Marvel's Spider-Man: Miles Morales (2020)

OPEN-WORLD ACTION - Play as Miles Morales, the new Spider-Man on the block, as he defends New York from danger while Peter Parker is out of town.

PROS:

++ Fun traversal. Web swinging is smooth, fun, and incredibly satisfying.

++ Exciting combat. Combat encounters are exciting because the different enemy types provide a great challenge. Miles' move set is also great and sets himself apart from Peter.

++ Emotional story. Story had great emotional moments (Miles and his relationship with his uncle Prowler, and the ending which saw Phin sacrificing herself to try and make amends).

CONS:

-- Stealth. Stealth mechanics were serviceable, but nothing amazing.

-- Boring skill tree. Skill tree didn't really have many skills that I was excited to unlock.

-- Dull side content. Lacking in meaningful side content. After the campaign, all that's left to do is stop petty crimes and round up the remaining collectibles. And it doesn't have amazing side missions like the Arkham games.

A worthy follow-up to the original game. Felt just as smooth to play, while the new powers added variety without adding complexity. The filler still felt like filler (and what is a GTA-like open world game without filler?), but there was less of it and a more focused narrative. They hit some great cinematic moments by the end, with my only complaint being that I wish there was 10 more hours to play. Which is a good complaint to have at the end of a game.

If you're thinking of playing this game first before the original, or skipping the original, I personally found it more satisfying to have played the previous Spider-Man first. The narratives are not strung together, but things will just feel more comfortable and make a little more sense.

As far as the one change that could have really pushed this game up a notch, they should have moved the bit with Phin and the museum section to the start of the game, or early middle, and not at the end right before the cinematic conclusion. It was an important vignette that really established the relationship dynamics between her and Miles without the stress of the narrative. It made her much more sympathetic, but by the end of the game it was too late. I found myself pushing through that science center bit with nothing but a mild frustration. They dropped the ball with her in a few ways, but this would have gone a long way towards fixing that. (Phin is why I gave this game 4 stars. In a game with a charming cast her unlikability, even though it made narrative sense, was jarring and distracting. It took some of the charm out of it for me.)

This game starts out super strong in what it delivers, the swinging feels much better than the main game, and it borrows some elements used in the main game during the introduction part of the game.

The Music goes in bit more hardcore in this one IMO. The introduction in this one overall is so good that I Kept replying it again and again. It's actually the moment I thought this game was going to be Co-op before I realized how miserable was I. The Intro was just hardcore and alive... I Loved it.

Then there's the whole game itself, which is more of the same of it's older brother. the aesthetic and the Winter (Christmas-y) look of the game is so freaking warm.

I did enjoy this title being a "Game" more than the first one. It's about an 8 hours adventure, not something I would call "short", but It didn't feel too stretched like it's older brother.

I loved that they made New York way more alive in the game with the diversity of people that were in there, It's fantastic.

This game has got "It's Own Experience" feel and focus that makes it different than the 2018 game. It just sucks you in the world way better, The gameplay and swinging somehow are way better, not too much to do or have, but definitely too much to enjoy.

Just a thoroughly ok game. Feels more like an extra-big DLC of the first game than its own thing—it's short (honestly if it were longer I'd probably give it 2 stars, it at least didn't stick around long enough to get boring), its mechanics are largely the same but with some different abilities that don't fundamentally change the way the game plays (with the exception of making stealth much more viable, I suppose), the side content is as samey and tedious as always (here I'm referring to just, like, games in general; be better, games) but more so as it lacks the variety or complexity of the first game, and the main plot is just kinda meh.

(Spoilers for a lot of the story ahead, by the way.)

And the ending ignores a very obvious solution that would've made sense narratively and which at least 3 of the characters probably would've thought of. Or I suppose you could just kill of the hero's best friend for the umpteenth time.

Also, the game treats Phin almost killing Spider-Man before she finds out he's Miles very casually and it feels really weird. Like, neither of them actually seem that bothered by the idea, and other than the one time it's brought up they don't really dwell on it. And then at the end Miles is just like "Well you'll just have to kill me" in this really casual way, like, "Well you'll just have to win this drinking contest" kind of tone, and it all just feels really weird and weightless and I don't like it.

Also, not gonna lie, not a fan of Miles's voice actor. Not the best performance, and kinda whiny.

Also the New Game+ skills/upgrades really don't seem worth it.

Also as much as I like the idea of being able to use the Spider-Verse mod with any suit, it takes up fully 50% of my suit mod slots, which is absurd for a cosmetic mod. Either make it a free mod or a setting, or don't make it a mod at all and just make it a feature of the Spider-Verse suit. Doing it this way is just silly.

Also I feel like there's a version of the sample-recording mini game that would be fun, but this wasn't it.

Also I got 34/35 Underground caches and then realized the last one was in a Roxxon base I'd already cleared and couldn't replay, so that's annoying.

Also would've rather just played the game as Phin, her powers seemed fun and she was so obviously right that the game had to set up like 3 different layers of both-sidesism and "she's right but blinded by hatred" stuff to make her the villain. It's not BioShock: Infinity bad, but it's not great, and it doesn't make for a particularly interesting story. Whereas a game written with her as the protagonist that doesn't have to jump through those hoops probably would be. Ooh, and what if the Underground, instead of just being a crime gang that does the crime stuff but, like, for Instagram, was a militant anarchist group that Phin wasn't just in mutually beneficial relationship with but was actually part of. And they're trying to take down Roxxon, but there are disagreements about how to do it....So I think basically what I'm pitching here is Infamous meets Watch Dogs 2 (based on what I know about Watch Dogs 2, which is very little). Now, doesn't that sound more fun than this microwaved Campbell's soup of a game?

Obviously it would be weird if you started making a Spider-Man game that's functionally a DLC and then were like "Actually I like this character better" and pivoted to a completely different, full-length* game in which Spider-Man, if he appears at all, would be a side-character and maybe even an antagonist. So that game probably couldn't have ever existed. But if only it had.

.

*"full-length" here being a relative term, we're talking about the general expectation for this type of game as well as the length required to satisfyingly tell the story it's trying to tell. They're are plenty of great short games that I wouldn't call "not full-length".

Well, I was quite surprised how fun the game was. The movement is very fluid and the air tricks really give a unique experience to fly away! The game was quite short though (the main story), the plot was okay in my opinion. Combat in the game was really cool, felt really satisfying punching enemies and doing all kinds of crazy combos with the unique movement and combat you could do. Game itself is a 5/5, I would recommend picking it up if you want to feel like spider-man! Truly an unique experience.

-- Played on Playstation NOW app on pc via streaming through 16.6-18.6.2022

This game was a Christmas gift, and thus was lying around for almost 4 months already. But I think I played it at just the right time. I really needed this game right now.

Narrative

You are "The other Spider-man" Miles Morales. Peter Parker, your mentor, is going on a vacation and leaving New York in your hands. You are quite nervous, but what could go wrong, right? Well, this is New York, so obviously a new villain group moves right in and you've got your work cut out for you. Save Harlem, save the world!

Gameplay

The gameplay is quite similar to the first instalment. Which means really, really fun! First of all, why does this game even have a fast travel option. Why whould I choose a loading screen over swinging around the skyscrapers of new york. I've used it exactly once, and never again. The swinging is the best part! It feels smooth, fun, epic and just the best way to move around. I would almost say that if it was just swinging I would still buy it.

There is however more to the game. You have the main quest to do, saving Harlem, but in the meantime there is an app your friend developed where people can request Spider-man. Here you get crimes you can prevent, and other side quests you can do. There aren't many, but I don't think that's too bad. Most side quests are short, but there are 1-2 bigger ones.

During these quests you fight bad guys and do the occasional puzzle. The fighting feels good. It's mostly chaining combo's to save up for your special ability and finisher. The special ability is so powerful, and really fun to use.

After the quests and fights you get XP to level up, so-called "activity tokens" and sometimes "tech tokens". With every level you can get another skill, for fighting, the special and stealth. You can unlock almost all of the skills with a regular run of the game. The tokens you can use to get new suits, upgrade suitmods and upgrade your gadgets (like the webslinger). It's not hard to get tokens, and thus upgrading things can be done quick.

The puzzles were not really my thing. I could've done without any at all.

Setting

New York in the winter time. There is not that much to say about it. Except that the snow effect made the fans of my PS4 go absolutely nuts, it was so loud. The music, while not my style, fit very well with the game. I still recall the menu music, and when I can recall music after the game it was good music in my book (or really terrible I suppose). New York is a great setting for Spider-Man of course, so much swinging.

Other

As I mentioned before, the PS4 could not handle the game that well. The fan got incredibly loud. First game that ever happened with. I learned to ignore it, but I did get worried for a moment there. Besides that, I encountered a bug where the audio + subs would cut out in a cutscene, and I just saw mouths move but no clue what was happening. Had to reload the game to fix it.

Conclusion

I really needed a game like this. It's just fun. Not complicated, not heavy, not boring, just plain old fun. I could really get lost in just swinging around, beating up some bad guys. It really helped with work stress. I looked forward a lot to just fire up the game, swing around for an hour or two before bed and just go to bed relaxed. Really really great. So maybe, the 5 stars were because of the right experience at the right time, but honestly just try the game if you can. It's just really fun, the gameplay feels great, and just one minor bug is doable. Highly recommend.

I didn't expect this to feel like a whole new game at all, no matter how much they'd build it up, it is an "expansion" set in the same place with mostly the same mechanics as the original game. As fun as that game was at times, I had many problems with it, and those problems are still here, with some added ones.

But leaving the open world design flaws aside, Miles Morales story has way less time to expand and experiment, side missions are barely any more than checklist epilogues and although there's a couple more things to do in terms of interacting with the environment, none of it gets really interesting past its initial implementation.

Where these new electric and cammo powers do glow is in combat, which feels way better now that you have a "fuck you" button with the thunder punch, and a get out of jail free card to make stealth way smoother with the invisibility.

To keep talking about the good things while they last, the game is beautiful, the performance RT mode on ps5 is a great sweetspot and Harlem is great. The NPCs and locations are extremely detailed and full of personality and the people are diverse and fun.

That said... The story was just bad. Not only did the cop-friendly style (that I already had to endure in the base game) clash even more now that there is a literal (and really pretty) BLM mural on a building, but the motivations and problems the main characters go through are developed in a really clumsy way.

After playing Guardians of the Galaxy, another game whose main theme was grief, coming back to the usual toothless insipid AAA writing was extra tough. Dialogues are milquetoast, jokes don't land, and any anger or social issue that the events may point towards barely gets any attention, focusing on people being happy and brave and perfect and there for each other. Which could be just fine, but they needed a couple antagonists, and so their motivations, acts and resolutions exist in completely different dimensions.

Spoilers for the story: Never exploring why the Prowler did what he did going into that life, never even mentioning the issues with Miles' dad being a cop (or criticizing cops at all), forcing the tinkerer's plan to be "break building" for no reason, refusing even a better way to hurt the villain, and then pouting for a while so there could be a final conflict + death by the end? UGH CONTRIVANCES. It's just clumsy writing and a completely nonsensical depiction of grief and revenge.

And all of this, when you think about it, makes the game feel like filler. Nothing is different before you play it than after you play it. Just like one of those Marvel shows that they really want you to watch but don't further the characters or the world in the slightest. Big disappointment, because I love the character.

Miles Morales feels like an improvement on its lauded predecessor in every way. It trims the fat from the increasingly bloated open-world action-adventure genre, offering a stylish, polished, and fast-paced ride through a fun superhero story.

Thanks to some new abilities, combat now has an amazing flow. Loved comboing together venom attacks, finishers, swing attacks, perfect dodges, etc. and the camera movements and visual effects make it look and feel awesome. This is the best evolution yet of the Arkham Asylum-style combat that became popular over the last decade.

The stealthy route is just as fun at times thanks to a wide array of silent takedowns. I completed most of the game's side content in this fashion and it was really fun and simple to execute. Besides the web shooter, Spider-Man's various gadgets, suit attachments, visors, etc. all feel a bit useless on normal difficulty, but stealth is the one place where I would occasionally mess with them.

In terms of story, characters, and pacing, I greatly preferred this game over the previous one. Miles's mother and Peter Parker sadly are mostly sidelined after the first couple missions, but his friends Ganke and Phin, and his Uncle Aaron play great roles in the story. Miles has sort of an annoying teenager voice, but his characterization grew on me thanks to fun conversations with Ganke and heartfelt moments with Aaron. The story is entertaining and has a few memorable moments. No complaints from me.

I played the game in 4K, 60 fps, with ray tracing enabled, and it looks really spectacular at times. Particularly anything glowing, especially at nighttime, looks amazing. It made nice subtle use of the DualSense controller's adaptive triggers and haptic feedback, and has lightning-fast load times. All this really ups the immersion and makes the next-gen upgrade worth it.

Very happy with this game, the first time I've wanted to do all the side content in a game in a very long time thanks to how fun it is just to swing around and fight stuff. I'll take 5 of these types of things over one 60+ hour open-world game any day.

Spider-Man Miles Morales is a good game. Short and sweet, while not being a major improvement over its previous entry.

One thing that I want to get out of the way first: The graphics are gorgeous! The first Spider-Man game, on base PS4, already looked amazing, but this is definitely the most significant improvement over the original. And not only it looks good, it also plays great! Swinging around the city is still a joy, the fast-paced combat system continues to excel expectations and unlockables like new suits, gadgets and skills feel very rewarding.

The story is also great. While not as involving as the original game, I felt like Miles' story is much more personal, with freedom to take the character into different and more original paths than the ones we've already seen in other Spider-Man media. Great voice performances, exciting action moments and emotional cuts make this game worth picking up.

What hurts this game, in my opinion, is the lack of novelty. A few things that I did not like in the original are still here. And since this is a much shorter experience, these things just get in the way of a great story being told.

Side quests are still repetitive, but this time they don't add anything cool to flesh out the Spider-Man mythos, like the previous game did with some of them. The lack of enemy variety is sad and in harder difficulties, they still take forever to die.

And the worst thing in the entire game: THE PUZZLES! They get old quick. Basically, they turn Miles Morales into a walking "generator energy". It's absurd!

This game is very short, so buying it at full price might not be the best idea, but if/when you do pick it up, you'll definitely have a great time, whether you're a Spider-Man fan or just a sucker for good Action Adventure games.

Now, if you've played the old one, you'll probably reach the credits with the taste of an overglorified DLC, in your mouth...

First impressions: Wowy zowy! The opening set piece is a worthy successor to the original and the whole thing felt smooth and incredibly appropriate for a post-Into the Spider-Verse world.

Visually, it’s stunning but I honestly can’t guess what the other modes will look like. Reflections look great in motion but I can’t tell while playing if I’m looking at SSR or RT reflections.

I am not typically a big fan of collectables in games, but when it is as much fun to travel as it is in this game, it's a bit of a joy to pick everything up. I felt the same way with the previous Spider-Man title, and nothing has changed since then. Love it.

Also high praise for Insomniac once again for their UX. Controlling Miles feels almost instinctual. I have't played Spider-Man since its launch yet the controls in this game feel like second-nature. That is a testament to good, intuitive design that I can walk away from a franchise for two years and instantly feel at home as if I never stopped playing it the moment I picked up the new instalment. I'd be lying if I said that that level of great control design isn't part of why I also love Ratchet & Clank as much as I do.