Spider-Man is one of the few Superheroes I’ve ever had much interest in, there’s something about the struggles of Peter Parker that relate to me more than a vigilante billionaire or a super powered king, or alien. He has a certain humility that we can all relate to, so I ought to have been really excited for this game, but I was kind of ambivalent to the whole thing.
It was only closer to the release that I decided that I wanted to buy it, and I’m glad I did. After a brief introduction at the start, you are immediately thrust onto the streets of New York, swinging seamlessly from one building to another. This brief moment captures so much of the fun of the game, not only is the open world of New York city brilliantly realised, it’s fun to effortlessly traverse through.
For me an open world game lives and dies on how engaging it is through the agency it gives its players. And while Spider- Man does in many ways steal all of the typical tropes from the genre, it actually makes the setting immersive and the overall package utterly fantastic.
Set years after the death of Uncle Ben, we are thrown into a world where Spider Man is an already established hero, this is no origin story. Much like the comics, Peter is a good natured person who is just trying to get through life, in this interpretation he is working for Otto Octavius as a lab assistant.
The plot twists and turns along the way, but without going into spoilers, the driving thrust of the story is set around a group called ‘Inner Demons’, they are led by a villain called Mister Negative, and it’s basically up to Spider-Man to stop them from terrorising the streets of New York. Throughout the story you will encounter many familiar faces within the Spider-Man lore, from Jonah Jameson, Aunt May, the Osborns, Mary Jane, amongst others.
All of the characters live up to their namesake, fulfilling new and surprising roles within this alternate Spiderverse. Jonah Jameson as an Alex Jones type pundit for a news network is a particular highlight. The characters are generally outstanding and lift up what is an otherwise decent if unremarkable story. The relationship between Mary Jane and Peter is a real highlight.
The open world is dotted with activities alongside the mainline campaign, with newer challenges and side missions unlocked the further you progress in the story. It will feel immediately familiar to anyone who has played any open world game in the last decade. Completing side activities exist to gain XP and tokens that you use to upgrade your skill tree, your gadgets, as well as all new suits. The amount of extra suits really took me by surprise, my personal favourite was the Homecoming suit from the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
The collectables are not a chore to get through and add depth to the experience. They come in two forms, the first are backpacks which give you items from a time in Peter’s past. Aside from giving you upgrade tokens, they have no effect on the gameplay, and work the same way the artefacts work in the new Tomb Raider games. A voiceover from Peter will come on when you pick them up, to give them some expository context. The other collectable activity is taking photos of landmarks that are placed around the city. These are a mix up of real life locations such as the Empire State building and others that are set within the Marvel lore, like The Daily Bugle for example.
A lot of the story missions try and tempt you to use stealth to get through areas littered with enemies, you can do this by using your webs to get from one place to the next in the same way Batman used his grappling hook in the Arkham games. But it’s nowhere near as good because the environments were far more contained in those games, and Batman had a lot more environmental gadgets at his disposal. I rarely went down this route too often, and that’s because I enjoyed the combat quite a lot.
The combat leans heavily towards counter attacking, with combinations playing a pivotal role when you’ve made a dodge. Even with the upgrades and skills you gain, it can get slightly repetitive, but it’s always intuitive and fun because of the abundance of moves and gadgets you have to experiment with.
While the game is never too challenging, the enemies gradually get trickier the further into the game you get. They tend to attack in numbers and generally do a decent amount of damage if you’re not careful, so there’s no spamming one button to victory in this game. The only real gripe I had with the combat was the camera, Spider-Man moves so fast there’ll be times when the camera can’t keep pace, so you’ll end up with an enemy getting a cheap hit on you.
The story campaign has the best content, like so many open world games it’s the meat of the experience while the side missions are filler to supplement your progression. But it’s not all good in regards to the campaign, there are small segments of forced stealth missions where you’ll be controlling another character such as Mary Jane or Miles Morales. There isn’t too many of them, and they do allow you to see a different perspective within the plot. But they're generally bland and severely grind down the pace of the game, leaving them feeling a tad out of place.
There are puzzle segments within Otto Octavius's lab, some of these are optional but they are compulsory at certain points in the campaign. I really enjoyed them in small doses, some were real brain scratchers, but the game hits you over the head with far too many of them all at once. Another slight nag are the boss battles, while cinematic, none are particularly memorable and a lot of them rely too heavily on quick time events and waiting for the villain to telegraph their attacks.
Outside of the story and side activity, there is also a photo mode that will keep you busy. New York is visually stunning and realistic, while retaining its own Marvel identity that we’re so familiar with from the comics as well as the movies. As someone who has been to the city several times, the level of detail and lighting took my breath away, the beautiful vistas above the cityscapes is truly inspired. So there is plenty of opportunities to take selfies and share them online.
In a year full of exemplary games, Spider-Man has been the most fun and entertaining one out of the lot. It’s an open world game that not only rewards exploration but it allows the gameplay mechanics to interact and flourish along with it. It’s not flawless, and I think it’s just shy of being truly great, but the ending left me wanting more, and really looking forward to the direction the inevitable sequel takes. This is an absolute must buy for any PlayStation 4 owner, if you miss out you’ll have passed up on something truly special.
Verdict
4.5/5
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