{"id":3954,"date":"2024-04-13T09:57:26","date_gmt":"2024-04-13T09:57:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/aitesonics.com\/spider-man-2-is-following-the-sony-sequel-playbook-and-im-not-mad-about-it-150058690\/"},"modified":"2024-04-13T09:57:26","modified_gmt":"2024-04-13T09:57:26","slug":"spider-man-2-is-following-the-sony-sequel-playbook-and-im-not-mad-about-it-150058690","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/aitesonics.com\/spider-man-2-is-following-the-sony-sequel-playbook-and-im-not-mad-about-it-150058690\/","title":{"rendered":"Spider-Man 2 is following the Sony sequel playbook, and I'm not mad about it"},"content":{"rendered":"
Spider-Man is easily one of the most recognizable fictional characters of the last 50-plus years, appearing in countless iterations across comics, movies, cartoons, video games and other media I am surely forgetting. Fans will argue about the best iteration \u2014 but for my money, the Spider-universe Insomniac Games introduced in 2018 on the PS4 with Marvel\u2019s Spider-Man<\/em> is an all-time great. It spent no time rehashing Peter Parker\u2019s origins, throwing the player into a vibrant and massive rendering of Manhattan. The city felt alive, with tons to do investigate and a horde of Spider-Man\u2019s most famous villains to contend with. It also skillfully introduced a world in which Parker would eventually fight side-by-side with a second Spider-Man, Miles Morales<\/a>.<\/p>\n But, most importantly, Marvel\u2019s Spider-Man<\/em> was an absolute delight to play. Insomniac nailed the mechanics of swinging around the city and fighting bad guys to such a degree that I think web-slinging around Manhattan is up there with my all-time favorite game mechanics.<\/p>\n As I\u2019ve contemplated with other single-player, story-drive masterpieces from Sony like The Last of Us,<\/em> Horizon Zero Dawn<\/em> and God of War<\/em>: What the hell<\/a> do you do<\/a> for an encore<\/a>? I played about two hours of Marvel\u2019s Spider-Man 2<\/em> at a press event earlier this week, and it seems the answer is \u201cgo bigger.\u201d That\u2019s the same tactic used for the sequels to those three games I mentioned earlier, and the results were always impressive, if not a bit overstuffed. Of course, it\u2019s too early to say whether Insomniac got the balance right, because we\u2019ve seen plenty of open-world games that simply try and do too much. But based on Insomniac\u2019s history and the excellent ingredients it has to work with, I have high hopes for the latest spider-adventure.<\/p>\n My demo started well into the game\u2019s narrative \u2014 which I won\u2019t spend too much time on, as I didn\u2019t get the whole picture of what was going on. I do know that classic villain Kraven is hunting another iconic Spider-Man bad guy, Dr. Curt Connors (better known as the Lizard), and Peter and Miles are both trying to defend the city from Kraven\u2019s hunters while also finding a cure to turn the Lizard back into his mild-mannered human form.<\/p>\n In a demo like this, getting a feel for the gameplay is a lot more important than digging into story beats, and Spider-Man 2<\/em> had plenty to show me. Because the world in this game is almost twice as big as the original, with the addition of Brooklyn and Queens, finding new ways for players to get around was a major focus for Insomniac. Enter the web wings, a tool that allows you to glide around the city, catching wind tunnels and updrafts that sling you around at high speed. It\u2019s not meant to replace the core web-slinging mechanic, but augment it. Given how amazing swinging around Manhattan felt in the original games (and still feels here), that\u2019s a tall order. But it didn\u2019t take me long to get the hang of gliding through long stretches of the city, and mixing in web-swings to regain height.<\/p>\n The web wings are also particularly useful in places like Central Park or Queens, where there aren\u2019t nearly as many tall buildings to swing from. Getting around Central Park always felt a little awkward in the first game, so this is a welcome addition that makes traversing different terrain much easier. It\u2019s also great for getting across rivers \u2014 or doing battle on them. Gameplay footage revealed earlier this year showed both Spider-Men chasing the Lizard down a river while also being chased by Kraven\u2019s hunters (both on the river and in the sky), and the web wings were crucial for catching up and dispatching the massive crew of baddies.<\/p>\n Another side mission saw me controlling Miles as he chased down one of Kraven\u2019s drones \u2014 to keep up with it, you had to use the web wings to draft behind it while downloading data from it. Once you got all the data downloaded, you could take it down, but getting all that data takes a while. So you need to stay right on its tail, twisting and turning throughout the city. There\u2019s definitely a learning curve to making tight turns and quick ascensions with the web wings, and I bounced off numerous buildings that slowed me down enough that the drone made its escape.<\/p>\n I got the hang of it after a few tries, but even then I was on the edge of my seat trying to keep pace \u2013 it almost had the feeling of a racing game. Challenges like this are a smart way of introducing these new mechanics and schooling players on how to best use them, though.<\/p>\n Unsurprisingly, combat has also gotten a few tweaks, though anyone who played the previous Insomniac games can jump right in here and start beating up the countless goons roaming New York City. Both Parker and Morales have four special moves that correspond to the four face buttons on the controller \u2013 holding L1 and pressing one of those buttons activates a special attack. When I was playing as Peter, they all involved the symbiote suit going wild, while Miles had variations on the electrical attacks introduced in his game. They charge up as you fight, and you have to wait for them to replenish; I assume you can also learn and slot new ones as the game progresses.<\/p>\n In the first games, mashing the circle button to dodge was a big part of combat, but Insomniac mixed things up here. Now, there are some enemies whose attacks you have to parry by pressing the block button at just the right moment \u2013 dodging won\u2019t keep you safe. Other attacks require a dodge, as they can break through any parry or block you try. These different attacks are represented by a color flash above the enemy, indicating when it\u2019s the right time to throw up a block or dodge away. Dealing with these attacks threw a wrench into the familiar gameplay, as it took me a while to remember that my old habits from prior games weren\u2019t going to be enough to keep me alive here.<\/p>\n The gadgets both Spider-Men carry got a big improvement over the older games, too. Before, you could hold down R1 and switch from your standard web-shooters to various other hardware to help you in battle. But now, R1 defaults to web-shooters, always, a change I appreciated. From there, you can hold R1 and select a face button to activate a specific gadget.<\/p>\n This gives you immediate access to as many as four gadgets at once, plus your web shooter. Truth be told, I didn\u2019t dive into the menus to find out much about the tools at my disposal, but they\u2019re things like web bombs that wrap up multiple enemies or shock traps that zap everyone around you. Naturally, all these abilities can be leveled up with skill points you accumulate through the game, and there are the expected skill trees here as well.<\/p>\n It\u2019s going to take more than just a few hours of playing to see just how well these new additions fit into the core game, but one thing was undeniable from the start: Spider-Man 2<\/em> is a visual feast. It\u2019s the first game of the series developed exclusively for the PS5, and it shows in everything from the sunsets and water on the river to the details of the different spider-suits I tried on. Character models also look impressive, perhaps none more so than the Lizard himself, with glistening fangs and incredibly textured green skin. The amount of detail in that model was stunning, but Peter\u2019s symbiote suit is a close second. When it gets hurt, it writhes in pain and truly feels like a living creature. Even when it\u2019s just serving as a Spider-Man suit, the variety of textures and details is impressive \u2013 it\u2019s a lot more than just a black outfit.<\/p>\n