I thoroughly enjoyed my time with this from start to finish. I felt like a kid again and I should be ashamed how much a simple movie costume showing up filled me with joy. My boys Venom and Lizard also just looked so good, I was grinning every time they were on screen.
While it can be considered safe by most standards and the game did plenty of things I expected, it also surprised me in several ways both good and bad. The good I cannot get into without spoilers and I don't feel like tagging the whole review as such (this site needs a selective censoring option) but in terms of dislikes: The treatment of older villains is one of my largest complaints, it just kind of seemed wasteful. The game also had, at least to me, more glitches and bug that requires me to reset than the first one and miles combined. Not reading my inputs on those mandatory "do this move" interruptions, buildings that I need to run up not loading, and sound cutting out (this one I remember from the first game) being the most common and I would have been much more annoyed if the checkpoints weren't very generous. Has those not been there this easily would have been a 5/5.
Despite me above saying a certain movie costume had me giddy as a school girl, I did find the general costume selection to not be as good as the first one. The style system is not a good replacement for full on outfits either since it just makes most color schemes get shared by all outfits. I love me the black suit as much as the next guy but I didn't need it's color scheme as an option for every outfit and have several other unmodifiable black suits as costumes as well. Not all outfits are created equal either, at least in Miles' case who seemed to be allowed more variety in look. Most of Peter's were "what flavor of movie/offshoot of the classic design do you want?" on top of the "other Spider-Man" outfits.
In terms of combat, if it is an improvement it's slight. The abilities honestly felt weak for how long it takes to get the skills themselves and faster recharges. They are not problem solvers, they are just bonus tools. Running into the other Spider-Man while playing was cool, and I never got tired of seeing the team up attacks. Otherwise the combat was just as fun and fluid as the first game. Traversal was also fun, it never got boring despite them making the map larger and a lot of that has to do with the wings. Yes it did end up just becoming "spiderman can basically fly now" but it also didn't invalidate the webswinging. Traversal being fun isn't something open world games do often, so if I didn't get bored by it then I think it succeeded.
All in all, I think if you enjoyed the first game then without a shadow of a doubt you'll enjoy this one too.
While it can be considered safe by most standards and the game did plenty of things I expected, it also surprised me in several ways both good and bad. The good I cannot get into without spoilers and I don't feel like tagging the whole review as such (this site needs a selective censoring option) but in terms of dislikes: The treatment of older villains is one of my largest complaints, it just kind of seemed wasteful. The game also had, at least to me, more glitches and bug that requires me to reset than the first one and miles combined. Not reading my inputs on those mandatory "do this move" interruptions, buildings that I need to run up not loading, and sound cutting out (this one I remember from the first game) being the most common and I would have been much more annoyed if the checkpoints weren't very generous. Has those not been there this easily would have been a 5/5.
Despite me above saying a certain movie costume had me giddy as a school girl, I did find the general costume selection to not be as good as the first one. The style system is not a good replacement for full on outfits either since it just makes most color schemes get shared by all outfits. I love me the black suit as much as the next guy but I didn't need it's color scheme as an option for every outfit and have several other unmodifiable black suits as costumes as well. Not all outfits are created equal either, at least in Miles' case who seemed to be allowed more variety in look. Most of Peter's were "what flavor of movie/offshoot of the classic design do you want?" on top of the "other Spider-Man" outfits.
In terms of combat, if it is an improvement it's slight. The abilities honestly felt weak for how long it takes to get the skills themselves and faster recharges. They are not problem solvers, they are just bonus tools. Running into the other Spider-Man while playing was cool, and I never got tired of seeing the team up attacks. Otherwise the combat was just as fun and fluid as the first game. Traversal was also fun, it never got boring despite them making the map larger and a lot of that has to do with the wings. Yes it did end up just becoming "spiderman can basically fly now" but it also didn't invalidate the webswinging. Traversal being fun isn't something open world games do often, so if I didn't get bored by it then I think it succeeded.
All in all, I think if you enjoyed the first game then without a shadow of a doubt you'll enjoy this one too.