Marvel's Spider-Man (2018)

An entirely cromulant open-world action game. With well tuned controls and a gawk-worthy recreation of New York City that will capture the hearts of virtual tourists and New Yorkers alike. But, in being a product made to appeal to the highest common denominator, it denies itself the room to play with the more engaging aspects of it's source material. Continuing the modern trend of filing down Peter Parker's abrasive attitude to, at worst, mild snark, throwing out all semblances of media crit found in the Daily Bugle and it's Editor in Chief by reducing him down to an inoffensive Alex Jones facisimile and hand-waving the lead's struggles with poverty by giving him constant outs he had turned down because of his Morals, so as to avoid reminding the audience that class is so often thrust upon us with little escape. The writing understands that exploring the oftentimes cruel circumstances of domestic life are essential to the make-up of what Spider-Man, but always stop short of exploring them before it might ever distract from web-swinging, or worse inspire discomfort. You play through the miserable experience of being evicted and grip the controller as Peter waddles his way back to his Aunt so he can have a roof over his head, but all in a light-hearted manner you'd see in any "down to earth" Disney flick, with little consideration for the long-term consequences.

A fine video game that you can sink dozens of hours of content out of that wanted to be an okay movie. A reminder that after a 60+ year long legacy and millions spent in production of projects every year, Marvel and its associates still struggle to come shoulder-to-shoulder with the disposable 12 cent magazines of yore

It's hard to overstate the importance of the Batman Arkham series of video games. Not just in their design, but what they did for licensed games, but for superhero games, too. They didn't have to be bad anymore, and they could actually be good. Or VERY good, as is the case with the Arkham series, and with Marvel's Spider-Man.

Movement in this game is a blast. Just swinging around was so fun I rarely used fast travel. Stopping random crimes while on the way to a bigger event always felt very like something that would happen in the Sam Raimi series of films. Which I think this game borrows a bit from (in particular with this version of Doctor Octopus). Though the repetition of the different kinds of crimes did wear a bit thin, but you can just ignore them if you want. No matter how un Spider-Man-y it is to do so.

Combat is pretty fun, too. Spidey quips a lot during battles, and I even chuckled fairly often at the dialogue. So I need to give props to Yuri Lowenthal (of Naruto and Rave Master (deep cut) fame) for voicing an excellent Spider-Man. I kind of hope he keeps playing Spidey in future installments.

Stealth in this game is a weird addition, and it seems obligatory since the Arkham games did it. Stealth makes a bit more sense for a character like Batman, though. But it's also just way too easy in this game. Guards basically don't do anything as their teammates are picked off. The guards in the Arkham games would just start shooting randomly at a place where you might be hiding. After getting the range increase for stealth takedowns, I kind of feel sorry for the hired goons. But the MJ and Miles scenes feel especially unnecessary. It is nice to work them into the story, but it's so weird to go from web slinging action to the next installment of "MJ-tal Gear Solid."

To close out, Insomniac basically defined the PS2 era for me with Ratchet and Clank. It's great to see them still making quality games 20 years later. I'm gonna take a break from Spidey, but I think I'll swing back around for Miles Morales soon.

Score: 9/10 (main game), 7/10 (DLC)

This game was the first I have 100%ed in a long long time, so that should tell you something about the quality of the game. Featuring what would be one of my favourite versions of Peter Parker and telling a refreshing and moving story that benefited from the game's interactivity, Spider-Man was a total joy to play. The fact that it also had brilliant gameplay boosted the whole affair, a good story can help a game a long but when it's as fun to play as this one was it really is great how well it all comes together, I had such a great time with all the characters and I can't wait to return with Miles Morales on PS5. The DLC was not too bad either, more of what you like, if you will. Not mind blowing but worth it if you really liked the game. Overall this game was pretty great and I probably put something like 50 hours into it. Awesome stuff, 'nuff said!

This sold a lot of copies so you probably don't need me to tell you how good it is!

4/5

The swinging was awesome. Combat was repetitive and a bit tired - I found normal too easy and hard to be frustrating. The main story was pretty engaging, but nothing incredible - very predictable beats. Peter was very likeable but some of the surrounding characters were not so well done. Too much map marker bullshit for my liking. Have the remastered game on PS5 but will probably not revisit it.

I did end up revisiting this game just over 2 years later and I have to say the gameplay grew on me, particularly the combat. Was definitely fun to use gadgets and get massive combos on the hardest difficulty. The 40FPS + 4K mode on the PS5 was also a game-changer, definitely my preferred way to play games from now on, mix of smoothness and beautiful fidelity. I started the DLC story 'The Heist' - and it was dead boring. The story of the main game is still great, but not the kind of great where a second playthrough is warranted. The MJ and Miles sections are still terrible.