The original was by no means a masterpiece but this game might just make it look like one, the budget on this game must have been ridiculously low, the models look worse than on the 3DS and animate like mafia city ads, and the voice acting... Oh god the voice acting... You'd get better voice work hiring on fiver, even Tim and Pikachu sound worse than in the original so I know they're capable of better so who knows what happened there.

The plot is also pretty nonsensical, villains use these all-powerful Deus ex machina cubes that let them completely control pokemon at will, they also try to act like they're not gonna go the same route with Pikachu as the movie did, but guess what? They did. A very odd fake out that I don't see much purpose to. The only thing that redeems this game from getting a much lower score was the ending, the main bad guy converting himself into Deoxys' body and throwing down with Mewtwo was pretty cool, still wish the rest of the game could have been at least on the level of the first game.

For me the first game set quite the high bar, I was sceptical as to whether this game could truly surpass it but my hopes were high and in the end it fell short of them. But this isn't to say I think the game was bad, as the score shows that's far from the truth.

Personally I like the gameplay changes despite some divisive aspects to it, mainly in the gadgets and stealth mechanics. In terms of gadgets they can at times feel pretty samey and there is less than in the original game (though more than in Miles Morales), however in my opinion I find the suit abilities and venom abilities make up the difference for me at least, though I know this won't be true for everyone mainly for reasons that come up in the next point. The stealth in this game ends up feeling a lot more barebones than in the other games and almost feels unnecessary. The weblines added here while a cool concept end up making the stealth way too easy, especially if you have the double takedown ability, plus with a lot less gadget options they aren't as big of an option to use for stealth as the abilities I mentioned earlier are solely for combat.

Next I'll talk about the side content, I'm not sure if I'm just imagining things but it feels like there is less than in the previous games. I like that they aren't putting all their cards on the table right away either and set up Carnage and Chameleon for the next game in the series but I feel they oversold the amount of optional bosses in this game and as a result I ended up setting my expectations a little too high, the only optional bosses here being Wraith and Mysterio. Overall though I did enjoy the side content though, enough to want to do all of it without really feeling like I needed to get on with the main story, maybe having more would have led to it feeling a bit over bloated but still, maybe there'll be DLC but I can't help but feel slightly disappointed there.

Now onto the main course, the story. Overall I had fun with it, but there were a lot of things I felt could have been handled better too and as many people have said by now it does play it very safe. Both Yuri and Nadji do absolutely fantastic jobs with their performances here and overall I don't mind the way the narrative develops. I like Peter's dynamic with Harry and the flashback segments were really cool but I would have loved to see more of them, a new of the funnier side quests in the game did make use of this too but I wish they had done more of them but compared to how much time Peter got to spend with Octavius in the first game I didn't get nearly as emotionally invested. Mary Jane's sections in this game were also a lot better this time around especially once she gets the web shooter.

Before I touch upon some of my issues however I want to quickly talk about what I felt the most mixed on which was how they handled Miles in this game, For the most part I like how his roles in the side content is handled, from his relationship with his uncle to how he is a lot more involved in his community compared to Peter and his relationship with Hailey too, I also like how his struggle with revenge and Martin Li being out contrasts and mirrors with Peter having the symbiote but... Once he does get past that they act way too buddy buddy, Miles says he'll never be able to forgive him but when they go inside Peter's mind I get that yes Peter is more important than letting Li's presence affect him but they act almost like friends at times and the fact that he just let's Li walk once all is said and done I find incredibly dumb, it's one thing for him to feel remorse and want to make up for it in ways that he couldn't if he was to return to prison but for Miles to let him when he is willfully resposible for his father's death and hasn't done his due time is just nonsensical to me (Yes I imagine he likely received a life sentence but it's been like what, a year in universe since it happened?) Also his new suit sucks dick and balls.

With that out of the way let's jump back to Peter, there is one more thing I'm a bit mixed on with Miles but it's at the very tail end of this game so it can wait. When it comes to Kraven's hunt I'm not entirely satisfied with the way it was handled, Kraven takes out Chameleon on screen which is fine but Vulture and Shocker are very much wasted potential with the way they were offscreened, I would have preferred they be used as props to better serve the story rather than almost meaningless mantles that honestly are pretty ineffective at making Kraven feel like a threat. I'm not going to make the claim that I'm some master writer but if I was writing this game I would have had them used while Peter is completely under the symbiote's command, have him go after them but be more concerned with stopping them rather than saving them, Shocker especially I feel would have served as a nice contrast to the promise Peter made with him in the first game and have him feel at fault for getting him killed by Kraven (once he returns to normal) because as it stands here the only thing Peter is really guilty of before the fight with Miles is acting like a dick which isn't as hard as I wished they would have gone, obviously I didn't expect them to straight up murder anyone but to have him be indirectly at fault imo would have made the need to get it off him much more dire. Yes he does try to kill Miles during their fight but once again that is after they're already so opposed to the black suit's presence. Kraven's death I am a little mixed on, on one hand there was a part of me that didn't want him to get his way, to see him instead rot in a cell and die a completely boring and uninteresting death that was in no way what he could have wanted it arrived for, when it comes to villains like Kraven I don't necessarily want to see them get the thing they desire in the end but for what it was it wasn't too bad, so I won't say it was a negative and the fight as Venom was pretty awesome.

Now to wrap this up my last point of focus will be on Venom and Harry's descent, I haven't really touched on Sandman or Lizard but that's mainly because I don't really have any criticism for those parts and for whatever reason I find it much easier to go into the things I dislike rather than like.
When it comes to Harry I like the route they take, giving him the suit at first and letting him feel useful and be a part of the team but it feels too short-lived, I wish he'd accompanied us for a bigger part of the game, I'm not exactly sure how to implement it given how big a part of this game the symbiote suit is and it may have made people impatient if it took too long to get to it but alongside my first point I feel it would have helped build a bigger emotional investment in his character to have it, I do think his desperation and uselessness is handled quite well though, after he hands off the suit (unwillingly to save Peter) not only does he start to physically start to die without it to support him but also his brief time being able to fight alongside Peter only to have it snatched away and leaving him unable to do anything to help Peter, the conclusion to this however I'm not satisfied with the way he comibines with Venom, compared to how it effects Peter it feels a lot more like Venom simply takes over Harry's body rather than becoming a mix of the two and while I still very much found the sections where we played as Venom to be cool I would have preferred that in route. And as one final note, why does Miles get the final boss battle? Harry is much more personal to Peter and barely has any connection to Miles, so I feel Peter should have had the last fight, yes Mile' section should be there but I would have liked one final fight as Peter to end it off.

Silk set-up is also cool though I'm not sure if having three Spider people going around is the best idea, it does look like the idea is to eventually retire Peter but it is much to early for that at the moment as he absolutely needs to be the one that fights Green Goblin and even Carnage while likely not story relevant feels like he has to be handled by Peter. Maybe they'll leave Silk for a 4th instalment or her own game but as it currently stands It feels a bit too soon.