I have to disclose up front that I love Spider-Man. Unfortunately, I have never had the chance to follow the comics, but Spider-Man holds a very special place in my heart for two emotional reasons of my own and they are tightly linked to the first two Sam Raimi movies. When the first movie came out, my father took me to the theater to watch it. And as far as I can remember, it was my first childhood experience in a movie theater. I kept watching the movie every time it screened in any TV channel I was watching. Then, the second movie came out, I was eleven years old. My parents got divorced just a year after the second movie came out and I chose to live with my dad. And I kept watching it too.

As I matured, Spider-Man and Spider-Man 2 did not become meaningless. Instead, I kept seeing more and more meaning in those movies. When I was 21, two weeks before my birthday, my dad had a stroke. He was hospitalized and his health declined until he passed away a few months later. And then, I remember watching Spider-Man 2 and watching the subway scene, when this man says "He's just a kid". And then, it hit me: I was just a kid too and I had to bear the responsibility of caring for a bipolar, depressive father during my teenage years and early adulthood. So I took on such a burden of responsibility that I should have not had to bear. And yet, I did.

So I get emotional with most of the things that have to do with Spider-Man because I see myself in the character, or at least in most versions of the character. I cried when finished the first game, I cried when I finished Spider-Man: Miles Morales and I sobbed when I finished Spider-Man 2. I remembered that my dad took me to see the movie, which was something I hadn't remembered in a while. I'm 32 now. I got to see not only Peter having what he always deserved — the opportunity to live his life beyond the responsibilities he took on — but Miles assuming his share of those responsibilities, with the awareness that he is not alone and can count on others, which is something most of us normal people could have a little bit more in our lives.

The game was improved in a lot of ways in comparison with the predecessors. Some of the button smashing was removed, some animations which didn't make a lot of sense (I'm looking at you, spinning and throwing car trunk doors to free hostages) were thrown out and many other aspects were streamlined. Traversal is absolutely fun and makes up for lots of ways to be creative. Although there are many side activities, they're mostly original and do not get overbearing. I think the reward ratio per activity is a bit off, though, at least for NG+. Gameplay is well balanced and welcomes anyone who played the earlier games.

The plot, well, my title is there for a reason. I believe Spider-Man has one of the best structures to narrate a hero's journey and this game took all the advantages of that structure. The opening with Sandman got me baffled when I played the trial period in PS Plus. It was amazing. The overlapping between Kraven's and Venom's stories was a huge point of sucess in how this story was told. You feel how conflicted characters get as you follow their stories, Peter's downfall while being the host of the Symbiote and ultimately his confrontation with Miles, all of this is absolute cinema to me.

Games are fun, but they can be very meaningful too. They can mean something for each of us, personally, as Peter's story does for me, but they can convey many important lessons for our collective lives, as Miles' story has shown me. I love those guys and I can't wait to help them overcome their next challenges in a new adventure, which can't come soon enough.

The amount of hype Marvel's Spider-Man 2 generated last year got me really curious, and i was glad to finally get opportunity to try it out myself. And as it usually happens, all that hype turned out to be blown out of proportion. Don't get me wrong, it's a pretty fun and good looking superhero game with Arkham style combat, that had a lot of potential to be great, all Marvel fans and starving PS5 owners seem to be really happy with it. But sadly it got really messed up with politics, which affected it in negative way both story and gameplay wise.

Insomniac was well aware about fans feedback, that they didn't enjoy all the MJ sequences and prefered to play actual heroes with superpowers, but still decided to ignore that and doubled down on MJ being mary sue and added even more missions with playable MJ instead. Because OF COURSE We need to have a strong and independent woman to do some badass stuff despite not having any superpowers or even basic combat experience. From what i've heard in interview with Spider-Man 2 director, reasoning for this was "you don't need to have powers to be a hero"). But why not let us play Black Cat or Wraith instead? I don't know, just shut up and buy our game.

Other than that i should mention that i've never seen more insecure, pathetic and apologetic Peter Parker in any media he was present in, but at least his friend Miles got his back and was there to cheer him up and show him the right way. I guess that white straight males aren't allowed to be actual heroes in this day and age. Miles Morales, side characters and villains were great though, really nothing to complain about.

And of course, how couldn't i mention how much worse they made Mary Jane look in this sequel compared to previous game. It came out less than two years later, and they really thought we wouldn't notice? What makes it even more absurd is the fact that new MJ resembles one of the Insomniacs writers more than actual actress that was supposed to play her. That is absurd, and deserves more backlash when it got, if you ask me.

Except for this and some other minor complaints like hilarious glitches (could be a PS thing, because i've never seen anything like this in any PC game that isn't made by Bethesda) or characters having WAY too much dialogue during fights, which are hard to follow, other than that its a solid and entertaining videogame that majority of Marvel fans will enjoy, but definitely not worth buying a 500+ $ console.

Imsoniac did again with Spider-Man 2! Now we have a new great super hero game and a solid sequel!

Starting with the visuals, they got that perfectly right once again! Everything in this game looks stunning. The city, cutscenes, the many beautiful suits you can unlock and the enemy design. While both Spider-Men look amazing in every single one of their costumes, the villains take the cake! They look menacing, sound convincing and they're tough to bring down. It's hard to notice, but this is actually a step up from how the Miles Morales game looks.

And while I don't think the story hit me as strong as the first one did, it sure managed to pack quite a punch. Especially since character motivation and evolution is such a potent point of the whole plot. Even more than the first one, it seems. We're out of the "introduction zone" by now. I also loved the team-ups we got. I'm not going to spoil how things go, but trust me, there are some great surprises in this sequel. There were moments I thought "they're not gonna go there", and they totally did.

One thing I loved were the setpieces. That's what makes me gush about this game. It's way more action-packed than the first one, and this just leaks during main missions. Even during sidequests. Not all of them were great, but you get cool moments like The Flame and Mysterio missions.

But if you're here for the story and visuals, I know that what'll definitely make you stay will be the gameplay. Not much has changed since the 1st one, but quality of life improvements made it so much fun to just battle around the city. Peter and Miles' combat and stealth mechanics were tweaked to near perfection. It made boss fights highlights for me. Some of them were actually kinda tough to beat. And, hey, Even MJ missions are better!

Not to mention traversal. This is the name of the game. Fast travel in this game is probably the best one in the industry right now, but I probably only used it twice due to how COOL it feels to roam around with the spiders.

I think that what holds this game back is pretty obvious, though. Playing in the same environment as previous both games does bring the surprise factor down, even if webbing through the city is a blast. Puzzles are still just as annoying and out of place as they were, soundtrack is pretty generic, not all sidequests were fun, QTEs should be gone by now and enemy variety is still quite shallow. Even collectibles were just 'ok'. Some of them were very rewarding, like the Prowler stashes and the unidentified targets, but others were hit or miss.

One last thing I want to talk about is the ending. The story is good and does go into some dark and emotional places sometimes, but the ending was kind of a letdown. On one side, we have Peter's ending, which was a real bummer. On the other, we have Miles' ending, which was fine, and an actual development, but rather predictable as well.

Spider Man 2 is a great game. Not only for fans of super heroes, but for action game fans, in general. It's a fun sequel that doesn't manage to exceed its predecessor, but really does a solid job of gripping you, while evolving its own thing to a new direction.

I've always been a Spider-man fan since the 90s cartoon, and I really enjoyed the first Insomniac Spider-man game, so I was going to get around to the sequel. I remember while the first game got a lot of buzz for being a peak Spider-man game, I didn't hear as much hubbub when this game first released.

The graphics are up to what you'd expect from a AAA game. All the spider suits look great, the symbiote tentacles look weird and undulating, and New York is fun to explore. They've expanded the map from the first game. Along with exploring the island of Manhattan, you also swing around the boroughs of Brooklyn & Queens. It adds some variety of locations, so on top of bustling skyscrapers, you can wander through more residential areas. The game did remove the codex which was a let down, but it makes up for it with a large selection of suits that pull from the movie and comic history of the web heads. Of course, I put on the Tobey Maguire suit as soon as I unlocked it.

The gameplay hasn't changed much from the first game, combat is still a rhythm based affair. They do add a parry action that I don't remember being in the first game There was some times where the combat felt sluggish, especially with the parry option. It felt off with what I'd expect from playing as Spider-man. There's also special power moves that you unlock throughout the game, they become necessary for late game fights. The first game felt like it leaned into stealth more, with encounters being 50/50 split between stealth and combat. Spider-man 2 seems more geared towards combat. I thought they may have gotten rid of the stealth sections because it takes a while before the game puts you in a stealth mission.

The one thing I feel was better in the first game was the web swinging. It was something that as you got more skilled you could make Peter swing faster. This game feels like they took a step back on swinging. Partly because there's a new traversal method, the web wings, which lets Spider-man glide over the city. It was a decent way to get around, but I play a Spider-man game to swing around like Spider-man. If I wanted to glide through a city I'd play Batman. But the game is built expecting you to glide on occasions and in the more residential areas it's hard to find tall buildings to swing off of.

One thing I liked about the first Spider-man game is it kept the game focused on Spider-man with no mentions of the wider Marvel world. Spider-man 2 keeps up that commitment. You can swing by the Baxter Building & Avengers Tower, but that's it. People aren't name dropping the Hulk or Iron Man. The only time this game gets close to acknowledging the Marvel world is a mission where you get something that was stolen from the Sanctum Sanctorum that ends with a magic note from Wong. The game does lean more into the comic science fantasy than the first game. The first was pretty button down, you were working in a dinky lab with Doc Ock and the story was focused on organized crime mostly. Everything felt grounded for a comic book plot. In this game, we are visiting a massive lab doing all sorts of futuristic science and dealing with alien invasions.

The game picks up a few years after the events of Spider-man 1 and the Miles Morals spin-off game. You get to play as both Peter and Miles as they go about being NYC's Spider-men. I do personally find it a little annoying that they are both called Spider-man. It make sense in the comics because they're from alternate universes, but in this game it's like if Robin also called himself Batman. They are trying to get their lives together, with Miles trying to right a college essay, and Peter looking for a job. They are interrupted when Sandman attacks the city. His boss battle is the big set piece that starts the game off. It is revealed later that Kraven is in town hunting super villains. Okay, spoilers from this point on, it's revealed Kraven has already killed Shocker, Vulture, & Scorpion in his pursuit to find the perfect prey.

I do like Kraven as a main villain. He is one of those villains that isn't an A lister, but he's got enough substance that he could serve as a big bad compared to someone like Rhino. I'm also a fan of those big game hunter type of villains. They usually have that fun mix of being both physically imposing and a cunning adversary. It is a little funny that his hunters take over parts of New York, but no one seems that concerned by it. Spider-man has to save several reformed super villains from Kraven, including Tombstone and Black Cat.

One of my complaints of the first game is they back loaded all the villains to the last hour of the game. The sequel does fix that problem, with a good smattering of boss fights sprinkled in throughout the whole story. One of the big fights is when Kraven turns Dr. Conner into the Lizard, and Peter has to stop the new Godzilla like Lizard. There's also side quests like Arkham City, where you fight lesser villains, like my favorite, Mysterio. Insomniac does like putting new spins on old villains, with most of them being more villains out of a necessity versus cackling madmen. Mysterio is trying to make a go at it as a sideshow manager, Tombstone works as a mechanic, Mr. Negative is trying to redeem himself. They also change how they relate to Peter, like Dr. Conner doesn't have a connection to Peter as his professor.

On top of Kraven's hunt, Miles is also processing his hatred for Mr. Negative for killing his father. I know from the start that the story would be a big uneven because we are trying to do character development for two main characters. The games does an alright job, though Miles does fall into the sidekick role for the last few hours of the game. MJ also a small subplot relating to her job at the Bugle, there's a few points you play as MJ in stealth sections and it is nice to see them implementing her into the story as more than just a damsel.

This game also takes us through the black suit story line, because it turns out the final villain is actually Venom. The black suit arc is a classic Spider-man story, which also means it's a story that's not exactly fresh. It goes through the same beats, where Peter gets the suit and it slowly turns him into an angsty teenager until he gets rid of it and it finds a new host. The new additions are that Miles is present and this game doesn't have Eddie Brock, more on that later. I do think Kraven could've supported the whole game as the villain, but I know he's mostly there so we can get through Peter's time with the black suit, and he is the villain for 85% of the game.

Another thing that this game really focuses on is the smaller moments of being a hero in NYC. There's times where Pete goes to help someone find their grandpa, or there was a mission with some pidegons that was a real tearjerker. And there's moments where Miles goes to a school fair and interacts with people. It helps make a more rounded picture of our heroes. I do miss the first games news feed with all the goofy posts and the JJ Jameson podcast returns, but I feel like his character was more annoying than charmingly goofy this time around. The world of NYC feels too nice, the hard edges are a bit too sanded off. It is nice it's not all doom & gloom, but I do find it a little too 'utopian' for New York. There's a few times it feels like the story is fighting with it's tone. Like it's trying to be a light fun superhero tale, but it feels like there's times where it wants to be a bit heavier, but it can't.

So, the biggest change to Venom is instead of Eddie Brock being Venom, it's Harry Osbourne. He has a disease that's slowly killing him and Oscorp has used the symbiote to heal him. It starts out innocently enough, with Harry using the suit to help Peter, whom he learns is Spider-man, but when Peter takes the suit Harry gets sick again, and angry, so when it rebinds with him later, her becomes Venom. Venom himself is still a pretty faithful adaption, thanks to Tony Todd's voice acting, though he isn't quite as jokey as older Venoms. Venom Harry kills Kraven and turns NYC into a symbiote nest. It reminds me a bit of the Neversoft Spider-man PS1 game. I admittedly never cared for symbiote storylines and symbiote enemies are always a pain to fight in any game, and that's no different here. Peter, Miles, & MJ stop Venom and free Harry who falls into a deep coma.

There's another side quest where Peter helps Yuri take down a cult. I remembered her from the first game and was wondering what happened to her. She shows up now as the vigilante Wraith, working outside the law to stop this cult leader. It's a fire obsessed cult led by a man called the Flame, and at the end of the quest Yuri let's drop his name is Cleetus Kassady.

I know Insomniac is currently working on the Wolverine game, but if there is a 3rd Spider-man game, it would be interesting to see where they go with it. They killed off a lot of popular lesser villains like Shocker and Scorpion, and many more that have, for the time being, went on the straight and narrow. I hope they wouldn't make Carnage the main baddie and do another symbiote story, though it could give a chance to bring back Venom in his anti-hero form. There's also a mid-credit scene that sets up Norman Osbourne may become the Green Goblin and work with Doc Ock.

All in all, I enjoyed Spider-man 2. It was another chance to play as the web head and fight against clasisc baddies. I found the story to be more evenly paced than the first game and the combat was still good, but the web swinging does seem like a step down. If you are a Spider fan I can recommend this easily.