While those who haven’t played this game will think this is a full game, a sequel of the first Spider-Man, those who have will tell them it is actually a maxi-series sprouting off from the original monthly, as comic nerds would like to say. It has everything the first game had, and nothing more. This can be great if Spider-Man didn’t cure your itch for a modern Spider-Man experience and you needed more of it in a different setting with cooler aesthetics, but if you were looking for a proper sequel, this isn’t it.
Let me be very clear on this point, Miles Morales is a very well-written boy. His mannerisms, dialogues and overall character are very likeable to both young fans of the web-slinger and older veterans of comic books. I would take it a step further and say he is probably one of the best replacements for legacy characters in comic books which is saying something because most of the time these legacy characters leave behind too big a shoe to fill. But just like the game he inhabits, Miles only fills a role without adding much to it. He is too squeaky clean, too one-dimensionally good to be a fresh new take on an old character. His motivations, drive, and goal aren’t nothing new but picked and chosen from other heroes we know and love. This might be an issue for people who read too many comic books but since these games are aimed at the general audience, it’s clearly a fault that can be overlooked.
The same, however, cannot be said about the rest of the setting. It can barely look eye-to-eye with Peter Parker’s world that we fell in love with in the last game despite having an equivalent to almost every aspect of Parker’s life. Miles lives with his mother who was introduced in the last game after *spoilers*, and the rest of his family are introduced here for the first time. He has close friends, people to look up to and seemingly no enemies. But since even a small and short game requires a compelling villain, they are created out of the limited story resources available. As a result, I found myself barely caring about the other characters' plights. It is not to say they aren’t handled with love and care, but are very well written into this new world with details and good voice acting. But call me old school or old in general, the clear aim at connecting to the Gen Z audience with their speech patterns and interjections created a disconnect, and once you start realising the entire cast of characters is made up of under-represented ethnicities you start seeing the whole point of this game. It’s a celebration, but for a very niche audience, even within the comic-book audience. You can’t blame them for this though, as creating demand for a new Spider-Man is difficult when there is none, so they simply made a new space in a specific community that will be represented well and celebrated for their contribution to global diversity which should absolutely be the case. But that might not make for an excellent game.
As for the gameplay, there is very little to add. I already said the last game was a love letter to the Arkham games as they showed how the mechanics can be used in a different setting and this game continues the trend by adding one new feature, that is Venom powers for Miles which can turn the tide of any battle in the blink of an eye. This also sets him apart as a playable character because he moves and plays like the other Spider-Man with fewer gadgets. Because the game is so short, either you don’t get to fully use this new feature or there aren’t many necessary moments where these powers will come to the forefront or a mix of both. But same-old doesn’t mean bad as swinging around New York is just as exhilarating if not more because of Miles’ much varied aerial combos. There was never a time in my 16-hour play time when I was swinging without executing some flashy combo mid-air. The combat too has been refined with newer animations which make the game very presentable on every level. Movement, traversal and action are smooth throughout without a single sticky animation and that itself is a point to appreciate. There really isn’t much to criticize in this game as everything they have done has been done well, it is just that they haven’t done enough to make a brand new game, or add enough to the older one to make that better. It’s a glorified, dignified, excellent DLC, that briefly introduces you to a new character who isn’t all that interesting himself but will certainly add a lot to the next, proper sequel which has yet again been set up in the final moments of the campaign.