Tag: spiderman

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Game Ramblings #179 – Spider-Man 2

More Info from Insomniac Games

  • Genre: Action
  • Platform: PS5

I’m going to be real here. You could read my ramblings on Spider-Man and know where I landed on this one. My thoughts on swinging through the city are the same. My thoughts on combat – and particularly the power curve – are exactly the same. What I’m going to focus on instead is where a few points of polish really stood out to me as huge improvements to the experience. As an iterative experience, this is a standout example of making tweaks where there’s opportunities while keeping the rest of the game solid.

The first thing that really stands out to me is the web line ability. It looks like they were probably experimenting with this for the original game but I’m glad this made the cut for the sequel. What this does is lets you put a line between two points that can be used for all the normal abilities (grabbing, ledge takedowns, etc). This is a game changer for stealth segments. Rather than being limited to existing ledges and poles, you now make your own platforms. What this ended up doing for me was making any sort of base encounter feel a lot more free form than in the past. Instead of hopping from point to point finding angles that work, I was observing enemy movement patterns and setting up lines above them to do takedowns.

I get where some people may find that this trivializes stealth, and frankly it does make staying in stealth a lot easier than the original game. However, rather than being annoyed by it I found that it fit the power dynamic of the character. What I see as the comic book ideal for Spider-man is someone who uses their powers to trivially take out the hordes of stupid minions while focusing their fighting power on the current big bad, and this fits it perfectly. I could use the web line power to quickly take out dozens of enemies, then swing in to finish off whatever the boss-type thing was for the section. It allowed me to focus my combat capabilities on where I felt combat really continues to shine – in one-on-one combat. This is a game that still has some issues with multi-person combat encounters in terms of just too much going on at once, so having improved stealth was a huge personal boon.

The second piece I want to point out is the wing suit. The original game was one in which traversal around the city was so fun that I just did not want to fast travel. The sequel is absolutely the same, despite the fact that fast travel in the sequel is extraordinarily fast loading wizardry. A lot of why I enjoy the traversal so much is down to the inclusion of the wing suit.

The first game really shone in the tall buildings of Manhattan, but getting towards the water or to the north of the city with smaller buildings was a bit less fun. There was simply less places to grab with webs, so you could hit the ground a lot easier. The wing suit solves so many of those problems. Now if you’re in one of those spots, you turn on the wing suit and glide between vertical drafts or air currents that propel you forward. It keeps your momentum going at all times, and frankly is probably the one thing that allowed them to open up the city to more boroughs. Now that smaller housing areas of queens aren’t a travel headache. Going through Central Park is an easier option. Heading across the East River from downtown Manhattan towards Coney Island is entirely doable. These are all things that only exist in a fun way because of the inclusion of the wing suit and its ability to give you extended fast traversal options without web slinging.

The final thing is that this game continues to be an absolute tech standout on the platform. The video above shows what is clearly Insomniac bringing in the portal tech they made for Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart into this title, but it’s just as impressive as ever in its second use. I mentioned not using the fast travel system earlier, but it’s also impressive as hell. You go into the map, hold a button as more of a UX confirmation, and you’re immediately at where you intend to be, including an impressive as hell seamless transition animation from the map view into the world view. This is all backed by a visual option for a full time 60 FPS that I used throughout my play through. It’s a standout AAA experience on the level of things like God of War: Ragnarok or the city visuals in Cyberpunk 2077. It’s just one of those rare games that finally feel next-gen to me, despite the fact that the gameplay is often not that different from the previous game.

This is just a fun, impressive game. It takes a game that I liked, tweaks some things in ways that make sense within the context of the series progressing. It’s an easy game to fall into and just enjoy. It also does something that I hope to see more of – be simple. They pulled away some of the extraneous activities in the open world. They pulled away some extraneous gadgets from the original game. What it all results in is an open-world experience that somehow feels tight and efficient. It’s a mix that really just works.

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Game Ramblings #78 – Spider-man

More Info from Sony

  • Genre: Open World Action
  • Platform: PS4

TL;DR

  • Best example of web slinging that we’ve seen, backed by a gorgeous version of New York City
  • Good use of stealth segments with other characters to break up the pace of the story sections
  • Combat that ranged from frustrating to fantastic, depending on where I was in the skill progression

 The obvious indicator that I really liked the game is that I got a platinum trophy.  Granted, this was an easy platinum to get in the grand scheme of things.  However, the fact that I wanted to literally do everything to unlock it is a clear sign that the game was pretty damn good.  That’s not to say I didn’t have my issues with it here and there, but being able to web sling around Manhattan was often more than enough to just keep me playing.

I start with a video of swinging because quite frankly that is the draw of the game.  Even going back to Spider-man on the PS1 you just wanted to swing around, and this game is as good as it’s ever been.  The base swing is extremely fluid and easy to pull off, but it’s the additional maneuvers that really flesh out the experience.  There’s little web pulls that give you speed boosts and a bit of extra distance while gliding.  There’s diving to build up speed when dropping down off buildings.  There’s points you can latch onto then leap off of to quickly gain height and scale over the top of buildings.  The entire thing is basically all on the shoulder triggers as well, so it’s incredibly easy to pull off the entire time.

If this was the entire game on its own I would still have played it.  The joy of swinging through Manhattan never diminishes as you play the game.  Using it in combat is also a lot of fun, and can be used offensively and defensively in fun ways, particularly in boss fights where rapid movement and quick succession of strike and run maneuvers becomes key.

Combat is also a big draw, even if it is more inconsistent than swinging.

However, the rest of combat was at times more inconsistent, but in ways I wasn’t really expecting.  I went through periods in this game where I hated combat, then loved combat, then went back to hating it, and ultimately really enjoyed it at the end.  The entire wave here came down entirely to the growth of the skills available to me as I went through the game.

Through about the first quarter of the game, I found combat largely annoying due to its early dependence on dodging.  The control scheme has dodge in what I felt was a weird spot on the circle button, placing it furthest away from camera movement.  The quick timing necessary for a lot of dodging meant that I generally either missed dodges or couldn’t really see where I was attacking.  However, as I gained some more offensive abilities, such as improved enemy juggling or electric webs, I found myself not really caring about looking around, and more focusing on controlling the larger enemy group and taking out enemies one or two at a time.  At this point combat felt really fluid and it clicked in a way that made sense given how much emphasis there was on web slinging capabilities.  This continued fine for a while until the introduction of flying enemies and enemies with whips that could pull Spider-Man out of the sky.  For a bit, combat was kind of annoying again until I gained some more improved capabilities, such as chained finisher attacks or trip mines that automatically grab and web enemies.

Ultimately though combat was a lot of fun, even if I would have preferred a bit of a different power curve given to me.  Where it really ended up clicking was in the arenas used for boss fights.  Whereas most group combat took place outdoors, boss arenas were generally in enclosed or at least obviously specific arena-style areas.  The bosses also generally couldn’t be directly hit with melee attacks without first doing other things.  These really emphasized constant movement with webs and the quick use of thrown projectiles to really lock down a boss, enabling you to then web sling directly to the boss for melee chains.  This is where combat really came alive for me, and generally speaking ended up being the best show case for the way the fights really felt the best.

The game isn’t all Spider-Man all the time.  There’s a bunch of stealth segments with other well known characters as well.

The game was also paced really well to not always be high action.  There’s a number of segments that rely purely on stealth mechanics.  These bring in some well known in-universe characters like MJ or Miles Morales to sneak around.  While that may sound a bit fan-servicey, it ends up being a big help in giving these segments a nice change, both to keep the player from always being in high-action stress, as well as to provide a bit of a different voice to the story.

There’s also some minigames that pop up here and there to challenge the mind.

In addition, there’s also a few different style minigames to complete throughout the game.  These range from the sort of hacking-style electricity pathing game above to a game that focuses on color spectrum analysis to a game that focuses on intercepting and manipulating radio waves.  These all serve an important purpose of giving the player a bit of a breather between combat to keep the game from being all high action all the time.

This game was definitely a pretty special experience though.  Zipping around a city as Spider-Man is one of those comic book dreams that people have growing up, and this game is by a long shot the best representation of that.  You are 100% Spider-Man in this game, and despite a few hiccups that I think could be improved in combat, this is the way to go to fulfill that dream.