Spider-Man 2 came out recently, and I somehow managed to finish it within just a few days (with some side quests to spare for the post-game period), and here are just some of my thoughts about this spectacular sequel.
GRIPPING STORY
Although I remember little about the previous entries, the game does have a nice and quick recap at the start, which I’m sure a lot of you will appreciate too.
I’m not gonna lie, I unintentionally rushed through the main questline just because of how heavily invested I was in both Peter and Miles’ stories. Without spoiling too much, I was hooked because of how the game handled issues such as loss and all the other struggles that a typical person might face, as well as, of course, having to balance all of that with one’s role as a superhero with a secret identity.
A lot of the story revolves around the arrival of Kraven, who’s in town searching for a worthy opponent for reasons that I refuse to explain just to avoid any further spoilers. There’s also the return of Peter’s best friend, Harry Osborn, who, if you finished the first game, would know is the host of the symbiote, which implies that he will eventually become Venom. As to how that’ll pan out, I’ll leave that for you to find out.
As Spider-Man has an extensive rogue’s gallery, there’s a lot of new and returning villains, though a lot of them may not be coming back in ways you’d expect. Honestly, with how the whole narrative played out, I’m very curious to see where Insomniac will be taking the series to next, as they really went in directions that many probably wouldn’t have expected.
Although most of the story also had Peter in the lead due to being a central figure in the Venom branch of the narrative, I was glad to see that Miles still gets some moments in the spotlight and is pretty much being built up as the future of the Spider-Man series.
With how the game ends, however, I wouldn’t write off Peter just yet though, but I won’t elaborate any further. Just know that everything wraps up pretty nicely at the end, with some very obvious sequel hints.
SMOOTH AND ENGAGING GAMEPLAY
Just like the games that came before it, Spider-Man 2 features some really satisfying web swinging. In addition to that, they also added a new traversal mechanic in the form of gliding, which makes the ability to fast travel feel somewhat pointless as you can go from point to point in such a quick manner now.
In terms of combat, the game builds upon the familiar “dodge and spam attacks” formula from the previous titles and adds a variety of new gadgets and abilities that you can play around with to wreak havoc on your enemies. Both Spider-Men have their own respective skill trees (as well as a shared one) which allows you to individually boost their capabilities, and you’ll want to do so as you start to face more than just regular thugs with guns and crowbars.
With the addition of mandatory parrying and the various unblockable attacks from both regular foes and bosses, the game keeps combat fresh with its wide range of new enemy types, including those that introduce hazards around the battlefield. Even with that, the old strategy of spamming dodges and regular attacks will still work, though only to some degree.
While it isn’t inherently harder than before, the many mechanics involved in combat sure kicked my ass a few times that I had to start playing on the normal difficulty instead of the hardest just to move the story along a little quicker. Thankfully, no trophies are tied to difficulty like in the first game, so getting humbled by Spider-Man 2’s combat wasn’t much of a frustrating experience at all.
Another thing I liked was the many phases in pretty much every major boss fight. Rather than having a quick one-off battle with the likes of Kraven and Venom (does this count as a spoiler? surely not, right?), you instead have to face them several times in a drawn out encounter with new attacks to watch out for every time the fight escalates further.
CONCLUSION
Even though I wouldn’t put it above something like Baldur’s Gate 3, Spider-Man 2 is easily one of my candidates for game of the year, which is pretty impressive considering how many good titles came out in 2023.
With great gameplay, story, music, and just everything in general, it’s just another impressive release by Insomniac Games that I can’t wait to see what else they’ll bring to the table. With how the last couple of Marvel-based games they’ve released have panned out, I’m eager to see if they can pull off another banger with the upcoming Wolverine game.