Back in 2021, Marvel released two films back-to-back with mixed results. One of those films was Eternals, which was Marvel’s attempt at making something different from their traditional superhero films, aiming to be more arthouse drama than action. It wasn’t loved by everyone, but some people liked it; however, it didn’t make its money back, and people thought it was because COVID was still hanging around the cinema business. However, a month later, Spider-Man No Way Home came out and threw those excuses out of the window and was a return to form for Marvel by giving what the people wanted and improving what the past got wrong.
I bring this up because I was reminded of this while playing Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 for the PS5; this big-budget AAA game that, with every frame of gameplay, you can see the money being spent on the screen, will be the talk of the town for the fall season leaving a bunch of under-promoted games in the dust. However, if this initial tone is negative, that is far from the truth because unlike No Way Home, I loved Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 even though when comparing the two, they are more alike than we give it credit for.
Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 picks up two years after the events of Miles Morales back in 2020; Peter Parker is still having life issues, and so is Miles, both trying to balance their everyday life with being Spider-Man. To add more fire to their issues, a new villain pops up in New York, Kraven the Hunter, a big game hunter who goes on the hunt for the supervillains in New York City. Also Peter’s best friend, Harry Osborn, comes back into his life, along with a glob of black goo hanging around Harry, keeping him in stable condition. The story here is a lot stronger than I was anticipating when going into the game; however, when compared to the rest of the PlayStation lineup, it’s weak, but it does the job of being an interactive modern-day comic book story. Having a great balance of drama and humor to keep me engaged for the 25 hours it took me to platinum the whole game.
As for the gameplay, it is the same as 2018’s Spider-Man but a lot faster and more varied on how to execute each encounter. It helps that instead of controlling one Spider-Man throughout the game, you have two, and it helps that both of them fight differently from one another, even though the same end result is always the same types of combat moves. But I liked the combat more than the first game because it takes away the hold R1 and rotate select your special move; here, you can map them to the face buttons, hold down one of the shoulder buttons, and execute to move. Though, at first, it was a little annoying accidentally using the special move because it’s mapped to the same button as the parry function, but I was able to get into the groove and avoid this personal error.
The open world has also been improved by taking out a majority of the bloat that was present in the first game. Primarily by having the collectibles aspect have an interesting story attached to it, and in fact, every single side activity has a story element attached to it, and I was invested in seeing each story to the very end. Some stories did have an okay conclusion; a handful had amazing ones, and one in particular that I will not spoil ended up being one of my favorite gaming moments of the entire year. That and they got rid of the side activities that people didn’t care for, counting both the time trials and collectibles to one activity each. Allowing for more depth to be added to elements outside the main story.
Now earlier in the review, I compared the game to No Way Home by doing something that was attempted earlier but better. That can best describe the game and the game’s story because I was someone who grew up with Spider-Man 3, and after playing the game, I realized this is the Spider-Man 3 I have always wanted. Then on the game side, it improves everything that was set up in the first game, and even went further with it. Though to explain how it improves on the story side would involve spoilers, and I’m not going to do that because it has moments that are best experienced going in with knowing as little as possible.
Now, with all of that side, can I recommend this game? Yes, it’s an easy buy if you own a PS5; even if you aren’t a fan of the main character, it is still an excellent game and one of the best games of the year, though, in a year like this, that is becoming a common saying with nearly every big game coming out nowadays. But after beating the game, I came to a mixed personal feeling; I did love my time with the game, but the large spotlight this game has on itself is taking away attention from smaller indie games which are on par or even better. But that is probably the filmmaker in me thinking those thoughts, but I can end this by saying this. If you want a game that you know is going to be good and want to spend a weekend living like Spider-Man, then by all means, go in on this purchase because it will be worth every penny that you spent on it.
Score: 9 out of 10
Reviewed on PlayStation 5