Spider-Man 2

Perfection In my eyes. I'm autistic, so I'm not great with words. I'll keep it short and simple.

1. Beautiful, stunning and breathtaking graphics. The lighting is gorgeous, the environment in itself is amazing (especially outside during the day).

2. Brilliant story and character development. Not only do the characters stand on their own, they also grow together. I absolutely adore the journey.

3. Fantastic machenics (old&new) are back ... My new favourite addition would be the spider wings. Gliding around New York is such a breeze, and is so satisfying.

4. I love the simple things. Like when you're in combat as Pete, and Mile's joins in to help. It makes me happy.

Definitely 10/10 ... Insomniac have done it again.

I played Spider-Man 2018 on PS4, and it quickly became one of my all-time favorite games. It was incredible, and I had absolutely no complaints. This year, I played Spider-Man 2, which was also amazing. However, over time, I found myself getting bored. While it introduced a lot of new features and was packed with action, it felt repetitive. I started to miss the simplicity of Spider-Man 2018, along with its better story and perfectly paced rhythm. So, after beating Spider-Man 2, I decided to go back and play Spider-Man Remastered. Despite it being my third playthrough, I'm actually enjoying it more.

I have no complaints about the mechanics or story. Action and swinging are very smooth and I love the new symbiote combat moves. On top of that, the story was fantastic. However, when I saw I had 25% of the game completed after my first sitting, I knew that all of these great aspects were going to be short lived.

It has been 5 years since the first game released, and 3 since the "hold-over" Miles Morales game. Suffice it to say, I was able to platinum this game in just 27 hours. For clarification, that means that not only the main story was completed, but every side quest and challenge along with it. I did not skip any cutscenes. Heck, I only even fast traveled a couple times. This is a $70 AAA game.

For comparison, I have not yet achieved platinum on Spider-Man 1, but I have 34 hours logged and only half of the badges (story completed). This game was much shorter in length and had two Spider-Men compared to the first game, where miles morales was an NPC for all but 10 minutes. God of War Ragnarok, another flagship SIE game, takes around 60 hours to platinum and around 40 for the main story alone. The predecessor God of War 4, takes about 26 hours just for the main story.

In conclusion, I was just looking to see more. They intentionally left us hanging with a couple loose ends so they can sell us DLC in the future. I think these should have been integrated as side quests in this game. It is just a shame to see that this game was 5 years in the making and SIE couldn't even put out 30 hours of gameplay. As a lifelong fan of Spider-Man and someone who bought a PS4 just to play the first game, this is kind of a let down. Again, the action and story are wonderful, but I personally don't feel like I got my $70 worth.

Spider man 2 should be a 10, but it's not. It has higher highs than the first game, but lower lows.

In terms of combat, if you enjoyed the previous game than you'll love this because it's even better, in fact, most mechanics in this game are great and improved from the first game. Something that doesn't improve are the puzzles, and, considering that the puzzles are so prominent in this game I'm honestly so suprised at how bad they are. They are easy, dumb and pointless. They are literally filler with no individuality. In fact, that goes for most of the saide quests in this game. Some hint at other villians and have fun teasers, plus the flame missions are genuinely worthwhile and fun, but the rest is a little bit plain and monotonous. Not bad, just, not good. Traversal is also like the best out of any other game of all time here so there's that I suppose. Boss fights are a major improment over the first game, even if I feel the spectacle was inconsistent between some of the battles.

In terms of story, there is much to love, but a lot to hate. I fell like Kraven is severely undercooked, he's the main villian in the game and yet you spend hours on end fighting his stupid goons and only see him for 6 scenes. I feel like they played his cards wrong considering that his actual charachter was really well made and his themes and concepts were riveting. Venom is underused, there's no doubt. He's in it for 5 missions and is totally wasted in this game. His motives don't make sense and whilst Harry's could have been really good, there isn't much sense in his motivations. Now, this is because of the symbiote effect on people in the game. It doesn't expand in inner problems from the characters, but makes them up when they have the symbiote. Therefore, there is no tension at all, because the stakes aren't there. Miles has the best arc in the game by far, it's well developed and makes a lot of sense. Peter (who is predominantly the protagonist in the game) isn't well developed however, for when he's in the symbiote there are no stakes, as I mentioned earlier. The writing is corny at times, but it's okay because the voice acting is spot on.

I don't dislike the game at all, it improves so much and core aspects are really good, but it has its gaps in its greatness where the first game doesn't. I still prefer this one, however.

Spider-Man 2 takes everything that was great about the first game, and expands upon it; bigger map, grander story, more characters, improved mechanics, etc. The game also has spectacular set pieces, and a good variety of missions that help speed up, and slow down the pacing when necessary, including one when you go on the rides, and play carnival games at Coney Island, which is unironically one of my favorites missions in any game ever. Overall, after 100% the game, and achieving the platinum trophy, I can confidently say Spiderman 2 is now one of my all time favorite games; its gameplay is fast, fun, and has the best combat system I've ever experienced. If you're a Spiderman fan, it's definitely worth the money.

Now for the things I don't like: first off, Im not a huge on the wingsuit, as I think it takes the focus off of web slinging - seeing Spiderman soar through the skies like Superman just doesn't feel right... (although, I know Insomniac probably thought it was a necessary addition, to make traversing the larger map easier, especially since there's now a river you have to navigate across) They also brought back the dreaded forced stealth MJ missions from the first game. I know they don't want MJ to be your typical damsel in distress, but giving her an OP taser and forcing you to navigate through enemy territory while neither Spiderman is in sight for assistance, just isn't it... I'm also not a fan of the "Danacast" that returns in this game after being introduced in Miles Morales. I don't care about some random, liberal college student's opinions about what's going on in the story, just give me J. Jonah Jameson.

Performance wise; In my 24+ hours of playing the game so far, I've only suffered from one crash, but there is some gltiches that need to be patched. Like, a pivotal part of the game's narrative was ruined for me, because character models were either completely invisible, or they were just floating heads... (both in cutscenes and gameplay) There's also this really odd bug where your character model is just a small, white box? It tends to happen when switching quickly back and forth between suits.

Finally: Just like the first game, there's no option for New Game+ at launch - although, I heard that its coming before the end of the year - also, there's currently not an option to change the time of day like in the previous 2 games, (not even after beating the story...) which is disappointing. So hopefully they add that, soon, too.

In conclusion, Spiderman 2 isn't perfect, but it's pretty close. 9/10.