Should You Buy Marvel's Spider-Man 2? (Spoiler Free)

Marvel Spider-Man 2 is a highly anticipated sequel to Marvel Spider-Man and it's sequel spin-off Marvel Spider-Man Miles Morales the game is out now and this video will aim to help you decide if it's worth purchasing of course with as few spoilers as possible I'll be showing the first 2 hours of gameplay anything that's been shown in trailers and some out of context crime fighting so expect minor gameplay spoilers and a few story spoilers I also cannot stress this enough if you are watching this review to decide if the game is worth the time and money make sure you watch other reviews as well to be sure of your purchase I've been wrong before when evaluating games and will continue to be flawed one final bit of context is my biases the largest is that I'm a massive Spider-Man fan and I would have paid $110 for this game and in fact I did you know Canadian economic crisis yada yada so with all that said let's see if Spider-Man 2 is a sequel we've all been waiting for or if it's oh who are we kidding the game is great it's twice the action twice the world size Twice The Spider and twice the men I had some lofty expectations for this game and in nearly every aspect Insomniac cleared those expectations there are obviously so many moments I can't talk about but the amount of time something would happen in the game that I thought was never going to happen leading up to the release was insane and my jaw was on the floor for most of the playthrough its gameplay is improved in some areas worse than others its world is massive and its story is both balls to the wall but grounded at the same time it truly feels as though Insomniac has lived up to their own Ambitions and any fan of the first games is probably already playing it but if you aren't convinced yet allow me to break down my thoughts beginning with the presentation the world is gorgeous full stop forget the size of New York even excluding the two new areas the world is consistent eye candy whether that be when it's glistening with floral Vibrance or beaten down by a thunderstorm buildings have detailed interiors and raate tracing is here regardless of if you're on performance or Fidelity mode it's especially noticeable in many cut scenes and it's in these cut scenes that it feels like Insomniac is showing off the way the camera seamlessly speeds through the city to transition us from one Spider-Man to the other and you know what Insomniac earned it because while it's art style might not be the most defined I can understand some gripes with the UI the sheer technical achievement here is a Marvel the same applies to the cut scenes where all the characters despite their facelifts look amazing and personally I like the new designs here Peter is doing his best to sustain himself without a safety net and the more mature faces complement the mature story well and Peter and MJ get some great development here part of what makes the cut scene so good aside from the picture perfect frames that will surely litter any Fan's wallpaper is the animation work which is topnotch something to note here is that not all animations are new miles and Peter have learned a lot from each other over the last year and so it makes sense that they begin to share some moves and truthfully returning to takedowns and Swinging animations work here in a continuity sense but even if it doesn't there are a myriad new animations here to Feast your eyes on that make combat visceral and Swinging some of the best we've seen the new islands here are great and I've noticed a complaint that some of the new areas feel like more of New York lacking their own identity and I can see where that criticism comes from even by the endgame I would think I was in New York when I was actually in Brooklyn and so on I imagine this will improve as I play the game more and I think the missions here make good use of the new locals no matter who you're playing as main missions in the game force you to play is either Peter or miles which is great because choosing between which one I want to use in the open world is hard enough but you'll notice that the two look completely different not just in their suits but in their movement miles Swings with this improvisation that starkly different from Peter's rigid poses that he strikes in the air like a figure skater despite this when the two team up everything clicks including the soundtrack which is spectacular in the opening of Spider-Man PS4 we had Peter's first swing scored by a rock song and for Miles his first swing was scored by a hip-hop inspired track so it's insanely fitting that when the game opens with the two swinging into action it's scored by a song with both Rock and Hip-Hop influences as far as performances I saw very few areas where the frame rate dropped and it was only when I was intentionally trying to cause as much chaos as possible I also only noticed Popin one time but one thing I did notice was more visual glitches specifically with animations I think this is caused by the new swing assist slider which if turned to zero won't stop you from swinging into the pavement as previous games have and this points to the game likely being designed to run Swinging with the slider turned all the way up the default setting I imagine this option was added to shut up people like me who have been complaining for ages now about difficulty and consider my mouth shut cuz the swinging without this assist feature is more challenging but way more rewarding and this goes for most of the game too combat included stealth excluded on top of the new flashy animations for both characters there's some added depth to The Swinging and of course it's supplemented by the wings suit which I thought I wouldn't use very much but I can assure you that it's more fun to play than it looks and it highlights something great about Spider-Man 2 which is speed swinging in previous games were good but they didn't have the same speed as some of the older games due to being on a hard drive but with the S s SD on the PS5 you can go so much faster which makes traversal more visceral and again more challenging which makes pulling off stylish moves more rewarding because it's more of my inputs and less of the game holding my hand there is still plenty of hand holding but not enough to get in the way for the most part there's still a lack of freedom in many moves you'll still only be able to swing off a pole in One Direction and with one animation but the added ability showcase Insomniac has more tricks up their sleeve to illustrate this let's look at the loop-de-loop an ability where you can gain more momentum by swinging a full 360 before launching off your line this action is generally canned and can only be performed in a specific context is it fun oh yeah tactful also yes the same is true for the slingshots which are an exhilarating way to start traversal and again gains great speed which can perfectly transfer into the wing suit the wings suit is a supplement to the web swinging and I had my worries that it would nullify the swinging but that isn't the case at all it's difficult to gain momentum in the wing suit but it's easy when swinging and it's difficult to maintain momentum when there's nothing to swing from but that's easy when gliding they complement each other well and now that I have them I don't I know if I could ever go without them speeding through the wind tunnels like a bullet train only to shoot out the other side towards the sky to then dive straight down using a web to transfer all that momentum into opening the web Wings again just never gets old I should also acknowledge that I may not be doing The Swinging Justice because I have to show early game footage where I sucked at it and it was just a skill issue I promise The Swinging feels good and I loved it regardless of how often I failed at it every ability from the previous game makes a return here and Peter even gets his own midair Dash and jump thanks to his spider arms if you like the swinging from the last two games and you'll love it here it's better in nearly every way and with the swing assist and fall damage turned on not only is it more challenging which goes a long way for replayability and expression but it also means dying to fall damage is downright hysterical he has some sort of power suit kicked all kinds of butt with this extends to the combat 2 where you can get properly comboed by enemies as can you to them the combat has been overhauled in many ways and one of the best changes as to the abilities which are now on cool down with the focus bar being strictly for Focus this solves some balancing issues with Miles specifically but not in any way that makes any one character feel underpowered in fact both characters are powerhouses but instead of nerfing them it's the enemies that get a buff the enemies you fight this time around take a lot of damage and while some reviews have criticized these enemies for being damaged sponges and I can see where that comes from I enjoyed it because it means more juggling my enemies bullying them back and forth from ground to air I agree with the criticism that it sometimes feels as though you're fighting endless waves of enemies but once you get used to cycling your abilities gadgets webs and more you'll have no issues keeping up with what the game throws at you and instead of dodging what the game throws at you you can also Parry too parrying adds a new layer of necessity to combat parrying will be essential to survival especially against some of the new brute enemies it's a simple change and one that might be out of place in a Spider-Man Adventure but they do Elevate the combat so I can't complain the new enemy types and classes introduced have unique abilities that challenge you in different ways it's no longer just juggling five enemies at once it's about managing the ranged enemies ones with emps that can supress miles Powers ones that fire Rockets ones that have Shields and at times it was really overwhelming but those points where I hit the Flow State and danced my way through an encounter were golden despite the challenges thrown your way the game still gives you the power fantasy as shown in previous gameplay the black suit rage mechanic allows Peter to absolutely poml enemies for free which really highlights how strong the suit is and all of this is delivered by Yuri lenthal who genuinely deserves awards for his performance here all of this is without talking about the boss fights and unfortunately I can't say much we've already seen the lizard fight and Chase which is a great example to look at but understand that most of the fights post lizard are delving into spoiler territory so I can't show them fortunately this lizard fight is a good exhibit to the difficulty which had me stumped on bosses for a while In fairness I shot myself in the foot because I poured all of my upgrade points into traversal but either way each boss has Combos and need to be memorized in order to Parry properly and their Mix-Ups kept me on my toes and in many cases flat on my ass bosses have large health bars and in many cases multiple health bars with different phases introducing new moves new areas and new gimmicks to play around there's significant improvement over the first game both in terms of variety and challenge I can't say specifically which boss but one of the late game bosses took me ages to get past and I never once felt it was unfair I just had a skill issue the spectacle alone was taught from previous entries and that is the understatement of the Year hell the game even opens with a sandman fight that sees miles and Peter being slammed into and through buildings this is an admittedly simple fight given that it's the first 20 minutes of the game but it was still amazing and the fights are almost all this good once again I cannot give specific examples examples but despite some reviews saying the opposite I was consistently surprised not only at what the gameplay offered but what the story did too I initially believe then somniac gave too much away in their trailers and showcases leading up to the game but I now realize they truly have saved the best for when you play it yourself so it may seem like it's nothing but improvements across the board right well yeah but stealth is surprisingly bare you don't have the same gadgets from the first game which in terms of balance makes sense I guess but in stealth we still face the issue of it being too easy and Insomniac does not give us any extra challenges the stealth Arenas are wellmade and offer room for puzzling situations figuring out how to move your target into the right position but early on you receive an upgrade where you can fire a web line across the room walk on it and pick off enemies from it this makes stealth a snoozefest and while I often didn't use it for this reason same goes for miles and visibility the issue remains stealth here is really simple and without the gadgets it is arguably less freedom than Miles Morales this does make sense within the context of the game and story combat was a huge Focus this time around and with Peter in the black suit he has the power to forego go a quiet approach but some enemy types that could counter our near endless means of silently dispatching bad guys would have been nice at least one solid Improvement is with the AI which now looks up far more leading to more complicated scenarios one last note about Stealth the best stealth sections are with the returning Mary Jane missions I won't go into specifics but because she has fewer tools she has to be more resourceful and smart meaning sometimes it's better to sneak past enemies entirely instead of taking them out the MJ missions were a good amount of fun this time around but I still had the feeling that I had in Spider-Man PS4 which was I paid to play Spider-Man why am I spending so much time as you know not Spider-Man fortunately they are fewer this time around but again they're pretty fun the main missions are great too weaving in Friendly Neighborhood work with the usual faded New York Fair it's entertaining from start to finish and it's a crime we can't replay specific missions yet it's supposedly coming in a patch along with new game plus s content on the other hand has received some criticisms notably for being quite standard and yeah visually they're interesting enough but most of the side content is on par with the last two games fortunately the larger Quest feature interesting characters and stories I feel are worth engaging in finally I just have to mention how many Easter eggs there are in this game whether it be copies of Spider-Man comics in a kid's bedroom to marry Jane on multiple occasions rocking her iconic yellow sweater you can tell that there was love put into every corner of this game which is why I believe its flaws struggle to bring down the product as a whole yeah stealth isn't great compared to combat but the combat is so good and the issues with stealth aren't necessarily that it's bad but rather that it's not as good as the rest of the game in no other area does this passion shine through than in the game story I'll have to speak vaguely again for obvious reasons but the general themes of the last two games continue for Spider-Man 2 Peter is trying his best to be a functioning adult in the short windows where he isn't Spider-Man and Miles feels the role of a young hero who is struggling to find direction after graduation and seeing his friends doing great things while he is seemingly going nowhere there's a consistent theme of Darkness throughout the game and what the anger within somebody does to them how it corrupts them whether through loss betrayal grief or jealousy nearly every character has to face their Dark Side to some extent but of course the focus is on Peter from most of the game miles is still a main character but his story does serve Peter's as a whole often times feeling like a b plot which works appropriately as Peter gets wrapped up in the Symbiote Shenanigans miles gets a chance to have a smaller more friendly neighborhood story that slowly expands and intervenes with Peter's struggle one thing to note is that based on the trailers we saw I assume that Craven would be sidelined by the main attraction being Venom but be warned Craven is a very prominent character and his character has done really well here as are all the other characters anything from the major twist to the small moments of dialogue are handled with hair the opening scene for example shows how both Peter and miles are grappling with their double lives and hij Jinks quickly ensue I I I need your help uh Mr Morales is it uh are you sure this isn't something you can handle yourself I'm sure okay class uh read chapter 4 or five or whatever I enjoyed the story provided here but I do feel that the Final Act of the game bordered on getting too crazy but I'm not sure on that I may change my mind the same goes for the feeling that MJ was shoehorned into a lot of scenarios where she ends up doing a task that the Spider-Man could have done without her and probably faster too they're minor gripes and they look small compared to the heights the story reaches it starts strong and it's a roller coaster from start to finish so to answer the question the title posed is Spider-Man 2 worth your money if you're a Spider-Man fan yes if you enjoyed the first game and Miles Morales yes if you didn't like the first game and thought it was boring then this likely won't change your mind it is a sequel in its truest form building off the foundations of its predecessor but not changing it fundamentally another valid question is this a console seller maybe if you've been wanting a PS5 and haven't played the Spider-Man games yet or only played one then I'd say having the Insomniac catalog on a console is a great choice but with how most of the recent PS5 exclusives are coming to PC a year or two after release I think you're fine to wait if you really don't want to buy a console are you buying Spider-Man 2 are you already playing it what do you think of it a reminder again to watch other reviews so you can be as informed as possible and thank you to the channel members and patrons for supporting the channel if you want to get access to videos early and support the channel you can do so by becoming a patron leaving a like and subscribing are helpful too and thank you so much for watching and supporting me stay safe and take care

Channel: That Boy Aqua

Views: 120,417

Keywords: Marvel's Spider-Man 2, Spider-Man 2, Marvels Spiderman 2, Marvel's Spider-Man, Spider-Man, Miles Morales, Peter Parker, Spider-Man 2 Review, Spiderman 2 Review, Spider-Man 2 Analysis, Spider-Man 2 Gameplay, Spoiler Free Review, Spider-Man 2 Suits, Spider-Man PS5, New Spider-Man game, Black Suit Gameplay, Spider-Man 2 Black Suit, Spider-Man 2 Spoiler Free Review, Spider-Man 2 Free Roam

Id: uJKi_K4fp7c

Length: 14min 36sec (876 seconds)

Published: Sat Oct 21 2023