Another great Spider-Man game!

A game that focuses entirely on bombast and sheer entertainment through constant set-pieces and events, and mostly succeeds! All the character moments you get are pretty much universally great, including some really terrific side-quests that are more poignant than I expected from the game, but the focus is clearly on the Big Story.

The focus isn't on the script or the story, but in classic Insomniac fashion it's all about how this story is delivered -- with action and unique area/design after another, but all-told it's an extremely predictable series of events that goes about just exactly the way you think it does at every single stage.

For me the game peaks in the middle with the black-suit Peter stuff, and while I had a good time with the stuff that came after, it never hit the highs of that. It also served as a great way to give Miles something to do, as he mostly hangs out in the first half being the slice-of-life character that stays at home doing his essay and complaining about Martin Li. I never disliked this smaller-scope stuff with Miles, but it felt out of place after the Miles game to basically sideline him through so much of the game. This is still Peter's story and game first and foremost.

Kraven is a little underserved as a villain. I could really see where they were coming from with the Kraven's Last Hunt pitch -- but I think where they lost me is they spent so much time making Kraven seem Big and Scary that they didn't give him any character at all. Spider-Man villains are meant to be tragic figures, and he was sort of just Goku during the Android Saga.

The main villain of the game has a much bigger presence, but it often feels like it's carried by the voice performance and visuals/design. I wish we got more emotion with the character inside of Venom and not just Venom himself. The finales of these games have historically been emotional bouts between competing ideals, and this wasn't necessarily that even though it's what it tried to do, just because there wasn't enough tragedy and sadness built in there to really make you feel it as much. It was too easy to just point a gun directly at the symbiote -- I wonder if maybe this would have been more interesting making the alien an actual character with goals and a past?

This is probably the best the side/map content in these games have ever been, with the least annoying amount of tedious objectives to complete. The FNSM app quests were also a huge step up from what they were in Miles game. It really felt like a breeze clearing these up for a cushy 24 hour playtime platinum, and I really appreciated not needing to full-clear the side objectives in a base, or crime, or even need to get gold to do so. Keep it like this!

There's a few very strange step-backs, such as lacking a codex of characters in the game, not having any interesting writing attached to the collectables, and having a complete and utter lack of a way to listen to podcasts that are frequently destroyed by events in the open world (which, isn't such a bad thing, when the novelty of these podcasts is very much the weakest they have ever been). It's also the jankiest one of these games, with at least 2 hard-crashes in my playthrough, a handful of bugs and just a bunch of movement/combat jank.

Overall, I had an extremely good time every time I was playing Spider-Man 2, but when I wasn't playing Spider-Man 2 it didn't really live in my brain much. It's an incredibly fun experience, but not one that's very deep or new at all. It fills the role of just being a big popcorn superhero experience, with the difference that this one is actually good. Even when you see every twist and turn coming, the rollercoaster is still extremely fun to ride and I'll come back for Spider-Man 3...and the DLC.

Gameplay: 8.5/10

Presentation: 8.75/10

Story: 8/10

Overall Score: 8.4/10

Gameplay= Mechanics, gameplay options (freedom), repetition, goals, difficulty

Story= plot, engagement, characters, world-building

Presentation= graphics, animation, environment/character design, Art direction, Script, music

An improvement in many ways on the first two games. The game contains much more content with a much larger map and a bit of a longer storyline with lots of side activities to accomplish. The game can like its predecessors start to fall off a bit after around 10 hours or so. Many side missions become a bit repetitive, though they add a bit of variety every once an a while. New abilities are unlocked all the way up until almost the end of the main campaign adding a hint of freshness to gameplay styles all the way to the end. The only issue is that as new moves are added the tasks required remain about the same thus not truly adding a substantial freshness to the experience.

Stealth in the game is really fun, but being able to play as Miles pretty much makes it a really easy process that just requires some patience. I never felt like there was a complex way need to draw away groups of enemies that I had to really be creative to figure out even on the hardest stealth encounters.

Having played on Amazing difficulty I actually found the game a bit hard. I don't mean that in I would be stuck unable to make progress for hours kind of hard just that I had to always be hyperactively responsive in combat. The web grab and swing move is almost impossible to pull off as about every 2 seconds a ranged enemy will be shooting at you. This kind of ruins the flow of attempting any real combos or unique moves unless you are in a one-on-one fight.

The amount of suits that can be unlocked is mind-blowing, especially for how well done every single one of them is. All of the presentation aspects are really well done however at times the newer more high def character looks feel a bit lifeless at times in some cutscenes where you would think they would be pushing clear strong expressions.

If you are a fan of the other games I highly recommend this one. If you are just a fan of shorter cinematic action game experiences I also highly recommend this as well.

One thing is clear from the get-go: This is probably the best Spider-Man game ever In terms of playability. Insomniac has perfected the Arachnid action game to the T, and all the upgrades and battle abilities and speed feels so great and complex and fun. It is a straight up upgrade from the first game while also adding the particular improvements/mannerisms from Miles and his game. I can only wish for future installments to include more Spider-People, I want to swing through New York as Penny Parker and her giant-ass robot, or Jessica Drew and OH DEAR JIMINY CRICKET PLEASE BRING SPIDER-GWEN, I WANT GWEN STACY'S IN INSOMNIAC SO BAD. I know we are probably getting Silk, but still I can dream.

Story was probably the weakest part of the game, but actually I think it was just fine, I guess. I felt there were some minor contrivances and I was not entirely sold with the third act... I don't know, the part of Peter getting all edgy with the Symbiote influence was cool but the payoff was a bit underwhelming. I really like the darker tone of the story though, with Kraven actually murdering people and being an irredeemable, messed up villain that is actually satisfying to beat. And having the chance to kill him as Venom? Awesome choice, I wish we could have played as him for a little longer.

Narrative wise there is one thing that really bothers me and it's when you win a fight in-game but lose it during the subsequent cut-scene. I hate this crutch in general with a passion and this game abuses this in almost every single major battle. Hell, in the last fight of the game happens THREE TIMES with two different Spider-Men. Don't make me participate in a fight that I will immediately lose via plot-sequence, I am sure there are tons of clever narrative devices to bring the player the point you want them to be without making us waste our time in a meaningless fight. Come on.

It was really fun, I can wait to play the third installment whenever they put it in PS Plus, because I am not paying more than one hundred bucks for a game, fuck that.

This review is for the PC version. I thoroughly enjoyed this game and the trilogy so far.

The mary jane portions was better because you can be offensive as well as be stealthy. I also found the Hailey portion, which I thought would suck, actually thought provoking.

Overall, I love it, and although I have not 100 percent this game yet, just like I did with the previous 2, I must 100 percent it.

Just overall bravo.

EDIT: Knocked out the remaining missions, however these last little spiderbots are keeping me from 100%, 96 is ok.

Overall damn good game, lol prototype 1 and 2 were literally the prototype to these games, I guess you could extend it back to the incredible hulk game in the middle aughts.

Any who I recommended it, and its definitely a game I will replay along with the whole trilogy.

RIP Howard :{

2nd EDIT: So it seems that incredible hulk game and prototype 1 and 2 are made by radical entertainment, not insomniac games. I was quite surprise because these spiderman games play exactly like prototype 1 and 2, all mechanics in the latest spiderman 2, is also present in prototype sans swinging fully. So very interesting indeed.

I wonder if any one else came to this conclusion.