Superhero games are nothing new; there’s hundreds of web swinging, batarang throwing, Lego building titles dedicated to certain heroes, most notably Batman, from the Arkham night series (which was a great series). Though in the last two years their hasn’t been many stand out hero titles despite the huge boost in popularity from the movie industry (you probably already know which series — but which is the best?), so a new Spider-Man is a great refresher and will hopefully launch a new wave of great superhero games. But its hard not to notice — why no Thor or Avenger’s game (actually that's coming sometime in 2019) — why Spiderman and was it a good choice?
There has been 25 Spiderman games, ranging all the way from 1980 to today; it would be to many to list, but basically there's a lot of old Spiderman games (some of which are terrible by todays standards). So why create another of the same game for the 25th time? Unsurprisingly, because it works every time. Spiderman is easily one of the most versatile superheroes, with his fast web swinging, stealth, and heavy action, it makes a formula that fits what most people want.
After this was announced at E3, there was quite a lot of controversy based on the graphics — the most recent trailer showed the same angle of a very shiny puddle and some enemies (sounds amazing right?), and compared to the E3 trailer — it didn’t look half as good. This stirred up some ideas in the community of whether it was a fake marketing ploy (that was definitely working), which wasn’t great considering the game was releasing the next week. Insomniac’s response, was that the sun was at a different angle and the puddles have been moved slightly, but this didn’t remedy the situation and made it somewhat worse. The Irony is, that the graphics weren’t different in both the trailer’s, but the quality was compressed and as unlikely as it seemed, the sun had indeed changed angle. The game actually has the best graphics in that of the superhero genre to date and look stunning on a PS4 pro — so in that regard, in my opinion, its the best looking PS4 game of 2018 (apart from God of War 4).
A lot of the time in superhero games there’s somewhat limited character customisation because of the developers trying to keep it as ‘accurate as possible’. But to fans excitement, Insomniac threw this out the window alongside any cares for the accuracy of the game in relation to the MCU, which is great. The 28 ‘Spidey — suits’ are all individual, different playstyles and add different possibilities to the gameplay, rather than leaving you with the same old gameplay loop of web and dash. They also give you a reason to upgrade, level up and grind out Spiderman in-game, making for a more interesting, exciting experience as Peter Parker.
In the Arkham night series there were plenty of upgrades to Batman’s suit and you’re classics bat — gadgets to kill more enemies in more creative ways, which most people love, as you could personalise you’re playstyle to that of Stealth, gun-ho, or a mix. Spiderman does this and doesn’t limit you’re powers within a suit, which is great, which means if you like the way a particular suit looks (like the classics suit) you can interlink different ways to play via different suits powers. But there are plenty of gadgets you can unlock and upgrade, like the electric web and impact web which keeps combat varied and no fight the same with endless ways to use them, keeping it an open creative experience.. Though, this does give the player a reason to grind, which is important if you don’t want to get bored of Spiderman in the end game, because despite it being how fun it is to jump from Avenger’s tower and freefall until your an inch from the ground, then gracefully swinging again towards the sky, it helps if there’s stuff to do.
It’s story is epic, with new dimensions of fun being added when against a boss, like that of Mr. Negative guy and the flying green elf as there all completely different, forcing you to change the way you play, and despite them being slightly less intuitive in comparison to the fights against 10 odd goons in the streets of NYC, they offer a challenging battle. In regard to the graphics once again, the cinematics of the game are fantastic and within the open world its set in, there’s endless sights to see an places to visit, which the game takes great hold of, using a camera mode to take pictures of land marks, just like Peter Parker would do in his second life, aside from being spider man. There are so many different game mechanics that make the worth playing, you might as well just play the game!
In comparison to Arkham Knight, the Spiderman may just have the upper hand — it has more updated and stunning graphics, a faster way to get through Manhattan (which is nostalgic and extremely fun), a more in depth upgrade and grinding system, and a, maybe not better but more upbeat story, which helps to emphasis the mood or a game with a fun an positive atmosphere, which is refreshing from the dark and gloomy story of Arkham. Though I'm still debating whether it at all compares to any of the Lego games! But if you want to feel like the web swinging, red, white and blue (sounds familiar) spider himself, then the game pretty much succeeds in every single way possible and is the best spider man experience to — date (until freefall VR is invented).
But the game isn’t just Spiderman — its also Peter Parker. I guess the game probably wouldn’t have sold as well under the heroes original name — but it could be. While feeling like Spider-Man almost flying around the Empire State building, I was also a more down to earth ‘normal’ teenager, with awkward relationships, a tense feeling of being found out and having to deal with a personal life, rather than simply just having a pair of arms firing webs at some goon or animal themed boss. I was Peter Parker and Spiderman, and it didn’t even feel disjointed or like two separate character’s — it felt whole — which is why the story is fantastic, tense, emotional and hilarious, which is what Arkham missed relying just a gloomy atmosphere to present Batman within, which is why Marvel’s Spiderman is the best Superhero game to date (besides Lego Batman).
If you want to not just feel like Spiderman, but be Spiderman, then Spiderman is the perfect game (using the title three times in a sentence must show how much I love it). It has everything to make a great single player experience, which have certainly made a comeback in the last year, with story, a reason to grind out the game outside the story, a reason to explore and continue to play after the postgame, and Spideytastic graphics (yeah, that was terrible wordplay), this game was certainly the superhero game we were looking for.
