NOT all superhero games have been hits, but Insomniac has shown that it knows what it’s doing.
From the first Marvel’s Spider-Man, the team showed players how they can fill Peter Parker’s shoes.
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The sequel is an improvement in almost every way that matters.
While the original had slick combat, fast-paced traversal, and a heartfelt story, the side missions held it back.
Spider-Man 2 keeps some of this repetition, but it does an excellent job of playing with your expectations, and changing the formulas.
Some of the side stories are also more personal to the lives of Miles Morales and Peter Parker, making the main story’s stakes even higher.
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Both Spider-Men are playable, and you can switch between the two when exploring the city.
There are missions where you are forced to play as a specific character, which feed into the main story, and answer some of the bigger questions.
While there is no co-op gameplay, the single-player story is the stronger for it.
Mary Jane is also more capable than ever, and stealth missions which could be frustrating in the original, have seen a much needed upgrade.
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Overall there is more freedom. You’re not stuck down one path, and you have more options for how to tackle each mission.
New York is highlighted by the delightful web-slinging, which is as amazing as it always has been.
Web wings add to the fun of traversal, and give you even more ways to fly through the city.
The combat also contains all the tricks we loved from the original, but you can now use the environment more to help out in battle.
There are also new parry attacks, which gives you even more options when it comes to each fight.
One weak point remains and that’s the boss fights. There aren’t any gimmicks here, but this has left some of them feeling forgettable.
More than a special battle, they feel more like a larger enemy with multiple health bars.
The Symbiote suit also gives you a number of new weapons, and watching the combat in the trailer doesn’t do it justice.
You feel unstoppable once you master its range of abilities, which lends further to the game’s themes.
While Venom was featured heavily in the trailers, he’s not as heavily featured in the game as you think.
This means he doesn’t outstay his welcome, but the scenes which he’s in are also some of the best parts of the game.
Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 doesn’t reinvent the wheel, but it doesn’t matter when a game plays, looks, and sounds as good as this.
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It’s an improvement over the first game and proves how polished and slick a sequel can be when the developer is free to revisit and refine on top of solid foundations.
Written by Georgina Young on behalf of GLHF.
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