Marvel's Spider-Man Remastered Retrospective Review Part 1 - Story

thank you [Music] in this video we'll take a detailed swing through the critically acclaimed game Marvel Spider-Man developed by Insomniac along the way we'll discuss everything that makes it so special including things like behind the scenes details Easter eggs comic references and plenty more I think the best place to start is from the beginning before the game was even a concept around the end of 2014 Insomniac were gearing up to release their XBox exclusive game Sunset Overdrive CEO of Insomniac Ted price was in the process of determining what project they would work on next when he was approached by Sony with a question would you be willing to work with us on a Marvel game Ted didn't want to make any decisions before first gauging the team's interest and one of the first people he mentioned the idea to was Brian into her insomniac's producer on Sunset Overdrive Brian enthusiastically responded by saying that he would love to work on a Marvel game the idea was later displayed to the rest of the team during a meeting regarding potential future projects where Ted just put up the Marvel logo as Brian describes it the whole room gassed and became extremely excited by the idea so with that it was decided Insomniac would next team up with both Sony and Marvel to produce is a Marvel game exclusive to PlayStation the question next was what superhero would they choose Marvel gave them free reign to pick whatever hero they wanted although no one has ever specified the various Heroes that were discussed regardless it was quickly decided that they wanted to make a Spider-Man game Insomniac felt that Spider-Man matched them in multiple ways and would be a good fit for example they saw Spider-Man as an underdog the same way they saw themselves as an independent Studio making console games they also felt that Spider-Man's traversal and personality fit their style as well Brian even recalls a Sunset Overdrive review where the journalist stated that Insomniac would be great at a Spider-Man game something that boosted Brian's confidence in the project even more speaking of Brian and tahar it was also decided that he would move up from producer to first-time creative director this would be insomniac's biggest game they'd ever done at the time and as a first time creative director Brian felt a ton of pressure to get it right this was also a new beginning from Marvel games as they aimed to usher in a new era of superhero games with a higher focus on quality in meetings everyone would even refer to the Spider-Man game as their Iron Man in reference to the MCU and how that first Iron Man movie hit the ground running and set things in motion for the now massive series of Marvel movies their intention was that the Spider-Man game would set the tone for Marvel's games in a similar way so even more pressure for Brian and the team at Insomniac thankfully everyone at Sony and Marvel were very supportive and did what they could to Aid them this involved a lot of communication and Brian states that it was a conversation with former Marvel Comics writer and current marble games VP Bill Roseman that really helped him get the narrative into perspective Bill said that the best Spider-Man stories are where Peter and Spider-Man's Worlds Collide and this idea became The Guiding Light for their overall storytelling approach as far as the gameplay goes Insomniac knew that traversal was a key component to a successful Spider-Man game outside of the narrative traversal was the first thing they began working on and in a behind the scenes video you can see some early prototype footage showing the different phases The Swinging and City went through from the beginning they knew that the webs needed to stick to walls but they also had the goal of fluidity and momentum through the traversal so they iterated a lot on these swinging animations and parkour as well as how Spider-Man interacted with objects in the environment even from the beginning it looks like they had some great potential on their hands and it's interesting to see the evolution of this early prototype footage and compared to the final product where Spider-Man effortlessly moves through the environment in such an acrobatic and fluid nature it's one of the most impressive and Innovative Feats this game accomplished and it's definitely something we'll discuss more in depth later on speaking of which I want to briefly give you an idea of what you can expect from this video and how I'll approach tackling such a big game to help break things up and also help me release things a bit more timely this video will be split into two parts this first part will focus primarily on the main story of the game and we'll walk through that story together discussing its key features lore behind the scenes details Easter eggs and comic references amongst other things part 2 will focus on the extra content like DLC side missions and collectibles as well as a more in-depth discussion on things like traversal combat and audio so as you can imagine both parts will be jam-packed with content to discuss also I should mention that I I decided to play the remastered Edition on PC for this video this gave me better control of the graphics and recordings and will hopefully showcase the game in a higher quality because it's such a beautiful game that also means that I chose the new Peter Parker face for this video if you're unaware the original PS4 release of the game featured a different Peter Parker face compared to the remastered Edition the PS4 version used the likeness of John budniak but the remaster used the likeness of Ben Jordan once Insomniac revealed this decision it was quite the hot controversy on the internet fans getting heated about a change on the Internet is no surprise though just wait till we talk about puddles insomniac's reason for the change though was stated to be due to their transition to next-gen hardware and a push for more believable looking characters so they needed a better facial match for Yuri lowenthal the actor playing Peter like many I was initially put off by this decision since I had grown so accustomed to the original face but over time I've grown to like it Peter is 23 in this game and I actually think the new face matches Peter's age closer than the original which looked more mature in my opinion don't get me wrong both are great looks for Peter here but if the new face matches closer to Yuri lowenthal's performance and helps bring it to life further then I'm good with the change and since it's the official face for the series moving forward I thought the remaster would be a good fit for this video but with that said I think it's time to start getting into the meat of the video and discuss the story of the game as you're watching if you're enjoying the video I'd appreciate if you gave it a like since it helps the channel out more than you think you can also subscribe for future videos like this one including part 2 and the Miles Morales game I also plan on continuing the Symbiote series of games this year analyzing Spider-Man games that feature the Symbiote and Venom in significant ways lastly I also want to give a quick spoiler warning for the game and the prequel novel this video is meant to be something you watch either after playing the game for yourself or if you don't intend on playing it but want to experience it the same goes for the prequel novel hostile takeover by David Liss which I'll be spoiling parts of as they inform the story of the game so if you're interested in reading the book I'd recommend doing that before continuing this video and I'll have it linked in the description as well but with that said let's begin we start the game with a beautiful shot of a descending spider against the backdrop of the city while the camera pans to reveal mementos from Peter's apartment these mementos quickly inform us about important aspects of Peter's life and they seem to Showcase The Duality of Peter Parker beginning first with important aspects of his personal life and then transition into his life as Spider-Man this pan does a good job of quickly informing the player on details of Peter's life and history giving us a good starting point without a lot of exposition which I think was really clever still I'd like to start by walking through this segment together slowly and look at all the little details of Peter's apartment first is the photo of a young Aunt May and Uncle Ben who have raised Peter since he was a child after his parents died we don't often hear much about Peter's parents but thanks to a collectible in the game we learned that Peter knows some details about his parents namely that they were spies people know my parents died in a plane crash but I still can't tell anyone they were government agents wish I knew more about them I wish anyone did in the comics Richard and Mary Parker were spies for the U.S government Richard specifically was working undercover in the red skulls organization but skull found out about it red skull kept that knowledge a secret and ordered Richard and Mary to get on a plane for their next mission a plane that he sabotaged Richard and Mary then died in that plane crash at the time Peter was being watched by Aunt May and Uncle Ben while his parents were overseas and when they learned of their death they decided to raise Peter as their own by the way Peter also has a sister in the comics named Teresa Teresa followed in the footsteps of her parents working as a CIA agent and also a shield she was able to find Peter in adulthood and confirmed that their relatives I don't know if we'll see Theresa in future games but I thought it was worth mentioning this is also one of only a few glimpses we'll get at Uncle Ben since the story rightfully decided to skip Peter's origin story and give us a more experienced Spider-Man in this game Peter is 23 and fresh out of college entering the job scene during a presentation at GDC Brian enhar describes why they chose this time specifically in Peter's life first off allowed us to explore a time in Peter's life that wasn't as familiar to people personally personally this was a very impactful time in my life around the same time I just graduated college I was living my own for the first time paying my own bills trying to start a career as a journalist and I feel like others who played the game could really relate to that it also let us touch upon mature themes like mentorship and partnership that help make the story much more emotional while also raising the stakes of the world and he lastly he wasn't so old like married with kids that fans couldn't identify with him I really like the decision to place the game at this point in Peter's life since I think it's a great transition Point that's relatable to many of us and I think we're all familiar with Peter's origin so we don't need to retread that ground continuing on we also see a photo of Peter's closest friends Harry Osborne and Mary Jane Watson focusing on Harry the game doesn't give us a whole lot of time with him but I was happy to see that the prequel novel featured some interactions with Harry in it he's often caught in the middle between Peter and MJ's relationship with both of them confiding in him separately more specifically MJ tends to confide in Harry and keep him in the loop on her whereabouts she doesn't tell Peter these things because she feels that he's smothering her more on that in a bit but MJ's secrecy results in Peter seeking out Harry for info on Mary Jane's whereabouts so Harry is often forced to play the middleman giving advice to them individually while attempting to maintain the trust of the other he actually gives them some great advice at times and the book presents Harry as a very wise independent and mature person also I never got the impression he was trying to swoop in on MJ if anyone's concerned about that I know in the movies and Comics he's had a relationship with her but in the the novel I didn't get that Vibe he was always just a great friend also Peters only told MJ that he's Spider-Man Peter hasn't told Harry but states that it's mostly because he's nervous about Harry's dad finding out somehow by the way the prequel novel also gives us some insight into Harry's relationship with his dad Norman Osborne in the comics Norman often looks down on Harry describing him as his cowardly spineless wimp of a son in the same comic he further describes Harry as a sniveling weakling and a loser in life so you get the idea in the novel things seem pretty tense between them but not in the same way as in I didn't get the sense that Norman looked down on Harry more that Norman was a very controlling parent and Harry wanted more autonomy putting them at odds for example it's described in the novel how Norman has put surveillance tales on Harry to monitor his whereabouts so it's no surprise that Harry wants some Independence Harry also seems more motivated to follow in his mother's footsteps which we'll talk more about in part two where we'll discuss research stations but going back to Peter's Room I also like that he has photos of the city taped above photos of his friends and family it shows that Peter cares a lot about the city as well and these are likely shots that Peter took himself since he used to be a photographer at The Daily Bugle he since left the bugle and pursued a career in science which we'll see shortly as the camera pans further we see a photo of him and Aunt May in front of a banner for the feast shelter a homeless shelter that Aunt May helps run Peter also has some science Decor showing his interest in that field also it looks like Peter's a bit of a gamer with some generic game boxes and controllers on a shelf some of his Spider-Man themed interests start to blend in here as well for starters a police scanner so he's aware of any crimes in progress there's also a stack of comic books but we can really only see the one on top which is Amazing Fantasy 15 Spider-Man's first appearance the camera pans further to show a notebook full of Peter's ideas regarding his web shooters like in the comics this version of Peter doesn't have organic webbing as part of his power set and instead had to craft his own web shooters also I like the little Doodle of Spider-Man swinging across the city at the bottom even when Peter's in the zone making things he's still having fun continue doing further along the workbench we can see the web shooters themselves which are very small and compact more on that in a moment up on another shelf is a magazine featuring Norman Osborne a notable name to any Spider-Man fan Norman is currently the mayor but this article describes his company Oscorp and their culture of secrecy it also states that Norman believes secrets are the key to his company's survival in a world of corporate Espionage what I like about this Magazine from a player's perspective though is that in this quick Glimpse at it we're getting Norman's face and associating it with a few keywords such as secrets and survival which I think are great words to Define Norman and kind of tease his role in the game the darts laying on the magazine are interesting too since I assume the developers put these here for a reason besides just casual set dressing admittedly I'm probably over analyzing them my interpretation of the darts is based on their color scheme yellow and green this is the same color scheme as Dr Octopus in the comics so my theory is that the darts could be a subtle tease at Otto gunning for Norman later the darts also match the Green Goblins color scheme from the movies with the all green suit and yellow eyes so there's that as well or maybe Peter just likes to shoot darts at Norman's face from time to time who wouldn't whether I'm over analyzing the magazine darts here or not Norman plays a very interesting role in the game and we'll talk about him a lot more moving forward we next see Peter has a couple of jars labeled vacation money and new laptop money it's funny sad and relatable as you see that they're both basically empty with maybe a few cents in them so we know right off the bat that Peter's broke the next shot is a cool one showing a magnified image of the inside of Peter's mask and the electronics within it this Spider-Man isn't just using a basic mask but instead has incorporated features into it such as movable eye lenses a microphone and earpiece so we can call people and various other features that we'll see shortly moving ahead a bit Peter also has a board with newspaper headlines regarding villains he's captured in the last eight years I guess this is basically Peter's version of trophies we see one of Scorpion Electro Rhino and vulture there's also one for Wilson Fisk who's more of a current Target but probably the most fun to examine are the Post-it notes on his wall there are multiples so I'll just point point out the most interesting ones towards the left is one that reads call TS back read job offer TS is likely Tony Stark of Stark Industries AKA Iron Man Peter should really take that job but will soon find out that Peter is loyal to his current employer and the work that they're doing Tony Stark or TS is also briefly shown earlier during the Cinematic as the initials for an author of a book about mechanical engineering definitely something Tony Stark would be proficient in as far as why Insomniac only used initials here I'm guessing it functions as both a subtle Easter egg and a way out so they don't have to commit to including certain characters in the future we also see similar initials for a Post-It note to the far right that reads RR suit fabric ballistic called to confirm I could have this one wrong but I assume it's regarding a potential suit made by Reed Richards of the Fantastic Four Spider-Man's a friend of the Fantastic Four in the comics and they've helped him with suits in the past such as analyzing the symbiote suit for him and determining it's an alien species and they've made him the future foundation suit one we'll see is an alternate suit in the game that note is all also next to another image of Uncle Ben from his funeral reinforcing that Uncle Ben is indeed dead in this universe a Canon event if you will as far as the other Post-it notes there's one that reads rent rent this is a nod to the obnoxious landlord Mr dickovich and Spider-Man 2. money there's another rent related Post-It note nearby so the rent is a big issue for Peter in the game in the comics Peter also struggles to pay his rent and is often hounded by his landlady Mrs muggins and we'll see another reference to her in the part 2 video below that is a note that's a little harder to read I think it's something along the lines of spidermobile good idea or great idea if I'm reading that right it could be a nod to Spider-Man's usage of a spidermobile in early Comics as a gimmick by Marvel to hopefully sell toys of it like Batman and his Batmobile unlike Batman though Spider-Man obviously doesn't need to use a car since this whole thing is swinging around regardless spidermobile was a thing in the comics and it was the Human Torch who helped Spidey build it it even has its own gadgets like web shooters on the hood still it's pretty goofy seeing Spider-Man drive around in it the gimmick worked though and I kid you not you can still find spidermobile toys in the store even today below is a different note that reads male JJ a dozen roses from Secret Admirer JJ being Jay Jonah Jameson who actively speaks out against Spider-Man any chance he gets originally by newspaper headlines when he was the publisher of The Daily Bugle but now he does it through the airwaves on his podcast lastly is a note that reads need catchphrase it's weapon time this is a riff on the things catchphrase it's clobber in time although I also can't help but think of the it's morbin time meme that's become associated with morbius the living vampire but that brings us into the actual story as Spider-Man receives an alert of a crime in progress the alert is for the mobilization on Fisk Tower something Peter is especially interested in so Peter begins to hurriedly get ready during the process we get to see him attach as web shooters and I love the practicality of their design in the game it stated that the concept idea was that Peter would make his web shooters look like a fitness device which I think is brilliant it's a very minimalistic look and it allows Peter to have his web shooters on him at all times ready to use at a moment's notice so already I really like all the thought that's going into Peter's design as well as the world around him as Peter finishes putting on his suit the classic suit from the comics we can see other fun details around his room the first is the calendar showing us that today is October 3rd and the same day as a party for Aunt May over his other shoulder is a wrestling poster for Crusher Hogan versus the spider in the comics after getting his powers but before becoming Spider-Man Peter fought Crusher Hogan in a wrestling match to earn some money it seems he did this in the game too since the dates line up with the poster listing the year as 22 10 Peter has been Spider-Man for eight years and the game came out in 2018 so this wrestling match was one of the first things he used his powers for there are some interesting differences between the suit and the game and the comics though since the suit matches Peter's wrestling outfit from the Ultimate Comics not the 616 version in Amazing Fantasy 15 Peter instead used plain clothes and a web looking mask so I thought it was interesting that they used the ultimate design here what's even more fun is that we can unlock the game's wrestling suit as well which we'll discuss in the part 2 video after putting on the mask the HUD inside begins to initialize and I like how Peter's personal HUD matches our player HUD that we'll be using throughout the game for example in the top left corner he can see his own health bar and in the top right he can see his currently equipped web Gadget as well as how many shots he has of it in the bottom right he can also see the mini map which is synced from Oscorp data and above it is a com system where he'll see phone call information in the bottom left it says input control text which is where we the player get button prompts for certain actions all of these match the game's HUD that the players sees during gameplay which is a really cool detail making things feel more immersive instead of immersion braking another cool HUD detail is that immediately after this Peter's final notice for the rent gets slipped under the door and a notification pops up for him warning him to pay it I also like how Peter has a moment of debate on whether to focus on a Peter Parker problem the rent or a Spider-Man problem the Fisk alert for a moment he goes towards the bill but ultimately decides against it and leaps out the window and just like that we're off towards Fisk and seamlessly thrust into gameplay I want to focus on the word seamlessly for a moment because it's so cool how the game transitions from a cutscene straight into gameplay it makes everything feel so smooth and appear much more cinematic you're there with Peter in the moment and it makes the swinging tutorial feel even more exciting we'll talk about traversal more throughout this video and especially in part two but in these early moments it feels very smooth and it hooked me instantly while we're learning to swing Spider-Man calls Captain Yuri Watanabe his Insider in the police force she's also a character from the comics and an ally to Vigilantes and her first appearance she's introduced as a contact of daredevils providing him and Spider-Man time to defeat all of the enemies in a building before bringing her police force in to make arrests we see she's an ally in the game too as she tells Spider-Man her plans for a resting Fisk she says she wants Fisk brought in by the book because she knows how good fisk's lawyers are Spider-Man begs to help stating that he's waited eight years for this reluctantly she tells Spider-Man to assist her men in Times Square I thought the storytelling approach was really cool because it feels like we're thrust into the ending of a different story which we kind of are since a lot of this fifth Story takes place in the prequel novel like Spider-Man and Yuri discussed Spider-Man has indeed been working on taking down Fisk for eight years since it's established in the novel that Fisk has been a problem ever since Peter got his powers Peter even managed to get Fisk arrested early on but Fisk lawyers were able to get him out of trouble quickly which is why Yuri is so nervous about them now Yuri has been goaling to take down Fisk for about as long as Spider-Man which is basically how they ended up working together in the first place the novel also describes how they were able to get a warrant on Fisk and it's due to the help of Maya Lopez AKA echo echo is a deaf superhero in the comics who you might also recognize from Hawkeye season 1 she was adopted at a young age by Fisk who told her that her father was murdered by Spider-Man although in the comics she's told it was Daredevil later she learns this was a lie and that Fisk was the cause of her father's death in the novel she was able to get evidence tying Fisk to the murder which is how Yuri got a warrant in the comics though when Echo finds out that it was actually Fisk who had her father killed she shoots him which blinds him so Fisk actually gets a much gentler resolution in the novel as Echo opts to just have him arrested still Fisk has no plans of going down quietly as we next see his men open fire on police cars Spider-Man swings in to help and we're given our first taste of combat just in these early sections I really like the combat system Insomniac created I like the evasive nature of it and I think the animation Department did an incredible job nailing the acrobatics of Spider-Man in interviews Brian and ahar said that internally they referred to Spider-Man as an acrobatic improviser in regard to combat which I think is a great way to describe it you constantly feel like you're reacting to enemies but twisting things to your advantage it's a more evasive style where you're often dodging out of the way of attacks but able to follow up that Dodge when offensive maneuver of your own I also love that you can incorporate the environment into your attacks like launching a trash can or a sewer lid at an enemy environmental attacks always draw me into a game more by adding to the immersion but I also like that it adds another layer to the combat feeding into that improviser Vibe then there are the web shooters which are equally fun to use it's incredibly satisfying webbing enemies to walls even just in these early sections the combat and gadgets evolve a lot over the course of the game so we'll have a lot more to discuss in the part 2 video but for now I think it's a great system that feels very fun and thematic after defeating these enemies an explosion goes off near Yuri's location so we head there next Yuri and her men are Under Fire from Fisk Tower preventing them from entering the building if Fisk escapes the building they likely won't catch him so without another option Yuri gives Spider-Man the go-ahead to get in there and apprehend Fisk this leads to another great cinematic which seamlessly transitions to gameplay as Spider-Man enters the lobby this also gives us another opportunity to get the hang of combat as we clear the room of fist's men one thing I like about this level is how well it's paced as a tutorial level the story continues in a normal way but with each new encounter you're presented with something new to learn slowly building up your combat repertoire for example web zipping to a group of enemies to quickly reach them filling your focus bar to initiate an instant takedown or launching an enemy into the air with an uppercut and then yanking them down with your webs I really like the pace at which we learn different elements of combat and how we're given a good amount of opportunity to experiment with what we've learned I also like how natural these combat encounters feel to the story since I didn't feel like I was going through a tutorial section as we continue through the building Fisk starts to detonate explosives to slow everyone down trapping civilians Spider-Man attempts to rescue them which leads to a fun comic reference when you have to lift rubble from the ground this pose is reminiscent of a popular Spider-Man comic where he's trapped under Rubble that is unbearably Heavy He's plagued with negative thoughts and feels like a failure and he's nervous that he'll die under this Rubble however Peter manages to overcome these negative thoughts by not giving up and finding the strength to triumphantly lift the debris it's a great moment in the comics so I'm glad Insomniac gave it a little nod here soon after this we're briefly introduced to the parkour system which is very simple since you basically just have to hold down the right trigger as you approach obstacles in your path Spider-Man will then naturally and acrobatically parkour over them it's really impressive the way Spider-Man contextually interacts with the objects around him and I love the animations associated with it as we Ascend the tower I also like how the building contains a lot of Japanese Decor this is likely a reference to fisk's interest in Japan in the comics a location he's retired to before in the same panel we also see him training against some martial artists Fisk is often just seen as a fat man physically but he actually has a ton of muscle under there and he's a skilled fighter a good example of his fighting ability is during a comic where he agrees to a one-on-one fight against Red Skull in their underwear by the way I always assumed red skull's whole body was read under his suit and this is is when I learned that's not the case I don't know why I thought that his name is literally Red Skull but it was jarring nonetheless but anyway as far as their battle Fisk actually wins this fight by using a mixture of his skill strength and overall size the latter of which is what defeats Red Skull when Fisk just Falls onto him we'll get our shot at a 1v1 fight next as we make it to fisk's office writing your Memoirs don't forget the hyphen between spider and man get the chopper ready I won't be long I'm surprised you made it this far but your foolishness ends now uh you do know I can still see you right oh for me you shouldn't have as Spider-Man we launched these turrets into the glass protecting Wilson until it shatters Wilson becomes enraged and charges us we immediately get a display of his strength as he snaps his table and then launches it at us this takes us into a boss fight against him and I think it's awesome how early we're thrust into a boss battle Fisk is a great introductory boss fight too since he's strong and quick but doesn't have much range he's tough but manageable as you're learning the ropes at first it begins as a one-on-one battle as you learn how to best fight him after you've done enough damage we get another seamless transition from gameplay into a cutscene one that further displays how strong and formidable Fisk is where then on to phase two of the battle where henchmen are thrown into the mix upping the challenge I like this challenge progression as we're now forced to juggle additional enemies while also trying not to get hit by Fisk fist can grab you occasionally too and if you don't perform the button prompts he'll legit snap your neck the third phase of the fight is a quick Time Event where you have to hit the on-screen button prompts at the correct time to successfully accomplish a move if you're curious what this section looks like if you miss them all here it is [Music] oh [Music] there are multiple quick time events in this game but I found the Fisk one to have the most interesting failure scenes I'm also not really a big fan of QuickTime events and games but the action and animations in this one make it feel more exciting than in most games so I can give it a bit of a pass although it's something I'd like to see reduced in future games but when you successfully do the QuickTime events against Fisk it results in Spider-Man webbing him into a cocoon as a gift for the police waiting below bro [Music] so should we kiss now yeah maybe later that last quit by Spider-Man is likely a reference to the upside down kiss from the Spider-Man 1 movie but with Fisk now apprehended he's escorted outside to the police van along the way he has some final words for Spider-Man idiots the one who kept okay why not you wish you had me back Fisk is a bad dude but you have to wonder in this moment if he's right would he be the Lesser evil compared to whoever tries to take his place in this power vacuum and has he really been suppressing much larger threats it's interesting to think about and definitely something we'll consider further as the game continues but with Fisk on his way to prison we're left to overlook the city and Ponder what to do next Our Moment is interrupted by a phone call from work as Peter's informed that he's late for a demonstration at the science lab Peter has to hurry there to assist his employer who so far been kept a secret from the player and if it wasn't spoiled for you ahead of time it's a really exciting reveal when you learn that Peter's mentor and employer is Otto Octavius who fans know becomes the villain Dr Octopus in the comics our first shot of Otto is a great reference to that the way the wires around him are framed to resemble his iconic tentacles and the thick belt around his waist I also like that they've dressed him in a green sweater under the lab coat a noduous green suit in the comics in the art book for the game we can also see some alternative designs for Otto that match a lot closer to the comics for example the bowl cut and the goggles I think that would have looked great as well but I think the design Insomniac landed on was smart because it's a more unassuming look he looks like an auto Octavius that could potentially stay a good guy which is important because at the current time Otto doesn't have tentacles and isn't villainous at all instead he's working alongside Peter to create a revolutionary new prosthetic limb which he's in the process of testing out their project is progressing forward but it's not quite ready as we see when it starts to malfunction blowing fuses and even electrocuting Auto at one point worst of all this occurs as the grant committee who fund the project walk in they are obviously frustrated so Auto excuses Peter for the rest of the day while he tries to talk them down Peter isn't ready to give up yet and decides to examine why the power dampener failed we'll then step into the shoes of Peter and attempt to solve the problem you know I'm something of a scientist myself this works like a mini game where we have to put pieces of a circuit into place to reach the target voltage I thought these were pretty fun and challenging and a neat little way to further immerse us into the role of Peter Parker the same goes for the spectrograph puzzles where we have to match the patterns of an unknown substance with the pieces we have available this was my favorite of the two probably because it didn't require math while we're in the lab we can also take a moment to explore it one of my favorite things about this game is how the lab changes throughout the story so as a bass line let's walk through some of these details now first there's a whiteboard where Otto has been planning this year's goals for his company Octavius Industries this includes things like increasing funding doubling staff large-scale trials and shipping a consumer model of a completed prosthesis another whiteboard shows his plans and science regarding their current prosthesis in the back we can find Peter's office which has some neat details too the first is a photo of Dr Octavius at Peter's graduation Peter says the intern for Otto in college and has been working for him since I think this photo makes it clear that Otto has become an important mentor figure in Peter's life which will be important as the story unfolds speaking of Mentor figures we can also find a photo of Uncle Ben where he's teaching Peter to build a table I like how both of these photos are in Peter's office and show the two most influential figures in his life another detail I like is that we can find a basket of dirty clothes in the office so Peter must be washing his laundry here to save money while we're exploring we can also eavesdrop on Otto's conversation with the grant committee and there are a few different ones if you leave the window and come back to it here are a couple examples you know just yesterday we saw an extraordinary reaction Cascade in the limbic Bridge we're looking for results not Cascades doctor and results you'll have trust me our work goes more promising every day that reaction Cascade was pretty awesome with your research assistant late today what sort of staff are you employing with our money doctor I'll ask you to leave Peter out of this please these young still learning but he's indispensable a genius in the making wow thanks Dr Octavius Otto means that too since you can find a tape recorder where he describes Peter as a genius but chronically late that sounds familiar Peter Parker brilliant but lazy the last thing I want to point out here is this file on one of the tables it's for their first volunteer subject Lance corporal texador who is actually a real person there's a video on YouTube where he describes being shot in the leg in Iraq and faced amputation of it with the help of UCLA operation mend they were able to save his leg and help him walk again it's a cool story and I love that Insomniac used him as a cameo in the game I'll leave the video Linked In the description for anyone who'd like to check it out themselves as well but now we'll leave Otto to continue his conversation with the grant committee and head back out into the world now that we're outside we're introduced to the open world and given some brief tutorial missions to get us going along the way Spider-Man will have phone conversations with Yuri where he busts out an alternate identity you're in luck Yuri your favorite tough but lovable grizzled scene too much detective is in town what no no no no no you promised you wouldn't do that any spider com no from his elevated position spider cop spies his destination a second surveillance Tower are you narrating yourself what no of course not the chick never did understand spider cop thought he was a loose cannon already regretting this the spider cop joke has become a fan favorite part of the game but it almost wasn't included during an interview with kind of funny games Brian enhar describes initially being apprehensive about doing it and and uh Ben hadn't been at the company for a super long time but I knew he's really really good and he understood the character what really great and Ben sends this thing to me and John and I read it I just like Ben was awake because Ben and John sit right next to each other and I go Regina and I go John I don't know if it's gonna work I'm like uh this might be a little too far and and I and we and he goes ah he goes I go ah just try it screw it if it doesn't work whatever we'll just strip out the lines sure and we put it in and literally everybody in the studio is like spider cop spider cop spider cop yeah and it was it took a and what's awesome messing like Spider-Man is that took something that was very kind of tutorially and made it really fun and memorable oh yeah it made it like a real thing you could see yourself doing it's interesting to hear that it wasn't an original part of the script and really just something added as filler but became a really memorable moment Brian later stated that he asked Ben arfman the writer of the spider cop lines how many script variations he went through before landing on the spider cop idea to which Ben said 15. so it's cool to hear that it took multiple iterations to get to this point and I like that everyone at Insomniac were willing to play around and test different ideas until they found what worked best but after a long day of spider copping Peter realizes how tattered his suit is from the Fisk arrest so he decides to head back to the lab to repair it while Octavius is away for the night if we explore the lab before immediately getting to work we can already find some changes to start ottawa's revised his business plans with a plan a route and a plan B route plan a looks much more in-depth than thought out but he's exited out in favor of Plan B which looks more rushed and not thought through for example zero bugs everything perfect this is likely in response to the meeting with the grant committee going poorly on the other white board he's working on his company's vision statement circling the one that says Octavius Industries groundbreaking technology creating the world you deserve so nothing too crazy and Otto seems to be of sound mind but there are little nudges that feel like something sinister could be on the way for example this tape recording you know as we've prepped for the upcoming fitting I felt an itch in the back of my brain is this really the best method of limb replacement silly I know but I keep thinking might there be another way the part where he says that he's had an itch inside his brain is unsettling phrasing and is also reminiscent of times he's lost control of himself and become the maniacal Doctor Octopus one of the things I love most about these early moments with Otto is that you're never quite sure if you'll actually become a villain or not he seems like a very down-to-earth and reasonable man in our early interactions with him and he seems like a great mentor for Peter they could do great things together I found myself hoping that maybe in this version he wouldn't become Dr Octopus and that he could be an ally but little nods like that tape recorder give you that ominous feeling that something bad is slowly growing so I'm really loving everything about how Otto Octavius is being handled in this game and will continue to explore that as the story progresses also before we fix up the suit it wasn't until this playthrough that I realized you can turn on music while you're in the lab and there are different stations for whatever you're in the mood to listen to laughs [Music] and with that we'll get to work preparing Peter's Spider-Man suit Parker Dr Octavius I uh what you got there Chinese if I know you'd be here I would have what are you working on oh just a side project [Music] it's you I I don't know come on Parker it's obvious let me explain I only wish you told me sooner I wanted to but I was afraid that if work got out my family might be in danger I always thought this was such an interesting scene Peter's been caught red-handed as Spider-Man But Otto gives him an out it raises a lot of questions did Peter really get that lucky and Otto just thinks Peter designed Spider-Man's equipment or is Otto just playing things close to the chest secretly knowing that Peter Spider-Man but not wanting to outright say it I think we learned the answer to that later but for now it's a really tense moment and it feels like a close call for Peter this moment actually ends up being a benefit to Peter though when he wakes up with a Post-It note attached to his forehead Otto has decided to help Peter design a new spider suit and his emailed Peter his notes these notes are never verbalized in the game but you can read them from the image of his notebook and it has some interesting details including why the spider symbol is white Otto States in his notes that based on Research from Dr Carla sofin higher contrast leads to slower visual processing Otto hopes that this slower processing will give Spider-Man a slight advantage in combat against his enemies the mention of Dr Carla sofin is an Easter egg to another Marvel character as well the villain Moonstone before becoming Moonstone Carla was a psychiatrist who found joy in manipulating and prolonging the problems of her patients she became Moonstone by using her manipulative skills to persuade the original Moonstone to give up his powers and give them to her so pretty cool Easter egg there and I like that Otto inadvertently used the science of another evil doctor Peter uses all of Otto's ideas and then decides to take the suit on a test swing as we get a cinematic showing him Traverse the city I love the classic Spider-Man suit but I think this is a really awesome original design that Insomniac came up with it feels very modern and has become iconic to the game in an interview with Game Informer art director Jacinda Chu describes the thought behind the suit and it's a lot more in depth than I expected especially in regard to the colors the blue is where we allow flexibility for Spider-Man so that's where he would require the the highest range of motion anything that's red is actually made on with slightly thicker material and it's what he would be using for armor reinforcement it's working like it hit the most a word he might be for example scraping against a building when he's swinging around the city and then we get to the White and the white is actually like a flexible carbon fiber so if you look really closely at it you'll see the the surfacing on it and you can tell it's carbon fiber that's located on his chest it's on his gauntlets and also on his feet that's what he would use for again you know he's fighting that's where he went reinforcement and he's blocking that's the other reason why you want carbon fiber in this location so a lot of effort went into you know figuring out the rationale behind the suit just in to describe some of their early ideas for what body type to use for their Spider-Man originally she said they went with a more gangly Spider-Man like in his younger years but it didn't quite look right then they transitioned to a more muscular Spider-Man which they referred to as a football player's build in the art book we also get a visual example of this in the art book which is pretty interesting to see just in the states that this model appeared too heavy for the swinging and they needed a sleeker body type so they landed on a more athletic build in that same image we can also see an earlier idea for their original suit which looks pretty cool as well honestly I wouldn't mind seeing something like that as an unlockable suit in a later game but overall I really like the suit that they've created and I appreciate how much thought went into how it functions from here we'll eventually head to the fee shelter for a party in honor of Aunt May before the party starts we can take a look around the shelter one detail that I thought was fun is this wall of photos featuring the volunteer of the week these are all photos of various developers and they'll rotate out as you visit Feast over the course of the game there's also an interesting flyer around the shelter for a law firm it says to call the office of duckmer and turwalls this is actually a sideways reference to the Marvel characters Daredevil and She-Hulk who are also attorneys their true identities are Matt Murdock and Jennifer Walters so documer is Murdoch and terwalls is Walters so I thought that was a funny way to sneak in a Marvel reference this next part I thought was funny too but I'm sure it's unintentional you can head into a room for counseling and interact with some notes on a chair to which Peter says this everyone feels hopeless at some point helps to know there's somebody willing to listen if you zoom in on the piece of paper it's just a bunch of equations so I doubt they were actually listening there's also an interaction between two people that I think could be a reference as well I wouldn't fight crime I'll tell you that I'd be a TV star I'd be a pro wrestler best gimmick ever the two professions they mentioned are what Peter pursued in Amazing Fantasy 15 after first getting his powers we talked about him becoming a wrestler earlier but after his wrestling appearance he was given his own TV show for a bit this Fame made Peter arrogant and it was after leaving the set that he saw a burglar running towards him Peter let him go telling the cop afterwards that it wasn't his problem this mugger would of course be the same one who would later shoot Uncle Ben and kill him this left Peter with the harsh lesson that with great power there must also come great responsibility but yeah the TV show angle isn't often addressed anymore in Peter's origin so I like that it gets a nod here speaking of Uncle Ben we can also find a shirt rack where Peter mentions that some of the shirts belong to Uncle Ben so it's nice to see him still helping people out beyond the grave upstairs we can find a board with flyers and Peter makes a reference to another Marvel character veteran homelessness is down but still way too high good thing my buddy flash Thompson's doing his best to fix that Flash Thompson is best known as the bully to Peter Parker but he's grown quite a bit since then Peter mentions that flash has been helping with veteran homelessness likely because Flash is a veteran himself in the comics sadly during the Iraq War flash lost his legs however he was later bonded to the Venom symbiote which reproduced his legs this then turned him into the hero Agent Venom also in the shelter some people you can interact with each time you visit for example Cam and Eileen who are always playing chess but also discuss their life issues as well such as Eileen wanting to reconnect with her daughter there's also Gloria who we saved in an earlier Mission Spider-Man suggested she had to feast and we can check in on her throughout the game she'll occasionally give advice and update us on her job hunt there's not a lot to these interactions but it helps to make Feast feel more lived in and realistic if we couldn't speak with anyone it would be hard to care much about the shelter so these interactions help humanize it all after exploring we can interact with Martin Lee the founder of feast to help set up the party for May Martin requests that Peter keep May distracted while he sets things up this brings us to our first interaction with Aunt May and during our conversation she dropped some info about Peter and MJ's relationship the two of you would make some beautiful baby uh she's not wrong since Peter and MJ have a child named Mayday in the comics who you've likely also seen in the spider-verse movie The reveal that MJ and Peter are broken up is also interesting and we'll discuss it more when we're introduced to her character for now Peter sits down with Mei and tells her how much he appreciates everything she's done for him Martin shows up at the same time and furthers those sentiments he's right five years ago you walked in here and told me you were inspired by my mission to help others now it's you who inspires me thank you may for everything there's many more years of service I like this scene a lot since it builds up Aunt May in a significant way Martin Lee may be the head of feast but may is the heart she keeps everything running and it's clear that she's had a positive effect on everyone she's encountered there this is further emphasized while you're just wandering around it's not uncommon to have someone stop you and tell you that they managed to find a job thanks to the help of may I think it's great character building from a storytelling perspective and it's not too heavy-handed going back to the game this was also our introduction to Martin Lee who will have an important role throughout the game as well from our interactions with him he's a very kind and generous man who clearly cares a lot about Aunt May he also seems passionate about the shelter and we can find photos of him that help drive that concept home Peter's forced to leave the party shortly after this though when he receives a text from Yuri she tells him that a silent alarm was just tripped at an auction house holding fisk's estate sale so Peter heads there next to check it out Peter enters the vents of the auction house and finds the place under control of a new group called the demons while quietly investigating Peter finds a familiar camera hanging from a post this distracts him and gives a goon an opportunity to turn a gun on him before either can make a move MJ knocks him out with a pot this is our introduction to MJ and the game's version of her is very different from what we're familiar with causing her to be one of the most criticized aspects of this game however Brian and Nahar has spoken about their MJ decisions at length and explains why they chose to change certain things up to start in the comics MJ is typically an actress or supermodel in the movies she's often used as more of a damsel and stress type Brian stated that he wanted MJ to be an active contributor to the story of this game and they wanted her to be representation of strong powerful go-getter type women Brian wasn't sure he could pull that off with the actress or model careers so they decided a journalist would be a great way to get her into the mix of the story and become somewhat of a teammate of Peter's personally I like this update to her character for those same reasons and I think it adds a neat Dynamic for Peter who's constantly concerned that she's getting herself into trouble in fact that's exactly why they broke up in the prequel novel because Peter was smothering her constantly worrying about her and telling her what she should and shouldn't do even now it's an element of their relationship that they're still trying to work through but his friends we'll next get an example of the trouble MJ's been getting up to as we flash back to 15 minutes ago before the demons broke in MJ enters roseman's gallery and speaks with rose Roseman by the way I have to imagine that the Roseman name is a nod to Bill Roseman vice president and creative director at Marvel games but anyway MJ tells rose that she's here early to interview her about the fisca state Rose was expecting someone named Craig to interview her tomorrow though which leaves her confused this is because MJ isn't actually supposed to be here in the prequel novel MJ is hired at The Daily Bugle as a features writer covering things like dog shows or different events around the city she's not an investigative journalist even though that's her passion to pursue that career she forces her way into stories like she's doing here she's even able to use her wits to convince Rose to do the interview with her early and Rose allows us to explore the area for a while as you can see we're now playing as MJ and this is the first of a few missions we'll have as her Brian enerhar stated that these MJ missions were used for two reasons one was for pacing to slow things down and give us a breather since things are pretty fast-paced as Spider-Man the other was to help us understand MJ Moore as a character Brian believes that playing as a character puts you in their shoes and helps you get a better sense of their Arc I think these are valid points and we'll talk more about the success of these missions shortly but for now let's explore the museum there are a lot of objects in the museum that you can examine and MJ has thoughts on each of them her commentary on this sword in particular gives you a good sense of her pass with Peter and what her role has been Peter opened like a pork sausage with this the first time they fought Pete Got Away collapsed in my yard half dead and I had to steal my dad's car to drive him to the ER too many nurse MJ moments too many I also found this violin interesting what advice all this Vanessa Vanessa is fisk's wife and the prequel novel states that she's alive still but currently out of the country there's also a walking cane which Fisk uses in the comics the bio for the Kane mentions it has concealed features which is also a Comics reference where the cane has a concealed laser beam in it also I'm going to show this part because I missed it on multiple playthroughs myself so just in case anyone else has missed it too but you can also have MJ approach the podium and pretend to be an Auctioneer which I thought was fun especially since it puts you temporarily in first person perspective and how much have I been for this collection of villainian diet starting at 10 000 broken lives and dreams ten thousand going once but when we're ready we begin to interview Rose MJ will play along and take photos but also occasionally ask Rose questions about fisk's criminal activities Rose gets to the point that she's had enough and attempts to escort MJ out MJ asks to use the bathroom first to buy herself some time coincidentally Craig calls and together they realize MJ isn't supposed to be there MJ isn't done yet though since there's still a statue in Rose's office worth investigating closer we'll sneak in and MJ recognizes it as a statue that Fisk used to hide evidence in after unlocking it MJ finds a blackmail file on Norman Osborne regarding something called devil's breath this is also the moment that the demons enter the building and begin searching for the file that brings us to the moment MJ reunites with Peter and they decide to split up MJ will attempt to escape with the file while Peter clears out thugs this then puts us back in control of Spider-Man before moving on though I want to talk about that MJ Mission a little bit more we talked about the reasons Insomniac chose to have us play as MJ and for the most part I agree with their reasoning and I think they were right to do so however I don't think they got the the execution totally down more specifically I think this MJ Mission slowed things down too much especially after just visiting feast and walking around in there I feel like I got my breather I'm ready to get back into the action for a while so this first MJ Mission I felt was the slowest of them all although I wouldn't say that I hated it I liked investigating things as MJ and it's something I'd like to do more of but I'd also like for the investigation to have more excitement to it and include some interesting Revelations like I've just put together something groundbreaking I will say that I think the later MJ missions do a better job of this likely because this Museum level was more of an introductory mission to MJ so we'll talk more about her missions as a whole later on also since we've been discussing the concept images and initial ideas for the other characters I thought it'd be fun to see what Insomniac had in mind for MJ in the art book we can see some different concepts for her hair and face and honestly I like these a lot probably more than the final product if I'm being completely honest however I think some of that has to do with the fact that her hair is down and styled in these concept images striking a balance between model MJ and investigate MJ in the final game MJ's hair is up in a ponytail with the idea being that she's always ready to go at a moment's notice more of a practical design over style which I think matches her character in the game however I'm glad to see that they're returning to the hair down style for the sequel something else I found interesting about MJ is a quote from Jacinda Chu where she states that they initially had MJ as an office worker but decided a journalist would have her more on the front lines it's interesting to imagine what kind of office worker she would have been and how exactly that might have worked but I'm glad they eventually landed on journalist going back to the game we're back in the shoes of Spider-Man and task was stealthily taking out the demons in the area since they're holding Rose hostage if you get caught they'll legit shooter stop pretty intense so we'll have to do this carefully as far as the Stealth gameplay I like it a lot I think the animations are all really good and I like using my webs to lure them into a trap it's very satisfying Stealth gameplay and something I never got tired of doing while we're clearing the room we'll hear MJ begin to scream as she's caught by the demons they're really aggressive towards her and manage to get her to drop the file Spider-Man bursts in at the right time to save both MJ and Rose at the cost of our stealth one of the Demons even manages to escape with the file while we're left to fight the rest of them the demons are a pretty significant increase in challenge compared to fisk's men too they're more powered up and they feel more aggressive I like this though because it had me flipping around the environment more and kept me on my toes especially in the later missions when we're introduced to more challenging demons but after defeating them Peter will take one of their masks for further investigation we then see the aftermath from MJ's perspective where she's confronted by Rose about not being Craig's recorder MJ confidently reveals that she actually works for the Daily Bugle and presses Rose for information on the file that was stolen Rose storms off and MJ texts Peter he and invites her to dinner to debrief smooth we then cut to them at a restaurant where they catch up for the first time in six months MJ says she just got a text from Robbie at the bugle stating that she has to meet with their legal team about her Antics tonight the Robbie she mentioned is Robbie Robertson editor-in-chief at The Daily Bugle Peter used to work at the bugle 2 as a photographer selling photos of Spider-Man but eventually left to pursue his love of science MJ asks more about Peter's work life and eventually she brings up their relationship asking if he remembers why they broke up before Peter can answer he's saved by a police siren rushing by and he runs out of the restaurant before MJ leaves we get an awesome cameo love seeing you two together again you always were my favorites it's always great to see Stan Lee so I'm glad Insomniac were able to include him we'll next catch up to Spider-Man as he follows the police cars thereafter Hermann Schultz AKA The Shocker who we catch in the middle of a robbery this leads to a Chase sequence where we have to pursue shocker in hopes of catching up to him Spider-Man and shocker managed to carry a conversation with each other during this chase that Spider-Man deduces that shocker must be working for someone when we catch him shocker doesn't reveal anything so Spider-Man just webs him up for the police you know what Herman you have like zero personality but your suit is awesome can we talk design details [Music] Peter's right about his suit and I really love this new shocker design it's a great blend of the classic look but modernized shocker suit seems to have gone through a lot of iteration though since the art book shows quite a few different concepts for it and they vary widely ultimately I really like the design they chose for the game though with shocker apprehended Peter decides to head back to the fee shelter to speak with Martin Lee Martin has a degree in art history so Peter thinks he might have an idea about the origins of the Mask interesting where'd she find it I'm really not sure why what is it replica of an antique Chinese Opera mask I haven't seen one in years this symbol here roughly translates to demon demon my father read me ghost stories with that mask and symbol in it when I was young scared the hell out of me Peter listen that mask it's it could be connected to dangerous people Mary Jane might want to find a different story did you think she's in trouble I don't know I want to take the risk I really like this interaction between Peter and Martin both of them feel like they're playing things close to the chest and no more than they're letting on this is also the first lengthy interaction we get with Martin and he seems very conflicted about something we'll learn later that there are essentially two sides to Martin Lee and even early on here you get a good sense of that although it's subtle for example the way his facial expressions seemed to change on a dime one moment he'll be very friendly and smiling and the next he looks more serious and intense so I want to credit the performance of Stephen o young who plays Martin Lee because I think he's doing an excellent job I also like this scene because it's an example of Peter's world's colliding and it's only the beginning this is also probably a good time to talk about the comic origins of Martin Lee if you can even really call him that but I'm getting ahead of myself he began as a member of the snakehead gang in China who would smuggle Chinese immigrants into America their ship ran aground near the New York Harbor and he feared of the U.S Coast Guard's investigation which would likely see him deported so he instead finds a dead immigrant who earlier died of pneumonia and takes his identification the name of the dead man being Martin Lee this new Martin Lee then swims to shore to regroup with his fellow Snakehead Smugglers only to find them dead killed by the magia the magia then take him to an underground chemist named Simon Marshall who is attempting to create a new drug and tested it on runaways and immigrants along with Martin were also Tyrone Johnson and Tandy Bowen who together were able to escape the prison however the experiments performed on them gave them dark force and light Force Powers Tyrone and Tandy became Cloak and Dagger while Martin Lee became Mr negative now there are two sides to him his light side is Martin Lee and his dark side is Mr negative his light side is the one responsible for his philanthropic Endeavors like opening the fee shelter which he did in the comics as well he also has a close working relationship with Aunt May in the comics and sees her as a friend and Ally his Dark Side however gets him into trouble and pits him against Spider-Man making him a great choice for a World's colliding kind of Spider-Man story in the game we'll soon see that Martin's Dark Side still has influence on him too his origins in the game are quite different from the comics though in his bio it stated that that he was orphaned at age seven and grew up in foster care in Manhattan when he turned 18 he went to China and made a fortune in the shipping industry at age 27 he returned back to New York as a billionaire and set up Charities across the city will later see that the origins of his powers are quite different from the comics as well but more on that later from here Peter calls MJ to let her know what he learned from Martin and then heads to the lab for the fitting of Lance corporal texidor the fitting goes great too and seems to function perfectly there's barely any time to celebrate though as workers bust in and start confiscating their lab equipment Otto goes to call the mayor's office but then Peter Parker how the hell are you speak of the devil Mr Osborne Oh please how long have we known each other it's Mr Mayor it's Norman Norman Norman what do you think you're doing the grand agreement you signed has strict safety provisions this isn't your first violation those were excused by me we should have confiscated this equipment long ago but but I've had a breakthrough thank you for your great service to our country these folks will escort you to ozcorp robotics where you'll receive the latest in Prosthetics no charge this isn't about safety infractions is it I'm trying to help you Otto free to continue your work in a secure environment at Oscorp you always were the smartest guy in the room you haven't changed a bit neither of you hey Peter Harry will be coming back from Europe early next year maybe the two of you can start that business you always talked about this is opportunity knocking what a great opening introduction for Norman and such a captivating performance by actor Mark Ralston he plays the arrogance of Norman so well and commands the screen Norman is such a slime ball here but I'm glued to the screen whenever he's talking it also quickly displays the power of Norman Osborne he basically just swooped in and crippled Otto's company in a matter of seconds Otto no longer has any grant money severely cutting his funding he can no longer pay Peter and tells him he should look for another job it's a very tense scene and it sets the stage for everything that's about to happen Peter doesn't get much time to digest all of this as Yuri calls him to say that shocker managed to escape custody apparently a guard with glowing eyes set him free and then died so it sounds like the demons are the ones who hired shocker and are the ones who've released him we'll next catch up to shocker as he Robs a Bank Spider-Man does his best to intervene and slow shock her down but he's tough and ready to fight this takes us into a boss fight against him and one of my favorite fights in the game Shocker's gauntlets give him the ability to produce powerful range blasts and he also produces an energy shield around himself so he's got a lot of range it doesn't leave you with the ability to get in close either shock or strong too and he'll do significant damage if he manages to tag you with a blast this forces you to Traverse around the bank dodging blasts while waiting for your time to strike eventually shocker will over exert himself giving you a window of opportunity to launch debris at him this temporarily nullifies his shield giving you time to land some punches you'll then repeat this pattern a couple more times for the first phase of the battle for the next phase shocker becomes even more aggressive and incorporates a new ability into his attack patterns a powerful shock wave on the ground I really like this in combination with his other abilities because it kept me off the ground and constantly moving this fight also tested my Dodge skills and my awareness of my Spider Sense failing to properly use these in unison resulted in a damaging Blast from shocker which really kept me on my toes while we're fighting we also get little tidbits of information regarding Shocker's employers to help us solidify who it is shocker States they tasked him with robbing banks for them and that they all wore masks they also said that if he reveals them they'll kill him and shocker seems genuinely concerned about this but without specifically confirming his employer he gives us enough info that we can pretty confidently say that it was the demons who hired him also if you're wondering how they originally hired him in the prequel novel it stated that shocker has his own website for people to contact him yeah Spider-Man was surprised by that as well but after doing enough damage that'll take us to phase three of the fight where shocker accidentally blasts a pillar loosening its hold on a piece of architecture above him Shocker's blasts become more rapid so we have to find a moment between blasts to yank on the pillars releasing the object onto him this pins him down and shorts out his gauntlets taking him out for good but like I said this is one of my favorite boss fights in the game I think a good boss fight is not only fun and challenging but also test what you've learned from previous missions in a game like a final exam of sorts I like this shocker fight because so much of it checks all those boxes it's a really fun battle but it's also testing my ability to dodge and stay off the ground I also really like the bank setting for a couple reasons the first is mostly Nostalgia because it reminded me of the bank fight in Spider-Man 2 where Spider-Man bounced around the perimeter of the room waiting for the right time to strike against Dr Octopus the other reason I like it is that it's one of the few boss fights in a confined space we still have room to roam but the walls keep us closer to shocker than we may be comfortable with this kept up the pressure and gave me less time to react to Shocker's ranged attacks so I think this setting worked well with this villain as we'll see later a lot of the other boss fights take place outside so I like that this one differentiates itself in that way but overall I really love this battle my only complaint about shocker is that his use in the story was never all that clear to me why did the demons need him couldn't they just rob banks themselves or possess someone else to do it I think the idea is that they brought in shocker to rob from higher Security banks since we can see that he can just blast down Vault doors with his gauntlets so I would have liked shocker to feel a bit more important to the story since as it stands he feels kinda tacked on and now that he's apprehended he's taken to the raft prison and pretty much forgotten for the rest of the game the demons have been busy though and Yuri tells us that there are reports of them at a Fisk owned Shipyard Spider-Man goes to investigate but Yuri calls in an officer to give him a hand that officer is Jefferson Davis the father of Miles Morales that's not specifically called out at first but Jefferson will drop little hints about his son like saying he's a Spider-Man fan and that he's good with tech little does Peter know they're discussing his future Protege I also found it interesting that this isn't the first time Spider-Man has met Jefferson Davis based on the prequel novel at one time there was another hosta situation at roseman's gallery and Jefferson had a quick interaction with Spider-Man filling him in on the situation the interaction was so brief though that Peter pretty much forgot his name immediately afterwards so as far as they're aware in the game the shipyard is the first time that they've met Peter and Jefferson next explore the shipyard together and most of my enjoyment of this level came from Jefferson he's such a cool dude and really charismatic I could investigate crimes with him all day it's refreshing to interact with a trusting cop too we of course have Yuri but most of the other cops don't seem to trust or like Spider-Man much so it's nice that Jefferson is so welcoming he's also proven to be really smart during this investigation and with his help you're able to uncover a hidden entrance to fisk's weapon stash it clearly used to contain a lot of weapons enough to make the Punisher tear up it looks like we just missed the demons though and they've already raided the majority of the weapons thankfully they haven't quite left yet and are loading the last of the supplies into their Vans Jefferson takes a few flash grenades and together he and Spider-Man confront the demons this led to a fight and I love that Jefferson provides backup during it occasionally you'll see him shoot a demon with a stun gun leaving them vulnerable Jefferson gets a couple badass moments too like taking down a demon with the butt of his gun but his biggest moment comes later after Spider-Man catches up to a runaway van that accidentally sends a semi over a ledge and into the path of an oncoming train Spider-Man has to use all his might to pull the semi back onto the road while a demon takes the opportunity to drive head first towards him Jefferson shows up in the nick of time crashing his police cruiser into the van and risking his life in the process he then follows It Up by knocking out the driver it's a great moment for Jefferson and a lot of people witnessed it this takes us to news reporters covering the scene and we see MJ snuck past the police barricade to speak with Jefferson she's able to talk way into an exclusive interview with him to tell his story so after A Hard Day's Work Peter decides to head back to his apartment to get some rest when he arrives he realizes he's been evicted after forgetting to pay his rent again this is a rough setback for Peter especially after losing his job with Otto worst of all is that his Drive containing all of his spider Gadget data has been thrown out and he needs to retrieve it this leads to a mission where Peter calls the sanitation department to help him find his trash belongings during this Mission there's a minor Easter egg regarding their conversation about pizza places I'll check out the pizza shops any idea which one one of the moment Jerry's no that's up down I mean original Jerry's I started with an L I think Larry's that's on the east side uh Leos Leos yeah yeah that might be it Brian indahar revealed that this is a reference to a Seinfeld episode where Kramer gets lost and Jerry tries to locate him using the pizza place nearby I'm looking to raise Pizza you know where that is is it famous race no it's original race famous original race it's just original Jerry luckily Spider-Man finds his drive and some of his belongings before they're thrown into the incinerator Spider-Man examines the drive in his mask and you can see a list of prototypes they're all about what you'd expect but I did find it interesting that he has a prototype shocker blast listed but it's currently corrupted continuing on this still leaves the question of where he'll stay the night and Peter decides he'll try MJ's Place coincidentally this is also the moment that her article on Jefferson Davis went live so he decides he should let her enjoy her night as a last resort Peter decides to stay the night at the feast shelter and sleep in May's office Peter seems a little embarrassed about the situation but you can talk with Gloria who helps assure him that he's in the right place in his time of need I only briefly mentioned Gloria earlier but she's the resident in Feast 2's archive most enjoyed watching she was really hesitant to go to Feast when Spider-Man first suggested it to her but she reluctantly agreed so it's cool seeing now how she advocates for it her presence makes it feel like your efforts in the city do help people even in small ways like this and superhero stories it's easy to focus on the grandiose world saving events so I like that the feast shelter helped shine a light on these smaller more grounded realities I think it helps us identify more the people of the city not just the city as a whole when Peter wakes up May is already hard at work and has left Peter some money to help him out Martin Lee then walks in stating that he's heading out of town for a while it's some personal business I've been planning for a while but please take care of this place and represents the best part of me yeah nothing ominous about that but after this conversation MJ calls to tell Peter that her article on Jefferson Davis has gained a lot of attention and that mayor Osborne wants to give Jefferson a medal at his campaign rally this afternoon Norman is obviously just trying to make himself look good but Peter decides to head to the rally in support of Jefferson in the meantime Jefferson calls Spider-Man about a fist construction site that he'd like him to investigate so we head there next when we get to the construction site we find that the demons are moving in on fist territory so we sneak around the site to get a better idea of what's going on this level is also used to introduce the game back in E3 2017. there are some differences between that presentation and the actual game so I want to point them out as we go through it to start remember when I said that we talk about puddles well here it is between the E3 presentation and release it was noticed that the puddles were reduced in this scene online this caused quite a controversy since many believe that Insomniac were downgrading the game when in all reality this puddle in particular was just moved around probably because it's a bit distracting and Visually overpowering in the E3 demo Developers found it on Twitter saying basically that that the puddle was just moved around and had nothing to do with performance but that didn't do much to quell the hysteria I bring this up because looking back on it it's kind of funny how riled up everyone got over nothing but also because it goes to show that any game even a high quality upper tier game like Marvel Spider-Man will get criticized and have some kind of overblown controversy so next time you're excited for a game and something's being criticized online don't let it stress you out am I getting on a soapbox probably a good time to move on so if you weren't too distracted by the lack of puddles in this room you'll clear out the henchmen and save the fist construction worker his phone will ring and we'll find out that it's Wilson Fisk FaceTiming in from prison this shows that he's still got incredible reach and not as down and out as we thought Spider-Man attempts to get info out of Fisk who tells him to save his men and then they'll talk reluctantly Spider-Man agrees to save fist men from the demons so we'll swing around the construction site and save who we can it's a really fun level that provides you with a lot of freedom so I can see why it was chosen for the E3 presentation it's a great display of everything you can do as Spider man eventually we make it to the roof where some demons attempt to escape via helicopter in the E3 demo the villain Mr negative was in the helicopter and this served as our introduction to him so I was surprised when I played this on release to find that Mr negative still hasn't been introduced and that it's just a random Thug in his place for now Spider-Man attempts to prevent the helicopter from leaving causing the demon to free it using a rocket launcher this frees them from the building but the webbing is still latched to some heavy machinery which functions like a wrecking ball as the helicopter flies away with it this begins a whole series of problems and you have to resolve them through QuickTime events like I said earlier I'm not a fan of QuickTime events but these are pretty minimal and done in a way that keeps me engaged with the moment in fact after webbing The Runaway crane to the building and then resuming normal swinging I found myself breathing normally again somehow the stress of the crane falling had me holding my breath a bit so I know the sequence is working by how it's immersing me this Chase with the helicopter is incredibly cinematic as well and I was really impressed with the flow of this level one of my favorite Parts is when the heavy machinery comes loose and creates a hole in in an office building I love parkouring through it due to all the contextual animations of Spider-Man acrobatically bouncing off debris some of them are scripted like with the QuickTime events but with no button prompts on screen I felt more in control of the moment it's a really cool sequence and something I'd like to see more of in future games from here we disable the helicopter which causes it to free fall to the city we'll do another series of QuickTime events and like with the last ones I think they're done in such creative ways they're not problematic for example the way the QuickTime events are changed up so they don't feel repetitive we'll go from a timed button press into a moment where we have to drag the analog stick into the correct area for a button press and then lastly and my personal favorite when the camera goes into first person mode and we rapid fire the trigger buttons to use the web shooters I like how the QuickTime events are differentiated depending on the task at hand which kept me immersed and engaged with the moment so even though I'd still like less of them in future games they function well for this game in these cinematic sequences now that Spider-Man has successfully prevented extra collateral damage and subdued demons he swings away as the camera shows us someone watching in the crowd that character is Miles Morales who's on his way to his dad's ceremony we'll next catch up to Miles as he walks with his mom and dad before the ceremony begins and Jefferson is definitely starting to get nerves about giving a speech last time I gave a speech I was in high school Miss Steinberg gave me a c minus if only miss Steinberg could see you now hey you got this dad I mean come on you saved Spider-Man I'm pretty sure that makes you an official superhero the superhero or maybe I'm just a guy who doesn't give up I like this moment because I think it's basically an Uncle Ben moment for Miles instead of learning with great power comes great responsibility Jefferson's lesson to miles is that a hero is someone who doesn't give up we then cut to the ceremony itself where Peter and MJ are in the crowd discussing their Intel on the demons meanwhile Norman presents Jefferson with a medal and thanks him for his service he's interrupted by one of his advisors telling him there's an urgent phone call while Jefferson gives a speech Norman answers the call people will listen jackass I get threats like this twice a week why don't you grow a pair and tell me what you want watch you suffer when Norman realizes he's just received a legitimate threat he doesn't warn anyone and instead quietly leaves with his men in a selfish and cowardly manner a truly deplorable moment for Norman then Peter spidersense goes off in a big way and I like the cinematography In This Moment visually we get a sense of the size of the incoming threat represented by the size of the spider sense which takes over the entire screen we then see members of the crowd start to emerge and glow one of which is Martin Lee the man who called Norman this is our first sighting of Martin as the villain aka Mr negative one of his powers is a corrupting touch allowing him to possess certain members of the crowd converting them into suicide bombers Jefferson notices that Norman's advisor is one of them and sacrifices himself to minimize the damage of the explosion it's an extremely emotional scene especially due to its similarities to real world terrorist attacks and certainly not something I expected in this game for what's otherwise been a very bright and cheery game this took a very dark and emotional turn but I like that Insomniac were willing to go there since it raises the stakes and grounds the story we then get a great fake out as the camera switches to first person after the explosion we think we're waking up as Peter but actually we're now playing as miles even crazier is seeing Peter knocked out on the ground beside him for a moment you have to wonder if they actually just killed off Peter that's of course not the case but it certainly added to the confusion of the moment as miles we have to make our way through the debris of the blast to find his mom Rio who went searching for Jefferson when we find her she's pinned down under some scaffolding and Miles tries to help a paramedic Freer his first attempt is unsuccessful and the paramedic can't hold on for much longer either miles then grabs a steel pipe nearby to use his leverage and is able to free his mom I like this moment a lot because it shows miles thinking on his feet and using his wits to overcome problems we talked earlier about the playable MJ missions and why Insomniac wanted to incorporate them but one of the reasons was to show what it's like to be a non-powered person in a superhero world this level with miles is a great Showcase of that we also get a great sense of Miles bravery as he leaves to go find his dad knowing that the terrorists are still in the area he believes his father is still alive and he's eager to find him it's a really tense level sneaking around the demons even as they kill people right in front of you at times it's legitimately scary and it carries a lot of weight but miles finally finds his dad it's confirmed that he was killed in the attack it's a really sad moment but the fact that it stings so much as a credit to the effect of Storytelling earlier I talked about how much I enjoyed working alongside Jefferson Davis at the shipyard and how that mission did a great job of building a bond between him and the player in a short amount of time even the brief interactions we see between him and his family went a long way we can tell that he was a caring husband and father and an all-around great role model so it stings even more to have him ripped away like that for Comic readers this was probably even more of a surprise since it's Rio who dies in the comics Brian enhar stated in interviews that killing Jefferson was strategic in that it gave them the ability to mirror the mentor mentee relationship of Peter and Otto to Peter and Miles Brian later went on to mention that their original idea was for Peter to be playable in this Mission until it was suggested by another Dev to play as miles instead I think that was definitely the right way to go and the City Hall mission in general was really effective interestingly enough Miles Morales wasn't even planned to play a role in the game the original idea was that he would just be a post-credit scene tease which is described by Brian during an interview with Beyond you know originally he was just going to be he was just going to be a tease he was just going to be a tease in the credits just like maybe he's you know following along which happens he turns his head and someone says miles or something like that I know something like that and then as we kind of were pushing more of this idea of a unique Spider-Man universe I just happen to be reading the miles Comics over a weekend and I said this character is so damn good and I said what if what if Peter Moz existed in the same universe it's not like he's coming through a portal or something like that it's like no like he's 15 years old he's a huge Spider-Man fan and he just exists what would that be like and um I I proposed it to to Bill and Mike and Eric and they were like this sounds great and I think it was also for us it allowed us to give a different perspective on the superhero World whereas we had somebody who you know like MJ was you know knows somebody who's a superhero and is part of that world whereas miles is someone who doesn't have superpowers yet but is a fan of that world I'm really glad they opted to make miles a more Central character to the story and I think he adds a lot to it as we'll discuss as we continue forward speaking of which we then cut to a week later during Jefferson's Funeral Service Peter feels some guilt over not being able to save Jefferson and he knows what miles must be feeling right now having lost his own parents and Uncle Ben he tries to offer some supportive words to miles but miles isn't quite ready for that Rio talks to Peter separately stating that she's not sure what to do for him yet afterwards we're back in the city of Spider-Man but we can revisit the cemetery and find a nice detail Uncle Ben's grave hey Uncle Ben miss you doing my best to make you proud from here Spider-Man is ready to hunt down Martin Lee for his crimes but Yuri tells him he needs solid evidence before she can do anything Peter's investigation brings him to a demon Hideout where he finds an invoice from a shop called pale horse rides Peter's in the process of telling MJ what he's learned when he's jumped by more demons the fight is interrupted with an unfamiliar military Squad rushes in taking control of the area a helicopter then shows up and a woman leaps out guns blazing at Spider-Man She's Crafty and is able to subdue him pretty quickly thankfully Yuri shows up to de-escalate things she informs us that this is silver saplanova AKA silver Sable from the country samcaria silver Sable is also a character from the comics but not a well-known one Brian anahar stated that's a big reason why she was chosen for the game along with characters like Mr negative and Yuri Watanabe for example since they weren't as well known this allowed Insomniac more freedom when crafting those characters we'll talk a lot about silver Sable's role in this game coming up but first I want to go over her comic Origins silver Sable was born to Anastasia and Ernst saplanova in the fictional country simcaria Ernst was the head of a military group called The Wild pack who fought to eliminate the Nazis one day young silver overheard a group of Nazis discussing their plans to kill Ernst silver then ran to her father to tell him unaware that the Nazi men noticed her and followed her silver inadvertently LED them right to her father but the one who ended up shot was Silver's mother Anastasia her dying wish was that Sable would not follow in her Father's Footsteps silver didn't honor that wish and instead trained with her father as she grew up he wasn't a nurturing or caring father though always pointing out her flaws and telling her she wasn't doing good enough the most common criticism was that she let her emotions get the better of her this message was drilled home during a mission where a man held a gun to her father's head while Sable had a gun on the man she subdued her father told her to kill the man she had on the ground but Sable didn't see him as a threat since he was old and injured so Sable shot the man pointing a gun at her father disobeying his orders this gave the old man time to stab her with a knife proving that her father had the right idea he of course took this moment to scolder telling her that her emotions have compromised the mission and that letting things get personal makes you sloppy Sable's tough though and took out the knife from her waist and threw it at the Nazi to take him out later Sable reminisce is on the scar seeing it as a reminder that even the most helpless enemy can be deadly but more importantly she thinks about the traits of her father that she tries to live up to which are cold unemotional and Perfection Sable would later become the leader of the wild pack and under her command they became Sable International an army that could be contracted out by various countries of the world this business soon became the Cornerstone of simcaria's economy as far as the game Silver's bio confirms the basics of what we discuss stating that her father Ernst is still around in the current king of simcharia that makes silver a princess but she's also stable International's leader and their best soldier we also learned from Yuri that Sable has been contracted by Norman Osborne to protect both him and the city already Sable isn't a fan of Spider-Man but lets him go warning him not to cross her path again foreign from here Peter heads to Feast to see if he can learn anything from Martin's office before checking it out he talks to May for a bit telling her that he's thinking about inviting miles to volunteer at the shelter Peter says that it helped him to stay busy when Uncle Ben died so maybe Feast would help miles in a similar way may agrees and says that she'll call Rio and we're free to roam around Feast again this time you're also given the option to do some chores you can find three messes around the building and have Peter clean them up since this is volunteer work though you won't get anything for doing it which is a pretty funny detail afterwards we sneak into Lee's office to see what we can find on his desk we find a note he wrote to Aunt May telling her that everything she's likely heard about him being a terrorist and murderer is true however the good work they've done together at Feast was also true and that he hopes she will continue that work and not let his failures ruin it all so it's clear that Martin truly cares for me and that she's not in danger we can also find his diary which contains a key as well as a recent entry we actually walked in on Martin completing the century earlier in the game as we saw him place it in the drawer which I thought was another fun detail in it he describes that he's been waiting for Wilson Fisk to be taken down so that he'll finally have the opportunity to carry out his plan to teach Norman Osborne true pain so it turns out that Fisk was indeed holding back big threats like he stated at the beginning of the game also in the diary Martin describes his hesitation to follow through with his plans he's achieved so much at feast and knows his plans will Sully at all but he can't hold back his inner demon we'll next use the key to open a hidden passage into a secret room which contains some interesting things for example a whole wall plastered with articles and headlines of Norman Osborne's life it it's creepy but it gives us some cool insight into the life of Norman to start we can find an article stating that Fisk was donating to Norman's campaign for mayor above it is another article suggesting that Norman has also been helping Fisk out in return which isn't too surprising they have secret meetings in the prequel novel as well where they help each other but since they're both powerful men they also attempt to outsmart one another in the prequel novel Fisk has a thumb drive with blackmail against Norman that he uses as leverage Norman had a mole and fisks organization though and through the course of events the drive ends up destroyed releasing fisks hold on Norman for a while however Fisk was still able to learn the secrets of devil's breath to create a file on it which we'll discuss more later we can also see articles relating to Norman's family life there's a cover showcasing the birth of Harry and features a young Norman Osborne and his wife Emily to the left of that article is the obituary for Emily which states that she died when Harry was 15. the obituary also shows her maiden name as Lyman and states that she died of a disease but that the specific cause of death was unknown at the time of the article Emily diamond is also a character from the comics like in the article she was married to Norman for a time and is the mother of Harry she also died in the comics but it was later revealed that she faked her own death to get away from Norman I'm not sure if the game will go that route as well but I just wanted to put that out there we'll talk more about Emily a bit later in the video as well continuing on there's also an article mentioning the death of Norman's parents Amberson and Martha who died in a car crash when Norman was 16. the article suggests that Amberson was drunk at the wheel which is how they crashed in the comics Amberson is also established as a drunk so this matches up more on the business side there's an article that mentions ozcorp acquiring strong robotics Strom robotics is run by mendelstrom who's a notable name in the comics mostly because he's the one who creates the goblin serum for Norman you might also remember him as Norman's first kill in the Remy Spiderman films there are also headlines regarding the medical side of Oz Court it seems it began with a success story stating that Oscorp was able to develop a treatment for malaria saving countless lives another article reveals Norman's Ambitions in the medical field through a quote stating there's no disease we can't eventually cure however there's also another headline revealing that some of these medical trials were under investigation which will be important later on another article refers to the creation of Oscorp in the photo we see Norman on the left with his co-founder on the right who we'll discuss once it's revealed overall a pretty interesting summary of Norman's life so far still it's strange that Martin Lee is so obsessed with Norman but will learn why before too long more importantly Peter finds the devil's breath file that was taken from the auction house earlier in the game Peter reclaims it hoping it will help their investigation Peter then exits the office only to find Martin Lee waiting outside hello Peter Mr Lee I thought you were out of town did you find what you were looking for Martin you're back you get that thank you and heading off again shortly I'm afraid just needed a few things from my office you must have heard about City Hall yes tragic Peter was there he was very lucky and an Osborne rally I didn't know you were a fan well what matters is you're both safe amen but the bombers are still out there who knows what they've planned next I don't think you or may have anything to worry about as long as you stay away from places you're not supposed to be originally this wasn't how the scene was going to play out initially the idea was that Peter would just leave the office normally without running into anyone it was Bill Roseman creative director at Marvel games who suggested to Brian what if Martin Lee catches Peter during his exit I think it was a great idea and makes for a very tense moment especially when Aunt May shows up Martin and Peter are both playing nice with May around but also subtly suggesting to each other that they're on to the other I don't think Lee knows that Peter is Spider-Man just that Peter likely saw something he shouldn't have in the office so Martin essentially leaves Peter with a warning to stay out of his business overall I really love the tension of the scene and I think it was a brilliant suggestion by Bill Roseman afterwards Peter calls Yuri to inform her what he's found in Lee's office and that she should check it out he also calls MJ and they decide to discuss things over dinner at her place Dr Octavius then calls in telling Peter he's made great progress and needs Peter to come by the lab right now to check it out when we get to the lab we find some more updates to it firstly Otto has received a bunch of new equipment you get all this equipment three last favor took out a few loans it's like we're starting over once again but this time's going to be different you'll also notice that all the boxes have the AIM logo written on them aim is a technological company in the comics and they're also known to be a villainous organization in fact they were the primary antagonists in the Marvel's Avengers game so even though it looks like Otto is building things back up those that recognize the logo will likely be tipped off that he's not moving in a positive direction Peter is also pretty unsure about it doc are you sure it's a good idea to accept grants from Aim their rep is pretty shady we can find other updates to the lab as well such as on this whiteboard now that he's decided on his vision statement he's begun working on different logos for his company so as it stands still nothing too harmful on the opposite side of the room we'll find some random objects that Otto's made what is this stuff doc doc looks like armored plating of course there's also a screen showing Otto's plans for an advanced hypodermic needle and of advanced hypodermic delivery system to help with implant rejection I don't know that's a big needle another detail I like is a screen with Da Vinci's Vitruvian man on it in An Origin comic this image was an inspiration for Otto to create his tentacles and he essentially resembles that image himself on another whiteboard Peter finds plans regarding the raft which is a high security prison for Super Villains Otto states that they're soliciting bids to modernize their security so he's taking a crack at it for the potential money and the challenge if we head into Peter's office we also learned that Otto let him store some of his stuff there after being evicted one of which is his Board of previous Spider-Man villains which Auto appreciates I noticed you keep track of Spider-Man's pose smart easier to craft countermeasures that way as far as what Otto called us here for he's had a revelation that they were thinking in too limited a scope by trying to recreate limbs like the ones lost instead they could give people something new that they haven't experienced before not limited to the human form Otto attempts to give Peter a demonstration but struggles to fully control his own hand this derails the presentation and sends Otto into a rage partially for which he blames Norman Osborne Peter asks Otto about his history with Norman to which he reveals that they used to be business partners that article we saw earlier regarding ozcorp's beginning that was Otto to the right of Norman Otto states that in college he and Norman were nicknamed the O's and they Incorporated that into their company name however things went South when Norman became obsessed with genetics starting a project Auto felt was unethical when lawyers became involved Otto chose to leave in exchange for a settlement and has been on his own ever since if you're wondering this isn't from the comics it was an original creation for the game but I think it's a clever way to tie Otto and Norman together and establish a personal history between them after this conversation they try out the Prototype again this time with Peter at the controls it works and auto states that the next step is the neural interface so you can control it with your mind Peter states that he still hasn't found another job and offers to help Otto if he'll have him despite the short funds they agree and Peter heads to MJ's place when Peter arrives MJ tells him about an adventure she had earlier in the day Peter had given her an address for a company called pale horse rides so MJ decides to sneak in and check it out this leads to another MJ mission where we have to sneak around and find evidence this one is a little more engaging than the last now that we can knock things over to lure enemies out of our path it's still not super exciting but it's better than just waiting for enemies to walk away while we're sneaking around we can hear the thugs discuss their plans their boss is indeed working for Martin Lee who wants them to create a giant durable vehicle for the demons to use in exchange you'll fund whatever they want their plan is to put that money into a drug called grave dust which we'll discuss more in part two along the way MJ also finds chemical containers for the company alcamax if that name is familiar it's likely due to Miguel O'Hara AKA Spider-Man 20 99 who works for Alco Max in the future and it's where he develops his spider powers this is also where we're introduced to the boss of this shop Tombstone a villain from the comics he was born with albionism an absence of pigmentation in his skin he was bullied for this in school motivating him to work out and become strong enough to protect himself with his strength and size he was nicknamed tombstone he would only become stronger though after coming in contact with a chemical called diox3 which made him virtually indestructible we get a good sense of this durability here when he lets this guy shoot him in the head only for the bullet to fall to the ground after making contact with him Tombstone is a scary dude and I think this was a great introduction to get that point across with Tombstone distracted Mary Jane sneaks into his office to take some pictures but also finds a tracking device that he uses on his shipments with that she sneaks out of the building back in the present time Peter decides to give MJ a device to help her out next time she sneaks into a place she's not supposed to be afterwards they discuss the food Peter's making the chicken curry just needs some time to simmer no dumplings I hope you're never gonna let me live that one down are you nope the great dumpling catastrophe during that interview with kind of funny games Brian enhar reveals that this is a reference to an inside joke to a cut section of the game you actually there was a mission where you went to Martin Lee's favorite dumpling place and then followed a bunch of inner demons to somewhere and we all were like this is gonna be bad and we cut it but we always talked about the dumplings about dumplings and the great dumpling catastrophe that they reference in the when he's making dinner that's related to the catastrophe that we were to have what it was so the joke was that me Bill and Eric and Michael and John would always make was dump was about dumplings that's how that all came about wow yeah that's fantastic it definitely sounds like somewhat of a goofy Mission so it's probably best they cut it but I like that they still joke about it in the game after this though Peter and MJ start talking business and she suggests they start working together as partners you want to be my sidekick like a spider girl Spider Woman No Woman Peter name drops a couple female variations of his Alias both of which have been used in the comics by various different people more notably though spider girl is probably best associated with Mayday Parker Peter and MJ's child in the comics Spider-Woman is best associated with Jessica drew a character who's not related to Peter and has her own power set but a similar name however this clip has Peter asking MJ if she's planning on using either name which could be a nod to how MJ has been Spider Woman in the comics this occurred in an alternate universe known as earth8545 in a later comic she also refers to herself as Spider-Girl so I guess you could say she's used both names however I think MJ is best known as spinaret in a different alternate universe while writing this it was also revealed that MJ will become the hero jackpot and the current Amazing Spider-Man run so MJ is no stranger to powers in the comics going back to the game though Peter's chicken curry starts to burn and he runs over to tendu it MJ also informs him that his Crime Alert app is going off signaling that a break-in just occurred at the home of someone named Charles Standish oh that's CFO wait you don't think this has anything to do with Lee do you sorry to cook and run did you just leave your clothes on the kitchen floor where do you want me to uh a couch is fine see you later yeah during a presentation at GDC Brian enhar described this scene as an example of an area where they improved the game apparently there were some struggles Insomniac had with certain parts of the story that they needed to iterate on further for example not enough humor in Act 2 and characters feeling unlikable at times this was one of those scenes where they felt Peter came across as sort of a jerk to demonstrate this Brian showed an old cinematic of what that cut scene originally looked like by the way this was before any kind of facial animations were done for it so just be aware of that going in not again hey it's your crime system thingy it's like a residential break-in Charles Standish that sounds familiar oh CFO right wait you don't think this has anything to do with Lee do you see he does the tonal differences between the original and the final versions are huge and I'm so glad Insomniac tweaks scenes like this around to make them more fun however Brian credits this enlarged part to Sony for being so flexible with them once Insomniac identified areas like these that needed work that meant reshoots and additional cost something Sony could have denied in fact a lot of Publishers do deny those things often leading to weak final results so it's awesome that Sony approved these changes and helped support Insomniac where they needed it and I think the quality shows continuing on Spider-Man makes it to the penthouse of Charles Standish and rescues them from the demons Charles himself is actually a very minor Comics reference in an issue of the Avengers he was oscorp's chemical senior vice president who was being held hostage by a terrorist group called The Flaming sword he was quickly rescued by Vision And as far as I'm aware that's the last we see of him until this game in the game it seems the demons were using Charles to get info on someone named Isaac Delaney which gives Spider-Man a new lead Charles is then left in the care of staple International and Spider-Man suspects they want us to cure him so he doesn't reveal anything about the mysterious devil's breath project nevertheless Spider-Man decides to run down his lead on Isaac Delaney who just so happens to be at a Halloween party dressed as one of spidey's old foes which one we'll have to find out for ourselves by meeting them one at a time along the way I really enjoyed taking in the scenery and overall atmosphere of this party it's so cool and you can tell that everyone involved with designing the level had a lot of fun doing so it's easy to Breeze through this level in just a couple minutes but I'd recommend taking it a little slower in your next playthrough and soak up the atmosphere there were a couple fun Easter eggs in here too one of which is this guy dude what's with the white spider because that suit it's a dollar store this is shirtless Spider-Man a reference to Greg Miller of kind of funny games Greg had been campaigning for shirtless Spider-Man to be in the game and Insomniac actually did it in their interview with Brian enhar he reveals why I'm a big fan of yours um I appreciate your honesty and how much you um especially with everything you've gone through I can't watch your video from Pax without oh the cancer one yeah and um I think that you represent what we should all be should be happy with life and live in life and um I know you're a big fan and we thought um why not and you deserve it thank you and so does shirtless Spider-Man he does yes just his photographer it's a funny Easter egg and I'm glad it's in the game but hearing that from Brian makes it even more wholesome next the shirtless Spider-Man is another fun Easter egg and it's a 10 for a radioactive science Society selling fake spiders of course Peter gained his powers from being bitten by a radioactive spider at a science exhibit making this a fun little nod on our hunt for Delaney though we'll come across people dressed as Spider-Man's enemies the first of which is Electro and I love how the suits are based on their classic looks from the early Comics not only that but the way these suits are designed to look homemade as well they look like costumes you could legit see on Halloween or at a convention somewhere the same goes for this guy in the Scorpion outfit it looks pretty solid and resembles classic scorpion well but I love the green ski mask and the green underwear the most impressive one though is Dr stratton's Mysterio outfit he's decked out with smoke bombs a voice modulator a full-on house of mirrors and a dart gun I legit feel bad for her when Spider-Man ruins her costume because you know she put in the most effort got a crack in it I could probably just buff that out after leaving Mysterio we'll next find a vulture impersonator up on a Ledge throwing candy to the crowd again I love the homemade look and how goofy it all is this guy isn't Isaac Delaney either but he's able to point him out in the crowd on the Dance Floor dressed as lizard but on our way to Delaney We're stopped by a guy dressed as Rhino he's annoying and insists on a fight slowing us down long enough that Delaney gets grabbed by the demons and taken inside Spider-Man webs the cocky Rhino guy up and leaves him on the ground and we go inside after Delaney when we catch up to him he's in the middle of being questioned by Martin Lee Martin seems to want the name of someone Delaney's been working with Delaney won't freely give up the name so Lee uses his corrupting touch ability to take over his mind Spider-Man attempts to stop it but Lee is too powerful Delaney says the man they want is Dr Morgan Michaels and then Lee has Delaney shoot himself in the head a really dark turn we follow Martin outside where he begins to corrupt the minds of the party-goers making them start a massive fight to slow us down worst of all is when he corrupts that annoying Rhino guy forcing us to fight him too he's actually a somewhat challenging fight especially when trying to juggle the rest of the college students attacking us Martin Lee manages to escape in the commotion but Spider-Man calls Yuri to have her find Dr Morgan Michaels since he's now in danger from here MJ tells Peter what she's learned about devil's breath she she's found out that Norman paid Fisk to build a secret lab for him off the books to learn more Peter decides to sneak into Oscorp while sneaking through the vents he overhears Norman on the phone with Fisk arguing about where the devil's breath file currently is while Norman's distracted Peter views a PowerPoint presentation regarding devil's breath on Norman's computer he learns that devil's breath's real name is gr-27 and that Morgan Michaels is the chief scientist on the project by the way Morgan Michaels is a significant character from the comics but we'll discuss that more when we meet him continuing on Peter also discovers that gr-27 isn't a bioweapon but actually an attempt at a cure in fact it actually has the potential to cure any genetic disease however in its current form it kills those that are subjected to it and it has the potential to create a global pandemic If released due to this lab tech started referring to it as devil's breath Norman believes that it's worth the risk to keep working on it though since it could have such huge benefits for Humanity if it worked as intended so for now he likes to work on it in secret and Morgan Michaels carries the only sample with them at all times not good news and definitely not something you want Lee to get a hold of Peter needs to find Morgan Michaels and MJ thinks she has a lead on him she's learned that Charles Standish is being kept on a sable base in Central Park and she's in the process of sneaking into it we're now on to our next MJ Mission and like with the previous one it's better but still not quite as fun as I'd like the difference with this one is that we're able to use the device Peter gave us as a lure to draw enemies in the direction we throw it eventually MJ finds Standish and gets a moment to speak with him alone he freaks out initially thinking she's been sent after him so he pulls a gun on her but she's able to talk him down when she tells him she's a reporter for the bugle he tells her that Sable has Morgan Michaels and is moving him to a new safe house soon Standish also mentions something about Grand Central Station but gets interrupted when he realizes Spider-Man is nearby Spider-Man doesn't realize it's Standish in the room with her and only knows that someone has a gun pointed at MJ so he leaps in which scares Standish into tripping and knocking himself out definitely not a same old guy Sorry Charlie the commotion alerts the guards so Spider-Man swings MJ out of there and back to her place MJ isn't happy about how things went though and blames Peter hey okay another thing Sorry Charlie you knock a Man Out destroy my background research and the best you've got is Sorry Charlie is everything a joke to you what MJ no I screwed up it was a tension breaker tension breaker right you know this is exactly why we broke up I thought we broke up so you could focus on your career we broke up because you wouldn't stop treating me like a baby don't do this MJ don't do that MJ oh that's too dangerous MJ does may not have super spider powers but I'm not made out of glass you snuck into the middle of an armed military you know what can we not do this right now please things clearly aren't great between him and MJ at the moment but she at least tells him that she learned Michael's as being moved to a new safe house tomorrow at noon aside from that she doesn't want to speak with Peter Peter decides to head to the lab where Otto is about to perform another test on their project Otto now has a functional neural interface ready and decides to test it by having his prototype arms juggle tennis balls it's an even greater success than anticipated still Otto is reminded of his current problems when he struggles to remove the device from his head it's become obvious so he decides to tell Peter what's going on my doctors call it a degenerative neurological disorder probably caused by overexposure to toxic chemicals in my Reckless Youth I'm sorry is is there anything I can do you already are the worst part is it only affects the muscles the Mind continues to work but it can no longer do Autos face similar problems in the comics where his body begins to fail him and he's dying despite his mind's ability to function perfectly but more on that later still it's a terrible situation Otto's currently in and it's easy to empathize with him he seems like a man who still has a lot to offer the world but his condition is about to cut things short he's on limited time now but also on the cusp of a revolutionary breakthrough that could help himself and countless others so it's no surprise he's been working tirelessly at the lab however if he's not careful he could make things worse to lose control of his motor functions within a year and if we're not careful an intracranial implant could make things even worse even alter his personality carefully while we're here we should also explore the lab some more to see what he's been up to since our last visit around the lab there are a couple things we can find that give us visual hints of his potential turn into Dr Octopus the first are these goggles and Peter mentions that Otto used these in grad school when he had to manipulate radioactive isotopes this is likely another nod back to the comics and where his mechanical arms first came into play since the arms allowed him to safely handle radioactive elements during one event though there was an explosion which fused the arms to his body and also altered his mind as far as the goggles themselves in the comics Otto often wears sunglasses as his go-to eyewear although in the Ultimate Universe they do look a bit more like goggles however I think the game is drawing inspiration more from the Spider-Man 2 movie since the goggles appear closer in design there also in the lab is this outfit which looks like a modern version of his Doctor Octopus suit from the comics Peter asks Otto about it and he states that it's a welding suit but that it also provides great magnetic insulation between the neural interface and the arms Otto has also made progress on the items he was working on for aim as we can see they're in a more finalized form he's also continued his work on assessing the raft security analyzing things like security checkpoints and guard paths another whiteboard shows his idea for the prosthetic arms which now resemble tentacles and I like the detail of his handwriting which looks more chaotic and frantic we can also see that his Advanced hypodermic needle is being integrated into a robotic arm he's also updated the Whiteboard where he drops down his different business ideas like logos and mission statements now he's added Oscorp to it stating that he needs to deal with his direct competitor so things are starting to look more unhinged but not necessarily overly concerning as of yet from here we leave the lab and head to the feast Center for Miles first day beforehand Rio told him it's either feast or more therapy sessions and Miles chose Feast since it's his first day Peter doesn't want to miss it and thankfully he doesn't since miles gets jumped on the way there even outnumbered miles shows Courage by tackling one and doing his best to fight them off Spider-Man shows up at a good time though and webs them up miles is excited to meet him and we get our first taste of mentor worship between Peter and Miles as Peter gives him a brief lesson on how to fight with this Peter swings away and Miles continues towards Feast we're now back in the shoes of Miles as we walk to the shelter along the way you can view a Daily Bugle newspaper as a collectible and it just so happens to be a headline about the city hall bombings and the death of Jefferson Davis Miles won't comment on it but as the player I think it simulates how miles must be feeling where everywhere he goes he's reminded of that tragic day it's almost inescapable there is some fun to be had on this journey though mostly through miles hacking app that he's developed with a friend you're able to test it out on the farmer's market by turning on a radio which really livens things up foreign [Music] unfortunately Sable is blocked off the roads and are inspecting IDs to cross miles is already late and can't wait in these lines so he decides to sneak around by using his hacking app to distract guards it's a nice little mechanic and this level serves as a small tutorial for it once inside the shelter miles meets up with Peter he can't stay long so he brings miles to Aunt May to get him started we're now free to leave or explore as Peter if you keep returning back to Ant-Man miles though there are some fun bits of dialogue you can hear between them for example Aunt May telling a story about Sandman Sandman and said this is a shelter there's nothing to steal get out and he did what that is awesome we've got some pretty cool stories Mrs P my favorite though is that miles will get annoyed with you if you keep checking in on him I'm gonna be fine worse than my mom from here we head to the Bowery to supervise Morgan Michael's transition to a new safe house Sable has Morgan in their custody but before they can move him a giant armored vehicle crashes through the area this is the vehicle Tombstone built for them and it's working as intended the demons are able to quickly defeat Sable's men and kidnap Dr Michaels it's now up to us to try and retrieve Dr Michael's in the devil's breath before Martin Lee can harm either of them this leads to a pretty awesome combat sequence where we'll fight demons while on top of the armored vehicle it's really immersive fighting enemies while the van crashes into things around you also I love how there are unique animations for Spider-Man webbing enemies to buildings during this section Peter eventually makes it to the front of the vehicle where he faces Mr negative during the fight Mr negative uses his corrupting touch on Spider-Man and we head into Peter's mind Martin Lee's abilities aren't straight up mind control and are instead dark energy that can bring out the darkness inside someone to the Forefront allowing him to manipulate them he's attempting to do so with Spider-Man trying to turn him against Norman Spider-Man resists and this turns into a fight against Mr negative and his conjured minions if you're defeated during this combat encounter Spider-Man will even become corrupted himself Martin Lee has been able to corrupt Spider-Man in the comics before too one time briefly turning Spider-Man into an enforcer for part of an issue Spider-Man even went so far as to attack his one-time love interest Betty Brandt but he was able to push away the darkness when he remembered the good times in their life But ultimately we're able to break free from the spell and continue our fight in the real world during this fight Spider-Man flips the vehicle on its side but Martin Lee manages to escape with the devil's breath fortunately Dr Michaels is still in the area did they take it yes how worried should I be very just then silver Sable swoops in she blames Spider-Man for interfering and the two of them get into an argument Morgan appreciates Spider-Man's help but decides to leave with Sable to defuse the situation and to debrief mayor Osborne still he later calls Spider-Man using a Sable radio and gives him the tip that devil's breath is likely to be released in a Transit Hub like an airport or train station Morgan's doing his best to help this situation and feels partially to blame for everything since he assisted Norman with creating devil's breath the who exactly is Morgan Michaels well he's from the comics sort of by now I'm sure most of you are familiar with the name Michael morbius the character who becomes morbius the living vampire in the comics during Michael's search for a cure of his vampirism he's able to temporarily Stave off the effects giving him the ability to function as a normal human for part of the day while he continues to search for a more permanent cure with the help of his friend Dr weisenthal he's given a fake identity which is Morgan Michaels and he works at a hospital as a hematologist so this begs the question is the games Morgan Michael's actually Michael morbius using an alias if so has he already become the living vampire or is that something we'll see in his future well the game's bio for him drops some intriguing Clues the bio was written from Peter's perspective and one of the first things he mentions is that he finds it strange that he's never heard of Morgan Michaels Peter even searched his name in a database and couldn't really find anything about him I think this suggests that Morgan Michaels is indeed an alias and his true name is secretly Michael morbius Peter goes on to state that Michaels is specialized in hereditary genetic diseases basically finding cures for the uncurable he also mentions that Michael seems personally invested in this research along with Norman Osborne will later see Norman's motivations but as far as morbius his motivation makes sense given his backstory where he suffered from a rare blood disease and began experimenting with vampire bats as a way to cure it he essentially trades one disease for another as this turns him into a vampire and he hopes to cure that as well Peter's bio Forum continues further stating that Michael seems ill he says he looks thin pale and has dark circles under his eyes he even states that Michaels looks like he never sleeps I don't get that at all looking at his character model in the game but I'll go with what Peter's saying and what Peter describes certainly sounds like a vampire but I'm still not quite sure I'm ready to say he's Legit morbius The Living vampire just yet as far as we know those characteristics could be attributed to morbius's original illness and the devil's breath cure could be the solution that he desperately needs however if that doesn't pan out we could then see him turn his attention to vampire bats as a new solution so whether he's a Empire yet or not remains to be seen but I think this absolutely suggests that morbius the living vampires fated to make a more legitimate appearance in the future and I can't wait to see it so keep an eye on this guy his tip about devil's breath being used in a Transit Hub is accurate as well as we enter our next MJ Mission MJ is following up on her lead from Standish and is investigating Grand Central Station the coolest thing about this part of the level though are all the Oscorp ads showcasing different prototypes they have in development I like them so much because they seem to tease the Green Goblin first up is this board describing oscorp's nanotechnology gunshots body's heating rate by one thousand times we're not just saving you money we're saving lives to me this sounds similar to the goblin serum which boosts the recipient's healing abilities and survivability significantly for example this is how Norman was able to survive being impaled by his glider speaking of his glider there's also this promo for a medical evacuation drone to me this looks a lot like something that could be used as a Goblin glider there's also a display for a battery that can charge itself on sound waves which I speculate could be used to explain how the glider can remain operable for such long periods of time without needing to be recharged along with that there are also Advanced Munitions on display boasting sensors to seek out their targets another display shows oscorp's bio enhancer which strengthens your nervous system allowing you to stay awake for 72 hours straight Osborne or whoever Insomniac chooses to be a goblin in a future game could get up to a lot of trouble with that lastly there's a cloaking Tech display turning those who step on the platform invisible invisibility isn't a power I'm familiar with Goblin having but will see this ability come into play for Miles regardless I really like all the little teases in this station the same way we've been seeing little innocuous nods to Dr Octopus and Otto's lab I feel like we're getting a similar thing here in Grand Central to Oscorp inadvertently building a new super villain but our last display is for a dispersal device that can release Mike microbes into the atmosphere this is what Martin needs to release devil's breath and he coincidentally shows up while MJ is examining the device Martin orders his demons to take over Grand Central and they Usher MJ and the rest of the civilians into the center of the room as hostages Martin then calls Osborne telling him to come to the station alone Martin then places the devil's breath in the dispersal system and we're left to wait MJ quickly texts Peter who rushes over to help MJ also needs to clear the room of drones so Spider-Man can safely enter the building so she makes a move for the control tablet at the same time a guy tries to fight the demons himself and gets caught MJ offers herself and her ability to reach the mayor's office in exchange for his life the demons agree and MJ is moved elsewhere providing Spider-Man the perfect opportunity to rescue her interestingly we're still playing as MJ when Spider-Man arrives instead of clearing the room as Spider-Man will instead sneak around and call the shots as MJ we'll point out which enemies Spider-Man should quietly take out and when and I thought this was a really creative Twist on the gameplay I enjoyed luring enemies to certain points and setting them up for a takedown while trying trying to be as stealthy as possible I criticized early MJ missions for feeling too slow and unexciting but I think this level starts to find the right balance this one felt more strategic and I like how much agency it gave me as the player the stealth mechanics paired nicely with that as well since it kept up the tension so overall I like this MJ Mission a lot and I'd like to see this sort of strategy and teamwork element incorporated into missions of future games by the way there's also a cool detail with the cloaking station if an enemy is near you while you're cloaked they won't be able to see you and you'll maintain your stealth so I like that little added bit of immersion Martin Lee soon shows back up and realizes that MJ is missing and that Spider-Man has arrived so he decides to start the timer on the devil's breath by the way Martin Lee's interest in the devil's breath goes back to the comics although devil's breath was a bit different there in the comics devil's breath was a poison and the recipe was contained in the tablet of death and entropy which Martin gained possession of part of the recipe is the blood of your enemy since the devil's breath only targets the DNA of the blood used to craft it the point of it being that you can wipe out an entire family line with it without it hurting innocent people nearby that also breathe it in Martin aimed to use devil's breath to wipe out the magia due to the experiments they performed on him we'll soon find that the devil's breath is much more dangerous than the game's Universe since it targets everyone equally but for now we're not quite done as MJ as it's up to her to defuse the devil's breath dispersal device Peter tells her the proper order to remove the wires while we flip it around and try to pick the correct order of them I thought this was a fun little puzzle that had some good tension involved with it too but after successfully defusing the bomb we return to playing a Spider-Man we'll now fight the rest of the demons in Grand Central Station until we clear them all out by the way this level gave me some great flashbacks to the Grand Central Station levels in the Spider-Man 1 Movie game against shocker definitely something I'd recommend checking out again if you're feeling nostalgic but next we'll chase down Lee who attempts to flee on a train he's waiting for us and we're in for a 1v1 battle against him this becomes another boss fight one that's visually unique and cinematic since we're confined to just moving back and forward we'll do a mix of dodging and attacking as needed against Mr negative nothing too crazy gameplay-wise eyes but it looks cool the next couple phases I'm not as into though Martin will drain the life from some of his men to power himself up and start unleashing Dark Energy blasts at us so whenever we see him charge up we Dodge out of the way until he's vulnerable for an attack rinse and repeat a few times it's really dull and I think this is the weakest boss fight in the game from a gameplay standpoint visually though it still looks really cool especially the way the interior of the train becomes more black and the more Mr negative fires off energy blasts the next phase tries to up the ante a bit by incorporating a new kind of energy blast for you to dodge you'll now have to analyze negatives body posture to anticipate what attack he's about to do to determine if you're dodging to the side or to the ceiling so this acts as sort of a memory and reaction test which sounds kind of cool but in practice it wasn't very exciting still it's a pretty short encounter which results in Spider-Man knocking Lee into the train controls shorting it out and removing access to the brakes Spider-Man now has to stop the full speed train from crashing and starts to cast out a flurry of webs to hopefully slow it down however it's unsuccessful the totally worked last time this is a great reference to the Spider-Man 2 movie where Peter uses the same method and as the game mentions it actually worked in the movie Peter's next solution is to yank up the railroad tracks towards the ceiling crashing the train through the surface stopping it with no casualties Martin Lee is also captured and the devil's breath returned to stable International for safekeeping so a positive outcome overall however Peter and MJ still have some problems to work out texting isn't talking [Music] no no no no no no not that kind of over ah please say no please say no okay okay and not okay who's there to figure out oh you think oh I really love this cutscene because it's so relatable and I think we've all had similar text conversations before just not while web swinging surprisingly this scene was originally much different during his GDC presentation Brian enhar describes that this scene was originally going to just be a 10 second clip something straight into the point however they saw it as an area that could be extended to deliver some additional humor and relatability this ended up being one of my favorite most memorable cutscenes in the game so it seems crazy to me that it wasn't always part of the script you'd think it was there from the start so I think it's another great example of how the quality of the game can be elevated with some extra time and willingness to iterate from here Peter returns back to the lab to check out Otto's progress when we see him he's got a surprise to show us where are the arms oh wow but how did you intracranial neural network neurotransmission speeds under one nanosecond faster than signals travel inside the brain never mind to an external prosthesis we did it Peter no one can take this away from us amazing all right and your work on the neural web was the key yeah there's so much we don't know it works beautifully uh come on take a look when Peter takes a look he finds that they are a series of problems and potential side effects that can severely hurt Otto the neural web isn't isolating your motor neurons it could be affecting other parts of your brain your your inhibitions your mood I just think we need some more the first time in my life I don't feel like a failure I feel like maybe Otto you're not a failure but this could permanently damage your mind please right right these scenes do such a great job of demonstrating so many things our fears of auto-turning villainous are starting to become true and he's on the precipice of going over the edge the way he snaps at Peter shows the arms are already tampering with his mood and that it could easily get worse from here still he seems to show some Humanity by disabling the arms after Peter continues to ask him to although it could just be because Peter mentions the arms could damage his mind the part of him he values the most I also like that these scenes drive home that Peter's work on the neural web were crucial aspects in creating the arms Peter is inadvertently helped create a monster and I think that's a really interesting concept to play with still you understand where Otto's at mentally he needs this to work so badly that he just wants everything to be fine I think Insomniac are doing a great job at making him relatable in these moments and I still don't want him to turn even though I know that's exactly where things are heading however we're left with a shred of hope during this cutscene as Otto says he'll work on some bugs and Peter can head home in the meantime as Peter leaves our hopes of a good Auto are dashed but Norman Osborne one appears on screen at the worst time possible he's on the news taking credit for stopping Martin Lee and tells everyone to remember that when casting their votes in the upcoming election understandably Otto is outraged and smashes the TV promising Norman that he has no idea what he's in for this Revelation kicks things into high gear as Peter Witnesses a news report stating that the Sable truck carrying devil's breath has been destroyed and the content stolen as Spider-Man investigates the scene Yuri shows up with a helicopter to pick him up she informs him that there's a riot occurring at the Rikers Island prison and that inmates are running free as Spider-Man will attempt to subdue all the inmates and save the guards this level was one of my favorites because it felt so fast-paced challenging and chaotic every time you clean up one problem another emerges I got really immersed in everything going on and it felt like an effort to get everyone under control once you do you find that this was the least of your problems as the Maximum Security Prison the raft is under attack by the super villain Electro he crashes their helicopter and then proceeds to release all the inmates from their cells as we continue through the prison we then spot Rhino as he launches debris at us as we chase him we're then grabbed by scorpion we're saved by an explosion and Scorpion fleas so far I'm really loving the chaos of this Mission and how fast and furiously villains are emerging speaking of which Electro reappears goading us on to chase him come on Spider-Man I thought this was a Chase Electro's line there could also be a small reference to a line of his during a Chase in the Ultimate Spider-Man game Ace him through the raft and out into the open before we can grab him we're intercepted by vulture adding another freed super villain to the list Spider-Man bypasses vulture easily enough and we continue our Chase of Electro eventually he stops on a tower to have a chat how do you like my new suit dashing where'd you get it it's an exclusive Club I actually do like his new suit so let's talk about it as Electro mentions it's a new suit and increases his power by the jacket he wears I like this practical approach and how the color scheme stays true to that of the comic suit noticeably though Electro isn't wearing his classic mask however Insomniac still paid homage to it through the burn scars on his face which resemble the shape of the Mask in the art book we can see that Insomniac went through a lot of iterations on this design as well a lot of them look really cool but I like the one they landed on the best primarily for its practicality but as elektro mentioned he's part of a club as we see more super villains join them one of which is Martin Lee and things are looking pretty bad for Spidey he's able to hold his own for a while but eventually gets overwhelmed as we're introduced to the sixth member of the team and Mastermind first and final warning stay out of our way each of you has a job to do your debts will be repaid when we're done oh as we worried throughout the whole game Otto has indeed turned to the dark side and fully become Dr Octopus he's also the one who initiated the rat breakout and recruited the other super villains to form his Sinister Six in the comics Doctor Octopus is also the first one to form and lead the Sinister Six team although the team lineup was somewhat different octavius's plan was also different since his goal was to use them to soften Spider-Man up so he could kill him easier it's a lot like the Nightfall story from Batman comics if you're familiar Octavius ran Spider-Man through a gauntlet of his greatest foes having him fight them one by one before moving on to the next the final fight would be Octavius who felt he would have a much stronger chance at beating Spider-Man if he was already tired and weakened by the previous villains Octavius was wrong and Spider-Man still came out on top going back to the game Otto chooses to give Spider-Man a warning and throws him over the ledge afterwards his facial expression looks somewhat grieved and conflicted at least to me it's enough for me to say that I believe Otto has known Peter with Spider-Man ever since he caught Peter working on his fighter suit Otto is a smart man and likely gave Peter the sucre greater excuse to either play things close to the chest or to just not outright below Peter's cover regardless of the reason Otto Knows Peter as Spider-Man but since they've had such a strong partnership and he considers Peter a friend he gives Spider-Man a warning and lets him go in a lot of games and movies a hero is Let Go by the villain for some sort of contrived or convenient reason so I like that Otto's reasoning to let him go makes sense and feels earned in the game I also like Dr octopus's design for the game especially the tentacles they look very sleek and advanced as you'd expect Otto in particular went through a bunch of different iterations before landing on this design any tentacles in particular seem to have a wide variety of looks like with a lot of the designs we've discussed in this video none of the concepts are bad but I do like this final version the most the tentacles look very Advanced and menacing but also very durable and strong it adds to the Menace and threat of Dr Octopus and I think it looks great Otto's not done here either as we next see him at an Osborne rally full of supporters it's revealed that Otto has the devil's breath and in an extremely diabolical turn of events he decides to open it and unleash on the city it's an unforgivable moment cementing Otto is the True Villain of the game and shows that there's no going back for him now and despite this attack being used as revenge against Norman Osborne it's the city that suffers in only 24 hours many citizens are sick and dying most notably Aunt May who we see coughing up blood the city as a whole is in disarray with the devil's breath disease and escaped inmates running free which is a lot for Spider-Man to handle alone eventually he decides to team up with MJ and Miles MJ's task is to find the anti-serum for devil's breath which is likely at Oscorp miles will continue to help out at Feast but also report anything he learns there Spider-Man's goal is to take down these super villains that are running rampant in the city through some investigating Spider-Man is able to locate Otto's Hideout inside is a staging Ground full of info and materials on the different villains the first one we find is for Martin Lee it seems that in return for helping him Otto is attempting to medicate Lee to help him control the darkness within him that he struggles with Otto is also recorded personal messages for each of them when I first realized it was you targeting Osborne these past weeks I was shocked and saddened but then as the situation evolved before my eyes I felt inspired you took the both steps I had always dreamed of Martin and you took them without hesitation I am honored now to join you on this path towards True Justice interesting that Otto says he was originally saddened by what Martin was doing but then later became inspired I wonder if this shift in perspective was due to the arms taking a toll on his mind making him more susceptible to the idea of violence regardless Otto and Lee's shared hatred for Norman make them unsurprising allies next up is Rhino for his payment Otto has agreed to help free him from his battle suit that he's trapped inside in the comics Rhino is also surgically bonded to his Rhino suit and wishes to be freed it's not uncommon for him to take contracts with certain clients with the promise that they'll attempt to free him from his suit after however this is sometimes a manipulation by the client for example the Kingpin has done this before secretly telling his dermatologist to fail at freeing Rhino so the Kingpin will have an eternally grateful but still super-powered Rhino henchmen thankfully for Rhino Doctor Octopus appears to already be making good on his promise by developing a corrosive to Freedom there's also scorpion who's in pretty hefty debt he also has an extensive criminal record so Otto promises to clear him of his debts and also wipe out his criminal history a pretty tall order but it seems Auto has managed it then there's the vulture Spider-Man comments that he's been fighting him longer than anyone else it seems vulture has been around for a lot of Spider-Man's career in the game but it could also be a nod to the fact that vulture is one of Spider-Man's earliest foes in the comics premiering in issue 2 of Amazing Spider-Man this beats out Otto who was in issue three like in the comics vulture is an old man and it's revealed here that his wings have given him cancer Otto promises to cure vulture as repayment for helping him lastly is Electro Spider-Man's first super-powered enemy in the game in the comics Electro was originally an electrical lineman named Max Dillon who gained his powers when struck by lightning while still in contact with power lines this gave him the power to conduct electricity so it's not electric eels like it is in the movies however he has grander aspirations and dreams of becoming pure energy which is what he's told Otto in the game Otto claims he's actually found a way to accomplish this and will make that dream a reality once the job is done in the Ultimate Comics Electro has indeed managed to take on a pure energy form he's also done it in Spider-Man's Shattered Dimensions [Music] energy without pants while searching for the rest of the Hideout Spider-Man finds a map showing Target locations as well as a plan named Icarus Spider-Man then finds a crate marked Icarus and when he opens it it's a message from Otto saying this was all a ruse to get him into position in Greek mythology Icarus flew too close to the Sun so this must be Otto's humor saying that Spider-Man has done the same Spider-Man then realizes a bomb is about to go off and manages to escape just in time Otto planned ahead though and had vulture waiting outside to capture him and take him to Electro where they can both finish him for good this takes us into a boss fight against them and a really awesome one at that Spider-Man obviously can't fly and is limited to his web swinging so it's interesting to be pitted against two flying opponents to see how that works you're given a lot of room to swing around and it's a fun challenge attempting to juggle two super-powered villains they both have slightly different strategies associated with them too you need to destroy Electro's Transformers to weaken his power and you also need to web him up before attempting to attack him for vulture you have to dodge when he comes flying in and then web zip to him to deal some damage or you can throw his back Tigers back at him one aspect I really enjoyed too is that you can use them against each other for example having Electro accidentally zap vulture this was a really fun and unique boss fight and another favorite of mine but after taking out both Electro and vulture it's time to turn our sights to the other villains we'll next attempt to find scorpion who ends up getting the drop on Peter drugging him with his tail this causes Peter to hallucinate seeing the city as a floor is lava type of thing but with acid I'm not sure if it was intentional but it reminds me of the Spider-Man 1 game on PS1 where there's a dangerous gas covering the city so you have to Traverse building tops it also reminds me of Batman Arkham Asylum and its scarecrow missions I don't plan on comparing this game to Arkham much but I do think this section feels particularly influenced by those games and I think there are some important differences between them that I want to compare primarily when you start to hallucinate Dr Octavius while traversing a Trippy dream world around you the visuals are cool to look at but if I'm being honest this whole spider hallucination section didn't feel as strong as it could have since there wasn't anything too crazy or impactful to really grip the player in the moment between these Spider-Man and Batman hallucination levels I think the key difference is that the Arkham hallucinations felt more personal to Batman's Psych and Trauma which made them feel more impactful like for example having the corpses of his parents tell him that he could have done more for them or having a young Bruce Wayne walking alone as he mentally relives the day his parents died these are not only very visually striking but we can recognize they're also deeply rooted in the character's psychology Spider-Man's hallucinations try to do something similar with the ghost of Auto teleporting around saying false things to him but it doesn't carry the same weight the hard truth is you did this to me without your help I would have never done any of those terrible things you're a failure and life love career you bring nothing but pain you're just like Osborne trying to steal my genius everything that happens now is your fault I think it would have helped to experience Peter's fears more directly throughout the environment for example imagine coming across MJ's dying body and with her last words she blames Peter for creating the neural interface that led to Dr Octopus or maybe Peter comes across a bunch of citizens choking on devil's breath begging him to save them before they die right in front of him you could even have Peter hear the disappointed voice of Uncle Ben at moments saying something like you have all that power and still couldn't live up to the responsibility I'm mostly just riffing here but I think you get my point I felt like this hallucination was meant to poke and prod at Peter's psyche and if that's the case then I really want to feel Peter's fears and experience what's torturing him as it stands I didn't feel like this level had much importance on the grand scheme of the narrative and ends up being a level that I feel more inclined to run through since there's nothing really gripping me to immerse myself in it but I want to emphasize that I didn't hate the sequence and I'm glad Insomniac went for it but I'd like for them to push the boundaries and dig deeper into Peter's psychology more if they attempted again in the future continuing on Peter breaks free from the hallucination and finds himself in the lab having created a cure there but he also finds himself in his underwear this will actually be an unlockable outfit in the game and we'll talk about that in part two but while we're in the lab we'll see what Otto's been up to since his turn to villainy we'll first start with the Whiteboard with his company logo and vision Otto has made a few key updates twisting his vision statement to Now read groundbreaking technology creating the world I deserve last time we were here Otto wrote that he needs to deal with his direct competitor Oz court and now he's revised to say destroy also I love how Otto's handwriting is changed to mirror his personality his writing is now sloppy and frantic and you can almost imagine him slashing away at the board with his marker this point is driven home when you go into his office where he's maniacally drawn his tentacles I also like how if you test out his prototypes again they'll lash out viciously on another whiteboard Otto has added in red his Sinister Six plans for the raft it makes you wonder at what point did Otto start legit immediately planning all this we saw that he was analyzing the raft security earlier in the game but was the end goal always to break out these villains and cause chaos after Auto loss funding is when he starts to take on all these different contracts like the rap prison contract where he analyzed their security then there was also the defensive plating for aim which when we look at the pieces now will recognize that one of the pieces is the same as the one used for Rhino and the other is part of Electro's new jacket there was also the advanced hypodermic needle that Peter was initially confused about due to its larger size but we later see it incorporated into a robotic arm however it's then later integrated into Scorpion's tail my personal belief is that these all originated as just normal projects Otto was working on to gain funding but as he lost his mind more he started to repurpose what was around him to achieve his new goals like taking what he learned from his raft analysis to form a breakout for certain villains then for example he used the aim defense armor lying around and retooled it for Rhino and Electro I think this matches his progression from nice normal scientist to Evil Genius in the story as well which is why it's the one my favor however I could still see an argument that Otto immediately began his Sinister Six planning after being defunded by Norman he could have taken on specific contracts that he knew would Aid this goal while also receiving funding for it I think it goes with the genius Mastermind trait of Otto where he's been planning and developing all of this right under our noses but dressing up these schemes as just normal harmless projects but the exact timing of his turn is something that I think is somewhat left obscure and I continue to question the specifics so I'm curious to hear what you all think in the comments looking around the lab this last time has a haunting feeling to it as well in a lot of ways walking around the lab feels like walking around inside Otto's mind you think about how nice and happy it was at the beginning of the game and now you see how fractured damaged and chaotic it looks Otto in many ways feels like the dark side of Peter Parker Peter has a lot of integrity and always strives to do good even when it's difficult for him and if Peter gave in went to the dark side I think it would look a lot like Otto Octavius an incredibly dangerous genius I think it's even more interesting that Peter essentially helped to build Otto Peter's work in contributed to the arms and the neural interface something Auto even credits in large part to him there's also Peter's Board of super villains he's caught through the years that he has hanging up in the office these include the same villains that Auto Incorporated into his sinister six so I imagine that one day when Otto saw that board of villains in The Raft it gave him the idea for the Sinister Six so I really like this aspect of the story where Peter inadvertently creates his most dangerous foe but will next transition to Miles who's making a run to pick up extra antibiotics for the shelter unfortunately he finds the place obliterated and swarming with thugs miles is brave though and decides to sneak through the area and search for the antibiotics eventually he lucks out and finds a container full of them right as Rhino stampedes through the area he's joined by Scorpion and the two of them are behind all the chaos here miles watches them for a minute but when scorpion kills one of these Sable guards it Spooks miles and he decides to make a run for it in his Escape he knocks over a toolbox alerting Rhino that someone's nearby this continues our stealth level as miles but with a Twist instead of sneaking past oblivious thugs we're now having to sneak away from Rhino who's actively hunting us this level was legit scary to me and I thought it was excellent we've talked about how some of the early MJ and Miles missions have felt too slow and somewhat boring well this one changes that having Rhino frantically search for us makes things really tense and it's a good example of what it's like to be a normal human in a superhero world we just saw scorpion kill a guy so you know Rhino will do the same to miles if he finds him this is confirm firmed in the mission failed cutscene where Rhino legit charges horn first towards miles I also like that at the end of the mission as you finally find your Escape it's blocked with crates so after a level of running and hiding from Rhino you now have to lure him right in front of you it's very tense and scary so I thought this level was really well done miles isn't quite out of the woods yet though as he next comes across a civilian being harassed by some escaped inmates we get another example of Miles heroic side as he steps in putting their focus on him instead he then puts Peter's fighting lessons to use as he takes them on himself what the hell is he saying not gonna be saying anything in a second whoa you want to taste nah I'm good kid you want a taste I had to work on my fight Banner I think this whole section is a great character moment for Miles showing his bravery and heroism I also think it's a good display of his rise in confidence as he Embraces being a hero despite not having any powers kind of like in the movies when a hero has to prove themselves as a heroic normal person before earning the right to be super powered but afterwards miles tells Spider-Man that Rhino and Scorpion are attacking relief centers which helps them determine where they'll head to next sure enough we next find Rhino fighting with some Sable guards Spider-Man intervenes which begins a boss fight against rhino I like that we begin just focus on Rhino since we have to drop objects on him to stun him realizing this mechanic and then learning the timing can take a minute so this first phase is a good learning stage helping to prevent any potential frustration or confusion before things get more frantic which is how things feel when scorpion arrives and we have to juggle them both at the same time like with Electro and vulture I thought this fight was a lot of fun as well I like the challenge of trying to juggle two enemies at once I think it felt very thematic to Spider-Man since it has you constantly dodging and flinging yourself around the environment in reaction to their attacks until you find a window to counter them and go on the offensive Brian inahar stated in an interview that the team liked the idea of 2V1 battles here because they felt that an eighth year Spider-Man should be experienced enough to handle something like this I think that was absolutely the right choice and it makes for a really awesome boss fight but after battling Rhino and Scorpion long enough they'll actually turn on each other blaming the other for their failure Rhino tackle scorpion into a storage container so Spider-Man takes the opportunity to lock them inside with some webbing you can actually hear them continue their fight if you go walk by the container ha foreign we'll leave them to sort things out as we next head towards Oscorp in case MJ needs backup during her infiltration this transitions us to another MJ level but this one I actually enjoy quite a bit and I'll explain why shortly MJ believes that the anti-serum is in Norman's Penthouse so she needs to find a way to sneak in currently Sable is doing a security sweep of the building which has required the residents to vacate their units and hang in the lobby something they're not too happy about MJ decides to use this to her Advantage by spreading misinformation to get the crowd riled up Jameson would be proud The Angry Crowd creates a distraction as planned and MJ is able to sneak into the security room MJ also finds a stun gun lying around and this is where it becomes a lot more fun to play as her we can use it to stealth take down enemies and combo it with our lures to turn an enemy around and unzap them this is a lot of fun and increases my enjoyment of this Mission a lot but now that we have access to the security room MJ is able to unlock the elevator to Norman's Penthouse while also putting out an alert that draws Norman and Sable into the lobby MJ then sneaks her way onto the elevator giving us access to Norman's Penthouse undisturbed so if I was excited about the goblin teases in Grand Central Norman's Penthouse is the jackpot full of cool teases the first of which is on a desk a prototype combat helmet MJ tries it on and it reveals a hidden room behind a wall before we investigate that though I want to talk about the helmet's HUD since it contains some interesting details the first of which is at the top center of the HUD which contains a prototype number gg-1407-1964 this is an Easter egg for Green Goblin's first appearance in the comics Gigi refers to Green Goblin the 14 is for issue 1407 refers to July the month the issue released and 1964 is the year at the top left of the HUD is a section called glidertech sync with a little picture of a glider next to it it also says that it's scanning so it must be searching for the glider signal although it's not able to find it towards the bottom left are some other features like a health monitor and a graph for flight range if we move to the bottom right of the HUD we can see an energy section potentially for the battery of the mass or glider and under that we have a satellite map of the world then at the top right of the HUD we have a weapons section the topmost one seems to highlight a type of hand grenade or pumpkin bomb which will get a better look at shortly below that is a section that shows a missile and that it's fully operational and ready to engage so a ton of intriguing information here pertaining to a future Green Goblin we'll next investigate how to open up the hidden room and we find a keypad hidden behind a portrait of Norman and Harry we're now free to explore Norman's Penthouse which is full of little details on his and Harry's lives I'm just going to point out the stuff that I found most insightful though starting with another image of Osborne and Octavius working together as business partners it's cool to see them back in the day and I like the contrast of how happy they seem together in the photo compared to now where they're trying to kill each other Norman also has a wall with Awards on it and one in particular caught my eye it's the Pim Foundation Award and in the bottom right it's signed by Henry Pym you may also know him as Hank Pym the original Ant-Man so a really cool missable Easter egg there another thing that's kind of interesting is this recorded message Norman left where he speaks to his dead wife about Harry I've put Harry for treatment we'll fix him em I promise development of gr27 was too slow to save you won't fail Harry next to this recording is also a tree that's of importance to Norman for it now that she's Jesus go a long way to build Norman's character the tree resembles not only his wife but his son Harry I'm sure he's made a point of keeping this tree safe in memory of his wife but now you can imagine that it could soon be a memorial to Harry as well this whole time we've just seen Norman as a rich manipulative snob which is still true but we've just learned the motivation behind his actions it wasn't greed that drove his obsession with gr-27 but desperation it could have cured his wife Emily but they ran out of time and she died now it's revealed that Harry has a similar ailment and Norman Can't Fail again and lose another member of his family so I think this is great character building for Norman we may not agree with his actions but we can see why he does what he does MJ also enters Harry's room where she finds a bunch of medical equipment up until now MJ and Peter have been led to believe that Harry has been on a trip to Europe this whole time instead he's been sent away for treatment we can analyze his diary which reveals everything in more detail Harry's condition is something called neurodegeneration rapid onset Morgan Michaels is in charge of treating Harry and he considers the experimental treatment a 50 50 shot Harry says he never told MJ and Peter the truth because he didn't want them to go through what he did with watching his mom die so again Great Character work by the writers of the game especially considering this is a character that we never really see also in this journal is the date Harry left for treatment which is the code to get into the secret room this is also the moment Sable and Norman return with some guards so it's time to start sneaking again like I mentioned earlier things are a lot more fun now that we have the stun gun it's really satisfying taking out the guards and being able to use the lore to strategically position them makes things even more fun in part 2 we'll talk about Peter's Gadget use in combat but I'm getting a similar enjoyment here now that MJ has a couple gadgets of her own to play around with having multiple gadgets to play with gave me more options with how to approach this room and helped me feel like I had a more active role in this environment so out of all the MJ missions in the game this one is easily my favorite and by a significant degree the other ones felt too slow mostly because they relied so much on just stealth I think I like this level in the Grand Central one so much because they incorporate strategy into MJ's gameplay it's one thing to lure a guard to an area and then run by them it's more exciting to lure them into an area and then take them out and then continue working towards clearing the rest of the room I also enjoy this level in particular because I feel more like an investigator the other levels I just snuck around from point A to point B and collected a file this time I got to run around Norman's Penthouse finding Clues keys and passcodes I also learned a bunch about Norman and Harry's backstory which felt rewarding as the player so even if we're not always tasked with clearing the room of bad guys a good investigation can be fun too especially when there's information that's valuable to the player in there so that's why this is my favorite of the MJ missions I'm given a lot more agency with how I approach both the investigation and navigating a room so despite the hate MJ missions often get I would totally be down for more of them in the future if Insomniac can hone in on this formula moving on though we eventually make it to the secret room which contains some really cool details as well first off we can see that Norman has been experimenting with spiders attempting to replicate Spider-Man's powers in the prequel novel during Osborne search for a cure he accidentally gave one of his secret research participants powers and he became the comic villain blood spider so it seems Norman has been delving into research even more so since then MJ also calls out the different abilities Osborne has been experimenting with bioelectrokinesis Optical camouflage what the hell is he trying to create these are the abilities Miles Morales will have later we can also find some prototype hand grenades on a desk likely the ones that we saw referenced in the HUD of the combat mask these bombs are a trademark weapon of the Green Goblin although in the comics they're typically shaped like pumpkins hence the name pumpkin bombs the ones in the game resemble the movie grenades more closely though MJ also finds a map table with different points of interest than Oscorp employees on it one of the employees listed is Dr Strom who we mentioned earlier is a robotics expert in the comic Strom also develops the goblin formula even more interesting is another name Dr Van Adder movement from Dr Van Adder must be out of the city in the comics Nels van Adder agreed to be a test subject for an early version of the goblin formula created by Dr Strom the result was that van Adder mutated into a red creature known as proto-goblin he was super powered but also experienced bursts of insanity he only appeared for one issue in the comics after being pushed out a window never to be seen again MJ's comment about van Adder possibly being out of the city is intriguing too my personal speculation is that maybe van Adder has already been exposed to the goblin serum and turned into the proto-goblin causing Norman to contain him elsewhere outside of the city or maybe this whole incident has already gone down and like in the comics nobody knows where he's gone since being launched out the window continuing on MJ is able to determine the likely location of devil's breath using the map before heading out though MJ conducts further research around the room and finds an old video regarding the Martin Lee incident and we are rolling I will be right next door just relax and let the medicine do its work come on [Music] [Music] ah what have you done that's a really haunting scene and shows the origins of Martin Lee and why he despises Norman so much unlike the comics it's not the magia that gives Martin his powers it was an experiment from Norman and Otto this was also the experiment that led Otto to leave the company I like how everything comes together in this moment too as we learned that this was the Catalyst for the big moments in the game if it wasn't for Norman's Obsession and willingness to make unethical experiments we wouldn't have Mr negative this also wouldn't have driven Otto away and maybe we wouldn't have Dr Octopus it all comes back to Norman but he's not the only one to blame Mr negative could have chosen not to become a terrorist and punish the city for Norman's mistakes the same goes for Otto each of them is the hero of Their Own Story believing their crusading against the evil Norman Osborne only to become even worse than him it's a really interesting premise and I like how involved the writers went with this story and their character psychology in a panic MJ begins to download all these files but also knocks over a spider cage this alerts silver Sable to the area forcing MJ to hide while she's hiding we see she has a little spider buddy hitching right on her jacket once Sable leaves MJ makes her Escape before she can fully get out she's found by Sable and MJ's only option is to jump off the roof she calls for Peter and takes a trust fall knowing that he'll save her during an interview with Beyond Brian enhar described that this moment is meant to Showcase MJ and Peter's ability to trust each other again Peter is trying to trust MJ when she puts herself in danger but he also sticks around if she needs him MJ on the other hand appreciates that Peter trusted her to sneak into Norman's Penthouse and she now accepts that there are moments that she'll need his help the two are now partners and have reached a point where they can trust each other and work together which I think is a pretty cool Arc for them both afterwards MJ debriefs Peter about everything she found and Peter heads to the lab containing the anti-serum Martin Lee is already there and has managed to make his way inside not only that but we see that he's already managed to capture Norman inside we see that Dr Michaels has no choice but to give the anti-serum to Mr negative it mentions that this is the only vial that they have Martin doesn't care and continues to threaten Norman but before he can kill him Spider-Man shows up we're now in our final boss fight against Mr negative this is another good fight and I felt it was a challenging final showdown against him in his first phase he's fast and very powerful so you'll do a lot of dodging as you attempt to get the upper hand on him the second phase takes things to a new level though as you enter his world as he's engulfed by a giant demon made of dark energy you'll have to fight him like this while also dealing with the minions he conjures it's a very fast-paced battle and I felt like my skills were really put to the test so I thought this was an excellent final boss fight but after beating him Spider-Man reclaims the anti-serum for himself at least until Dr Octopus arrives and decides to handle things himself we see just how imposing Otto is now as he quickly dispatches Spider-Man without much effort nearly killing him Otto then takes the anti-serum for himself and also kidnaps Norman Spider-Man is soon found by Sable and Dr Michaels who take him to the feast shelter Spider-Man's in bad shape forcing Dr Michaels to tend to him he does what he can with limited supplies keeping Peter alive but he's still beat up also in bad shape as Aunt May who's near death herself her only hope is the anti-serum but Peter is unsure he can get it maybe Spider-Man needs help from his friend Peter Peter helped build those arms remember if anyone can find a weakness it's him go get him tiger this pep talk was exactly the light bulb moment Peter needed and he immediately gets to work meanwhile the spider that was latched onto MJ now leaves her and lands on Miles it bites him and we know this is the beginning of a new Spider-Man entering New York City if I was MJ though I'd be pissed carrying around the super spider all day only for it to jump onto someone else and give them Powers I'd be heated but anyway we next catch up with Peter as he enters the lab we did The Impossible doc but now I have to destroy it with a little creation of my own I love this notebook Montage here and I have to imagine it was inspired by a similar looking Montage from the Spider-Man one movie the result is really awesome though a new spider suit designed to match Ox tentacle armor we then cut to Otto who's brought Norman to the top of Oscorp wanting him to admit the truth of all his wrongdoings the truth is you were only ever worth a damn when you worked for me the truth is you could never accept that I'm better than you you're a failure Auto and you always will be [Applause] [Music] [Music] another great scene that gives us a conclusion between Norman and Otto and an exciting entrance for Spider-Man also Norman's expression here is so frustrating in a good way he just got saved and he's giving this cocky sneer as he turns away it's tough to say what exactly he's thinking but I've always interpreted it that he's happy that these two are going to face off two of his problems handling each other while he skates free I could definitely see it interpreted other ways and I'd be curious to hear your thoughts on it but I thought this was a great final shot of Norman that feels really in character but we'll talk about Norman more later for now we're on to the climactic final showdown between Peter and Otto and right from the start it feels epic the whole game has been building up the relationship and motivations of these two characters and now we're at the moment where they clash and it feels personal there's a lot of emotional weight behind this fight and it elevates everything the fight itself is really great too though visually we're at the top of the world battling it out above the city and that alone makes things feel very Grand and scale but also very isolating we're trapped on this Tower with awk with nobody else nearby I also think the new suit looks great right here with the Sleek shine of the metallic armor alongside the bold and bright yellow spider symbol it all looks really cool and cinematic Otto is a challenging final boss too he has a lot of reach with his arms and he's also very quick this really tested my skills with my Spider Sense which admittedly I wasn't as quick as I thought I was Otto also has a lot of range and will regularly launch debris at you he's a difficult Foe and it feels like nowhere is safe against him it was really fun trying to overcome that though like by launching debris back at him or webbing him up I also love the unique takedown animations you can perform on him showing again the talent of the animation team that's only the first phase though as things get more intense when Otto blows up the tower engulfing the floor in fire you can no longer safely touch the ground so you're forced to rely on your swinging skills and ability to stay in the air all the while Otto goes full King Kong at the top of the tower swatting at you with a hail of debris if you can catch one and hit him with it you'll get the opportunity to throw him back on the ground and the Fight Continues like this for a while until you do enough damage to him Peter then removes the chip on on the back of Otto's head and in response Otto destroys Peter's web shooters I like this because it shows how evenly matched they are matching each other blow for blow but during this moment is when a big Revelation is confirmed such a disappointment Parker new I tried to warn you Peter didn't listen you I won't let you win this means too much to me not more than it means to me I really need to complement the performances of Yuri lowenthal and William Sawyers here who are really selling this moment especially Yuri who's doing a great job of displaying Peter's feelings of betrayal and disgusted Auto all this time Otto knew his identity and has still hurt him and even worse Otto is to blame for Aunt May's current condition this is a bit ironic given that Otto and Anime have been shown to have feelings for each other in the comics at times at one point they even tried to get married although Otto had ulterior motives in that issue but anyway the Fight Continues and Peter and Otto end up on the side of the building this brings us to the next phase of the battle which maintains its epic feeling primarily due to how cinematic everything looks along with the weight of everything Peter says to Otto I really feel sad for Peter In This Moment I'm doing my killer [Music] oh you made so much to me I hate that you're making me do this my only criticism is that I think this section of the fight begins to overstay its welcome after a while and starts to feel repetitive I'm hooked to the emotions and visuals but the gameplay just feels like Dodge punch punch punch Dodge punch punch punch I can go with it because everything else is dialed to 11 but I do wish the gameplay was able to hold that quality as well Hawk eventually gets a grip on Peter and even stabs him with a tentacle Peter's able to out think Otto here by lighting the tentacle stab into him further so he can fully disable Otto's arms again matching each other blow for blow Auto begins to free fall and Peter Dives after him mostly to claim the anti-serum auto ricochets off some debris and ends up on his back in an office building his last Gambit is manipulation and I think this is probably the best scene between William and Yuri they should have known you turd on me just like all the others turn I've worshiped you your mind your conscience wanting to help others the way you never gave up that's because men like us have a duty a responsibility to use our talents in the service of others even if they don't appreciate it we have to do what's best for those beneath us whether they understand it or not no you're wrong you are everything I wanted to be you just threw it away yes of course you're right Peter oh I see that now the neural interface affected my mind we couldn't fix it if you'll help me do everything I can I'll make sure you get the best of no if they put me away they'll take my arms I'll be trapped in this useless body please Peter so that wasn't me you said you'd never abandoned me I promise remember that of course you rest easy knowing your secret is safe with me you do what you think is best doc it's all many of us can't be there even when it works like hell you know where are you going what a captivating performance every time I watch that I'm so gripped by their interaction one of my favorite moments is when Otto starts to talk about responsibility now it's up to them to do what's best for those beneath them in this moment Otto is like a twisted Uncle Ben figure and I really like that parallel but overall this was such a gripping performance and I think it's such a spectacular finale for these two characters and a great payoff for all the build up we've experienced the entire game everything comes together here and I absolutely love it it doesn't end here though as Peter brings Morgan Michael's the anti-serum this is the only vial so they'll need it as a base to mass produce more for the city Aunt May doesn't have time like that though and needs the serum right now if she's going to live this puts Peter in a really tough position either save Aunt May and doom the city or let Aunt May die and save everyone else Peter gets a moment to speak with Aunt May before making this decision take off your [Music] man you knew known for a while I never wanted you to worry I am so proud of you and Ben would be too all the people you've saved I don't know what to do yes you do [Music] it's such a tough scene to watch but it's another great example of Peter and Spider-Man's world's colliding Peter wants to save Aunt May but Spider-Man needs to save the city we get a great visual representation of that in this overhead shot as Peter lays his head on May's hand with Peter unmasked and his head between Aunt May and his spider symbol it looks like Peter caught in the middle of what's important to him as Peter Parker and his duty as Spider-Man and even more of a gut punch the screen Fades to Black and all we can hear is May's heart monitor killing aunt mayoff was quite the ballsy move by Insomniac but I think it feels earned and adds great weight to the story in the next scene we see that the anti-serum has been mass produced and is being passed out to the citizens May sacrifice has saved the city and I think it's a poetic ending to how she dedicated her life to helping others at Feast we next see Otto again as he's being locked up in the raft the last shot we get of him he stares aggressively at the screen so don't count Otto out he could very easily return at a later point he's already proven he knows how to get around the RAF security measures and he's gotten out of pinches like this in the comics plenty of times as well for example he's managed to free himself from prison through a telepathic link he maintains with his arms then there's the most notorious move Otto has made where he manages to body swap Peter like in the game Otto's body is failing him and he knows the end is near as a last-ditch effort he uses a device to swap bodies with Peter trapping Peter in his body as it dies Otto then takes over Peter's life as The Superior Spider-Man I'm not sure we'll see either of these play out in the game but it goes to show that you should never count out Otto he'll always find a way he might already be making moves as we see in a newspaper later that Otto is pleading insanity if successful this could get him transferred to a lower security prison perhaps ravencroft Institute for the criminally insane we then cut to three months later where Peter and MJ meet at a restaurant MJ has received a promotion to associate editor while Peter is still on the job hunt he's considering a career change and explains why the last project I worked on I created a monster octopus that almost destroyed the city so I could be reaching here but that could also be a slight nod to the Spider-Man PS1 game where Dr Octopus combines with the Carnage symbiote and is called Monster awk the scene at the restaurant ends with Peter and MJ sharing a kiss and we know their relationship is back on track in a GDC presentation regarding the animations in the game a mocap session of this scene is shown between MJ actress Laura Bailey and Peter Parker actor Yuri lowenthal this takes us to the credits which I just want to show for a couple seconds because they look so awesome I love the style and the way that there are images within images is really trippy to the point it takes my brain a minute to acknowledge everything that I'm seeing we also get a couple post-credit scenes as well the First shows miles and Peter setting up an apartment and Miles shares with Peter that he's got spider powers Peter then reciprocates by revealing that he's Spider-Man setting up their Mentor mentee relationship also their friendship is so well set up throughout the rest of the game that I always forget that Peter hasn't revealed his identity to miles until now is that just me it's not a criticism it's just a revelation I seem to randomly have every time I watch this scene we'll of course get plenty of quality time with Miles coming up in this spin-off game and I plan on covering that soon as well sometime after part two of this game so stay tuned for that we still have one final post credit scene though and it's a real kicker we see Norman re-enter his secret room but this time he opens the window to a container we learned that this is where Harry has been the entire time that his experimental treatment is a symbiote this raises a multitude of questions the immediate ones being are we getting Venom in the next game and does that mean it'll be Harry instead of Eddie Brock the first question is confirmed to be true we are getting Venom in the sequel but Harry's role is a little more obscure I'm writing this before the release of the sequel game so I don't know how things will play out there but my immediate thoughts on this post-credits scene are that we don't know if the Symbiote is bonding with Harry since symbiotes are very particular about their hosts the color of the water tank is also curious since it's a dark green color which I think suggests the Green Goblin again in the next shot that green illuminates onto Norman's face which could be another nod toward him becoming the Green Goblin both Harry and Norman have been the Green Goblin in the comics so it's tough to say for certain if it's a nod towards one or the other I really like this next moment though where Norman puts his hand on the glass and he reaches out to Harry and the Symbiote reaches back this could be interpreted a couple ways the first is that Harry has some kind of bond with the Symbiote now and is controlling it to reach out to Norman like he's putting his own hand on the glass and they sent him mental way the other reading is that the Symbiote isn't bonding to Harry and is reaching out toward Norman as it attempts to find a new host like I said since the sequel will be releasing pretty shortly after the release of this video I don't want to get too speculative since so much will probably be proven wrong or irrelevant so I'll just leave it at that but I just want to say how much I love scenes like this that can be interpreted in a couple different ways it gives fans a lot to discuss and it leaves the door open for so many possibilities in the next game but that concludes the story of Marvel Spider-Man and what a brilliant story it was I can't stop praising how creative and well executed everything was I think the character work is what's most compelling here too the main plot is good but I think it would fall flat if we didn't form a connection with each character and understand their motivations I think Insomniac were successful on that front and I'm really impressed with how much depth each character has everyone seems to have their own internal motivations that drive them and the psychology behind each one is fleshed out to the point that we get where they're coming from even if their logic is flawed as with Martin Lee and Otto Octavius I found each character to be really captivating and the performance from each actor went a long way to elevate things further I also really appreciate how much care it's omniac took with the story and their ability to continue iterating on things if they felt something was off or to just challenge themselves further I'm also really glad Sony was so supportive of Insomniac providing them with the flexibility of reshoots and other resources to improve on aspects of the game a lot of Publishers won't do that and it hurts the quality of those games here it shows just how much better a game can look when it's given the proper care and not rushed out the door for a quick cash grab and this game certainly rewarded Sony for that Outlook becoming the fastest selling PlayStation game selling over 3.3 million copies in just three days it continues to be one of Sony's best-selling properties as well having sold over 20 million copies as of 2020. so you know by now it's only gotten better since then but it's well deserved Insomniac gave this game a ton of care and you can see their passion for the character and universe all throughout it but we've only experienced the tip of the iceberg in this video since there are still DLCs side missions Collectibles and an entire open world we still need to discuss which is what we'll do in part two a video that will be jam-packed with content and I'm really excited for it so keep an eye out for that coming up as far as other future projects I'm also working on a video for Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy and I'm chipping away at that while I work on Spider-Man then of course is even more Spider-Man this fall where I'll continue the Symbiote series with games such as Web of Shadows Ultimate Spider-Man and Spider-Man 3. in the meantime if you're interested in learning more about the world of Insomniac Spiderman I'd recommend checking out both the prequel novel and art book there are a lot of details in them that I didn't describe in the video and I had a lot of fun reading them myself I also referenced a few podcast interviews in this video which are also packed with cool details so I'll have those Linked In the description if you're in the mood for more retrospectives like this one I have a bunch of different Marvel ones especially for Spider-Man for example I think the video on neversoft Spider-Man for PS1 pairs nicely with this one to get a sense of the evolution of Spider-Man games over the years but there are plenty more to choose from in the meantime while I continue working on the new ones but I think that includes today's video so thank you to those of you who watch this far into the video I really appreciate that and I'll see you in the next one [Music] foreign [Music]

Channel: Always Nerdy

Views: 314,194

Keywords: marvel's spiderman ps4 retrospective review, marvels spiderman 1 game, insomniac spiderman 1, spider-man ps4 game, spiderman remastered, insomniac, sony, always nerdy, easter eggs, behind the scenes

Id: Z4mfiLfeHWM

Length: 174min 21sec (10461 seconds)

Published: Fri Sep 29 2023