Marvel's Spider-Man 2

I played Spider-Man 2018 on PS4, and it quickly became one of my all-time favorite games. It was incredible, and I had absolutely no complaints. This year, I played Spider-Man 2, which was also amazing. However, over time, I found myself getting bored. While it introduced a lot of new features and was packed with action, it felt repetitive. I started to miss the simplicity of Spider-Man 2018, along with its better story and perfectly paced rhythm. So, after beating Spider-Man 2, I decided to go back and play Spider-Man Remastered. Despite it being my third playthrough, I'm actually enjoying it more.

One of the best games I've ever played, hell it's GOTY at least for me. I was mind blown seeing the fluidity of combat, the graphics, traversal and especially those freaking Web Wings, I'm in love with 'em, definitely a step up from previous games. It takes the formula of what made the previous titles such great games and it drastically improves upon them. I see people complain about the play time being 20-35 hours, but I'm okay with it, I would rather want a polished, great, fun, amazing, not boring, and a wonderful experience rather than exaggerated for 100 of hours tired of the freaking game, so I would say it is one of the best games this year, seeing a character switch system like GTA5 just made this game more great, a definite best exclusive for PS5, cheers INSOMNIAC!!!!

I have no complaints about the mechanics or story. Action and swinging are very smooth and I love the new symbiote combat moves. On top of that, the story was fantastic. However, when I saw I had 25% of the game completed after my first sitting, I knew that all of these great aspects were going to be short lived.

It has been 5 years since the first game released, and 3 since the "hold-over" Miles Morales game. Suffice it to say, I was able to platinum this game in just 27 hours. For clarification, that means that not only the main story was completed, but every side quest and challenge along with it. I did not skip any cutscenes. Heck, I only even fast traveled a couple times. This is a $70 AAA game.

For comparison, I have not yet achieved platinum on Spider-Man 1, but I have 34 hours logged and only half of the badges (story completed). This game was much shorter in length and had two Spider-Men compared to the first game, where miles morales was an NPC for all but 10 minutes. God of War Ragnarok, another flagship SIE game, takes around 60 hours to platinum and around 40 for the main story alone. The predecessor God of War 4, takes about 26 hours just for the main story.

In conclusion, I was just looking to see more. They intentionally left us hanging with a couple loose ends so they can sell us DLC in the future. I think these should have been integrated as side quests in this game. It is just a shame to see that this game was 5 years in the making and SIE couldn't even put out 30 hours of gameplay. As a lifelong fan of Spider-Man and someone who bought a PS4 just to play the first game, this is kind of a let down. Again, the action and story are wonderful, but I personally don't feel like I got my $70 worth.

Spider man 2 should be a 10, but it's not. It has higher highs than the first game, but lower lows.

In terms of combat, if you enjoyed the previous game than you'll love this because it's even better, in fact, most mechanics in this game are great and improved from the first game. Something that doesn't improve are the puzzles, and, considering that the puzzles are so prominent in this game I'm honestly so suprised at how bad they are. They are easy, dumb and pointless. They are literally filler with no individuality. In fact, that goes for most of the saide quests in this game. Some hint at other villians and have fun teasers, plus the flame missions are genuinely worthwhile and fun, but the rest is a little bit plain and monotonous. Not bad, just, not good. Traversal is also like the best out of any other game of all time here so there's that I suppose. Boss fights are a major improment over the first game, even if I feel the spectacle was inconsistent between some of the battles.

In terms of story, there is much to love, but a lot to hate. I fell like Kraven is severely undercooked, he's the main villian in the game and yet you spend hours on end fighting his stupid goons and only see him for 6 scenes. I feel like they played his cards wrong considering that his actual charachter was really well made and his themes and concepts were riveting. Venom is underused, there's no doubt. He's in it for 5 missions and is totally wasted in this game. His motives don't make sense and whilst Harry's could have been really good, there isn't much sense in his motivations. Now, this is because of the symbiote effect on people in the game. It doesn't expand in inner problems from the characters, but makes them up when they have the symbiote. Therefore, there is no tension at all, because the stakes aren't there. Miles has the best arc in the game by far, it's well developed and makes a lot of sense. Peter (who is predominantly the protagonist in the game) isn't well developed however, for when he's in the symbiote there are no stakes, as I mentioned earlier. The writing is corny at times, but it's okay because the voice acting is spot on.

I don't dislike the game at all, it improves so much and core aspects are really good, but it has its gaps in its greatness where the first game doesn't. I still prefer this one, however.

Spider-Man 2 is really good, but not as good as the first game. Of course, It looks better, and plays better (with some sweet features in the gameplay), as we would expect from a game of the next generation, but the narrative, even if great at some times, is not as round as it was on the previous game.

With two protagonists the lack of focus is a problem, as are the annoying missions with regular characters that we have been spared of in Miles' solo game.

Some of the antagonists are not well developed in the script, and the game suggests that the developers don't want to make more games with Peter, to give Miles the spotlight, wich, if comes to be, I really dislike, to be honest.