This game is just more of what you expect from the Insomniac Spider-man games, which.... isn't a bad thing by any means. In fact, the first game and Miles Morales are fantastic, it just all feels too familiar. Web swinging feels just as great as the original, combat still has you using gadgets and upper cutting foes into the air, it's still very cinematic and graphically detailed, and the open world is still largely a Ubisoft model of small objectives sprinkled across the map. All this works just as well as it did in the original, and in some ways perhaps marginally better. But again, the biggest issue is that none of this is really new at this point. But let's talk what is actually different in this one.
So the biggest change, which is literally on the cover is that you can play as both Peter and Miles. It certainly does add quite a bit being able to play both Spider-mans from a story perspective. This is especially the case when the Venom stuff starts to happen. Having two protagonists with very different personal lives and personalities genuinely helps add bit of variety to the game. It's just unfortunate that they play almost exactly the same. But that was to be expected, and honestly the character switching just reminds me of GTA V, which certainly worked out for Rockstar.
Honestly the change I felt the most playing the game is the expanded open world. You can now explore Brooklyn in addition to Manhattan. This doesn't just help in that it makes the world bigger, but just trying to get over the river when there aren't any buildings to web swing on is a really cool feeling. Plus, Brooklyn does feel quite a bit different from Manhattan, giving the world a lot more variety. And yeah gotta say, this is probably the best rendition of New York I've seen in a video game. It's just so detailed, and there is so much to explore and discover. It's just unfortunate all you can really do in it is fight crime and web swing.
Let's end of this review by talking about the story. Overall, the story is really great! Particularly everything to do with the Venom plot is really well done. Especially great to see as the movies have not done a good job with Venom. I do have one problem with the story though, which is that the first half of the game Kraven the Hunter is the big bad, but by the end of it he just feels like some bump in the road. As Venom comes into play, Kraven becomes completely overshadowed, which makes the first half feel like nothing but setup for Venom. This isn't helped by the fact that Kraven may have the least amount of depth of any villain in the game. Like he hunts super-villains, and that's his entire character. It's not terrible by any means, and the plot is still overall engaging, it's just a little disappointing how lame Kraven feels as a character looking back after beating the game.
But yeah.... after all those thoughts, it really is just more of the same. Play it if you liked the other two Spider-man games. If didn't like those games, you will also not like this one. Definitely one of these games a shot though if you haven't played any of them. These games are nothing revolutionary or new, but they are possibly the best renditions on the whole Arkham Knight superhero formula established by Rocksteady many years ago.
So the biggest change, which is literally on the cover is that you can play as both Peter and Miles. It certainly does add quite a bit being able to play both Spider-mans from a story perspective. This is especially the case when the Venom stuff starts to happen. Having two protagonists with very different personal lives and personalities genuinely helps add bit of variety to the game. It's just unfortunate that they play almost exactly the same. But that was to be expected, and honestly the character switching just reminds me of GTA V, which certainly worked out for Rockstar.
Honestly the change I felt the most playing the game is the expanded open world. You can now explore Brooklyn in addition to Manhattan. This doesn't just help in that it makes the world bigger, but just trying to get over the river when there aren't any buildings to web swing on is a really cool feeling. Plus, Brooklyn does feel quite a bit different from Manhattan, giving the world a lot more variety. And yeah gotta say, this is probably the best rendition of New York I've seen in a video game. It's just so detailed, and there is so much to explore and discover. It's just unfortunate all you can really do in it is fight crime and web swing.
Let's end of this review by talking about the story. Overall, the story is really great! Particularly everything to do with the Venom plot is really well done. Especially great to see as the movies have not done a good job with Venom. I do have one problem with the story though, which is that the first half of the game Kraven the Hunter is the big bad, but by the end of it he just feels like some bump in the road. As Venom comes into play, Kraven becomes completely overshadowed, which makes the first half feel like nothing but setup for Venom. This isn't helped by the fact that Kraven may have the least amount of depth of any villain in the game. Like he hunts super-villains, and that's his entire character. It's not terrible by any means, and the plot is still overall engaging, it's just a little disappointing how lame Kraven feels as a character looking back after beating the game.
But yeah.... after all those thoughts, it really is just more of the same. Play it if you liked the other two Spider-man games. If didn't like those games, you will also not like this one. Definitely one of these games a shot though if you haven't played any of them. These games are nothing revolutionary or new, but they are possibly the best renditions on the whole Arkham Knight superhero formula established by Rocksteady many years ago.