Bosses are perfectly places throughout, as are setpieces, and again it makes me wonder if it's even worth playing the open world considering how great just blasting through the campaign feels.
From now on, and if I replay in future, I'll be treating the open world as post-game content, because this is the way to play.
The problem is the open world, this playthrough I ONLY did the story missions and didn't do a single side-task or mission, and it was the best experience I've had with the game, to the point where I've even bumped it up a point, just for this playthrough. The open world is just full of slightly unsatisfying collectibles, ubisoft towers and combat encounters that are just fighting the same basic enemies over and over, so a lot of people won't bother to experiment with the combat and find all it has to offer, because these basic enemy encounters level you up to the point where it makes the more difficult enemies easy enough to take out with the same basic moves, the game sabotages itself.
You know what, I'm bumping it back down to four, the open world is 40% of this game, and it constantly tries to get you to explore it even if it makes the experience worse.
At the very least you get to use what I can now confidently call (only just) the best web-slinging in a spider-man game, it perfectly characterises a spider-man who's been doing this for a decade, you have a huge variety of input and timing based moves you can use to get around, and even if you literally can't fail or suffer in any meaningful way (other than losing speed and momentum), once you're stringing together moves in the right ways you enter a tetris-esque flow state. Compare this to the more challenge-oriented Spider-Man 2, which is much more basic in what is on offer in terms of traversal but pushes in on that speed and less on the momentum, that game asks you to reach a perfect and specific equelibrium in the exact correct way even in the open world, whereas this is more of a, as I said previously, flow state, a really fun and satisfying way to get around the open world, with the challenge that Spider-Man 2 offers only being available (and superceded in the later portions of the game) during the challenges and missions in the campaign and open world, and it's an approach I much prefer.
Playing only the campaign and no open-world tasks at all greatly improved my experience of the combat, and it makes me wonder if the level designers and the open world designers were even in communication, the speed and times that it adds new enemies and moves and the pacing is absolutely perfect when playing it this way. Just as I was wishing for more of a challenge with thugs it introduces the demons, whereas in previous playthroughs I was so sick of the thugs I'd roll my eyes when I saw them. Then, on beating Martin Li Sable is introduced and her fantastic multitude of ground and air enemies. Bosses are perfectly places throughout, as are setpieces, and again it makes me wonder if it's even worth playing the open world considering how great just blasting through the campaign feels.
From now on, and if I replay in future, I'll be treating the open world as post-game content, because this is the way to play.