Being a superhero has never been an easy job. The bad guys are always busy disturbing the peace of New York City. However, you’re the only one who has what it takes to stop them by swinging into action. This is the evolution of Marvel’s Spider-Man! Spider-Man is one of the
most famous superheroes of all time. Since the 1960s, the character
has inspired many books, movies, and even games. He is also one of the favorite superheroes
that most kids dream of becoming. Although Spider-Man appeared in
several video games since 1982, most of these games weren’t impressive. However, in 2018 a masterpiece
was developed by Insomniac Games and published by Sony Interactive Entertainment
for the PlayStation 4. Marvel’s Spider-Man immediately revolutionized
the concept of web-swinging. It has great gameplay, combat, gorgeous graphics, and an original and compelling story. We finally got a Spider-Man game
we all dreamed of. Let’s start at the very beginning, when the first Marvel’s Spider-Man game was still in development. Almost immediately after Insomniac Games developed Sunset Overdrive for the Xbox One, they started working on Marvel’s Spider-Man. It was the first time the studio worked on
creating a licensed game. The idea for a Spider-Man game came after a discussion between Connie Booth from Sony Interactive Entertainment and Ted Price, the CEO of Insomniac. Booth asked Price what he thought
about working on a game based on Marvel Comics property. Although, according to him, his initial response was “fairly neutral,” developers at Insomniac were
very excited about the idea of creating a game based on Marvel Comics. Over the years, Marvel has introduced countless superheroes and other characters and gave Insomniac the freedom to choose any character they liked. Furthermore, Marvel didn’t want them to work on an existing movie or comic but to create their own original story. Insomniac eventually chose Spider-Man because he was considered
the most relatable character. The team liked the dynamic between the heroic Spider-Man and Peter Parker. Creative director Bryan Intihar said quote You can clearly see the passion
they had for Spider-Man in all aspects during the development of the game. The concept phase started in 2014. Some of the major goals Insomniac set to achieve were creating a perfect story, finding a voice for the characters, finding out how to make Spider-Man
traverse through New York City, and deciding what combat would be like. Fun Fact Did you know that Spider-Man almost did not get published by Marvel Comics? Stan Lee presented his publisher with Spider-Man. However, the publisher was not a fan. He claimed that people hate spiders and thought it wouldn’t make sense to create a spider-themed superhero. So, to test the appearance of Spider-Man, he would first appear in Amazing Fantasy, a comic line that was almost canceled. Well, the debut became a huge success, and the rest is history. One of the most important features of the game was, of course, the swinging. The team started by creating a very simple version of New York City with buildings of different heights. The swinging had to feel and look right. This meant that the web had to attach to buildings instead of just shooting into the clouds. One of the early tests during this phase was the chase and steering test. Spider-Man had to be able to traverse through the city quickly and skillfully. Questions like “How should Spider-Man interact with different objects?” and “What if there is no building around to attach his web?” had to be answered. To create the world and gameplay, Insomniac used a proprietary engine previously used in Sunset Overdrive. Sunset Overdrive had many similarities in gameplay since it also focused on fast pace
traversing through the world with high jumps and skillful moves. Although the Spider-Man world
is larger than Sunset Overdrive, working on this game before
Marvel’s Spider-Man helped Insomniac achieve the silky-smooth movement of Spider-Man swinging around Manhattan rooftops. Next came the Alpha phase. During this phase, the team had to figure out what the combat would be like and how Spider-Man would interact with the world. The world received much more detail, and the team started doing tests to know what the combat would feel and look like. Spider-Man could jump around, trap people with his web on the floor, and throw enemies around. During the latter part of this stage, the city was starting to look more realistic with people and cars on the streets. The combat also became more refined. However, there were still many glitches in the game, as a game developer, Elan Ruskin, showed during one of his talks. In the final phase of development, there were many test plays. Insomniac wanted to avoid loading screens as much as possible. However, that was very challenging considering how detailed developers made Manhattan. Here on the right, you see the cutscene in the game, while on the left, you see the rest of the city. You can see that buildings and objects disappear to cut downloading times. The lightning also changes to give it a more cinematic feel. The team also put great emphasis on the story. Since building a great original story was very challenging, the team also received help from Marvel Studios. One of the most important things about the storyline was finding a perfect balance the life of Peter Parker and Spider-Man. The team learned that whenever Spider-Man wins, Peter Parker loses, and vice versa. Furthermore, Spider-Man’s traversal through the city was continuously refined and updated until its release. According to the creative director, Bryan Intihar, the team members kept coming with creative ideas, and some of them were added in the final moments before launch. For instance, Scorpion and Electro were not added until the last three months of development. Finally, in 2018 Marvel’s Spider-Man was released as a PlayStation 4 exclusive. The open-world action-adventure game takes place in Manhattan, New York City. The main character is, of course, Spider-Man, who can use his web to swing between buildings and run along walls to traverse through the gorgeous and detailed open world. The game also features a lot of combat action with countless combat moves. In combat, Spider-Man can also
use a variety of gadgets that can be upgraded. In total, there are up to 28 suits in the base game, which can be unlocked and crafted. Most come with unique powers. Of course, we can’t talk about the game
without mentioning the story. This isn’t a Spider-Man you’ve seen before. The game has an original story that switches around between Spider-Man and Peter Parker. Through the story, you engage in many missions and try to defeat antagonists such as Electro, Vulture, Rhino, and Scorpion to save the lives of residents of New York City. Following the release of Marvel’s Spider-Man, Insomniac wanted to keep players entertained, so they released a DLC named The City That Never Sleeps in 2018. The DLC has three chapters, The Heist, Turf Wars, and Silver Lining. It takes place 3 months after the main events of the original game and features a new crime wave led by mob boss Hammerhead. In 2020, with the release of the PlayStation 5 came a remastered version of Spider-Man. It features improved textures, graphical and performance improvements, 3 additional suits, and supports haptic feedback for the DualSense controller. Generally speaking, Marvel’s Spider-Man was very well received. The game was praised for its graphics, gameplay, and narrative. Critics even called Spider-Man one of the greatest superhero
games ever made. On Metacritic, the game received a score of 87 and became a massive success. Since its release, over 20 million units have been sold. In November 2020, Insomniac released a spin-off Marvel Spider-Man game titled Spider-Man: Miles Morales for the PlayStation 4 and 5. The game is based on the Marvel Comics
superhero Miles Morales. It is inspired by both the animated film Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse and the comic book mythology. The PlayStation 5 version of the game takes advantage of the console’s
increased processing power, custom SSD storage which allows
for no loading screens, dedicated ray-tracing hardware, and the DualSense controller
that supports haptic feedback. The core gameplay and the open-world are the same as its predecessor. However, it has new animations, abilities, powers, and gadgets. This makes the parkour throughout New York City even more fluid and dynamic. Just like Spider-Man, Miles also has several unlockable suits. It also features a new story and villains. The story continues after Marvel’s Spider-Man and starts after Miles Morales
has mastered his spider-like abilities after training more than a year under Peter Parker. Even though the game is shorter than its predecessor, it was still very well received. XGN said about the game quote, On Metacritic, the PS5 version
of the game received a score of 85. It became a success, and over 6.5 million copies have already been sold. Fun Fact In the game, there is a statue of Stan Lee. At the base of the statue, it says quote, “Dedicated with love to the man who fed the hearts, minds, and souls of those who truly believe everywhere. Excelsior!” On September 9, 2021, Insomniac announced Marvel’s Spider-Man 2. Unfortunately, fans of the series have to be patient since the game will be released exclusively on the PlayStation 5 in 2023. Insomniac Games are really crushing the superhero genre, and I’m very excited for the titles they will release in the future! "Yet all I found
is disappointment. Will one of you finally
give me what I desire? Yes... We will." Please leave a like if you enjoyed this video. If you want to see more game evolutions, click the playlist on the right.
