This review contains spoilers
I really loved the first game and had a lot of fun with the standalone Miles Morales game so this game was easily one of my most anticipated titles of the year.
I'm glad to say Spider-Man 2 is generally an excellent game. Brimming with fantastic spectacle, web swinging being even more fun than the previous games (web wings are cool too but sometimes make things feel too automated) and generally just being really fun to breeze through as these amazing characters. Aside from some minor visual glitches I encountered, the game is a technical triumph boasting super fast load times and giant visual treats which really add to the immersion and excitement.
However it did let me down in some aspects compared to the first game. For one, the combat is a little less fun for me with the gadget overhaul taking the strategy out of them completely just feeling like spammy cooldown moves you'd see out of a mobile game. The original powers Peter and Miles have are a little better but still fall victim to that cooldown thing to a lesser extent. However later in the game with Peter's symbiote powers and Miles upgraded venom attacks, they do get a lot more fun to use. The parry mechanic was really weirdly implemented to me, the red alert alerting you to time it right felt inconsistent at the beginning and it's annoying to manage when you have a dozen enemies swarming you. However when I did get a little better at the timing it was more tolerable but the annoyances still crept up. Beside that combat is still really enjoyable and racking up combos is still satisfying. That animation where you back enemies to a wall and rapid kick them is so cool, I wish they did more environmental centric attacks like that since it's so dope.
A quick word about the stealth, while the web-line was a great way to expand moblity, the stealth sections however weren't as interesting as the last game. There isn't any gadgets to use to freshen it up so they generally didn't offer much variety. The two Kraven bases were one of the few spots that used it decently but still the Sable bases from the first game were much more better designed for it.
The MJ sections are an improvement over the first game but in universe, MJ being able to take out these hunters and not getting one-shotted by their weapons was such a bruh moment that broke my immersion.
The story is generally really exciting and has some fantastic moments but it didn't hold itself the whole way through as well as the first game did. It has to juggle so many storylines and characters which at time it does really well and other times it leaves some parts feeling undercooked. The black suit arc for Peter was a little rushed and they overdid it with the symbiote just making him outright evil when it's just supposed to make him more of a douche. I will give props to Yuri Lowenthal being genuinely menacing when he's in the black suit, he did a fantastic job with this game generally. I like Miles personal story but his role in the story can get pretty half-baked sometimes in the grand scheme of the story (especially using him to cap off the final boss which held less emotional weight).
Speaking of, Kraven and Venom were really entertaining. After being robbed of Kraven in the films for so long, I'm glad I got to see him depicted as this, a little bit too overpowered compared to other villains but a genuinely menacing threat who pushes Peter to his limits. His presence in the story is a little more limited than I'd like but generally an awesome villain. It is weird that he has this many goons at his side helping him but I can let it slide from a gameplay perspective
With Venom, he's a little rushed into the story but otherwise an awesome iteration of the character imo. The one level where you play as him was dumb fun I wanted more of, i pray Insomniac gives us an expansion or stand alone game that expands on more Venom gameplay. His voice is fucking awesome, Tony Todd nailed it. Harry Osborn being Venom this time ended up working for the specific story they're telling. Harry's hate for Peter tiptoed a little into TASM2 Harry which worried me a little but his later confrontation with Peter redeemed it, especially some dope moments in their final boss together.
The side quests in this game is very hit and miss. The enemy The Flame missions stood up to the mainline content and even has an exciting reveal at the end. The EMF mission for Peter weren't terrible but they were pretty forgettable. Meanwhile the side missions for Miles did get boring and really mundane. I do like how they're focused on the friendly neighborhood aspect for Miles but these missions really do begin to meander and overstay their welcome becoming total pace breakers. Though some of the other app missions were sweet, especially the Howard oneπ
Even with all these problems I really enjoyed this game and until the DLC expansions I can still get a kick out of just having a ton of time.
I'm glad to say Spider-Man 2 is generally an excellent game. Brimming with fantastic spectacle, web swinging being even more fun than the previous games (web wings are cool too but sometimes make things feel too automated) and generally just being really fun to breeze through as these amazing characters. Aside from some minor visual glitches I encountered, the game is a technical triumph boasting super fast load times and giant visual treats which really add to the immersion and excitement.
However it did let me down in some aspects compared to the first game. For one, the combat is a little less fun for me with the gadget overhaul taking the strategy out of them completely just feeling like spammy cooldown moves you'd see out of a mobile game. The original powers Peter and Miles have are a little better but still fall victim to that cooldown thing to a lesser extent. However later in the game with Peter's symbiote powers and Miles upgraded venom attacks, they do get a lot more fun to use. The parry mechanic was really weirdly implemented to me, the red alert alerting you to time it right felt inconsistent at the beginning and it's annoying to manage when you have a dozen enemies swarming you. However when I did get a little better at the timing it was more tolerable but the annoyances still crept up. Beside that combat is still really enjoyable and racking up combos is still satisfying. That animation where you back enemies to a wall and rapid kick them is so cool, I wish they did more environmental centric attacks like that since it's so dope.
A quick word about the stealth, while the web-line was a great way to expand moblity, the stealth sections however weren't as interesting as the last game. There isn't any gadgets to use to freshen it up so they generally didn't offer much variety. The two Kraven bases were one of the few spots that used it decently but still the Sable bases from the first game were much more better designed for it.
The MJ sections are an improvement over the first game but in universe, MJ being able to take out these hunters and not getting one-shotted by their weapons was such a bruh moment that broke my immersion.
The story is generally really exciting and has some fantastic moments but it didn't hold itself the whole way through as well as the first game did. It has to juggle so many storylines and characters which at time it does really well and other times it leaves some parts feeling undercooked. The black suit arc for Peter was a little rushed and they overdid it with the symbiote just making him outright evil when it's just supposed to make him more of a douche. I will give props to Yuri Lowenthal being genuinely menacing when he's in the black suit, he did a fantastic job with this game generally. I like Miles personal story but his role in the story can get pretty half-baked sometimes in the grand scheme of the story (especially using him to cap off the final boss which held less emotional weight).
Speaking of, Kraven and Venom were really entertaining. After being robbed of Kraven in the films for so long, I'm glad I got to see him depicted as this, a little bit too overpowered compared to other villains but a genuinely menacing threat who pushes Peter to his limits. His presence in the story is a little more limited than I'd like but generally an awesome villain. It is weird that he has this many goons at his side helping him but I can let it slide from a gameplay perspective
With Venom, he's a little rushed into the story but otherwise an awesome iteration of the character imo. The one level where you play as him was dumb fun I wanted more of, i pray Insomniac gives us an expansion or stand alone game that expands on more Venom gameplay. His voice is fucking awesome, Tony Todd nailed it. Harry Osborn being Venom this time ended up working for the specific story they're telling. Harry's hate for Peter tiptoed a little into TASM2 Harry which worried me a little but his later confrontation with Peter redeemed it, especially some dope moments in their final boss together.
The side quests in this game is very hit and miss. The enemy The Flame missions stood up to the mainline content and even has an exciting reveal at the end. The EMF mission for Peter weren't terrible but they were pretty forgettable. Meanwhile the side missions for Miles did get boring and really mundane. I do like how they're focused on the friendly neighborhood aspect for Miles but these missions really do begin to meander and overstay their welcome becoming total pace breakers. Though some of the other app missions were sweet, especially the Howard oneπ
Even with all these problems I really enjoyed this game and until the DLC expansions I can still get a kick out of just having a ton of time.