Insomniac Games has been an industry staple for a while now, with franchises like “Spyro the Dragon” and “Ratchet and Clank”. Insomniac is back not with an original game, but one based off of one of the most recognizable comic book series: “Spider-Man”.
In this interpretation of “Spider-Man”, Peter Parker is in his mid-20s and has been Spider-Man for eight years. Forgoing the typical origin story, “Spider-Man” drops players straight into the action. The game opens on Peter waking up, donning his suit and assisting the police in a raid on Wilson Fisk. This opening sequence serves as a tutorial for the various basic skills of spider man: web swinging, fighting etc. Once Fisk has been brought down, he claims that he was the only thing keeping the city in check. Without him, the cities various criminal organizations will tear the city apart in a fight for dominance. Shortly after Fisk’s arrest a new criminal power emerges. These men wearing demon masks begin to raid Fisk properties seeking resources for a coming war. These Demons set in motion a chain of events that will bring the city to its knees and force Peter to make the most difficult choices that any person will ever have to make. “Spider-Man” delivers one of the most fluid narrative experience in memory. The main story line flows together so perfectly that it is almost difficult to see when certain story arcs end and others begin. There is no fat to be cut out in this story. Either it is giving players character moments that give them a look into how the events of the game are affecting the cast, or scenes that push the narrative forward and it all pieces together so seamlessly. The writers at Insomniac have delivered on one of the best Spider-Man scripts ever. Each character written in a way that stays true to their roots, but still feel unique to this game. This is all aided by a cast of voice talent that each deliver a stunning performance. Even more minor characters are written and performed at top quality. There are sequences in the story that felt off. During these moments players leave Spider-Man and take control of Mary Jane Watson or Miles Morales. These are stealth sequences that show what Spider-Man’s allies are doing to aid him in his objectives. Wholesale, these segments are unnecessary. They are interesting and give players a new type of gameplay, but they are short and could have been removed without impacting the game. These sequences are interesting and well done, they just slow down the experience. On other side of the coin from narrative is gameplay. Like a mirror of the narrative, the gameplay in “Spider-Man” is nearly flawless. Despite a few quirks, Insomniac managed to keep combat and web swinging down to as few buttons as possible and still manages to keep a fair amount of complexity. Combat, for example, is streamed down to the square, triangle, circle and top two shoulder buttons. Combat flows extremely easily and racking up combos becomes second nature. There is a time that everything clicks and players master the systems. Keeping it to a smaller number of buttons actually make it easier to master. Web swinging is similar. Everything related to swinging and running are relegated down to the R2 button. Like combat, it is all about retaining momentum. A lot of Spider-Man games have players slam into walls and various other occurrences that break the flow and makes swinging a chore. This game keeps the player in motion. By holding down the R2 button when players hit a wall they don’t stop, they run up the wall and keep moving. Players have a great amount of control when in the air and it make swinging as natural as breathing. This is the first game to make player truly feel like Spider-Man. Outside of the main story, there are plenty of other activities to engage with. Sadly, most of these activities have the depth of a puddle. There are four different side activities that entail to fighting waves of enemies. Combat is fun and each of the activities involve a different faction of enemies, but there really is not much difference between them. Even though the enemies are of different factions, the enemy types are basically the same barring a few subtle differences, but the basic strategies are the same. Peter can collect backpacks that he has left around the city and take pictures of landmarks. There is a simplistic joy in completing these, but at their core are just collection missions. There are other activities that play off of other characters from Spider-Man lore that are never seen. These activities become busy work with a loose narrative explanation. For a game consisting of interesting villains, “Spider-Man” is full of unsatisfying boss fights. With the diversity in villains that inhabit the world of “Spider-Man”, it would make sense that each fight would unique with different strategies. In reality the boss fights all boil down stun/web up the enemy, then punch them until they fall down. It steals away all sense of accomplishment. There are fights with normal, street level enemies that are more challenging than these boss fights. These were chances to do something over the top and Insomniac decided to put these bland fights in there instead. “Spider-Man” is a phenomenal game with a few small flaws that should be a part of any PlayStation owner’s library. Score: 9/10 The minor flaws hold this game back from having that perfect score. Despite that, this game is amazing and one of the most fun experiences this year.
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AuthorI am A.J. Goelz. I'm a gamer first and a writer second. I hope you enjoy the content on this page and check out the rest of my content on YouTube. Archives
April 2019
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