This review contains spoilers
Spider-Man: Miles Morales is an “exaggerated black teen swagger” simulator and open world superhero game developed by Insomniac Games as both an interquel between the first Spider-Man game and the upcoming sequel, as well as a PS5 Launch Title and the story of how Miles Morales became Spider-Man in his own unique way. Development of this game was compared in sorts to Uncharted 4’s standalone expansion pack, Uncharted: Lost Legacy, and truth be told that’s kind of exactly what it is, and the Ultimate Edition’s price was around 49.99 so to me it all kind of lines up (my memory is shaky though so if I’m wrong I apologize). It’s been speculated that development time took around 3-4 years and a prequel book, Marvel's Spider-Man: Miles Morales – Wings of Fury, was released around two days before the game debuted on November 12th, 2020 as a Launch Title next to the Demon’s Souls Remake (and the Remaster for the previous game if that counts? It came with a code at least to play it on PS5). My history with this game is short and simple to be honest, being an exclusive game collector I pre-ordered this game and Demon’s Souls for the eventual day I would be able to find a Playstation 5 in the open market during the drought around the time COVID hit. Being stuck in a job I didn’t like, spending my money on frivolous stuff while living with my parents became one of the only things I enjoyed, and as such I spent my time beating other games while searching for a PS5. While I eventually did get one, I didn’t end up touching this game until October of 2021; this was only after a buddy of mine gave it a shot to try it out and I only sat down because I wanted to get a platinum as well as the fact that I was depressed and I needed something to distract myself. This was around the same time that I had platinumed Dark Souls 2, Astro’s Playroom and Infamous 2 as well so I was in another deep period where I needed to lose myself. After beating the game twice (once on normal and once on Hard for the trophy), I came out of the game still feeling empty due to depression but I had enjoyed myself a bit.
The plot is something you would expect as a spin-off, and here are my thoughts on it along with a sort of recap. Taking a while after The City That Never Sleeps DLC from the previous game, Peter and Miles are in the middle of transporting a prison convoy to the newly rebuilt Raft Prison, destroyed from the previous game. However, a breakout occurs and amongst the many individual prisoners to come out is the Rhino, one of the previous Sinister Six members who ironically enough tried to hunt Miles down at the docks. A chase ensues that destroys property and causes general mayhem until Miles is able to defeat him using his new “Venom” bio-electricity stuff. Here’s a thought about that so far? Why is this power named Venom? Will this tie into the next game or is it just something they named just because? I predict it’ll tie into something but here it kind of feels odd knowing my knowledge ahead of time. Besides the point, Rhino is defeated by Miles, protecting an unconscious Peter and leaving the supervillain to the security group of Roxxon Incorporated. If that doesn’t reek of bad ideas, I don’t know what is but regardless, Peter tells Miles that he’s going to have to protect the city by himself as Pete’s going to be going overseas with his girlfriend MJ to Symkaria to help her report on the civil war there.
All alone now, a series of events occur including a group of strange purple tech goons breaking into Roxxon Incorporated trying to steal something called Nuform, a christmas party with his friends (Ganke and Phin) and mother as well as an encounter with his Uncle Aaron, who somehow knows Mile’s identity as Spider-Man. Regardless, Rios Morales (Mile’s Mom) intends to campaign to fight back against Roxxon’s influence in their neighborhood and yet again with a giant speech involving one of Mile’s family members, is attacked yet again by a strange group, this time the purple goons who named themselves The Underground. Luckily this time, Mile’s mom doesn’t end up as a kebab but Miles almost does (or at least, his reputation) after intercepting the Underground who themselves are intercepting Nuform again, this time being moved in an armored transport. The attack leads to the revelation that his buddy Phin is The Underground’s leader, named The Tinkerer.
A series of investigations lead to a startling truth: Phin’s brother Rick used to work at Roxxon, and he created Nuform. However the unintended side effect was becoming ill, and Rick was murdered by the CEO of Roxxon himself, Troy Baker (sorry, Simon Krieger, my bad lol). An attempt is made to sneak back to the site of the sabotage where Rick died to get a phone with his Uncle Aaron (known as The Prowler) when shit gets fucked up and nothing can be obtained from the raid. However, Aaron encourages Miles to infiltrate The Underground with Phin and get the scoop on any intel. The intel ends up being that she’s planning on destroying the Nuform Reactor in Roxxon Plaza in a terrorist attack to expose the corporation’s plans. However, I don’t personally feel like she thought it through because corporations have enough money to know how to spin events like that, so she’s kind of setting herself up for failure? I don’t know that’s my take. Another thing I want to throw out here before continuing the synopsis: Simon Krieger (sorry, Troy Baker, my bad lol) is that he’s fucking boring as an antagonist. I understand as a sort of interquel with the other Spider-Man games that they needed a throwaway villain of sorts to really push Miles as a character and that’s cool. But I feel there are more interesting ways, or villains at least out there to really help push Miles into that zone. Could I do better and write the plot? I don’t know, probably not but Troy Krieger just feels like a stereotypical evil corporation guy; what about his evil makes him interesting? He doesn’t need to be a sympathetic villain, he can be played cartoonishly evil like he is here, I was just wishing for more to him is all. Also one last thing, Phin and the Underground attacked Roxxon Plaza earlier while Mile’s mom was in the middle of a campaign, and I understand that she’s changed and marred by anger towards her brother’s death. However, the fact that she did that KNOWING Mile’s mother was there and invited her to a christmas party? Kind of an asshole, and not a great friend unless I’m forgetting some context that was played in the game.
After an event leads to Miles having to expose his identity as Spider-Man, Phin and Miles become more strained than ever before. Trying to reconcile, they’re instead captured by Roxxon and Rhino, Troy Baker’s personal new henchman. Escaping their prison however, it’s learned that The Prowler is actually also working for Roxxon. Stopping Rhino from murdering Phin, Miles is thanked with getting knocked the fuck out. Being brought home, Rios learns of her son’s role as Spider-Man and is kind of okay with it; however it’s also learned in the previous encounter that Roxxon plans to sabotage the Nuform Reactor to destroy all of Harlem in case The Tinkerer succeeds. Nice! Regardless, the endgame is coming up and Uncle Aaron decides to lock Miles up AGAIN, but this time to stop him from being killed. However, an ass beating encourages Uncle A to let Miles slide and “do the right thing” so to speak.
Miles and Phin fight to stop her from blowing up the reactor, however shit gets crazy and Phin comes to her senses after their fight, sacrificing herself (and almost Miles) by having him release all the Nuform energy into the air. She dies and he falls to the ground in near death, his identity being exposed to all. However, and this is one way I will give the game major props, the community that he’s helped form around him in Harlem protects him from people giving interviews. The community and becoming one’s own person are two themes that take place in this game that I feel really does it justice, I don’t remember the names of a lot of the people in Harlem but I remember the cutscenes, the interactions with the Bodega owner and the deaf potential love interest, and everything comes back. Having saved the city all on his own, Miles essentially has proven to himself that he IS the Spider-Man that he’s always wanted to be, and having the backing of Harlem all but validates him in this effort.
The ending follows up weeks later, Uncle Aaron agrees to testify against Troy Krieger for his crimes and Roxxon is hit with a whole lot of lawsuits. Funny enough, everything happens to go well in spite of Phin’s homegrown terrorist attack. Miles has saved the day, and Peter comes back to congratulate him on his newfound Spider-Man identity before going off together once again to stop crime. Post Credits reveal however that Norman Osborn has ordered a scientist, one Curtis Connors, to release his son Harry from the stasis.
Again, I like this story a lot and I’ll say that there’s a lot of merit for this game to exist. This game is not only an in-universe coming of age story of sorts for Miles, but to me personally a sort of message to the fans that say “Miles isn’t Spider-Man” or “Miles isn’t THEIR Spider-Man”. It doesn’t have to be your Spider-Man, but he IS Spider-Man, no doubt about it. You can form your own feelings on whatever, that’s on you; but to sit there and say that he’s not what he wants to be doesn’t matter, because at the end of the day he effectively proved it to himself and that’s what matters. The whole Be Yourself tagline of the game is an effective part of this that maybe hammers it in a little much, but sometimes a little less subtly is okay to get the point across. If Harlem can effectively identify Miles as their Spider-Man, and kids around the world can identify with his version then I don’t see what the harm is. It’s just a shame that some of the villains seem one note and that Phin as The Tinkerer; while an interesting take on an old, crabby white dude, kind of frustrates me as a villain in her selfishness. That’s probably the point, and that’s cool but I can still not like it the same.
There isn’t much new to say about the gameplay other than what was in the previous game to be honest. All the fundamentals are still there, it’s still the same combat though Miles has a few extra moves and different side mission content. For gadgets, you’ll still unlock upgrade tokens by doing various missions across Manhattan. These include the standard web shooters, the Holo Drone, the Remote Mine, and Gravity Well of course but also include Venom Blast (the irony?) which uses bio-electricity (whatever the hell that means) to disable goons, camouflage to go invisible during stealth and combat temporarily. These are all decent and compared to what Peter has, makes Miles his own unique version of Spider-Man as a fighter.
Some of the side content where you unlock tokens include the usual collectibles like Time Capsules and Postcards, which in itself is an old scavenger hunt created by Mile’s father to celebrate Mile’s 16th birthday in a sad but positive way. There’s also the Spider-Training, which unlike Taskmaster’s Tasks in the previous games, are more used for Peter to train Miles and we’re also pretty decently easy as far as I remember. You can raid like Underground Caches and Roxxon Labs. These labs, when all the side objectives are completed, earn extra tokens and for the most part are pretty easy to deal with for most things. Other than that, and a couple other side objectives that give story and character context, for the most part you’ll be doing what every Spider-Man does: solve crimes. Instead of tapping into the police scanner like Peter did, Miles' buddy Ganke created a “Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man” app where people can leave tips and pinpoint the direction where crimes are located for Miles to bust up. I feel like the best thing about these missions compared to the OG Spider-Man is that if you wanted to replay the campaign in the previous game, it would mean restarting save points or a new game in general whereas in this game you can thankfully just go to a menu and replay old missions if you wanted to go back for any reason. It’s a feature I wish was in the past game, as well as hoping it’s in the new one as well.
As for outfits and such, they’re all for the most part pretty cool and unique, each one with their own set of buffs for using them. Certain ones are unlocked already and some have to be unlocked by doing various content but truth be told, I always stuck with the Spider-Verse one even if I didn’t watch the movies because the whole choppy frame thing they have with the outfit is honestly pretty fucking cool. Other than that, much of it is pretty much the same as the last game, like the ability to fast travel through the subway or scroll through the social media stuff on the main menu to see the city’s reactions to the plot unfolding. Overall, it’s more Spider-Man 2018 but with new stuff and honestly I don’t need much in the way of new additions to enjoy the content as it was already fantastic to begin with.
The audio design in this game is pretty good, it definitely feels youthful in it’s presentation, like the same people who created the Spiderverse films took out time to make sure the score surrounding this game fit the tone they wanted for Miles Morales and his escapades. There’s the usual orchestral flair you’ll get in these games, and a lot of them do a pretty good job and being bombastic and making you feel stuff. However, there’s also a bit of a trap and I swear to god an electronic mix (sort of?) sometimes that makes it feel like it’s own unique thing compared to the other titles and honestly, I fucks with it. John Paesano did a fantastic job creating this sort of soundtrack that not only sounds catchy as hell but blends into the background that catches your attention in a sort of subtle way. There’s nothing wrong with having standout tracks that you feel are fire as hell, but for me oftentimes I’ll appreciate when it blends seamlessly and really pushes the game’s personality out. To accompany these orchestral tracks, there are a couple of rap tracks by Jaden Smith and Lecrae, whose lyrics describe the feelings that Miles most likely feels in the moment. I love me some rap tracks, these are okay even if they don’t always hit me but I’m sure someone out there loves them and that’s ok too. Commonly you’ll most likely be hearing Be Yourself while swinging through New York, or something at least that sounds like that and thematically for the game, it makes sense.
Voice acting is pretty solid too, Nadji Peter to me is the standout as Miles Morales with both his youthfulness and his willingness to do the right thing, but others do pretty solid too. Troy Baker does a decent job playing…Troy Baker I guess? Not to diss, I keep forgetting the name of his villain even if I’m writing about it because of how bland the character is, so Troy Baker’s voice is the only thing I recognize. Jaqueline Pool is a name who I don’t recognize, but the way that she plays Rio Morales embodies the character for me. Ike Amadi also stands out as Aaron Davis, Mile’s uncle and as such, truth be told everyone in this game does a nice job bringing their characters to life. You’ll also get a couple of people coming back from the previous title too, such as Yuri Lowenthal as Peter, Fred Tatasciore as Rhino and Travis Willingham as Wilson Fisk but for the most part (other than Rhino), they’re relatively minor parts of the game. I guess to finish this off, yeah the shit’s good and I can’t complain about this part, even if sometimes it feels like I’m a bit too old for the soundtrack and such, there’s something about the game that makes it feel wholly Miles that it doesn’t matter how old I am. Also to top it off, the actual sound design surrounding New York City is good too, but I can’t really feel much of a difference from the previous Spider-Man game and that was good so overall, good shit here.
Graphically what can I say about this game that hasn't already been said before? As a PS5 launch title, it looked absolutely fucking stunning in every way shape and form. Some of the stuff still carried from the OG Spider-Man as far as I remember, like the buildings repeating itself when looking inside sometimes but honestly, I didn’t care much. I know a lot of people get up in arms between the “Beautiful Graphics” mode and the Performance Mode stuff but truthfully, I couldn’t really tell the difference as it looked pretty good in 30 FPS regardless. Details on models in the game are pretty solid, and I didn’t encounter much in the way of glitches other than one where I knocked a goon into a post and he clipped through and started twerking or some shit. In a way, I don’t really feel like I have much to say here other than it looks good so just take my word for that. The only real knock to me personally still is just Peter’s new model looks painfully...bland? I don’t know, I prefer the PS4 version and it’s just my personal opinion, not a diss on the guy himself.
As for atmospheric vibes? There’s something about the game’s overall presentation between the snowy but surprisingly friendly weather, the extra addition of colors, the emphasis on community bonding that really makes this game feel unique in its own way. This game was built for Christmas, or at least the feeling that I used to have as a child before those feelings eventually died due to adult worries and such. You also have a few new easter eggs here such as a street renamed to Boseman Way, for the actor Chadwick Boseman, who played Black Panther who sadly passed away due to disease. You can also find the grave of Jefferson Davis, Mile’s police officer dad who died in the attack in the first game while Stan Lee gets his own statue outside of the diner where Peter and Mary Jane hung out as well. There’s even a cameo of Peter and Otto Octavius during a science fair flashback that’s pretty cool as well. Regardless, I believe this is probably the most unique feeling I’ve ever seen in a Spider-Man game pretty much….ever I believe? Either way, it’s all comforting and surprisingly heartwarming, though maybe that’s just due to the lack of snow I’ve seen in real life (shoutout to my G, Global Warming! You’re a real one for that!).
Final thoughts are as follows; it’s a smaller and deeply personal title that showcases Mile’s growth in a way that I enjoyed. Granted, you could definitely tell it was a smaller game in both the length and the way that it went about using certain characters (Troy Baker’s character was a definite throwaway villain that I felt to be boring); I can understand that at the end of the day they needed some smaller fish to feed Mile’s character arc. Regardless, it was a solid title and I’m glad that I got to sit down and play it as my first Playstation 5 game, and if there are people wondering if it’s worthy of playing? Yes. You should definitely consider picking it up. After they released Miles Morales (as well as Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart), the main projects that Insomniac sat down and worked on as far as I’m aware is the upcoming Spider-Man 2 which I am HYPED for as one of the last platinum titles I’m going to get this year, but also PC ports for both Spider-Man: Remastered, Spider-Man: Miles Morales and Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart. From what I’ve heard, Insomniac Games teamed up with Nixxes Software for the title and did a fantastic job porting them all to the PC (though Rift Apart has some hiccups apparently) and I must say I’m happy as hell that it’s the case. While I’m sad that the older Playstation titles aren’t getting the Remaster/Port love that they deserve, the fact that these games are on PC and available everywhere for anyone to purchase is a good thing. Usually the game on sale runs for about early to mid thirties price range and if there’s a good time as ever, it’s to pick it up on sale. However, I think regardless of if it’s on sale, it’s worthy of your money and time and you will get your worth out of this game; just come in with the expectations that it’s definitely going to be a smaller game (about half the length of Spider-Man PS4 or a tad less I think?), with not as much grandiosity to it as the earlier and probably later Peter Parker titles.
Links:
https://www.marvel.com/articles/games/brian-horton-describes-work-on-marvels-spider-man-miles-morales (Research)
https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/VideoGame/SpiderManMilesMorales (Research)
https://marvels-spider-man.fandom.com/wiki/Marvel%27s_Spider-Man:_Miles_Morales (Research)
https://marvel.fandom.com/wiki/Marvel%27s_Spider-Man:Miles_Morales-_Wings_of_Fury (Research)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spider-Man:_Miles_Morales (Research)
https://www.theverge.com/2020/6/18/21295683/insomniac-spider-man-miles-morales-sony-ps5-length-confirmed (Research)
https://www.marvel.com/articles/games/brian-horton-describes-work-on-marvels-spider-man-miles-morales (Research)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZIMpsbGyO5Y&ab_channel=gamemast15r
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hoFUOOiiC6k&ab_channel=FullAlbum (Soundtrack)
The plot is something you would expect as a spin-off, and here are my thoughts on it along with a sort of recap. Taking a while after The City That Never Sleeps DLC from the previous game, Peter and Miles are in the middle of transporting a prison convoy to the newly rebuilt Raft Prison, destroyed from the previous game. However, a breakout occurs and amongst the many individual prisoners to come out is the Rhino, one of the previous Sinister Six members who ironically enough tried to hunt Miles down at the docks. A chase ensues that destroys property and causes general mayhem until Miles is able to defeat him using his new “Venom” bio-electricity stuff. Here’s a thought about that so far? Why is this power named Venom? Will this tie into the next game or is it just something they named just because? I predict it’ll tie into something but here it kind of feels odd knowing my knowledge ahead of time. Besides the point, Rhino is defeated by Miles, protecting an unconscious Peter and leaving the supervillain to the security group of Roxxon Incorporated. If that doesn’t reek of bad ideas, I don’t know what is but regardless, Peter tells Miles that he’s going to have to protect the city by himself as Pete’s going to be going overseas with his girlfriend MJ to Symkaria to help her report on the civil war there.
All alone now, a series of events occur including a group of strange purple tech goons breaking into Roxxon Incorporated trying to steal something called Nuform, a christmas party with his friends (Ganke and Phin) and mother as well as an encounter with his Uncle Aaron, who somehow knows Mile’s identity as Spider-Man. Regardless, Rios Morales (Mile’s Mom) intends to campaign to fight back against Roxxon’s influence in their neighborhood and yet again with a giant speech involving one of Mile’s family members, is attacked yet again by a strange group, this time the purple goons who named themselves The Underground. Luckily this time, Mile’s mom doesn’t end up as a kebab but Miles almost does (or at least, his reputation) after intercepting the Underground who themselves are intercepting Nuform again, this time being moved in an armored transport. The attack leads to the revelation that his buddy Phin is The Underground’s leader, named The Tinkerer.
A series of investigations lead to a startling truth: Phin’s brother Rick used to work at Roxxon, and he created Nuform. However the unintended side effect was becoming ill, and Rick was murdered by the CEO of Roxxon himself, Troy Baker (sorry, Simon Krieger, my bad lol). An attempt is made to sneak back to the site of the sabotage where Rick died to get a phone with his Uncle Aaron (known as The Prowler) when shit gets fucked up and nothing can be obtained from the raid. However, Aaron encourages Miles to infiltrate The Underground with Phin and get the scoop on any intel. The intel ends up being that she’s planning on destroying the Nuform Reactor in Roxxon Plaza in a terrorist attack to expose the corporation’s plans. However, I don’t personally feel like she thought it through because corporations have enough money to know how to spin events like that, so she’s kind of setting herself up for failure? I don’t know that’s my take. Another thing I want to throw out here before continuing the synopsis: Simon Krieger (sorry, Troy Baker, my bad lol) is that he’s fucking boring as an antagonist. I understand as a sort of interquel with the other Spider-Man games that they needed a throwaway villain of sorts to really push Miles as a character and that’s cool. But I feel there are more interesting ways, or villains at least out there to really help push Miles into that zone. Could I do better and write the plot? I don’t know, probably not but Troy Krieger just feels like a stereotypical evil corporation guy; what about his evil makes him interesting? He doesn’t need to be a sympathetic villain, he can be played cartoonishly evil like he is here, I was just wishing for more to him is all. Also one last thing, Phin and the Underground attacked Roxxon Plaza earlier while Mile’s mom was in the middle of a campaign, and I understand that she’s changed and marred by anger towards her brother’s death. However, the fact that she did that KNOWING Mile’s mother was there and invited her to a christmas party? Kind of an asshole, and not a great friend unless I’m forgetting some context that was played in the game.
After an event leads to Miles having to expose his identity as Spider-Man, Phin and Miles become more strained than ever before. Trying to reconcile, they’re instead captured by Roxxon and Rhino, Troy Baker’s personal new henchman. Escaping their prison however, it’s learned that The Prowler is actually also working for Roxxon. Stopping Rhino from murdering Phin, Miles is thanked with getting knocked the fuck out. Being brought home, Rios learns of her son’s role as Spider-Man and is kind of okay with it; however it’s also learned in the previous encounter that Roxxon plans to sabotage the Nuform Reactor to destroy all of Harlem in case The Tinkerer succeeds. Nice! Regardless, the endgame is coming up and Uncle Aaron decides to lock Miles up AGAIN, but this time to stop him from being killed. However, an ass beating encourages Uncle A to let Miles slide and “do the right thing” so to speak.
Miles and Phin fight to stop her from blowing up the reactor, however shit gets crazy and Phin comes to her senses after their fight, sacrificing herself (and almost Miles) by having him release all the Nuform energy into the air. She dies and he falls to the ground in near death, his identity being exposed to all. However, and this is one way I will give the game major props, the community that he’s helped form around him in Harlem protects him from people giving interviews. The community and becoming one’s own person are two themes that take place in this game that I feel really does it justice, I don’t remember the names of a lot of the people in Harlem but I remember the cutscenes, the interactions with the Bodega owner and the deaf potential love interest, and everything comes back. Having saved the city all on his own, Miles essentially has proven to himself that he IS the Spider-Man that he’s always wanted to be, and having the backing of Harlem all but validates him in this effort.
The ending follows up weeks later, Uncle Aaron agrees to testify against Troy Krieger for his crimes and Roxxon is hit with a whole lot of lawsuits. Funny enough, everything happens to go well in spite of Phin’s homegrown terrorist attack. Miles has saved the day, and Peter comes back to congratulate him on his newfound Spider-Man identity before going off together once again to stop crime. Post Credits reveal however that Norman Osborn has ordered a scientist, one Curtis Connors, to release his son Harry from the stasis.
Again, I like this story a lot and I’ll say that there’s a lot of merit for this game to exist. This game is not only an in-universe coming of age story of sorts for Miles, but to me personally a sort of message to the fans that say “Miles isn’t Spider-Man” or “Miles isn’t THEIR Spider-Man”. It doesn’t have to be your Spider-Man, but he IS Spider-Man, no doubt about it. You can form your own feelings on whatever, that’s on you; but to sit there and say that he’s not what he wants to be doesn’t matter, because at the end of the day he effectively proved it to himself and that’s what matters. The whole Be Yourself tagline of the game is an effective part of this that maybe hammers it in a little much, but sometimes a little less subtly is okay to get the point across. If Harlem can effectively identify Miles as their Spider-Man, and kids around the world can identify with his version then I don’t see what the harm is. It’s just a shame that some of the villains seem one note and that Phin as The Tinkerer; while an interesting take on an old, crabby white dude, kind of frustrates me as a villain in her selfishness. That’s probably the point, and that’s cool but I can still not like it the same.
There isn’t much new to say about the gameplay other than what was in the previous game to be honest. All the fundamentals are still there, it’s still the same combat though Miles has a few extra moves and different side mission content. For gadgets, you’ll still unlock upgrade tokens by doing various missions across Manhattan. These include the standard web shooters, the Holo Drone, the Remote Mine, and Gravity Well of course but also include Venom Blast (the irony?) which uses bio-electricity (whatever the hell that means) to disable goons, camouflage to go invisible during stealth and combat temporarily. These are all decent and compared to what Peter has, makes Miles his own unique version of Spider-Man as a fighter.
Some of the side content where you unlock tokens include the usual collectibles like Time Capsules and Postcards, which in itself is an old scavenger hunt created by Mile’s father to celebrate Mile’s 16th birthday in a sad but positive way. There’s also the Spider-Training, which unlike Taskmaster’s Tasks in the previous games, are more used for Peter to train Miles and we’re also pretty decently easy as far as I remember. You can raid like Underground Caches and Roxxon Labs. These labs, when all the side objectives are completed, earn extra tokens and for the most part are pretty easy to deal with for most things. Other than that, and a couple other side objectives that give story and character context, for the most part you’ll be doing what every Spider-Man does: solve crimes. Instead of tapping into the police scanner like Peter did, Miles' buddy Ganke created a “Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man” app where people can leave tips and pinpoint the direction where crimes are located for Miles to bust up. I feel like the best thing about these missions compared to the OG Spider-Man is that if you wanted to replay the campaign in the previous game, it would mean restarting save points or a new game in general whereas in this game you can thankfully just go to a menu and replay old missions if you wanted to go back for any reason. It’s a feature I wish was in the past game, as well as hoping it’s in the new one as well.
As for outfits and such, they’re all for the most part pretty cool and unique, each one with their own set of buffs for using them. Certain ones are unlocked already and some have to be unlocked by doing various content but truth be told, I always stuck with the Spider-Verse one even if I didn’t watch the movies because the whole choppy frame thing they have with the outfit is honestly pretty fucking cool. Other than that, much of it is pretty much the same as the last game, like the ability to fast travel through the subway or scroll through the social media stuff on the main menu to see the city’s reactions to the plot unfolding. Overall, it’s more Spider-Man 2018 but with new stuff and honestly I don’t need much in the way of new additions to enjoy the content as it was already fantastic to begin with.
The audio design in this game is pretty good, it definitely feels youthful in it’s presentation, like the same people who created the Spiderverse films took out time to make sure the score surrounding this game fit the tone they wanted for Miles Morales and his escapades. There’s the usual orchestral flair you’ll get in these games, and a lot of them do a pretty good job and being bombastic and making you feel stuff. However, there’s also a bit of a trap and I swear to god an electronic mix (sort of?) sometimes that makes it feel like it’s own unique thing compared to the other titles and honestly, I fucks with it. John Paesano did a fantastic job creating this sort of soundtrack that not only sounds catchy as hell but blends into the background that catches your attention in a sort of subtle way. There’s nothing wrong with having standout tracks that you feel are fire as hell, but for me oftentimes I’ll appreciate when it blends seamlessly and really pushes the game’s personality out. To accompany these orchestral tracks, there are a couple of rap tracks by Jaden Smith and Lecrae, whose lyrics describe the feelings that Miles most likely feels in the moment. I love me some rap tracks, these are okay even if they don’t always hit me but I’m sure someone out there loves them and that’s ok too. Commonly you’ll most likely be hearing Be Yourself while swinging through New York, or something at least that sounds like that and thematically for the game, it makes sense.
Voice acting is pretty solid too, Nadji Peter to me is the standout as Miles Morales with both his youthfulness and his willingness to do the right thing, but others do pretty solid too. Troy Baker does a decent job playing…Troy Baker I guess? Not to diss, I keep forgetting the name of his villain even if I’m writing about it because of how bland the character is, so Troy Baker’s voice is the only thing I recognize. Jaqueline Pool is a name who I don’t recognize, but the way that she plays Rio Morales embodies the character for me. Ike Amadi also stands out as Aaron Davis, Mile’s uncle and as such, truth be told everyone in this game does a nice job bringing their characters to life. You’ll also get a couple of people coming back from the previous title too, such as Yuri Lowenthal as Peter, Fred Tatasciore as Rhino and Travis Willingham as Wilson Fisk but for the most part (other than Rhino), they’re relatively minor parts of the game. I guess to finish this off, yeah the shit’s good and I can’t complain about this part, even if sometimes it feels like I’m a bit too old for the soundtrack and such, there’s something about the game that makes it feel wholly Miles that it doesn’t matter how old I am. Also to top it off, the actual sound design surrounding New York City is good too, but I can’t really feel much of a difference from the previous Spider-Man game and that was good so overall, good shit here.
Graphically what can I say about this game that hasn't already been said before? As a PS5 launch title, it looked absolutely fucking stunning in every way shape and form. Some of the stuff still carried from the OG Spider-Man as far as I remember, like the buildings repeating itself when looking inside sometimes but honestly, I didn’t care much. I know a lot of people get up in arms between the “Beautiful Graphics” mode and the Performance Mode stuff but truthfully, I couldn’t really tell the difference as it looked pretty good in 30 FPS regardless. Details on models in the game are pretty solid, and I didn’t encounter much in the way of glitches other than one where I knocked a goon into a post and he clipped through and started twerking or some shit. In a way, I don’t really feel like I have much to say here other than it looks good so just take my word for that. The only real knock to me personally still is just Peter’s new model looks painfully...bland? I don’t know, I prefer the PS4 version and it’s just my personal opinion, not a diss on the guy himself.
As for atmospheric vibes? There’s something about the game’s overall presentation between the snowy but surprisingly friendly weather, the extra addition of colors, the emphasis on community bonding that really makes this game feel unique in its own way. This game was built for Christmas, or at least the feeling that I used to have as a child before those feelings eventually died due to adult worries and such. You also have a few new easter eggs here such as a street renamed to Boseman Way, for the actor Chadwick Boseman, who played Black Panther who sadly passed away due to disease. You can also find the grave of Jefferson Davis, Mile’s police officer dad who died in the attack in the first game while Stan Lee gets his own statue outside of the diner where Peter and Mary Jane hung out as well. There’s even a cameo of Peter and Otto Octavius during a science fair flashback that’s pretty cool as well. Regardless, I believe this is probably the most unique feeling I’ve ever seen in a Spider-Man game pretty much….ever I believe? Either way, it’s all comforting and surprisingly heartwarming, though maybe that’s just due to the lack of snow I’ve seen in real life (shoutout to my G, Global Warming! You’re a real one for that!).
Final thoughts are as follows; it’s a smaller and deeply personal title that showcases Mile’s growth in a way that I enjoyed. Granted, you could definitely tell it was a smaller game in both the length and the way that it went about using certain characters (Troy Baker’s character was a definite throwaway villain that I felt to be boring); I can understand that at the end of the day they needed some smaller fish to feed Mile’s character arc. Regardless, it was a solid title and I’m glad that I got to sit down and play it as my first Playstation 5 game, and if there are people wondering if it’s worthy of playing? Yes. You should definitely consider picking it up. After they released Miles Morales (as well as Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart), the main projects that Insomniac sat down and worked on as far as I’m aware is the upcoming Spider-Man 2 which I am HYPED for as one of the last platinum titles I’m going to get this year, but also PC ports for both Spider-Man: Remastered, Spider-Man: Miles Morales and Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart. From what I’ve heard, Insomniac Games teamed up with Nixxes Software for the title and did a fantastic job porting them all to the PC (though Rift Apart has some hiccups apparently) and I must say I’m happy as hell that it’s the case. While I’m sad that the older Playstation titles aren’t getting the Remaster/Port love that they deserve, the fact that these games are on PC and available everywhere for anyone to purchase is a good thing. Usually the game on sale runs for about early to mid thirties price range and if there’s a good time as ever, it’s to pick it up on sale. However, I think regardless of if it’s on sale, it’s worthy of your money and time and you will get your worth out of this game; just come in with the expectations that it’s definitely going to be a smaller game (about half the length of Spider-Man PS4 or a tad less I think?), with not as much grandiosity to it as the earlier and probably later Peter Parker titles.
Links:
https://www.marvel.com/articles/games/brian-horton-describes-work-on-marvels-spider-man-miles-morales (Research)
https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/VideoGame/SpiderManMilesMorales (Research)
https://marvels-spider-man.fandom.com/wiki/Marvel%27s_Spider-Man:_Miles_Morales (Research)
https://marvel.fandom.com/wiki/Marvel%27s_Spider-Man:Miles_Morales-_Wings_of_Fury (Research)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spider-Man:_Miles_Morales (Research)
https://www.theverge.com/2020/6/18/21295683/insomniac-spider-man-miles-morales-sony-ps5-length-confirmed (Research)
https://www.marvel.com/articles/games/brian-horton-describes-work-on-marvels-spider-man-miles-morales (Research)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZIMpsbGyO5Y&ab_channel=gamemast15r
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hoFUOOiiC6k&ab_channel=FullAlbum (Soundtrack)