This review contains spoilers
I do like Marvel’s Spider-Man 2, but I don’t think I can have the same level of appreciation for this game as a lot of Spider-Man fans do because of how oversaturated superhero media has become. When there are currently 3 very mainstream Spider-Man storylines going on, and I grew up with 2 other ones before this, I just get kind of burnt out. This doesn’t take away from my thoughts on the game itself, but it does make me less interested in its story as I would’ve been a few years ago. My biggest issue though, is that the first 8 hours of this game drag on. Fight 20 hunters, cutscene, pick up an object, cutscene to put it down, Spider-Man makes funny remark in cutscene, fight 20 hunters, repeat. It’s numbing after the first few hours. Where it really picks up is the Lizard fight, when the focus shifts from the hunters and Kraven to the bigger picture of the story. Even though I found the Lizard fights to be underwhelming, I’d still take those over what I endured for the entire first half of the game. After that, we finally get to the juicy stuff. Kraven fights, playing as Venom, the Scream fight, the Li fight, the final Venom fights. It seems like they just crammed an entire game into the last 8-10 hours instead of spreading it all out, especially since the first half’s story was just building up the tension of the wandering Symbiote.
SPOILER
I do also like that during the last 10 minutes, which is exclusively cutscenes, the game makes YOU kill Harry. Not a cutscene, an action basically saying that this is your responsibility as the player, this is something that’s on your hands. But, as almost all superhero media does, it makes it seem meaningless when Miles immediately resuscitates him. For once, Marvel, I beg of you, to not be so soft in your writing.
I also noticed that the character movements and animations during cutscenes look like mid era PS4 graphics, whatever that was about. The environment is easily my favorite part of this game, same as the first. It’s easy to get lost enjoying yourself swinging around the city, with these clean swinging animations and a more detailed ground level than the first game. I just wish the first half wasn’t such a pain to get through, to enjoy my time in the second half. A solid 7/10.
SPOILER
I do also like that during the last 10 minutes, which is exclusively cutscenes, the game makes YOU kill Harry. Not a cutscene, an action basically saying that this is your responsibility as the player, this is something that’s on your hands. But, as almost all superhero media does, it makes it seem meaningless when Miles immediately resuscitates him. For once, Marvel, I beg of you, to not be so soft in your writing.
I also noticed that the character movements and animations during cutscenes look like mid era PS4 graphics, whatever that was about. The environment is easily my favorite part of this game, same as the first. It’s easy to get lost enjoying yourself swinging around the city, with these clean swinging animations and a more detailed ground level than the first game. I just wish the first half wasn’t such a pain to get through, to enjoy my time in the second half. A solid 7/10.