There are different reasons why some games are eagerly awaited. Sometimes it’s just the value of the franchise that makes a new title anticipatory, which certainly was the case with Spider-Man 2, but for me, it was how Insomniac would change things up from the last two games and create a new identity for this series which, to me, still lives in the shadows of the Arkham trilogy having borrowed so much from it. I knew the game would be great – every aspect of the characters would be fleshed out wonderfully, the game would look pristine on the new hardware and they had already revealed both characters would be playable. But how would it carve out its spot in the hearts of the fans who have already seen its inspiration and at times, imitation of a real original? The second small concern I had was how would the 1.5 of the series, Spider-Man Miles Morales still be relevant in the wake of the new story that would most likely surround Peter and his cast of characters. Here is how the game addressed these concerns over 34-35 hours.
The story takes place a few months after the events of 1.5 as I like to call it, Spider-Man Miles Morales when both our heroes are happily hovering over New York and Queens (newly introduced on the map) and taking down the bad guys. Right after this moment is introduced the best character of the story outside the main heroes (and Mary Jane) and the person continuing the legacy of Otto Octavius as the actor to captivate every scene he is in – Harry Osborne. Peter and Harry’s friendship is highlighted in main missions when they reminisce about their childhood and this is probably the best start to the game it could have had and a sign of things to come later on. It is evident that Insomniac is focusing on relationships and the dynamics between real human beings as the base on which the rest of the story will balance. These innocent first few missions are heartwarming and excellently acted out and the modern hardware really does justice to the presentation. As expected, Peter’s side of the story starts pulling the game forward as Miles and his mother Rio Morales are merely continuing on from the last game building new relationships as Miles struggles with admission to a University. While written properly this side of the story still felt a little less exciting to me because of how magnetic Harry Osborne is to the story and I was only interested in knowing what happened to his friendship with MJ and Peter. After a brief story-bridge, Kraven the Hunter is introduced to us and the entire scene changes quite quickly as he brings an army with him to the city with unclear but bad intentions. From here the story takes a third route where both the Spidermen are trying to save the city from Kraven and his followers by trying to figure out what drives him while dealing with their own personal problems. This part of the story does have some pacing issues as I had some trouble keeping up with everything going on simultaneously in all 3 sections because while the map can be explored by either character, the main missions are linearly completed and can progress in any direction at one time. Sometime it was about Peter, sometimes about Miles and the rest of the times about taking down Kraven’s hunters. Exploration is still basically the same as the last 2 games with the exception of web wings which feel great once you get to handle them properly and wind tunnels across the city make it incredibly easy to traverse the rather large map in under a few minutes. But here is another aspect that Insomniac needed to smoothen out from the first game but didn’t, is the levelling system. It is very addictive to get lost in the city doing side missions and start levelling up (both characters level up together) but compared to the length of the story and the number of side missions the level cap can be rather low and it is very easy to be over levelled very soon, leaving little to do towards the end of the game. Perhaps a little bit of curating the side mission availability at different stages of the main story will fix this issue in no time. What is to be mentioned very loudly, is that the side missions now have stories attached to them and are at times extremely well-written. In fact, some of the most memorable moments in the game can come from these side missions instead of the main story.
As Kraven’s story progresses and side activities become no longer optional but a rather enjoyable gateway into the life of Spider-Man (either of them) both the individual stories also start getting compelling. I will refrain from revealing anything else about the plot but even though Peter’s story come to the forefront and starts getting tangled up with the main story, Miles keeps improving as a character and creating his own niche as a Spider-Man worth cheering on. The story in his own game start coming back and progressing into the present situation where he realises it is much harder to move on than he had thought, a sentiment that will ring true for the player as well.
Mary Jane has a big role to play in this game just like the last and her improvement in character model and personality is worth mentioning. Not only does she further Harry and Peter’s story but also has huge roles to play in the overall story which makes her sort of a side-kick to both the costumed heroes. Her missions are grounded, short and important to the overall arc and never feel extra. In fact she has her own story interlaced with Peter’s that gives her character much needed depth considering how much she is involved in the main story.
While solving mysteries and taking down large groups of enemies you will realise that the general gameplay has remained the same from the last 2 games and is slightly more attuned to 1.5 than 1 because of the way it treats gadgets. Gone is Peter’s big inventory and you left with a maximum of 4 gadgets which can be fired directly using R1 and the corresponding buttons like Miles had in his game. This makes stealth very boring as you can no longer get creative with Peter and use his larger arsenal of gadgets to take out enemies differently but resort to the new web-tether mechanic to create a network of webs linking the walls of any level to take out anyone below you. While it makes stealth much quicker to handle, it leaves no space for innovation and every stealth area will start feeling the same. Another small problem I faced was trying to memorise all the ability icons for both the characters which made doing what I wanted to in busy combat scenarios difficult and frustrating at times.
As both the individual stories start coalescing into one it is revealed that Kraven isn’t the end-game, although the character is, again, extremely well acted and voiced out. Venom has already been revealed in the trailers but I will refrain from disclosing anything about the third act of the story aside from the fact that it takes inspiration (yet again) from other mediums and executes these ideas brilliantly. This is an ongoing theme with these games as they keep borrowing from other games, movies and comics and somehow make them better. Their rendition of black Spider-Man and Peter’s relationship with the symbiote is far more fleshed out than in any other media (except perhaps comics where they have more time to tell a story). Similar to the first game, the story does skip a few steps and introduces the final villain a little hurriedly but the eventual descent into ugliness is still depicted very well. This third act of the story is brilliant and also where the main characters get elevated into something more than just video game heroes and feel like real people with feelings, fears, and failures and keeping with the Marvel way of writing heroes with imperfect personalities our heroes earn their marks and symbols as the real saviours of the city not because they have abilities but because they choose to overcome personal tragedies to do more. This is where Miles Morales becomes a real Spider-Man worthy of every kind of respect and adoration by not only saving the older Spider-Man both physically and psychologically but also by becoming a better person (He delivers one of the best lines in video game history by harking back to the first game and everything that has happened since then to that point). It is Sony and Insomniac’s commitment to telling fantastic interlaced and connected stories with incredible attention to detail that sells everything about the game including its flaws. The bugs will be squashed with updates. The ability icons will be memorised with playing the game more. Some of the downright unworthy costumes to be unlocked will be overlooked in favour of the few truly great ones. Stealth will be linearized (sigh). Everything can be forgiven when the payoff to a 30-hour story is so good that you start losing track of time and things happening on the screen and get lost in thought, creating scenarios involving these characters that have started feeling like real people over the many hours of playing the 3 games. This is the definitive Spider-Man experience.