Beat on Spectacular Difficulty

I beat this game before on the PS4, so this was kinda a second time playing this but I forgot quite a bit so it was still fresh on various occasions. Feel like I don’t need to say much about the positives, gameplay is really good, graphics are amazing. My main complaint is kinda… the story. I think the story is decent, and there are a lot of really good moments, but now experiencing it again it just feels short, and rushed. Especially in the emotional department. We didn’t get much stuff with May so her death didn’t hit me, there was a lot of MJ/Peter romance drama but it was predictable as hell and became a little annoying, Li’s powers still are largely unexplored which I find to be missed potential, Norman’s and Otto’s relationship is undeveloped (Normal also doesn’t receive punishment in the end, mind you), Peter and Miles also got close very fast with not much screen time dedicated to developing their dynamic, and Sable too is interesting as a character but has barebones screen time only to be yeeted out when she suddenly changes her mind. The ending doesn’t even have a standard monologue which brings closure for all the characters which reminded me of Batman The Telltale Games: The Enemy Within. What we got instead are the Sinister Six who only stayed for a short amount of time and were undeveloped, a storyline which has giant emotional stakes with little foundation. I enjoyed this game more when it was more street-level and actually spent more time with the characters, like when Spiderman worked together with Officer Davis. Overall, I wouldn’t say it’s a bad storyline but overall it’s kinda a meh one when you realize how undercooked it is despite great moments.

That the story also gets so big scale also translates into the gameplay a bit, I think the difficulty scaling in this game is really weird and led to me not really completing this game fully. The grind is also a bit tedious. But, why are boss fights easy as hell and I beat them within a minute (like, seriously, half of them I beat without a sweat by just mashing buttons and not thinking much) while the mob encounters are so difficult? Now, before Sable Agents appeared it was pretty okay overall, you just swing around here and there and are constantly on the move, but once the game increased the enemy repertoire and it’s just a lot of bullshit attacking you all at once it’s really not that fun anymore. Especially because the game is not designed in some areas like the Arkham Games, where there is a rhythm in combat and you actually avoid a hit when you hit dodge. It’s not impossible of course but the difference in difficulty and how weirdly the game feels in terms of designs sometimes made me stop trying to do the open world stuff after the raft break and just finish the main story. Instead of all these bases I would’ve liked to have more side quests. There are so few. The bag and photo collectibles are great. Taskmaster challenges are also kinda cool although less of them would be better in my opinion. But that’s a me thing, I really dislike grinding.

Overall, it kinda feels like a good game but not an exceptional one. The gameplay mechanics are insanely good. Enjoyed some unique (game-play-wise) story missions as well. But the story is just decent overall, and the open world kinda feels lifeless with some not really fun and grindy stuff too.