Insomniac had its work cut out for it with Spider-Man 2. To say expectations were high going into this sequel is an understatement, buffered by both the first game's major success and the bridge between console generations that was Miles Morales. This new Spidey adventure had to take the best elements from those games, mix them with new characters, features, and stories, and produce the kind of game fans will talk about for years. Somehow, they did just that; Spider-Man 2 is, to get the easy pun out of the way early, amazing.
Spider-Man 2 picks up 10 months after Miles Morales, with both Peter and Miles adjusting to life after losing loved ones. Peter is trying to get a tutoring job going, with Miles--who is getting ready to head to college--as one of his students. The Sandman suddenly attacks the city, the two superheroes are called to action, and things progress from there.
I emphasize "two" superheroes there, as the game alternates between Peter and Miles throughout the story – though you can also alternate whenever you feel like it. While the two control and fight similarly, their special abilities are different enough that each one feels unique and fun in their own way. There were missions with Peter, for instance, where I wish I'd had one of Miles' abilities, and vice-versa. I really like how the two stand out from one another, and that both of them are fully realized characters with great stories and development. Insomniac outdid themselves with these two.
Fighting as Peter and Miles feels so dang good, a natural evolution of the freeflow-style combat made famous in games like Batman: Arkham Asylum. Groups of enemies don't stand a chance against my web-slinging abilities as I zip through legs, around fists, and above heads before bashing some skulls. Special abilities add a couple of extra tools to my arsenal – I especially like Miles's Chain Lightning ability, which zaps multiple enemies at once – but essentially, combat wasn't broken, so Insomniac didn't fix it.
What does seem different from previous games is how much damage Spider-Man takes during battles. I played Spider-Man 2 on the standard difficulty level, and in some early clashes with Kraven's men, I'd see my health drop over 50 percent from a single burst from an enemy rifle. Normal grunts pack a major wallop too, as one did 35 points of damage with one punch. While this is a good way to increase difficulty, it's also a super frustrating one, as I feel like I'm being punished with a restart for making one small error. If I didn't manually save at the right time, that small error could turn into me restarting an entire 10-minute battle, and that's infuriating.
This problem persisted through most of the game, though thanks to the great skill tree format, I always had something up my sleeve for retries. Each individual Spider-Man has a skill tree with new moves to earn, but there's also a joint skill tree with specific abilities that impact both Peter and Miles. Shared skills are things like Parry Disarm, which causes an enemy to drop a weapon when parried, while the individual skill trees focus on things like Miles's Venom or Peter's Symbiote attacks. These dual trees add to the "making each Spider-Man their own person" vibe, but having the combined tree as well to take care of things both can do is a brilliant move. I would have hated to unlock something like Parry Disarm for both Peter and Miles separately, and I'm glad Insomniac saw the light.
Weird damage issues aside, credit is also due for the urban playground I get to explore with the duo, as this version of New York feels vibrant and alive throughout the adventure. Bystanders are everywhere in the city, just like in real life, and the way they react to the happenings around them is astounding. I never felt like a NPC was just there to populate a scene; each person I'd run into had something to say. Granted, sometimes they'd repeat something I'd heard from another NPC previously, but even that is better than saying nothing. Things like this create the notion that, even when I'm not playing the game, those people are going about their lives as they normally would, and I love that.
There's also so much to do in this version of New York, it's hard to wrap my head around. I started with photo ops, Sandman crystals containing his memories, and random crimes being reported for me to stop, but then I'm shown Prowler caches with rare tech, enemy hideouts hiding in plain sight, and the list goes on. I am never without an activity to seek out – sometimes, it even feels like there's too much to do at times, and I have trouble deciding where exactly I want to go next. That's never a bad problem to have though, especially when each activity has a clear benefit or reward.
It also helps that getting around the city is so dang fun, even if I have some trouble with the swinging mechanics at times. In the previous games, I'd always find myself getting unsteady after a while, eventually running into a building or dropping onto the ground accidentally. The new Web Wings gliding mechanic has been a godsend in this regard; I've been able to get around so much better in this game thanks to that mechanic alone; it's hard to describe how much I enjoy it. I still bonk into the occasional building, and the Web Wings can be a little difficult to rein in at times, but things like high-speed chase missions did not cause me as much trouble as they had before.
There are moments baked into the story, however, which take me away from swinging around the city and focus me inside a certain area. Most of these are focused on MJ and her relationship with Peter, and while I get their place in the overall narrative, they only make me want to get out and swing across rooftops more. Nothing against MJ or Peter or the stealth mechanics in general, everything works fine, they just take me away from New York. It's like having to finish my homework before going to play outside as a kid; I may be doing what I have to do, but my mind is definitely elsewhere.
Spider-Man 2 made me feel like the web-slinger himself – two versions of him, in fact – as I played through the game. I loved the feeling of getting around the city, fighting crime and saving the day. I didn't like how weak Spider-Man sometimes felt against bigger groups, nor did I like when the story slowed things down and took me away from the high-flying action sections. However, the overall experience was able to surpass both of these issues, and Spider-Man 2 is worthy of every accolade it receives.
Full disclosure: The product described was provided by PR for the purposes of this review. Reviewed on PS5.
