This review contains spoilers
Spider-Man is an exemplary superhero game that improves on the formula of DC's Arkham trilogy, but is hamstrung by half-baked stealth sections, a lacking story, and the familiar, tired trappings of the AAA open-world formula. To say that Spider-Man is the best game to feature the wall-crawler is damning with faint praise, and the truth is that the game borrows so much and innovates on so little that while the game is undeniably competent and very fun, the issues drag it down from "excellent" to "above average."
The story thankfully avoids the cardinal sin of superhero media, the "origin story" problem that has plagued films and games for years and has lead to multiple retellings of the same old stories, whether it's Peter Parker getting bitten by the spider or Clark Kent growing up on the family farm. Unfortunately, this is the writing's greatest success, because the rest of the game is concerned with a very rote, tried-and-true comic book story. The game revisits Marvel's silver-age mainstays, the villainous Sinister Six, who serve as the game's antagonists: the familiar faces of Rhino, Electro, Doc Ock, et al., make their appearances, each borrowing their characterizations and designs from past works. The dark horse of the villainous ensemble is the decidedly modern-age Mister Negative, a criminal mastermind and comic-book C-lister who makes an impression with his powers, unique appearance, and intimidating presence - until he unceremoniously disappears from the story at the climax. Doc Ock is re-imagined as a creator of prosthetics, struggling to make breakthroughs. Despite this original conceit, Spider-Man's Doc Ock continues the trend of unwelcome over-borrowing by following an arc very similar to Sam Reimi's take on the character in movie form back in 2004, starting as Peter Parker's friend and boss before spiraling out of control, culminating in a final confrontation that shows his true colors.
When it comes to the more grounded, Peter Parker-centered storylines, which inevitably intersect with the super-powered central conflict, the shortcomings become even more apparent. We are treated to scenes covering the strained relationship between Peter and his on-again off-again girlfriend MJ, a romance that here feels more cloying and perfunctory than emotionally engaging. Likewise, while Peter Parker's good old Aunt May is thankfully not the doddering, naive granny stereotype of the Romita or Reimi ages, the emotional beats she and Parker go through are very similar to both. The story is never outright bad - with the exception, perhaps, of the Rikers Island breakout where the inexplicably all-male inmates, in real life mostly infamously mistreated pre-trial criminals, flood the city and turn it into a cartoonish anarchic wasteland - but it is very "safe," taking few risks, fewer liberties, and leaving less of an impression as a result.
The combat system is borrowed - and greatly improved - from the Batman-centered Arkham games from a few years before, but another mechanic that was borrowed is, unfortunately, those games' emphasis on stealth. The sneaking in Arkham Asylum and its sequels can be unforgiving, with enemies detecting you instantly - thankfully, Spider-Man borrows from more recent stealth games by allowing a little more leniency in the form of a detection meter. Sneaking seems more fitting for Spidey than Bruce Wayne, since you can crawl on walls and use your versatile gadgets to gain an advantage. If the stealth component ended there, this review would have a whole extra star. Unfortunately, Insomniac Games also lifted a very dated formula that, in 2018, many had hoped to be left in the past. Every so often, the player is torn from Spider-Man's point of view to play a brief stealth section as either Peter's love interest MJ, or bystander teen and future superhero Miles Morales. In these sections, the player may have as few as one tool to use to their advantage, and sometimes even none, as they crouch-walk in indignity through very linear stealth setpieces where getting spotted is an instant and annoying game-over. The only saving grace of these sections is their brevity - they are not hard, but they are also not fun, and they are the part that virtually everyone seems to complain about when they talk about this game.
The open world, while gorgeous and fun to explore, again borrows heavily from other titles to the game's overall detriment. For example, to unfog the game's map of Manhattan, Spider-Man must climb on police-operated surveillance towers and fix them - a much-ridiculed mechanic in open-world games, its popularity blamed on Ubisoft in particular, so despised that Far Cry 5, coincidentally released earlier in 2018, dropped it from that series completely. Yet, here it is, alive and well six months later in Spider-Man, wasting time. The map is strewn with collectibles, the player incentivized to seek them out with the promise of unlockable rewards and powers. This is a fun idea, but the collectibles, including the backpacks in particular, are marked on your map from the instant you complete a surveillance tower. Mopping them up from off the sides of buildings or the undersides of highway overpasses is an experience more akin to stocking shelves than exploring a lovingly-crafted game world using critical thinking. Instead of incentivizing exploration, the collectibles become a chore - a mistake that open world games have continued to make for decades now.
There is fun to be had in Spider-Man, but only if you're prepared to endure the occasional splash of mediocrity.
The story thankfully avoids the cardinal sin of superhero media, the "origin story" problem that has plagued films and games for years and has lead to multiple retellings of the same old stories, whether it's Peter Parker getting bitten by the spider or Clark Kent growing up on the family farm. Unfortunately, this is the writing's greatest success, because the rest of the game is concerned with a very rote, tried-and-true comic book story. The game revisits Marvel's silver-age mainstays, the villainous Sinister Six, who serve as the game's antagonists: the familiar faces of Rhino, Electro, Doc Ock, et al., make their appearances, each borrowing their characterizations and designs from past works. The dark horse of the villainous ensemble is the decidedly modern-age Mister Negative, a criminal mastermind and comic-book C-lister who makes an impression with his powers, unique appearance, and intimidating presence - until he unceremoniously disappears from the story at the climax. Doc Ock is re-imagined as a creator of prosthetics, struggling to make breakthroughs. Despite this original conceit, Spider-Man's Doc Ock continues the trend of unwelcome over-borrowing by following an arc very similar to Sam Reimi's take on the character in movie form back in 2004, starting as Peter Parker's friend and boss before spiraling out of control, culminating in a final confrontation that shows his true colors.
When it comes to the more grounded, Peter Parker-centered storylines, which inevitably intersect with the super-powered central conflict, the shortcomings become even more apparent. We are treated to scenes covering the strained relationship between Peter and his on-again off-again girlfriend MJ, a romance that here feels more cloying and perfunctory than emotionally engaging. Likewise, while Peter Parker's good old Aunt May is thankfully not the doddering, naive granny stereotype of the Romita or Reimi ages, the emotional beats she and Parker go through are very similar to both. The story is never outright bad - with the exception, perhaps, of the Rikers Island breakout where the inexplicably all-male inmates, in real life mostly infamously mistreated pre-trial criminals, flood the city and turn it into a cartoonish anarchic wasteland - but it is very "safe," taking few risks, fewer liberties, and leaving less of an impression as a result.
The combat system is borrowed - and greatly improved - from the Batman-centered Arkham games from a few years before, but another mechanic that was borrowed is, unfortunately, those games' emphasis on stealth. The sneaking in Arkham Asylum and its sequels can be unforgiving, with enemies detecting you instantly - thankfully, Spider-Man borrows from more recent stealth games by allowing a little more leniency in the form of a detection meter. Sneaking seems more fitting for Spidey than Bruce Wayne, since you can crawl on walls and use your versatile gadgets to gain an advantage. If the stealth component ended there, this review would have a whole extra star. Unfortunately, Insomniac Games also lifted a very dated formula that, in 2018, many had hoped to be left in the past. Every so often, the player is torn from Spider-Man's point of view to play a brief stealth section as either Peter's love interest MJ, or bystander teen and future superhero Miles Morales. In these sections, the player may have as few as one tool to use to their advantage, and sometimes even none, as they crouch-walk in indignity through very linear stealth setpieces where getting spotted is an instant and annoying game-over. The only saving grace of these sections is their brevity - they are not hard, but they are also not fun, and they are the part that virtually everyone seems to complain about when they talk about this game.
The open world, while gorgeous and fun to explore, again borrows heavily from other titles to the game's overall detriment. For example, to unfog the game's map of Manhattan, Spider-Man must climb on police-operated surveillance towers and fix them - a much-ridiculed mechanic in open-world games, its popularity blamed on Ubisoft in particular, so despised that Far Cry 5, coincidentally released earlier in 2018, dropped it from that series completely. Yet, here it is, alive and well six months later in Spider-Man, wasting time. The map is strewn with collectibles, the player incentivized to seek them out with the promise of unlockable rewards and powers. This is a fun idea, but the collectibles, including the backpacks in particular, are marked on your map from the instant you complete a surveillance tower. Mopping them up from off the sides of buildings or the undersides of highway overpasses is an experience more akin to stocking shelves than exploring a lovingly-crafted game world using critical thinking. Instead of incentivizing exploration, the collectibles become a chore - a mistake that open world games have continued to make for decades now.
There is fun to be had in Spider-Man, but only if you're prepared to endure the occasional splash of mediocrity.