Hey now everybody, hope you're all doing well adjusting to this new update, and welcome to my review and discussion of Marvel's Spider-Man! I was hoping to get this review out much earlier than now, but things in my personal life have been a mess lately, and this new update to the site has made me a little hesitant as well. Things seem to be calming down now, so it's time to get back on track. Spider-Man has always been one of my favorite superheroes ever since I was a kid. Unfortunately we never got a game that did him any justice. Needless to say, when I saw footage of Marvel's Spider-Man for PS4 I was very excited to get my hands on it. Not only have I finished the game now, but I got 100% completion in all areas, and continued playing until I got the Platinum trophy. I'm not sure how many hours it took to accomplish all this, but I certainly got my money's worth out of the game, and it didn't disappoint. So sit down, relax, and I'll tell you all about it.
Spider-Man for PS4 is an open world action adventure game, developed by Insomniac. Taking place in modern day New York City, it tells a completely original story that's not featured in any comic or movie, that focuses on both Peter Parker, and Spider-Man aspects of the character. You get to explore the massive city sandbox, completing missions for the main story, or taking on a wide variety of side quests. There are loads of collectables to find, real time crimes happening around the city, and a bunch of new suits and moves to unlock. Finishing all the side content is totally optional so don't feel obligated to do all of it, but doing so will add a lot more depth to the story, and the gameplay itself so it is recommended.
This game has a lot going for it, and excels in almost every aspect, but the best thing for me was the compelling story. Taking place eight years into Spider-Man's career we skip over all the origin story stuff, and begin the game as an experienced, masterful crimefighter. Most of the city's Supervillains have already been caught by Spidey, and are locked up in the Raft, a high tech maximum-security prison. The game opens by finally taking down Wilson Fisk, aka The Kingpin, who controls all the crime in the city. But now with him gone the streets are up for grabs, and a new threat begins to take over. Someone named Mr. Negative, and his gang of Demons, picks up right where Fisk left off, only with a much more sinister intent.
Now Spider-Man has a lot to deal with, and Mr. Negative proves himself to be his toughest foe yet. Meanwhile, Peter Parker has his own set of problems that need to be dealt with. He works with Otto Octavius in his lab, trying to create a new form prosthetic limb, which isn't going very smoothly. Peter also helps his Aunt May run the city's homeless shelter called Feast, and he's been on the outs with Mary Jane after they broke up a few months ago. The game does an excellent job of covering every aspect of Spider-Man's life, in, and out of the suit. This gives the player a well rounded look of the character, fleshing him out better than any previous game. The voice acting, animation, and performances are all fantastic, and I was fully engaged the entire time. All these characters have important roles to play as the story escalates, and the city begins to fall apart.
An important aspect of any Spider-Man game is the web swinging. Usually this feels clunky, and unresponsive, but this game finally nails it. Swinging through the city is as easy as holding the right trigger, but there's more to it than that. While swinging you can press X to shoot yourself forward for some extra speed, run along the side of any building seamlessly, and latch on to certain areas to slingshot yourself across great distances. All of this feels very smooth, and satisfying, and it makes traversing the huge city landscape a breeze. The environment, characters, and pretty much everything in this game looks beautiful, with highly detailed graphics, and animations. So you'll probably be doing a lot of sightseeing while snapping pictures in the easy to use photo mode. I think I had about 150 pictures taken by the time I was done.
The combat is very similar to the Batman Arkham games, but finetuned to fit within the Spider-Man universe. There's your basic attack, dodge move, special attacks that build up over time, and a whole slew of gadgets for webbing up the bad guys. You can knock enemies into the air to perform aerial attacks, web them up and swing them around, or pick up objects in the environment to smash people with. On top of the already large move set, and plethora of gadgets, each suit has it's own special combat ability to give you even more options, and there's about thirty of them to unlock. Plus you get a bunch of new moves to choose from as you progress through the game and level up. Combat can be as easy as mashing the attack button while dodging your enemies, or it can be a brutal, complex ballet, the choice is yours.
All of these features, the web swinging, the combat, the side content, and the main story all blend together seamlessly to give the player an amazing experience. Once I started the game it totally hooked me, and I couldn't put it down. But it does have some flaws that I have to address. For one thing, there are stealth sections of the game where you play as one of the side characters. These quickly became tedious to me, breaking the otherwise excellent pacing, especially towards the end. I wish there were more boss encounters. The boss fights were great, but there weren't enough of them. If you're trying to 100% the game you will be forced to complete a bunch of the same side challenges over, and over, which can be a pain. And finally, I wasn't a huge fan of the sad, downer ending. I felt it was unnecessary, ending things on a low note.
Don't let those minor complaints fool you though. They didn't really take anything away from my enjoyment of the game, and most people might not be bothered by them at all. I've been waiting for a game that did Spider-Man justice for a long time, and now I finally have it. The environment is beautifully crafted, and densely packed with content. The combat can be as simple, or as complex as you want it to be. Web swinging around the city has never felt so fluid, or easy to control. You get a wide variety of side quests, challenges, real time events, collectibles, and easter eggs. It features a pretty big cast of characters that all play an important role, some that I didn't expect. And the story is surprisingly well done, covering both Peter Parker, and Spider-Man aspects of the character. If you haven't played this yet, I highly recommend picking it up, it's a spectacular superhero game. I'm going to give Marvel's Spider-Man a grade of...………………….
A -
Thank you for reading my review of Marvel's Spider-Man, I hope you enjoyed it!