Feeling super — Spider-Man 2 review: Best-in-class comic-action melodrama An engrossing, expanded NYC makes up for some hackneyed storytelling.
Kyle Orland – Oct 17, 2023 3:43 pm UTC Enlarge / Moments like this are practically worth the price of admission.Insomniac / Sony reader comments 46 with Game detailsDeveloper: Insomniac
Publisher: Sony Computer Entertainment
Platform: PS5
Release Date: Oct. 20, 2023
ESRB Rating: T for Teen
Price: $70
Links:Amazon|PlayStation Store | Official WebsiteWhen making a sequel to a successful game franchise, developers have to walk a tightrope between continuity and upgrades. Change too much, and you risk ruining the careful balance of elements that made the original game work so well. Change too little, and you risk players getting tired of a new title that feels like more of the same.
As much as we liked 2020s Spider-Man: Miles Morales, the game provided only minor tweaks to the successful formula established by Insomniacs original 2018 take on everyones favorite wall-crawler. Spider-Man 2 is a slightly meatier sequel, with a bigger version of New York City to explore and a few welcome improvements in presentation and gameplay. Even so, the game still fits quite comfortably into the more of the same side of the sequel equation.
But we cant say were too upset about this state of affairs. The basic open-world superheroics of Insomniacs Spider-Man are so strong that this sequel can get by quite capably with a bit of tinkering at the margins. After three full games, it turns out were still not tired of defending Insomniacs version of New York City. A strained team-up
Pretty much every piece of pre-release hype for Spider-Man 2 focused on how the pairing of two separate Spider-MenPeter Parker and Miles Moraleswould implicitly lead to twice as much fun. Its unfortunate, then, that the long-promised team-up feels more than a little forced here.
Sure, the complementary powers of the two Spider-Men can work well together in battle, especially when the action pauses for a cinematic team takedown that utilizes both characters at once. But neither character feels especially distinct from a gameplay perspective; the extremely slight differences in their special abilities dont feel significant when you change from one to the other. Advertisement
As far as the plot is concerned, the game tries to push a touching mentor/mentee relationship between the two Spider-Men that never really fits. A big part of the problem is that each protagonist seems wrapped up in his own little world.
Peters story quickly becomes entangled with that of Harry Osborne, a childhood friend who has finally recovered from a somewhat mysterious illness. Harrys reintroduction helps solve an early mid-life crisis for Peter, offering him a role as a partner in a world-saving initiative powered by Osborne money and tech optimism (which, of course, quickly falls apart for reasons I wont spoil here). Enlarge / Not going to spoil how this moment works with the game’s story, but trust me, it makes sense at the time.Insomniac / Sony
Miles, meanwhile, deals with an almost completely unrelated plotline centered around his internal battle between feelings of revenge and forgiveness directed at Mr. Negative, the man who killed his father. The serious and engaging pathos of Miles internal struggle is routinely and awkwardly cut against more pedestrian teenage concerns like filling out a college essay or gathering the nerve to ask out a girl. Too much drama
When each Spider-Man occasionally gets dragged into the others drama, it feels like a forced pairing of what could easily be two completely separate games. And every moment of relatable human psychodrama is met with two more over-the-top superhero comic book melodrama. This is the kind of game where characters routinely yell their innermost feelings to each other while trading earth-shattering punchesand where characters never settle for showing their motivations when they can just tell the audience. Enlarge / The less said about Kraven’s snarling, one-note performance, the better.
This is perhaps best exemplified by Kraven the Hunter, a scenery-chewing villain whose stated motivation is looking for a worthy opponent (e.g., Spider-Man) to give him a truly challenging fight before he dies an ignoble death by disease. Kraven and his army of literally thousands of painted warrior Hunters quickly wear out their welcome as snarling one-note caricatures that dont really make a successful transition from the comic page. Advertisement
Things pick up as the plot moves away from Kraven and toward every ’80s kids favorite badass symbiote, Venom. I dont want to give away too much about the particular direction the game takes with Venoms by-now-familiar What if an alien entity made Spider-Man become kind of evil? plotline. But I will say that the Venom plot bounces around in some surprising directions that lead to some interesting confrontations between major characters and their inner demons.
The biggest problem with the games main storyline, though, is the way subsequent missions can shift in tone quickly enough to give you whiplash. A moment of thrilling action will be followed directly by a cheesy, nostalgic saunter around a street fair. A tense stealth mission where Mary Jane has to silently take out guards with a stun gun is followed by a high-octane setpiece that barrels along with minimal player input, save for a few responses to on-screen quick time event prompts. Enlarge / I could do with fewer sections where you simply respond to on-screen button prompts as an exciting cut scene plays.Insomniac / Sony
That whiplash extends to the games visual and audio presentation. One moment, youre watching some of the greatest action cinematography youve ever seen in a video game, and the next, youre watching Mary Janes plastic-looking face grimace straight through the uncanny valley. One moment, youre marveling at the stunning lighting in an intensely surreal, psychologically symbolic dream sequence, and the next, youre listening to two characters accidentally talk over each other as the games audio engine struggles.
The voice actors do their best to drag things along, especially when Spider-Man lets off a few of his trademark quips. But in the end, this is still a stereotypical superhero comic story, with all the hackneyed, overwrought presentation that can imply. Page: 1 2 Next → reader comments 46 with Kyle Orland Kyle Orland has been the Senior Gaming Editor at Ars Technica since 2012, writing primarily about the business, tech, and culture behind video games. He has journalism and computer science degrees from University of Maryland. He once wrote a whole book about Minesweeper. Advertisement Channel Ars Technica ← Previous story Next story → Related Stories Today on Ars