What parents need to know
Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 is a PS5-exclusive game in which the player plays as both Peter Parker and Miles Morales in the third person, alternating between the two characters.
In this action/adventure game, the two characters who assume the identity of Spider-Man explore New York City by swinging between buildings with their webs, fight crime, and defend the city against iconic villains such as Venom, Kraven the Hunter, and the Lizard. It’s a game that features a lot of hand-to-hand combat and in which Peter Parker and Miles Morales collaborate while each having their own story and powers.
The story of Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 follows Marvel’s Spider-Man (2018) and Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales (2020). We recommend this game for Marvel fans over the age of 12, especially fans of the superhero.
In 2018, game development studio, Insomniac Games, introduced its vision of Spider-Man and his fluid movement across New York to the world via the first game. It was a slap in the face for all the players and developers around the world as it was so well done.
The good news is that Spider-Man 2 largely uses the gameplay mechanics that Spider-Man (2018) brilliantly introduced. So the fights are very similar, the structure of the open world as well. It’s a sequel in its own right.
There are also a lot of improvements in combat, and in the side missions you complete, especially the crimes you stop. They’re much faster now, they don’t stop the action and when you stop a criminal’s car, only one key press is needed. In the previous 2 installments, it required a lot of interaction and lasted long seconds, especially when you were repeating the same actions and animations for each crime across the city.
You don’t need to have played the previous games to enjoy this one. There’s an optional recap video at the beginning of the game, and the first few hours of gameplay are a very long tutorial.
If you’re used to seeing Marvel movies in theaters, expect a very similar story, characters, level of humor, and violence.
Article written with the contribution of Chun Gagné Cliche.
A copy of the game has been provided by the publisher for review purposes. This does not influence our opinion.
Details
Level of experience required
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Evaluation
This game features many fight scenes with various firearms and hand-to-hand combat. There are references to crime and drugs, enemies using guns, and some blood can be seen during cutscenes.
This game does not have explicit content.
This game requires reading short texts for documentation and to understand the attacks. Some insults may appear in dialogue.
The main characters are superheroes who save the city.
Some fights require precision and speed of execution with the controller, which can be difficult for first-time players. Many button combinations are required for combat, and advanced techniques can be used.
It is also necessary to move your character and camera in a 3D environment. Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 allows for a lot of progression and improvement.
The game is clearly aimed at people who are used to video games.
This game is bought once. However, it is very possible that expansions (DLCs) with additional story segments will be released. They will then have to be purchased separately.
Local game modes
Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 is a single-player game with just a story mode.
Our opinion
Spider-Man 2 is THE BLOCKBUSTER of the year for the Playstation 5. It has everything going for it: sumptuous graphics, incomparable technical quality, very pleasant to play, world-famous license, entertaining story.
The work done by the development studio, Insomniac Games, is impressive. No wonder Playstation puts it so much in the spotlight and
bets big on its success.
The game has the potential to sell entire pallets of consoles because it’s so good.
New York City has been recreated in a spectacular way and is full of even more detail than in the first two games. The 2 Spider-Man can move at full speed inside it, whether it’s swinging between buildings or gliding with the new Wingsuit. Even when using the fast travel option, it is done in a matter of seconds.
The technical optimization of the game for the Playstation 5 SSD clearly impresses the entire gaming industry.
The 2 characters (Peter Parker and Miles Morales) play very similarly, only their superpowers differ. We oscillate between the 2 heroes depending on the quests and story missions chosen.
The game takes place in several phases:
- Moving the Spider-Man of your choice around the city, you can explore, take pictures, complete quests and missions just like in the first 2 games.
- Fight against the thugs. There are a lot of possibilities for combat and moves for each protagonist, at first it’s a bit hard to assimilate, fortunately there are constant indications on the interface elements and reminders. In normal difficulty mode, at one point you are attacked by dozens of enemies simultaneously, which means that you are forced to make 2-3 hits on a single enemy, avoid the hit or fire of another weapon, do 2-3 hits, dodge again. And unfortunately this prevents us from exploiting the very wide range of moves and combinations of moves available to our 2 heroes. It was the same problem in previous games.
- Sequence hacking mini-games, puzzles
- sometimes a bit of infiltration with an unarmed character
Insomniac Games makes it a point of honor to constantly vary the phases of the game, so as not to bore the player, and so that it is not “fight, fight, fight” constantly. Unfortunately, apart from the exploration phases, and very successful fights, the rest of the phases are not as interesting, but still provide some downtime, and welcome variety.
Spider-Man 2 is a massive game from the point of view of its realization, and it’s normal that with such a huge production we encounter some bugs.
At the time of writing this review with the current patch, I encountered freezes on 2 occasions, soft-locks, i.e. I couldn’t move forward in the game normally. During 2 different missions in the story, Spider-man has to consult a computer terminal in order to retrieve information after a fight. There was just no way to activate them, even pressing the Triangle button in many positions. We had to reload the last checkpoint, redo the fight, so that the terminal could be activated correctly afterwards. There is no doubt that with such a large production, this kind of defect will be corrected very quickly.
Spider-Man 2 is more than recommended for teenagers and adults, who are somewhat fond of superheroes and Marvel movies. They’re going to have a lot of fun with it, and they’ll be rewarded with a work full of references honoring the entire Spider-Man and Marvel universe.
