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'Marvel's Spider-Man': Best-ever game about web-slinging superhero
The web-slinging action alone puts the game in a tier above the other video games that have featured the famous superhero.
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Web-slinging action: Spider-Man has the ability to jump from one building to another in a visually striking Manhattan. (Courtesy of Insomniac Games/Marvel/-)
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or PlayStation owners, Marvel’s Spider-Man, which is in the running as one of the year’s best video games, gives them the opportunity to boast that their console has the strongest titles.
An endlessly exciting adventure with only a few minor hiccups, developer Insomniac Games’ first licensed release gives gamers the closest experience of what it truly feels like to be good ol’ Spidey.
A strong story combined with inspired gameplay — which is obviously indebted to the popular Arkham games that feature Batman — is enough to make Marvel’s Spider-Man a good game; but the added delight of a sprawling New York City to traverse, efficient mechanics and a perfectly scored soundtrack makes it a great one.
Then there is the web-slinging action. This alone puts the game in a tier above the other video games that have featured the famous superhero.
Roaming around a visually striking Manhattan from one building to another is an absolute delight. The combination of beautifully rendered visuals and a resoundingly cinematic sense of speed and scale give the game an unparalleled sense of momentum and swiftness.
The sprawling landscape allows for gameplay that is even more dynamic than similar moments in the Spider-Man films, thus guaranteeing that players spend their first few hours just swinging from one building to the next — even when the game eventually presents a mechanic for fast travel.
The city of Manhattan brims with life and changes from day to night. And it’s not just the weather but the people too — they respond to Spider-Man by calling out to him or taking smartphone pictures.
The side-missions have tasks that may feel pedestrian in its simplicity and lack in depth — such as one, in which you are looking for an ordinary person who is lost — but they allow the player to directly engage with regular people from the city.
With a soundtrack that changes based on the story and Spidey’s movements, the momentum never waivers — whether in moments of exciting action or during dramatic sequences.
The mechanics are also another major element that make everything cohesive. After all, pretty visuals and cool characters do not mean a thing if controlling the main character feels like a chore.
Similar to the gameplay from Arkham, Spider-Man requires that players control the hero’s web-slinging abilities just right, whether for attacks or for getting around. This means knowing when to shoot the webs, when to latch on and when to let go.
The combat is fast-paced and dosed with a sense of fun. The initial reaction from the majority of players will be a feeling of being overwhelmed with information, as Spidey is given a massive amount of attacks that are not easy to master.
However, the game’s fighting sections progress in an organic way, and what feels like too much at first eventually feels intuitive. There is also a web strike one-button (the triangle button) attack, which has Spider-Man shooting a web onto an enemy and floating fast into that direction for a quick punch or kick.
That is one of several ways to combat enemies that like to brawl in groups using a crazy array of weaponry.
Included in the game is the famous “spider sense” ability, which lets players know when to use the circle button to avoid sudden danger. In addition, Spider-Man is given a slew of gadgets that range from web bombs, mines, mini-drones and more — they come in handy in different scenarios the game presents.
Old-school comic book fans will also delight in the many Spidey suits that can be worn along the way, referencing the character’s long history. It is not just cosmetics, as each costume relates to specific kinds of skills that will come in handy in different situations.
The game brings together (or tries its best to) every element of Spider-Man’s life, whether as a superhero or just as Peter Parker, a regular young adult trying to navigate life while carrying the burden of being a superhero. There is a good balance of fights, puzzle-based missions, stealth action, chase-downs and emotional drama.
The storyline in particular manages to evoke a lot of emotions. Like the first Spider-Man cinematic trilogy, it features everything from humor and romance to tragedy and drama.
This timeline of Spider-Man focuses on when Norman Osborn (Green Goblin) is the mayor, Mary Jane is a reporter at The Daily Bugle (where Peter Parker works as a photographer), and Miles Morales (the new Spider-Man in the comics), who is learning the ropes.
New characters, such as NYPD police captain Yuri Watanabe, are introduced and play major parts.
Marvel’s Spider-Man, out now on PS4, is a near-perfect game, effectively balancing a lot of elements while injecting them with energy. Sure, there is nothing particularly new here, but it manages to expand on the very elements of the games it is influenced by. This is, bar none, the best Spider-Man game to date.
