Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 | Review

Initial Release Date: October 20, 2023

Platform: PlayStation 5

Developer: Insomniac Games

Genres: Fighting, Platform, Action-adventure

Mode: Single-player

Composer: John Paesano

Publisher: Sony Interactive Entertainment

Spoiler Warning!!

Introduction

Let me start off by saying I have never played an Insomniac Games video game with this many bugs (Marvel’s Spider-Man 2). My review pretty much boiled down to how much of an impact the bugs and glitches on my enjoyment negatively. For gameplay check out my Spider-Man 2 Video Playlist.

To me, Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 would have been one of the greatest comic book hero video games ever made if the forementioned bugs never existed. I’ve been playing Insomniac Games video games pretty much since the Playstation 2 era.

I cannot remember an Insomniac Games made video game being this buggy let alone such a huge mega blockbuster first party PlayStation title. So yea, at times this game did freeze up resulting in a console restart.

Presentation

Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 crashed on me a quit a bit resulting in hard restarts or having to quit my game returning to the main menu to restart a checkpoint. The latter happened four times. In the mission “Finally Together” I encountered a black flickering screen during Peter’s hunt for the meteorite.

Other bugs were more funny and immersion breaking like NPC clipping, floating, flying and vibrating. As I write this I’m still shocked at the frequency of bugs in Spider-Man 2. I must have taken Insomniac Games for granted because I never expected this game to be this buggy.

Aside from the bugs and glitches Marvel’s Spider-Man 2’s presentation was well, quite “Amazing”. Saw what I did there? But seriously, only a hand-full of video games seemed current gen and Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 is just that. The raytraced visuals, sixty FPS and choreographed gameplay sequences were very impressive.

The cinematography of the boss fights in this video game were better than any of the three recent Marvel Spider-Man films. Maybe the latter had to do with controlling the action? Sony’s first party is known for wowing me with it’s action set-piece gameplay sequences and Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 only impressed the more I played through it’s main campaign.

Story

Marvel’s Spider-Man 2’s story was better and more grand then it’s predecessor. Sergei Kravinoff aka Kraven The Hunter makes New York his hunting grounds all in hopes of dying in the ultimate hunt.

Aspects I most liked was the transformation between Peter Parker’s symbiote and Harry Osborn’s Venom. Both great performances centered around “Healing The World”. The latter was their slogan from their Emily-May Foundation mission.

Miles Morales had his story beats and moments along with MJ as she was controlled by Scream’s symbiote. The writing in my opinion was good for a Spider-Man video game. The communication made sense as each character had their own transformation and fight to contend with.

Miles Morales makes amends with Martin Li for his dad’s death. MJ comes to terms with her work life and Peter. Peter Parker’s iternal fight with the Symbiote Suit as well Harry Osborn’s internal battle with Venom and his declining health.

I guess we can’t forget about Venom and Kraven The Hunter. Kraven got his wish by battling and being killed by Venom. Venom ultimately fails at turning Earth into a Symbiote-human lead tendril planet.

Peter eventually transforms into Anti-Venom (suit and all) eventually defeating Venom with help from Miles. Pacing, writing and motion capture really helped the story stay cohesive and visceral.

Gameplay

Amazing boss-fights, amazing action-set-piece gameplay sequences high octane third person comic book action that’s bigger and grander than anything in the first Spider-Man video game. Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 is just better from a gameplay perspective.

Main and Side Missions were more interesting and fleshed out with better pacing. The Prowler Cache puzzles featuring Miles Morales were fun. You do switch between Peter Parker and Miles for certain side missions and collectible hunts.

Same for Main Missions. There are three upgrade trees one for Peter one for Miles and one for both of them. Gadgets and Suit upgrades were fun to unlock due to them being tied to better designed quests. The feel of gameplay was wonky at times while rope swinging like the first game.

I loved flying around New york with the Web Wings. Like why swing? Fighting as Miles Morales and Peter Parker felt drastically different due to their (Specials) Venom and or Spider barrage attacks which timer cooldowns. Parrying was super useful in almost every encounter.

The Boss Fights were the best part of Marvel’s Spider-Man 2. From the prologue fight with The Sandman. To Martin Li Mister Negative. Miles and Symbiote Peter fight. The Lizard rampage through New York.

The surprise when I took control of the intimidating Venom fighting Kraven The Hunter in Time’s Square. And of course the thirty minute battle with Venom featuring MJ, Peter Parker and Miles Morales.

The cinematography and choreography coupled with it’s visual fidelity made the boss-fights in this video game as entertaining as anything I seen in recent Marvel Spider-Man movies.

Visuals/Graphics

This is “current gen”. Insomniac Games raised the benchmark on the Playstation 5 with Marvel’s Spider-Man 2. At times as I was playing Spider-Man 2 it was as if I was watching a CGI Spider-Man movie. For reference, I played start to finish with ray-tracing performance mode on. I did not test any of the other modes or accessibility options.

Sound/Music

Voice acting was the standout here. the music was good don’t get me wrong but Peter Parker’s Yuri Lowenthal had me feeling his pain when dealing with his transformation in the symbiote suit. Really believable stuff.

Final Thoughts/Score

This video game review boiled down to how much did the for mentioned bugs spoiled my fun with Marvel’s Spider-Man 2. They did spoil my fun somewhat and I did dock my score by one point due to the bugs.

What Insomniac Games created was a almost perfect comic book Spider-Man video game. I would have put this game above any and all Batman Arkham games if it wasn’t for the plethora of bugs.

Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 is grander and just better in every way than it’s predecessor (save bugs). Still, buy this game if you’re remotely interested if you can put up with some bugs.