**The Impactful Design Decision that Makes Spider-Man 2 a Standout**
The design decision to have Miles Peter Parker's new black suit and symbiote abilities make him feel more powerful than ever is a bold one. It's an impactful decision that I think will make it harder for players to return to the previous Spider-Man games. The idea of shooting themselves in the foot by having a character who can do so much damage with their new powers is a good point, as it makes the game feel more epic and heroic.
**A Combat System That Feels Bigger and More Heroic**
Combat gets a similar upgrade in addition to Miles' new attacks, making fights feel bigger and more heroic. The system perfectly weaves into an already great combat system, allowing players to get through battles a lot faster too by the end of the game, I'd mastered these systems so much that I was blowing through some fights before the scripted dialogue that plays during them could finish it's a good feeling.
**Feeling Powerful and Corrupted**
The Spider-Man 2 makes you feel more powerful than ever but that's not just for fun. A big piece of the story deals with Peter Parker coming in contact with a parasitic life form that gives him his new black suit and new found powers, new threats. Peter learns a special set of symbiote abilities in this game, and honestly, they're kind of terrifying. I mean massive black tendrils shoot out of his body and grab enemies violently slamming them into the ground.
**A Thoughtful and Honest Superhero Game**
Peter's friends are understandably concerned about that worrying that he's going a little bit too far so it's kind of Genius that Insomniac lets players feel the intoxicating power of those abilities firsthand. I recognize that they're too powerful but I can't stop using them I'm corrupted just like Peter is and that's what makes Spider-Man 2 truly special. Insomniac does an incredible job at putting players in its characters heads through gameplay and that's where we're going to circle back to my original point about why Spider-Man 2's increased scope works in its favor.
**A Story About Stressed Out Heroes**
At its heart this is a story about two very stressed out heroes whose lives are being torn in a million directions at once. Peter's trying to hold down a job maintain a relationship with Mary Jane Watson help his sick friend Harry Osborne and paid the mortgage on Aunt May's house all while fighting off the bloodthirsty Craven the Hunter and Miles he's still a kid forced to juggle his great responsibility with his social life his college prospects and his lingering family trauma it's just too much for one person to handle and so it makes sense that the game itself would feel a little overwhelming too.
**A Lot to Take In**
There are new systems to master more open world activities to complete tons of interweaving plots that can be tough to keep track of it's easy to get sidetracked dozen times between story missions that can be annoying in a lot of games but it truly makes me feel like Spider-Man here because it emphasizes how stressful it would be to juggle your own personal life with your job protecting an entire city. This theme is a perfect match for a huge content-rich open world sequel like this.
**A Game That Asks Players to Grapple with the Nightmares of the Job**
Just like Spider-Man Miles Morales's sleek design matched its more intimate community focus story all of this makes for an incredibly thoughtful and honest superhero game it doesn't just let players live out their comic book dreams but ask them to grapple with the nightmares of the job too so if you find yourself a little overwhelmed as you try to keep track of dozens of characters and complete a map full of side stories stop and think about how Spider-Man feels he's right behind you I know I know whoa speed faster fly faster I do not want to be lizard food
"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enIf you've watched my reviews on this channel before you might remember this time last year when I reviewed God of War Ragnarok now like a lot of people I really enjoyed that game for its topnotch action and an amazing performance from Christopher Judge but I had a really specific critique too I said that it was a bigger game than 2018s God of War but that didn't make it a better one it was overstuffed with characters had some really slow moments and overall lacked the intimacy that made the series 2018 installment so special but sometimes bigger does mean better and that's exactly the case with Marvel Spider-Man 2 an astonishing sequel that adds more action story characters locations costumes you name it so then why do I think that successful here despite criticizing these exact same things last year let's talk about it hi I'm Giovanni Colantonio and I'm here with my review of Marvel Spider-Man 2now as always a quick spoiler warning at the top the footage we captured for this review avoids any major story moments that hadn't been previously revealed but just know that you're going to see a few new things like unlockable suits and some side missions cool cool so Marvel Spider-Man 2 is sort of a double sequel It's a continuation of both Peter Parker and Miles Morales's solo adventures and it doesn't shake up the formula of either game too much this is still an open world superhero game where you swing around New York City you bash enemies in fast fluid combat and complete a map full of side activities but it's clear that developer Insomniac really wanted this to feel like a true sequel and it's added a lot of new layers on top of the excellent gameplay we've already come to expect and that isn't just for show there's actually a really smart narrative function to that now I'll get to that when I talk a bit about story at the end of this review but let's get down to brass tax first before I say anything I have to tell you what a technical Marvel this game is it is very clear that this was built exclusively for the PlayStation 5 and not as a cross-generational game like God of War Ragnarok it's not even that it looks fantastic or runs incredibly smooth which it does by the way it's more that Insomniac pulls off some real Wizardry here you have two playable main characters in Miles and Peter and you can swap between them on the fly and even more impressive is fast traveling don't feel like swinging all the way to Queens you literally just click a button anywhere on your map app and are transported there instantaneously you will not believe how seamlessly this works and that's not just a cool magic trick there's a lot more to do and see in Spider-Man 2 its map is twice as big incorporating parts of queens and Brooklyn though taking some geographical liberties with where Coney Island is located but because of how fast this game is with virtually no load times it's still probably about as long as the first game you'll just spend more time actually playing the game that's even reflected in the open world design activities are now visually represented in the world so you don't need to constantly pop into your menu to mark an objective on your map you can actually see a spider bot's purple ping while exploring and more fluidly hop into that activity all of that allows Insomniac to add more of the fun stuff while taking out the tedious parts of the open world genre now there are tons of enhancements like that in this game here's a small example remember the stealthy sections of the previous Spider-Man games you know where you'd wait up in the rafters and hope that an enemy moved into the right position so that you could safely take them out Insomniac cuts out some of that downtime by allowing players to create their own web lines that they can walk across so if an NPC is standing out in the open you can create a walkable path above them that'll allow you to get into position to strike no waiting necessary and what's so impressive about tweaks like this is how naturally they fit into the Spider-Man formula as if they were there all along take traversal swinging around New York was undeniably one of the best parts of the original games in 2018 I probably would have told you that it was a near-perfect traversal system and believe it or not Insomniac somehow made it even better that's thanks to the addition of web wings which can be activated at any point in midair to let either Spider-Man glide between their swings it doesn't just feel incredible but it's practical too wind tunnels are scattered around the city that make it easy to quickly fly between districts and if you're in an area that isn't full of skyscrapers to grab hold of web wings make sure you never lose momentum in the air it's such an impactful design decision that I think it'll make it harder to return to the previous Spider-Man games kind of shooting themselves in the foot therenow combat gets a similar upgrade in addition to their normal attacks miles and Peter now have true superpowers that can be activated by holding the left bumper and pressing a face button you can bash enemies up into the air hit them with chain lightning or whoop their butts with Peter's mechanical spider arms these perfectly weave into an already great combat system making fights feel bigger and more heroic and it allows you to get through battles a lot faster too by the end of the game I'd mastered these systems so much much that I was blowing through some fights before the scripted dialogue that plays during them could finish it's a good feeling the Spider-Man 2 makes you feel more powerful than ever but that's not just for fun a big piece of the story deals with Peter Parker coming in contact with a parasitic life form that gives him his new black suit and new found powers new threats Peter learns a special set of symbiote abilities in this game and honestly they're kind of terrifying I mean massive black tendrils shoot out of his body and grab enemies violently slamming them into the ground Peter's friends are understandably concerned about that worrying that he's going a little bit too far so it's kind of Genius that Insomniac lets you feel the intoxicating power of those abilities firsthand I recognize that they're too powerful but I can't stop using them I'm corrupted just like Peter is and that's what makes Spider-Man 2 truly special Insomniac does an incredible job at putting players in its characters heads through gameplay and that's where we're going to circle back to my original point about why Spider-Man to's increased scope works in its favor okay I think I got a lock did you wait meCho that wasn't me me neither I don't even have a stomachso at its heart this is a story about two very stressed out Heroes whose lives are being torn in a million directions at once Peter's trying to hold down a job maintain a relationship with Mary Jane Watson help his sick friend Harry Osborne and paid the mortgage on Aunt May's house all while fighting off the bloodthirsty Craven the Hunter and Miles he's still a kid forced to juggle his great responsibility with his social life his college prospects and his lingering family trauma it's just too much for one person to handle and so it makes sense that the game itself would feel a little overwhelming too there are new systems to master more open world activities to complete tons of interweaving plots that can be tough to keep track of it's easy to get sidetracked dozen times between story missions that can be annoying in a lot of games but it truly makes me feel like Spider-Man here because it emphasizes how stressful it would be to juggle your own personal life with your job protecting an entire city that theme is a perfect match for a huge content-rich open world sequel like this just like Spider-Man Miles Morales's sleer design matched its more intimate community focus story all of this makes for an incredibly thoughtful and honest superhero game it doesn't just let players live out their comic book dreams but ask them to Grapple with the nightmares of the job too so if you find yourself a little overwhelmed as you try to keep track of dozens of characters and complete a map full of side stories stop and think about how Spider-Man feels he's right behind you I know I know whoa speed faster flyfaster I do not want to be lizard food\n"
