Game info

• Title Spider-Man 2
• Developer Insomniac Games
• Publisher Sony
• Year 2023
• Platform Playstation 5
• Genre Action

Spider-Men, Peter Parker and Miles Morales, return for an exciting new adventure in the critically acclaimed Marvel’s Spider-Man franchise for PS5. Swing, jump and utilize the new Web Wings to travel across Marvel’s New York, quickly switching between Peter Parker and Miles Morales to experience different stories and epic new powers, as the iconic villain Venom threatens to destroy their lives, their city and the ones they love.

Player Select

I love, love, loved the original Spider-Man game, one of the few games that I got 100% completion on. The swinging through the city, the side missions, the story development, the characters, the little podcast/radio messages from J Jonah J, and more than anything those amazing visuals. It was legendary to me. So no surprise that I ended up having to upgrade to a Playstation 5 just to be able to play the second installment.

(As an aside, the Miles Morales spin off completely passed me by so will have to play that at some point too.)

It’s in the Game

This game appears to follow exactly the same premise, gameplay and style as the first one, which is perfect because really that’s all we want - more opportunities to swing through the city. I think the map is bigger than it was previously, and the graphics continue to stun and astound. Getting to the top of a high building, looking out over the city, particularly if you can time it at the golden hour, it’s breathtaking.

I’ll confess to have started the game on the default difficulty setting, and quite quickly turning it down to be a more friendly one - fighting the bosses is fine and part of the game but it’s the side quests and missions that I really enjoy the most. I’m about a quarter of the way through and already there are a lot of story threads opening up which are going to be fascinating to follow.

You can play as both Miles and as Peter, and they each have separate elements, stories and missions but also there are things they can both do - fight local crime and collect tech and points to upgrade suits and gadgets, which in turn can either be for one or other of the Spider-Men or be shared upgrades. I’m only just dipping into what the gadgets can do and the various suit enhancements that can help during fights - maybe when I’ve got my head round that I can up the difficulty back to normal.

Thoughts

I love it. That’s the summary. As I said, I’m about 25% of the way through and it’s already been hours of entertainment. I love it when a purchase is really value for money because it has hit that gaming sweet spot… just enough fighting to progress the story, but mostly side quests and puzzle missions you can complete in your own time. I’ll report back when I am further through, or if anything changes in my adoration (it won’t).

End of level boss - Feb 24

I finished the game! Woohoo, 100% completion. And I loved every minute of it. I’ll have to hold my hands up and admit that I turned the difficulty down twice, first to the friendly level mentioned above and then to the maximum easy level where the focus is on the story and the puzzles and less on the fighting. At first I felt a bit guilty about that but then realised I should play the game the way it’s most entertaining for me and that was concentrating on swinging through those amazing streets and collecting everything in sight. Can’t wait for future DLC packs now!

Rating: 5 / 5