Friday, Oct. 20 saw the release of this year’s highly anticipated video game “Spider-Man 2.” Developed by Insomniac Games and published by Sony Interactive Entertainment, the game is both a direct and spiritual sequel to “Spider-Man (2018)” and “Spider-Man: Miles Morales.”
Picking up years after the first two games, the story follows Peter Parker and Miles Morales in their day to day efforts as New York City’s crime fighting dynamic duo. With the return of Peter’s high school friend Harry Osborn, the introduction of the Venom symbiote, and Kraven the Hunter turning the Spider-Men into his next hunt, the trials and tribulations our heroes face push them to their absolute limit and determine how strong they truly are, mentally and emotionally
What really excels this game as a sequel is the improvement in graphics, gameplay, and story. Built on the already A-grade foundations by Insomniac, graphics are pushed from impressive to near life-like, gameplay that offers the ultimate power fantasy, and the story from movie quality to award worthy.
Every actor in this game absolutely kills it in their roles. Yuri Lowenthal and Nadji Jeter bring in top tier emotional performances as Peter and Miles. Lowenthal especially dominates the scenes he’s in with heart shattering takes. It would be a crime for either actor to not earn some kind of award down the line.
The two standouts in gameplay being the new additions of parrying in combat, and the Web-Wings in traversal. These mechanics add further depth to their respective mechanics, that figuratively and literally allow you to soar to greater heights. On top of that, the power of the Playstation 5 console makes every experience as buttery-smooth as possible. Loading times are almost non-existent, where booting up the game takes mere seconds.
And it wouldn’t be a superhero game without alternate costumes. Boasting an absurd 78 costumes ranging from classic comics, Insomniac originals, and movie-inspired costumes, with an additional 3 alternate colorways for most of them this puts the count almost into the 170s.
A few noteworthy critiques of the game would be the lack of post-game features that the prior entries had such as the ability to change the time of day (and weather), a lack of New Game +, and the ability to replay missions. The characterization of Peter Parker (once again), and Venom also leave much to be desired for Spider-Man fans. Peter is written very similar to Superman, and missing the attitude the character usually has. And while Insomniac’s Venom is a very different take on the character, he’s missing the comedic charm and vendetta towards Spider-Man specifically while not wanting to hurt innocents.
All in all, “Spider-Man 2” proves itself to not only be one of the best video games of the year, but by far the best Spider-Man game ever made.