Spider-Man

A little while ago, PlayStation dropped a bombshell in terms of their exclusive games lineup that they were working on a Spider-Man title. Marvel was partnering with them and cherished developer, Insomniac, was at the helm. 

Insomniac was coming off of some mild success with the wonderfully fun and zany Sunset Overdrive and hadn't been on PlayStation since the Resistance games (a great trilogy). They have a storied history on Playstation with the Spyro and Ratchet & Clank games so the switch to Xbox exclusivity was a weird one. But returning with something as significant as Spider-man (which has already gone on to be one of the PS4's best-selling exclusives) is a welcome return to the platform. 

Hey now! That's not very lady-like!

Many gamers have been clamoring for a Spider-man game since the Spider-Man 2 movie-tie in was released on PS2 and the original Xbox. It was a surprisingly competent game as most movie tie-ins are awful, but I think nostalgia clouded many people's judgment that it also had its fair share of issues. There's also been a considerable void in AAA superhero games now that the utterly fantastic Arkham series has ended and developer Rocksteady has been eerily quiet ever since. In short, the gaming community was quietly clamoring for another excellent superhero franchise so Spider-Man is hitting just at the right time. 

What's more exciting is that Marvel representatives have stated that Spider-Man is intended to be the Iron Man of games. The mere concept of a gaming-equivalent to the MCU is probably one of the most exciting gaming concepts not yet explored.

Much like Iron Man however, its important to start off on the right foot. It's important to make an impact. With expectations high and the potential enormous, does Spider-Man deliver? 

Absolutely yes...mostly. 

Into the Spider-verse...

One of the best photo modes
in recent memory left me with this gem...

The thing you'll come to love more and more about Spider-Man as you play along is how fluid it plays, especially once you overcome an initial learning curve. That learning curve is surprisingly steep -- particularly when it comes to fluid webswinging -- but it's rewarding to master the art. The reward of learning the mechanics and capabilities is a level of fluid motion (something Insomniac got practice with in Sunset Overdrive) that plays on your screen like poetry. To say that webswinging around a replica of New York City is one of the best parts of the game would be an understatement as is saying that this webswinging puts the previous "best" Spider-man games to shame. Movement feels natural and is highly functional/efficient too. Getting to any point around NYC is enjoyable by swinging and falling between the concrete and glass structures and even though the game has a fast travel system, I rarely used it unless the objective was on the direct opposite from where I was on the map. 

Combat is similarly challenging and rewarding. It will feel very familiar to those who played the Arkham or Mordor series -- because it's exactly the same but with a Spider-man skin. More on that obvious issue later, but it works well here and arguably fits Spider-man better than it ever did the Dark Knight. His gymnastics, swinging capabilities, and gadgets lead to some awesome looking combinations and highly functional combinations of doling out justice. There's that learning curve as well and on Hard mode, you'll definitely die a few times. Even at level 50, I still die from time to time as groups of enemies become increasingly overwhelming. There are various enemy types -- the most challenging being those with ranged weapons like assault rifles or even more lethal, rocket launchers. I found myself dodging a LOT more than in any other game with this combat system which leads to it feeling somewhat fresh again. Combining Spidey's abilities, the environment, and your gadgets leaves a lot of branching options for how to dispose of the bad guys and although I certainly had some combos I'd lean on more than others, the game doesn't punish you if you want to experiment with some other moves. Unfortunately I found that some of the gadgets were hard to use in the moment and I'd really only focus on deliberately using them when I was facing a large, overwhelming group.

Spot the Spidey...

Stealth combat fares the worst in regards to the central gameplay elements, but that isn't to say it's bad. In later Arkham games stealth began to feel like a core focus and was all the better for it. Here, stealth feels like it's mostly optional, while being easy, but somewhat unremarkable to execute. Wrapping up enemies or zipping around knocking them out provides only a couple different animations so, when compared to the acrobatic and borderline poetic combat, is less intriguing. 

'Bout to get Chuck Norris'd to the face!

Gameplay also includes a handful of character swaps, minigames, and optional tasks around the map. Some fare better than others and I could see many people hating these elements. I'm one who likes a change of pace in my games so outside of a couple instances that felt like chores, I appreciated these. The character swaps I could take or leave; there aren't any that absolutely stand out and I'm not sure they add as much to the story as the developers thought, but again, they're a change of pace and not "bad" just less comparatively to everything else you can do. Many of the research stations, circuit puzzles, and side quests however were quite enjoyable and the completionist in me had no problem charging after their resolutions.

What's perhaps most impressive about Spider-Man is the story though. I'm sure Insomniac and Marvel wondered how to awkwardly place a Spider-Man tale in a time where it almost seems like there's too much of him. He's in the MCU, Sony has a separate "Spider-verse" they're creating, there's an animated film coming out -- how to move forward without being redundant? The key? Forget about all of that and craft your own world. We find this Peter Parker a bit seasoned, as someone who's been doing the Spider-Man thing for a few years now. It skips over all the origin story stuff and allows us to get to the meat of the characters and, more specifically, the relationship of the characters. Why are Peter and MJ not on speaking terms? Why is Fisk so easy to put behind bars? What happens between Peter and his mentor, Dr. Octavius? It's a refreshing take on a world we've seen before and despite going to the familiar territory that's hard to avoid for superhero stories, I thoroughly enjoyed all of it, including the climactic, surprisingly emotional ending (with post credits scenes!). As is the case for most PlayStation exclusives, the acting is fantastic, as is the writing. Not only do the writers nail the tone and humor of Spider-man, but also Peter Parker. I genuinely laughed multiple times throughout and, much like Spider-Man 2 did so many years ago, it strikes a great outlook on the challenges that Peter faces balancing both his personal life and his "other job". Even some of the side missions have intriguing storylines that can be unrelated to the core missions and help to build the lore of the game.

Coolest suit in the game, hands down.

And yes. You can take selfies

While the map of the game may be nothing to write home about in terms of size, it never really needed to be as it was always pretty obvious that it would be contained in NYC. I'm certainly no expert on NYC, but it seems like a fairly accurate recreation of the iconic locale and I enjoyed exploring its different areas. There are lots of lovely Marvel Easter eggs hidden throughout that you can enjoy, some obvious (Avengers tower and Dr. Strange's Santorum) and others are slightly more hidden (many relating to the Netflix Marvel characters). I rarely felt like the flow of the city was holding me back mechanically -- something that plagued the original long ago and is a constant issue with certain Assassin's Creed games. Even in the center of Central Park I could still webswing, at a lower altitude, and get around how I wanted. One thing I was certainly devastated to see however -- and this is essentially a side rant that has no impact to gameplay -- is how poor of a representation the Freedom Tower and 9/11 Memorial received. A very odd callout, I know, but the Freedom Tower looks drastically different and where I had excitement to climb the monumental piece of architecture quickly turned into "WTF is this building?". Equally as baffling is the the 9/11 Memorial Pools are completely removed too, officially omitting any reference to one of the more significant events in NYC history. This isn't intended to come across as some right-wing rant, but rather the shock I experienced that the game was going to ignore that tragedy all together. It becomes particularly even more striking when you make your way through the story and witness themes of terrorism first-hand. I realize it probably came down to some lame excuse of rights to display those things, but it seemed like the wrong/awkward area to cut costs. 

Despite some initial controversy around graphical downgrades, Spider-Man looks pretty fantastic 80-90% of the time. New York's vistas and buildings look great across a wide array of weather and time of day options while Spider-man's animations are utterly fantastic, and often jaw-dropping. Character faces outside of cutscenes could use some heave facelifts (pun intended), but other than that, there's nothing decidedly ugly. More importantly though is how fluid it runs, which I'd take over God of War-esque graphics any day (also making GoW all the more impressive that it looked that damn good). Spider-Man never slowed down for me, even with lots of people/actions happening on screen. In terms of showing off your gaming rig/setup, Spider-Man may not be top dog, but it earns lots of bonus points for looking great while playing even smoother. Sound design and original music is equally as impressive. Sound effects feel like the comic book "POW!" and "WHAM!"s jumping out from your speakers and the original music, while not featuring any particularly compelling central theme, is an awesome mix of superhero fanfare that makes you feel like you're in a true Marvel film. Something I rarely talk about unless it's outstanding as well is button mapping and Spider-Man's is phenomenal. After those aforementioned learning curves, the buttons become second nature and make a lot of sense, making even the most dexterity-challenged gamers feel like they can control the hero fluidly. 

Seriously the best photo mode ever.

MCU Spidey!

Spider-Man's biggest fault (and really where it loses any significant points at all) is the fact that it's basically a copy of other past games before it. I'm adamant to remind readers that in and of itself isn't a bad thing and Spider-Man is a very good and highly enjoyable game despite it. But there's a feeling of monotony that sets in faster than normal because of it and, for a PS4 exclusive, it didn't bring anything new to the table where I feel like so many other games try to push the industry forward. Perhaps that's because, if they're serious about making a gaming-MCU, they wanted a low-risk, sure-fire hit, and now that it has sold well their truly innovative ideas can come in the sequel. But that still doesn't remove the fact that there's nothing here you haven't seen here before -- it's just packaged really, really well. Even Mordor brought along the Nemesis System (which is, years into this "next-gen" of gaming, the coolest addition IMO) but anything "new" in Spider-Man is fairly low impact. If you're wondering if that tarnishes the joy of swinging through New York, or progressing through the excellent story at all; it unequivocally doesn't. I just found it to be something I couldn't quite ignore either though.

Falling...with style!!

By the time you've had your fun in New York City, you'll be thrilled for the future of whatever franchise(s) this game spawns. As a new IP to the PlayStation brand, it takes little risk, but gets essentially everything right and fills the big void we've had ever since Rocksteady closed out their iconic Batman trilogy. Welcome the new, unchallenged king of the superhero gaming genre: 

Spider-Man.


CONS

• Doesn't bring really anything new to the table past what Arkham and Mordor series have already done
• Some side missions/optional activities feel a bit like chores
• Really odd handling of Freedom Tower and 9/11 Memorial made all the more confusing by the story's themes of terrorism
• Some character models (particularly faces) could use work
• Some gadgets feel shoehorned in and kind of useless
• Just "fine" stealth gameplay
• Character swap gameplay moments are "meh" and I don't think they added as much as Insomniac thought they would

PROS

• Fantastic, engrossing story from start to end. Climax is emotional and leaves you wanting the sequel
• Very well written characters with solid performances. Nails all characters well and Peter Parker/Spider-Man perfectly
• Nice that Insomniac decided to go with their "own" universe and start the story from the middle -- avoiding ground that has been retread multiple times before
• Just so much damn fun. Part of this is due to some perfect button mapping
• Webswinging is nearly perfected and, after a small, but worthwhile learning curve, becomes fluid. Once you get good, it's like poetry in motion
• Combat is just as fluid and poetic after a separate learning curve
• The game is challenging at just the right level. I died plenty, but with only a handful of times feeling like it was the game's fault vs. my own
• Gorgeous game almost all the way through and runs silky smooth
• New York City is an awesome map that feels accurate and provides PLENTY to do. Fun to hunt down famous locales both real and from Marvel-lore
• Great original score that swells at opportune moments and makes you feel like a hero
• Handful of great minigames (I liked the circuit building) and side missions to complete
• One of the best (if not the outright best) and most fun photo modes ever
• Wonderful array of suits that aren't locked behind pesky DLC. Some real treats to be unlocked!
• A very solid exclusive to the PlayStation brand that could open the doors for nearly unlimited potential -- just as Iron Man did for the MCU. Exciting times ahead...

 Rath's Review Score | 8.5/10