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metalgearkong · 6 years

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Spider-Man - Review (PS4)

10/17/18

Developed by Insomniac Games

Spider-Man has always been my favorite super hero, but good Spider-Man games are far and few between. My two favorites are the linear adventure game from 2000, which nails the characters and story, but the other widely regarded favorite is Spider-Man 2 from 2004, which introduced realistic web swinging. Somehow, this new Spider-Man game manages to outdo both qualities, and tie it into one epic product. Insomniac Games is an extremely experienced studio, developing games such as Spyro the Dragon, Ratchet & Clank, and Resistance. Not only is Spider-Man the best Insomniac game to date, its one of the best exclusives for the PS4, and is the best incarnation of Spider-Man I’ve ever seen in any medium.

This is a brand new story of Peter Parker and his world, not tying into any other games, films, or comics. Things pick up 8 years after Peter has become the wall crawler, and has lots of experience fighting bad guys and putting super villains behind bars. While he may have tangled with some big names from his lore already, many more villains and side characters have not been mentioned, leaving tons of possibilities open for sequels. Spider-Man also dwells on Peter’s brilliant scientific mind, as he is able to keep pace with Dr. Otto Octavious, and several mini-games can be played conducting research, identifying chemicals, and reprogramming hardware.

Peter and Otto are designing advanced prosthetics that could change the world, but the two scientists are struggling when the city pulls its grant from their lab. The mayor in this story happens to be Norman Osborn, and a brewing conflict between Otto and Norman fuel much of the story, especially near the end. It’s in Otto’s lab where we conduct most of the scientific mini games, mainly being optional, but can unlock currency to upgrade Peter’s suit and gadgets. Peter also helps out with F.E.A.S.T., an emergency shelter where Aunt May works, and is lead by Martin Li, a man with a secret agenda of his own. The game opens with an exciting tutorial, whereupon Spider-Man is finally taking down a long time rival, The Kingpin, giving us perspective on how far Peter has already come.

One of the main things that took me off guard about this game were how well the cut scenes and characters are done. Not only are the graphics detailed, and motion capture was used for most of the acting, but the care and nuance each character is given in their personality and dialog was constantly impressive. Many of the characters were designed in-game to look like their voice acting counterpart, and many people have genuine chemistry between each other. Mary Jane in particular got a major change, in that she is a persistent investigative journalist instead of a fashion model, and has the capability to help out Peter in many of his outings. No character off the top of my head has any glaring weakness, other than maybe a few by the end of the game not having as much closure or explanation as I may have wanted.

A Chinese gang known as the Demons is slowly terrorizing the city, and act as one of the main entities Spider-Man must go up against. Surprisingly, after the big Wilson Fisk fight, the game feels devoid of super villain entanglements, yet makes up for this in spades with the last portion of the game. It would have been a little nicer to have more than one villain to fight other than The Shocker for the first half of the game, but it’s a small imbalance that doesn’t affect the overall quality or pacing much. Many encounters with squads of goons can be tackled stealthily at first, but usually end up in a big controlled chaos fight. The combat is ripped straight from the Batman: Arkham games, but in this current generation of gaming, this system is pretty much ubiquitous for action/open-world formats. While Spider-Man loses points for originality, it makes up for it in spades with incredible depth the combat system offers. I’ve always thought the “press a button to react” combat was more of a fit for Spider-Man anyway, and I’m glad I finally get to see it in a good Spidey game.

Everything we do earns experience points, and when we reach enough, can use skill points to upgrade gadgets, webbing, and suit powers. Largely, I didn’t take advantage of the depth of the upgrades and unlockables because I found the core gameplay fun and entertaining from the very start. As I write this, I am on my second run at the game (attempting to achieve 100% completion) and just now am experimenting with fighting styles I never used the first time. It speaks to this game’s detail, something you may not think it has at first, especially being a licensed game. However, one of my objective problems with the game is I found the stealth mechanics highly inconsistent. The game tells you when we can safely web up an enemy without anyone else noticing, but much of the time when I would push the button for a clean stealth take-down, it would alert the guards around my victim, launching into all-out brawls.

A great detail that Insomniac knew to include was the ability to earn multiple Spider-Man costumes that can be switched instantly at any time. Many of these costumes I recognized from comics and past games, but it also offers modern outfits, such as three suits from the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and original suits all together. Each suit comes with a new power that helps combat and gameplay. The best detail is, once the suit is unlocked, we can use whichever power on whichever suit. This lets you pick both your favorite gameplay buff, as well as look exactly how you want Spidey to look during the game. I also love how the costume translates into every single cut scene, further immersing you into the story in your own little way.

Aside from the main narrative, tons of side missions can be played, but also with varying quality. Most of the citizens who offer quests have stories worth experiencing, and that play into the character of this version of Manhattan. Other quests can be glorified collectathons or challenges, which luckily are optional to complete. Even still, they usually offer further insight into Peter’s personality, intellect, or into the personality of other characters involved. Easily the best part about the gameplay is the web swinging. Traversing Manhattan is delectable, and an absolute blast. Peter has tons of natural looking animations that make him look graceful and realistic. Having to attach webbing to actual surfaces gives locomotion dramatic weight, and lots of fun payoff. Peter can also web zip forward, maintaining horizontal speed, given that there is an object in the near distance in front of him.

What also helps immensely is the smooth 60 frames per second that the game runs on. Every web swing feels and looks graceful, and even into my second time completing the game, was discovering new tricks to keep momentum going forward, things that the game lets you discover for yourself. For the first time in any open-world game, a blip on my map over 3,000 meters away, rarely felt like a hassle. I looked forward to going from one place to the next almost every single time. The game offers a quick travel mechanic, but I honestly believe it isn’t necessary in a game where going from one place to another is so consistently thrilling. This is a big aspect of the game I’m sure Insomniac knew they had to nail, and they passed with flying colors.

Spider-Man (or is it “Marvel’s Spider-Man”?) is a brilliant representation of the wall crawler, and is an extremely fun open-world game. Everything from the graphics, to the combat, to the web swinging, to the music is all done excellently, and is easily worth its $60 price tag. While I’m not a huge fan of every type of side quest or mini game, the core of the game’s narrative and heart makes any small imperfection look that much smaller. The poorer qualities of the game are only seen as worse because they’re surrounded by so much greatness. This has become the quintessential version of Spider-Man and something I will compare every future incarnation to. I was so pleased and so impressed around every corner, I still can’t believe this game turned out as well as it did. Absolutely worth plaything through to see the story to its end, and purely for the fun of every minute of the experience.

9.5/10

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