Let’s go back in time to E3 2016, I’m up way too late watching Sony’s incredible conference live and being unable to sleep from the hype. We seen some amazing things such as Resident Evil 7, the return of Crash Bandicoot and Death Stranding. However, once it was revealed that Insomniac was creating a Spider-Man game exclusively for the PS4 that was when I felt that my flexible budget was going to be tested. This was one of my most anticipated games and I made sure everyone knew it.
There are only a few words that can describe the quality of Spider-Man for the PS4. This game is “spectacular” (Yes I went there), the clear amount of passion developers’ Insomniac games brought to the city of New York and the world of Spider-Man in its story and gameplay is inspiring, it really shows how talented the studio is. It feels rhythmically satisfying to swing around New York and to fight thugs in the streets whilst hearing Spidey shouting quips at his enemies as he swiftly kicks them in the face. Controlling Spider-Man felt very natural and the character was very light in his weight, accurately adapting the agility of the character. The swinging makes sense to your environment and the game innately teaches you how to build the most momentum and it all feels very smooth.
Combat is very exciting and echoes the style of the fantastic Rocksteady Arkham trilogy, but with more finesse. Spider-Man is more acrobatic and a very fluid fighter unlike the brute force of Batman, often using his environment to his advantage. The combination of webs, punching and kicking with air combat, as well as the stylish finishers brings an extremely satisfying Spidey version of the great combat from Arkham. Although Spidey is very quick, the fighting feels smooth and is always a joy to web thugs to cars and buildings. It echoes Arkham but becomes its own identity with its focus on acrobatics and fluidity. With Peter being a mechanical genius, he’s able to create a wide variety of gadgets for the player to use to aid them in combat, they can be regularly changed in whilst fighting and all of which have a purpose to making the fight approach different or just flat out more satisfying. Spidey also has an upgrade system to improve his abilities in combat, whilst it’s very basic and doesn’t reach its full potential in showing massive changes to gameplay, it does make fighting much easier and gives you more approaches to consider. One of the best parts of Spider-Man is being able to choose from multiple suits, all of which have their own custom suit ability that can change the tide of the fight. Marvel fans will get a kick out of some of the suit choices in the game, although I still believe a few could have been swapped out for much cooler suits from Spider-Man history. I won’t spoil the suits, but you will find yourself cycling between two or three favourites.
The story of Spider-Man is a highlight whether you are a Marvel fan or not. The chemistry between characters are so well written and I was rooting for Peter the whole time. Watching him as a 23-year-old research assistant who is struggling to pay his rent whilst trying to balance his personal life with being a superhero was just so fascinating to watch. Famous villains also show up and although their appearances can be short, its very charming and their designs are all excellent. The 8-year gap is filled through brilliant character moments with classic Spidey characters such as MJ, Miles Morales and Aunt May, who are all brilliantly played by the fantastic voice cast. Miles particularly has a moment in the story that stuck with me and was a highlight of my playthrough. The only issue is that this is a very traditional Spider-Man story beat for beat, many comic fans will be able to predict some twists (one of which I saw coming for a while) however because it was so well written and charming to watch, it never bothered me that some parts were predictable. This is a spoiler free review, so I won’t say much, but I have to say the ending was perfectly crafted and felt earned because it was so tightly put together.
The open world of New York has been masterfully recreated by Insomniac, with key New York sights being the highlights (This includes famous marvel sights too). The city looks beautiful in all weather types, unfortunately the lack of a day and night cycle is a missed opportunity for an open world as beautiful as this. Regular crime alerts can happen at any time and they variate in scenario a good amount but are always fun to get involved in, no spoilers but I would advise players to not ignore them or you’re going to have a very angry podcaster in NY making you feel bad for not helping.
As you progress through the game, multiple different types of side missions and collectibles are littered around the map for you to complete. Most of them are extremely fun to collect, most notably Peter’s backpacks. These contain little mementos from Spidey’s 8-year history and it drove me to collect them all to see what little memento you will unveil next. Some collectibles are a little tedious, although unlike the Arkham games, there aren’t hundreds of them that it just gets annoying (looking at you Riddler trophies). Side missions are amusing and don’t overstay their welcome, but I think there could have been a bit more character to these side missions to make them more memorable.
However, as good as this game is there is some negatives that held this game back from being perfect. To variate the gameplay, at some points players will take the role of MJ in some short stealth sections; usually to catch the player up on some story elements. These short segments felt like a pace breaker and became very tedious. I felt like if they were removed it might have benefited the pace. As the game progresses, Mary Jane slowly becomes more equipped for dealing with enemies and these sections become more enjoyable. It’s great to see MJ as a strong female character in this world however and in the story, she is written very well. My only other complaint that I can mention comes with the movement of Spider-Man, the character moves and controls perfectly in the open world of New York. Unfortunately, in some sections of the game you will be in much smaller indoor environments and this can lead to Spidey bouncing around a lot, causing the player to have to slow down to get their footing to take down thugs or move forward in the level.
Overall, this game has lived up to the hype that has been building since that late night of E3 2016 and in some elements the game surprised me with how tight the story is written and how natural it is to control Spider-Man. The open world has been lovingly created by Insomniac and is charming to both fans of Marvel and gamers who aren’t as familiar. There are only few drawbacks from making this game nearly perfect but they are only small tedious problems that I hope Insomniac can improve or iron out for a future sequel. If you have a PS4, I would highly recommend picking this game up as soon as possible, if you are a budget gamer like me this is the game you will have saved for, even if it means that some other releases will have to wait. Make them wait for Spider-Man.
A Flexible Budget Gaming review
Flexible Budget Gaming 