Marvel's Spider-Man: Miles Morales is really everything you expect it to be: more Marvel's Spider-Man. In some ways, it improves upon the original and makes it a more definitive experience. In others, it uses mechanics from the original in a way that just feels inferior to it.
Firstly, the story is pretty good and does a decent job of building upon Miles' character. However, it does feel like a side story, not because of the lack of focus on Peter, but because of the lack of focus on Miles. The original Marvel's Spider-Man already does a lot to establish Miles as a character, and I think it does a really good job at it. But it leaves this game to have to clean up the scraps, while simultaneously not pushing things too far that it ends up ruining his arc in the upcoming Marvel's Spider-Man too. So you're caught up in this story about Roxxon, an energy company with a pretty blatantly evil CEO, and the Underground led by the Tinkerer, who is more of an anti-hero trying to take down Roxxon. I realized about halfway through that the main story is not really about Miles at all. It's more about his relationship with each of these entities, which still works out very satisfyingly but does not really feel like a cohesive arc for the character.
Next up, is the gameplay. Solid as always. Swinging is satisfying. Miles has more tricks than Peter did thanks to his venom powers. Fighting feels much more deep thanks to the venom powers as well. Venom jumping, venom punches, and venom slams are all so satisfying to pull off properly and chain into larger combos. Stealth even got a big improvement in this game thanks to Miles' cloaking powers. A lot of what would have probably been slow sneaking sections with MJ were replaced with actually engaging puzzles that involve brain power and smart mechanics. My problem with the gameplay stems from an issue the original had as well. There's just too much crap. The whole world is stuffed full of items that I just don't feel like getting. It's all so easy to collect too. Scan an area, punch a wall, grab a thing, and swing on your way to the next thing. The activities like Spider-Man training, crime-fighting, and Roxxon/Underground bases are all very fun. But I hope that all of these worthless collectibles get removed from the sequel because it's just bloating up these games. Maybe that is why this game is so short, too.
Which brings me to my final point, the game's length. This game is really tiny. Normally I am not one to complain about game length. I don't care if a game is 6 hours long or 100 hours as long as it uses every hour respectfully. But everything about this game just feels too short. It feels like it had to be rushed so they could continue the development of Spider-Man 2. The story feels like it stops right as it's getting good, the fighting and swinging mechanics don't get enough time to really stick around long enough to make them feel as deep as they are and it feels like the amount of collectibles only exists to make up for that lack of length.
Overall, I still enjoyed my time with this game, and if you're simply looking for more of Marvel's Spider-Man gameplay this will be well worth your purchase. But this game is more like a Star Wars Clone Wars than a real entry in the franchise. Just something bite-size to chow down on if you're already a fan of the original. I do hope they bring a lot of the gameplay improvements, such as venom powers and stealth, back in the next game. Hopefully, they will not do Miles as dirty as they did him here in his own entry.
Firstly, the story is pretty good and does a decent job of building upon Miles' character. However, it does feel like a side story, not because of the lack of focus on Peter, but because of the lack of focus on Miles. The original Marvel's Spider-Man already does a lot to establish Miles as a character, and I think it does a really good job at it. But it leaves this game to have to clean up the scraps, while simultaneously not pushing things too far that it ends up ruining his arc in the upcoming Marvel's Spider-Man too. So you're caught up in this story about Roxxon, an energy company with a pretty blatantly evil CEO, and the Underground led by the Tinkerer, who is more of an anti-hero trying to take down Roxxon. I realized about halfway through that the main story is not really about Miles at all. It's more about his relationship with each of these entities, which still works out very satisfyingly but does not really feel like a cohesive arc for the character.
Next up, is the gameplay. Solid as always. Swinging is satisfying. Miles has more tricks than Peter did thanks to his venom powers. Fighting feels much more deep thanks to the venom powers as well. Venom jumping, venom punches, and venom slams are all so satisfying to pull off properly and chain into larger combos. Stealth even got a big improvement in this game thanks to Miles' cloaking powers. A lot of what would have probably been slow sneaking sections with MJ were replaced with actually engaging puzzles that involve brain power and smart mechanics. My problem with the gameplay stems from an issue the original had as well. There's just too much crap. The whole world is stuffed full of items that I just don't feel like getting. It's all so easy to collect too. Scan an area, punch a wall, grab a thing, and swing on your way to the next thing. The activities like Spider-Man training, crime-fighting, and Roxxon/Underground bases are all very fun. But I hope that all of these worthless collectibles get removed from the sequel because it's just bloating up these games. Maybe that is why this game is so short, too.
Which brings me to my final point, the game's length. This game is really tiny. Normally I am not one to complain about game length. I don't care if a game is 6 hours long or 100 hours as long as it uses every hour respectfully. But everything about this game just feels too short. It feels like it had to be rushed so they could continue the development of Spider-Man 2. The story feels like it stops right as it's getting good, the fighting and swinging mechanics don't get enough time to really stick around long enough to make them feel as deep as they are and it feels like the amount of collectibles only exists to make up for that lack of length.
Overall, I still enjoyed my time with this game, and if you're simply looking for more of Marvel's Spider-Man gameplay this will be well worth your purchase. But this game is more like a Star Wars Clone Wars than a real entry in the franchise. Just something bite-size to chow down on if you're already a fan of the original. I do hope they bring a lot of the gameplay improvements, such as venom powers and stealth, back in the next game. Hopefully, they will not do Miles as dirty as they did him here in his own entry.