It takes a four-year break for gamers to receive a proper Spider-Man game. 2014’s The Amazing Spider-Man is terrible at best, and it left a sour taste in a lot of gamers mouths. But what an achievement is Insomniacs Marvel’s Spider-Man. Improving on everything that previous titles brought to the table, you get a great experience of web-swinging, and fluid combat all wrapped together with an enthusiastic story that defines who and what makes Spider-Man so amazing. Marvel’s Spider-Man earns its right as a PlayStation exclusive.
Marvel’s Spider-Man does not start at the beginning like most other stories of the friendly neighborhood web-head, but instead, it begins with a post-college Peter Parker. This Peter Parker tries to earn a living by working for Doctor Otto Octavius in a small lab. Peter doesn’t receive much money but instead gets the pleasure of discovering breakthroughs for humanity and working alongside his hero and mentor Dr. Octavius.
The game story works on establishing their relationship as that of a father and son and how their intelligent and humble chemistry shines which influences Spider-Man himself. All throughout the story we meet other characters that are essential to both Spider-Man and Peter Parker. A few of the crucial characters are Yuri Watanabe, the captain of the NYPD who secretly helps the web-slinger fight crime and calls when help is needed, Martin Li, a very charismatic but sweet gentleman who has a great passion for helping others through his organization F.E.A.S.T and of course the lovable mother figure herself, Aunt May.
The flow of the story allows for supervillains instructions to come at the right time. Kingpin at the start of the game is arrested but shows the repercussions for detaining him by allowing Mister Negative to rise from the shadows and influence crime to new degree.
Mister Negatives dark motivations bring him to the point where he terrorizes citizens to drag out the Mayor of the city whom he claims to be corrupt. It’s not long before he gets taken down with other villains and taken to ‘The Raft’, a maximum security prison for supervillains. Things take a turn for the worst when The Raft undergoes a prison break, and Spider-Man discovers that not only Li has escaped, but also Vulture, Electro, Rhino, and Scorpion have also hot-tailed it out of there. The prison break, in turn, reveals the rise of the Sinister Six and its leader.
Marvel’s Spider-Man highlights his relationship with both his family and his supervillains. The story does an excellent job of making the player realize that our hero has a history with every single character in the game whether that’s a heartfelt conversation with Aunt May to Mary Jane or from Shocker to Mister Negative.
A beautiful focal point to the story that we cannot forget to include is the relationship between Peter and Mary Jane. Despite them not being in a romantic relationship one notices that there is still a spark of chemistry between the two whether that’s from them working together, having conversations that almost seem awkward because of their feelings for each other or even the hilariously misunderstood texts between both. As Stan Lee has always said, “It’s always seeing you two together, you two were always my favorites.”
The number one thing that stands out about the gameplay is how fluid and natural it is to swing around New York. The controls for swinging have never felt this excellent since the release of Spider-Man 2 on the Nintendo Gamecube. Of course, Spider-Mans webs will only attach to an object nearby, the mechanics allow for the player to throw a line to propel themselves forward adding speed to continue your web-swinging flow.
The combat system works very similarly to that of the Arkham series with the inclusion of many gadgets as the player’s disposal. One can choose from simplistic web shooters to web bombs and even electrical webs that affect multiple enemies at once. Skill trees will earn you new moves but they are overshadowed by the fact that the player can button mash the square button and triangle to dodge and win every single fight no matter how many enemies come your way.
What I liked about the combat system is that even though it pulls elements from the Arkham series, it still plays and feels different. Spider-Man feels lighter and fluid compared to the tank that is Batman in his games. It just feels natural that Spider-Man can move across the screen like a creature.
An unfortunate flaw for the game is that we get stealth sections that don’t feel as fluid as when fighting on the ground. The player can get used to the controls, but they do feel clunky and don’t flow as you would always expect them to. The gadgets are excellent here but they don’t improve the overall feel of the stealth sections, but I’m sure Insomniac will be able to develop on this in their next installment.
The game runs beautifully with transitions from cutscenes to gameplay looking seamless. Every animation is rendered well with no hiccups. You may have heard or read about how some individuals experienced significant glitches in the game. I didn’t get any of those things, so I wasn’t caught off guard by anything.
Insomniac captures the vibe that is New York city. Indeed, they wanted to get every single detail in and players will feel how lively and vibrant the city feels.
I was not too impressed by the music here, but I will praise John Paesanos central musical theme. This theme has elements of film composers Christopher Young (Spider-Man 3) Michael Giachinno (Spider-Man: Homecoming), and Danny Elfman (Orginal Spider-man and Spider-Man 2) that oozes nostalgia yet has his signature print. One more element to praise is the musical cues when you immediately swing. When Spider-Man is standing still you hear the ambiance of the city but when you start swinging the string section kicks off and begins playing the theme and as soon as you stop swinging the music cues its final chords to end right when Spider-Man lands.
The music team goes so far into detail that when you leap off a tall building, the strings build and build until the player shoots his web to start swinging and goes right into the theme. The musical cues are such a beautiful detail that makes all the difference in what it feels to be Spider-Man.
There is so much to do in Marvel’s Spider-Man ranging from side mission to completing side task that reward the player with XP or costumes that come with extra abilities that are for gameplay. Activating cell towers will unlock new missions and also teases villains and characters that make with worth your while. There is enough to do that will tempt anyone one to become a completionist for this game.
Marvel’s Spider-Man for PlayStation 4 is the game that every Spider-Man fan has been waiting for. Insomniac does a fantastic job with the story by implementing its characters in a significant way that provides so much context without having to look back at the origins of Spider-Man. Combat is very similar to past games but still feels unique to how Spider-Man is meant to be. Despite the not so polished stealth sections, it’s clear that this game is exceptional and I cannot wait to see what Insomniac will improve on, on this already outstanding game.
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Mario Bertrand
Mario's an individual who appreciates the craft of video games as a form of art. This art has become the catalyst of obtaining his dreams in music and video games. Being a nerd till the end of time, he will always expand his horizons by diving headfirst into new types of music, film, TV, anime, manga, and even comics. As long as its entertaining he'll take it, with a grain of salt of course.
