Spider-Man: Miles Morales is a very good game. It doesn't exactly offer anything revolutionary or new in comparison to the original game, instead it keeps everything as it's and just adds some tweaks and improvements, which, for a spin off, is a nice thing to do. However for sure part 2 of this franchise will need to go even bigger to prevent things from staying still.
Story is decent, but nothing spectacular. This is a pretty much standard Spider-Man comic book story, in which most of the twists and events are honestly obvious miles away. There's nothing groundbreaking here. It's just a fun Spider-Man story that you can enjoy then completely forget later on. It does the job, and fleshes Miles' character a little bit more, but nothing else.
The gameplay is basically more of the same from the original Spider-Man game. Combat and swinging are still as good as ever. Movement is smooth, and swinging never ceases being fun to the point I didn't use the fast travel option that much, just like the main game, and the combat is immensely satisfying and very fluid. Combos on the ground and is air uses Spider-Man's full acrobatic abilities and combos are just a lot of fun to pull out especially when launching enemies in air.
The game adds some improvements and new tweaks to the combat and stealth thanks to Miles' different abilities in comparison to Peter Parker. Venom abilities were a nice addition to the combat flow, with various abilities ranging from just punching enemies harder, to breaking their guard, to straight up ramming them. Going invisible, an ability that shouldn't be new to anyone who watched Into The Spider Verse movie, added a different layout in stealth and being able to hide again after getting caught. All these aren't really groundbreaking additions but they make the combat and stealth more varied, and more Miles a little bit different from Peter and has his own unique style.
Open World plays mostly similar to the main game, which was honestly a little bit outdated. The map is full of collectibles icons to gather, outposts to tackle, challenges to do, and other generic open world stuff. There're few side missions which offered some fun environments to explore, and random crime events are always fun to tackle while you're on your way to a mission, giving you the sense of being a real super hero. However, I hope in the next game Insomniac improve their open world design a little bit and try to stay away from this generic stuff. It's time for them to take a bigger step forward in their open world design.
Graphics are similar to the original game on PS4. Didn't try the game on PS5 as I don't have it yet, but on PS4 it looks nearly the same, which is of course very good, and I bet it looks much better on next gen console. Voice actors did a good job, and some of the songs played were really cool, reminded of some songs from Into The Spider Verse movie.
If you like the main game, there's no doubt you'll like this one, considering that it's basically more of the same with just few new additions to give Miles his own unique fighting style. Otherwise, it's mostly the same game. This is very good for a spin off game, and this one serves this role pretty fine. The story is about 6 hours but you can get a solid 10 hours of it if you do all the side missions and track the collectibles (some offer some good insight on Miles' family and often reward you with a pretty cool new suit to play with). For 30-40 dollars, anyone who liked the main game should check it out.
I hope though, that Insomniac take more steps forward in next game. The teasing for the story of part 2 offered in the original game and then this one is really exciting, and it seems they'll keep on going an original route just like what they did with the first game. A less generic open world in next game will be a welcome addition to the already strong combat and swinging design.
Story : 7/10.
Gameplay : 8/10.
Graphics : 8/10.
Sounds : 8/10.
Overall : 8/10.
