"more of the same but greater" would be an accurate description of Spider-Man 2, but that's not a bad thing if you ask me. Unless you didn't like the first two games for w/e reason, SM2 is an easy sell, because almost everything to love from the previous games is there, but with so much more new cool stuff.
The worst part of these games, at least for me, is the inherent nature of the triple A open world formula; spending time just transiting from point A to point B while getting distracted by activites scattered all around the place to give you some small dopamine hits when you complete them is a design philosophy i don't really vibe with, and i think the SM games are the only ones of that kind i actually completed, and i think the reason for that, besides the fact that i think spider-man is awesome, is that the traversal system is just god damn good.
SM2 vastly improves on said traversal system. Right off the bat, i turned the web assist thing all the way down, and activated fall damage, which imo really makes the game better since you need to be more active in your swings. But more than that, i think the web wings they added in the game just works really well. Swinging around is fun, but the wings really let you gain speed really fast if you know what to do, and balancing wings, swinging and doing tricks in the air to gain as much speed as you want is just cool. And if you end up being bored from that, the insanely fast fast travel system is really helpful, i ended up basically using it all the time when i was finishing up doing all the side content and had to go from one side of the map to the other.
The combat also got some sick overhauls, the new moves are sick and playing as symbiote pete is BADASS. What i really didn't expect was how cool the boss are; in the previous games, they weren't really bad but they weren't good either, just kinda w/e (tho i do love the SM1 final one). In this game however, bosses feel way more dynamic: you can parry their attacks, some gadgets or skills will let you get openings on them, instead of being a game of waiting for an opening to get a combo in, this time around you can really make the fights go your own way if you're good enough, and it feels good.
I'm not gonna talk much about the story but it also was really good, i especially loved the arc Miles went through during this game. The side missions were also all awesome, they really showcase the "friendly neighborhood" aspect of spidey extremely well, i even wish we could have gotten a couple more of them because there's a few that can really hit you hard in the feels
The worst part of these games, at least for me, is the inherent nature of the triple A open world formula; spending time just transiting from point A to point B while getting distracted by activites scattered all around the place to give you some small dopamine hits when you complete them is a design philosophy i don't really vibe with, and i think the SM games are the only ones of that kind i actually completed, and i think the reason for that, besides the fact that i think spider-man is awesome, is that the traversal system is just god damn good.
SM2 vastly improves on said traversal system. Right off the bat, i turned the web assist thing all the way down, and activated fall damage, which imo really makes the game better since you need to be more active in your swings. But more than that, i think the web wings they added in the game just works really well. Swinging around is fun, but the wings really let you gain speed really fast if you know what to do, and balancing wings, swinging and doing tricks in the air to gain as much speed as you want is just cool. And if you end up being bored from that, the insanely fast fast travel system is really helpful, i ended up basically using it all the time when i was finishing up doing all the side content and had to go from one side of the map to the other.
The combat also got some sick overhauls, the new moves are sick and playing as symbiote pete is BADASS. What i really didn't expect was how cool the boss are; in the previous games, they weren't really bad but they weren't good either, just kinda w/e (tho i do love the SM1 final one). In this game however, bosses feel way more dynamic: you can parry their attacks, some gadgets or skills will let you get openings on them, instead of being a game of waiting for an opening to get a combo in, this time around you can really make the fights go your own way if you're good enough, and it feels good.
I'm not gonna talk much about the story but it also was really good, i especially loved the arc Miles went through during this game. The side missions were also all awesome, they really showcase the "friendly neighborhood" aspect of spidey extremely well, i even wish we could have gotten a couple more of them because there's a few that can really hit you hard in the feels