Kaylan's Thoughts

WARNING – This blog may contain minor spoilers

I have been waiting for this game to come out for five years. It’s nothing short of an understatement to say I was looking forward to play this game. The first Marvel’s Spider-Man video game (2018) was not only a success in my eyes, but everyone else’s as well. After its release it became a serial winner of awards, including winning:

‘Best console game and ‘Best Action and Adventure game’ at the Game Critics Awards in 2018.

Ultimate Pop Culture

After basking in their warm reception, the sequel to this ‘Marvel’s Spider-Man Miles Morales’ was an incredible addition to the franchise, boasting 6.5 million copies sold worldwide in the first eight months. Naturally, I was excited to play the following game starring both of these characters.

Positive Bits:

It was worth the wait. Not only did this game surpassed my expectations, it also fulfilled a childhood dream of feeling like I was Spider-Man. From the beginning scene, you attention is captured with a horrifying scene with Harry and his father Norman. This was the beginning of the end, with the iconic symbiote seen to be crawling onto him. The story develops with the Spider-Men attempting to stop the big game predator Kraven and his army of hunters. These hunters are a constant threat to not only the Spider-Men, but the villains currently contained within the raft. As predicted there are multiple fights between the villains as well as the hunters throughout most of the plot.

The main aspect of this game I enjoyed was the gradual introduction to the villain. I knew of Kraven the Hunter from comics I’d read growing up, however I wasn’t aware of the background and nature of the character. The game succeeds in creating a general curiosity around the character. The confidence, self-assurance and general commanding presence you initially see, and watching that develop within scenes leaves you wondering what his motives are and how you would fare against such a figure. As the game develops, the fear factor only increases, as you see how deadly he is against other characters. Additionally, the number of resources he has at his disposal leave you constantly on edge, with his ‘Hunters’ popping up as crime tasks.

The writing is another topic I want to discuss. The game has an overall theme of Apex Predators. This is shown metaphorically and literally. The literal physical embodiment of an Apex Predator is Kraven; he has come to New York to find that perfect match for his last hunt. Within this, he captures characters as ‘Prey’ to fight them and ultimately give him a worthy death, however due to his superior ability, he finds the initial characters he faces too easy. Enter Venom. Venom is arguably the ultimate predator within this game. Within the comics, he is deeply feared by Spider-Man as one of his most dangerous enemies, either beating him face to face or Spider-Man having to escape to survive. The events leading up to Venom being created was all due to Kraven’s antics.

Another aspect I enjoyed was the gameplay, which I thought stepped it up a notch from the previous two games. The abilities for both Miles and Peter were seamless and built well. I also enjoyed the combat in general; I felt that the difficulty increased steadily as the story went on, ending on the tricky symbiotes. Moreover, the boss fights become increasingly more intense, ending in a three stage Venom fight as both Miles and Peter. I’m the kind of person to try to max out my skills as much as I can to give me the greatest advantage going into the final fight. Even with grinding out more prep time than Batman, I still found the Venom fight incredibly challenging. The number o dimensions to a boss fight has increased drastically best shown within the Martin Li and Venom fight.

Overall the plot was exceptional. On my first play through I was mesmerised playing through some scenes. At one point during the game I literally gasped. The writing, the drama, the feels, it was all well thought out, keeping you interested and entertained throughout the entire story. I especially enjoyed Miles’s arc, displaying he’s reached a level of maturity to carry the reigns of being the only Spiderman in the next game.

Eh bits

Now for the ‘orrible bits. Fortunately there were no terrible parts of this game. The weaker aspects of the game were mainly around the sub-missions you have to complete. The solutions for the Prowler missions could have been more complex, it got to the point where I was only completing the missions to get 100%. The most frustrating thing was that they could have created a lot more depth to these missions. With the prowler technology, we could have had more technical challenges, similar to the previous game with completing circuits or create a new game mode with some kind of virus that you have to combat in order to open the door. I found the particles too easy to find, resulting in a mediocre experience to the task.

Another weak part of the game was the difficulty of the game after completion. The ‘Crimes’ within the previous game were incredibly challenging, especially the Sabre crimes. From the jet-pack groups to the testing Sabre checkpoints, even after unlocking every gadget and ability, it was still challenging. On the contrary, the difficulty after completing this Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 was significantly less so. The hardest part of the game after completing the story was the Symbiote nests, however, you slowly learn how to counter each type of symbiote and they appear at a level which isn’t too overwhelming. This may have been countered by not allowing the user to be able to unlock everything, in order to keep the difficulty harder. That being said, there has been an update recently that hints the New Game + difficultly will be harder than Ultimate which is exciting for me to experience. I’ll provide an update once I’ve completed the ‘New game +’.

Nevertheless, even after these criticisms, I’m still left in awe of the beauty of this game. From the gameplay to the fierce storyline, the game is near flawless. The criticisms I had for this game were minimal but valid as they had the potential to improve upon these aspects.

In conclusion I rate this game:

9/10

A few honourable mentions for positives within this game is:

• Movement list
• Diversity of Villains
• The Flame Side Mission
• Fast Travel
• Mysterium challenges