Insomniac Games’ Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 is one of the PlayStation 5’s most anticipated releases of 2023, with the release due on October 20th, a mere 12 days from the writing of this article, Insomniac decided to get the hype train rolling with some short previews, showing off some of the 65 suits available, as well as the iconic symbiote black Spider-Man design.
Notably, among the things previewed by Insomniac are the designs and some character stills for good amount of the cast that will feature in the game.
Among the faces shown are some of Spider-Man’s classic cast: Mary-Jane Watson, Harry Osbourne and his villainous father Norman Osbourne. But true to Marvel’s Spider-Man 2’s twin campaigns, the bottom row features characters from Miles Morales’ story too: His mother Rio Morales and his best friend Ganke Lee, as well as Hailey Cooper, an original character for the series that debuted in Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales.
An interesting discourse is currently surrounding these character stills, with many online joking about how they look uncanny, particularly the Mary-Jane model not translating her face model Stephanie Tyler Jones into the engine well.
This wouldn’t be the first time Insomniac’s Spider-Man series has been criticized for its decisions regarding facial capture, as just last year Marvel’s Spider-Man Remastered released to critical acclaim, with the one negative talking point seeming to be that the majority of the fanbase did not appreciate the changes to Peter Parker’s face.
Facial capture seems to be the way of the future, at least for AAA game releases, both Sony and established game studios like Capcom make very liberal use of it to give their characters a more lifelike feel, but as mentioned before there’s an artistic debate as to whether or not “more lifelike” is a good thing. It’s always interesting to read opinions about just how far face-scan technology can, or even should in some cases, be pushed over designing a face from the ground up in engine.
But facial debates aside, Insomniac Games’ Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 still looks to boast that excited Arkham-style beat-em-up action that made the first game so beloved with a new polish to make it truly shine. Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 will be available exclusively on PlayStation 5 on October 20th.