Spidey fans been thirsting for a good story for a decade and 2018 hits us with this game and Into The Spider-Verse. When this game released it was very refreshing to long time fans to see that some people out there still understood how to write Spider-Man after the comics tragedy known as Dan Slott as well as mediocre adaptations like MCU Spidey.
Story
Most Spider-Man games focus on Spidey and rarely have any focus on Peter. This is because its more appealing for game devs to focus on the larger than life superheroics of Spider-Man than it is to deal with his personal issues I guess. While that focus has led to many good games in the past, it hasnt led to many good stories. This is what Insomniac understands about the character, to write a good Spider-Man story you need to focus on the man under the mask as much as the mask itself.
Rambling aside, Peter's personal issues drive the plot fully, from things like getting evicted because time spent as Spidey cant be spent at a part time job, to breaking up with his girlfriend because they cant see eye to eye on the superheroics to worse things. If Peter wasn't always late to the lab, if he had been more attentive of his boss' situation, if he wasn't always so busy as Spider-Man many of the events in the story could have been prevented. But if he didn't go out to stop villains, the city would be in as bad if not worse a state. The dilemma of being Spider-Man is captured very well here because as much as slinging around town can be a blessing, its also a curse on Peter.
Also I loved how the crime rates in town increased according to how serious the situation was in the story.
Gameplay
Ground combat is often compared to the Arkham games which is fair but I think the extra focus on gadgets and air combat is enough to distinguish it and I had a lot more fun with this combat system because of it. Gadgets do really trivialize the game depending on the enemy faction you're fighting though(anyone but Sable forces) and while the suit abilities are cool, Web Blossom just demolishes everything.
I thought the circuit and chemical puzzles were neat but they definitely could have used a bit more difficulty considering the game lets you skip them in the Options menu. Decent change of pace.
Something I really like about the crafting here is how it encourages players to interact with every aspect of its world. Oh you need 2 research tokens to make your next suit? Go do a research station or do some puzzles at the lab. You don't have to reload a save or swing mindlessly around the map to look for a specific resource to spawn. Just go do a side activity and boom. You never need a million tokens to craft stuff either, its always 2-4 which is neat.
Really don't like the forced stealth sections, Brian Intihar said on a Spoilercast video that those parts were added because playing as Spidey is like being at 10 all the time and they didnt want players being overwhelmed??? At least they're easy and end pretty fast.
Bosses unfortunately are pretty easy and while there are some interesting matchups, all the bosses are just part of a set piece, some of which are cool and some of which are meh. Combat is at its peak when you're fighting large groups of enemies.
Web swinging is really fun and probably the best its ever been right under Spider-Man 2 and maybe Web of Shadows but wall crawling is pretty bad. Its slow, you can get stuck on stuff fairly often and it generally feels like devs assumed no one would ever wall crawl.
The open world looks nice and besides having a lot of references to other Marvel characters, there are loads of good side activities ranging from full side quests with their own chains to combat, stealth, swinging challenges and the really unique ones like the research stations. The only issue I have with the open world is the viewpoints copy pasted from Assassin's Creed. This is 2018 brah you tellin me Spidey can't be bothered to pull out Google Maps?
Music
Pretty good but the official album is lacking some tracks for some reason and many tracks feel like remixes of the same song. Also the start menu song(Web Launch) is on the DLC ost album instead of the main one for some reason.
Some highlights are Web Launch, Eight Years in the Making, Webbed from the Shadows, The Final Lesson and No Other Choice(again in the DLC album for some reason) which is very good in the scene it plays in.
Remastered
I have no clue why they changed Peter's face bruh. He's supposed to be 23 here not 15. New face looks the same age as Miles. The official reason is that "the studio needed somebody else to do facial capture that better matched the performance of the voice actor." This would be believable if the facial expressions of the new guy were good but they're not. In my opinion its almost a clear downgrade whenever Peter is unmasked and emoting. I've heard that the facial animations of the old face actor were used for the new one and that he actually looks good in Miles Morales but idk about that one yet.
Conclusion
Really good game, really good story. Forget making you feel like Spider-Man. This game makes you feel like Peter Parker, the good parts and the bad. Don't like the new face but Peter is in the suit most of the game so its fine I guess(not really)
Story
Most Spider-Man games focus on Spidey and rarely have any focus on Peter. This is because its more appealing for game devs to focus on the larger than life superheroics of Spider-Man than it is to deal with his personal issues I guess. While that focus has led to many good games in the past, it hasnt led to many good stories. This is what Insomniac understands about the character, to write a good Spider-Man story you need to focus on the man under the mask as much as the mask itself.
Rambling aside, Peter's personal issues drive the plot fully, from things like getting evicted because time spent as Spidey cant be spent at a part time job, to breaking up with his girlfriend because they cant see eye to eye on the superheroics to worse things. If Peter wasn't always late to the lab, if he had been more attentive of his boss' situation, if he wasn't always so busy as Spider-Man many of the events in the story could have been prevented. But if he didn't go out to stop villains, the city would be in as bad if not worse a state. The dilemma of being Spider-Man is captured very well here because as much as slinging around town can be a blessing, its also a curse on Peter.
Also I loved how the crime rates in town increased according to how serious the situation was in the story.
Gameplay
Ground combat is often compared to the Arkham games which is fair but I think the extra focus on gadgets and air combat is enough to distinguish it and I had a lot more fun with this combat system because of it. Gadgets do really trivialize the game depending on the enemy faction you're fighting though(anyone but Sable forces) and while the suit abilities are cool, Web Blossom just demolishes everything.
I thought the circuit and chemical puzzles were neat but they definitely could have used a bit more difficulty considering the game lets you skip them in the Options menu. Decent change of pace.
Something I really like about the crafting here is how it encourages players to interact with every aspect of its world. Oh you need 2 research tokens to make your next suit? Go do a research station or do some puzzles at the lab. You don't have to reload a save or swing mindlessly around the map to look for a specific resource to spawn. Just go do a side activity and boom. You never need a million tokens to craft stuff either, its always 2-4 which is neat.
Really don't like the forced stealth sections, Brian Intihar said on a Spoilercast video that those parts were added because playing as Spidey is like being at 10 all the time and they didnt want players being overwhelmed??? At least they're easy and end pretty fast.
Bosses unfortunately are pretty easy and while there are some interesting matchups, all the bosses are just part of a set piece, some of which are cool and some of which are meh. Combat is at its peak when you're fighting large groups of enemies.
Web swinging is really fun and probably the best its ever been right under Spider-Man 2 and maybe Web of Shadows but wall crawling is pretty bad. Its slow, you can get stuck on stuff fairly often and it generally feels like devs assumed no one would ever wall crawl.
The open world looks nice and besides having a lot of references to other Marvel characters, there are loads of good side activities ranging from full side quests with their own chains to combat, stealth, swinging challenges and the really unique ones like the research stations. The only issue I have with the open world is the viewpoints copy pasted from Assassin's Creed. This is 2018 brah you tellin me Spidey can't be bothered to pull out Google Maps?
Music
Pretty good but the official album is lacking some tracks for some reason and many tracks feel like remixes of the same song. Also the start menu song(Web Launch) is on the DLC ost album instead of the main one for some reason.
Some highlights are Web Launch, Eight Years in the Making, Webbed from the Shadows, The Final Lesson and No Other Choice(again in the DLC album for some reason) which is very good in the scene it plays in.
Remastered
I have no clue why they changed Peter's face bruh. He's supposed to be 23 here not 15. New face looks the same age as Miles. The official reason is that "the studio needed somebody else to do facial capture that better matched the performance of the voice actor." This would be believable if the facial expressions of the new guy were good but they're not. In my opinion its almost a clear downgrade whenever Peter is unmasked and emoting. I've heard that the facial animations of the old face actor were used for the new one and that he actually looks good in Miles Morales but idk about that one yet.
Conclusion
Really good game, really good story. Forget making you feel like Spider-Man. This game makes you feel like Peter Parker, the good parts and the bad. Don't like the new face but Peter is in the suit most of the game so its fine I guess(not really)
3 Comments
soyderman
you like poop8
slimemasterzero
1 year ago