Gaming Spider-Man 2 (PS5) - October 20th 2023 | Metacritic: 90, OpenCritic: 90

I thought Miles Morales was much more fun than Spiderman. They really upped the combat and traversal, story was a bit crap though. If this is basically the combat from MM upped again with, what seems like a great story going by the reviews, that's more than good enough.

Side note, Insomniac must be the most consistent studio out there? Just seem to constantly pump out really good games.
 
How would you even go about improving a game like Spider-Man in any way that is significant anyway?

Bigger NYC with more boroughs? The sequel has this, and there's a wing-suit to traverse quicker to compensate for that.

Multiple character swapping? They've implemented a seamless far travel system that is essentially instantaneous.

Who the feck else is doing instant far travel with zero load screen? No one.

This reinvent the wheel bullshit can get fecked. What wheel did FromSoftware reinvent over a decade? They just kept to their tried and successful formula.

That's why the God of War sequel criticisms were funny. No one else was expected to revolutionise gaming on a game per game basis, why should they?

Anyway, 92 on Metacritic. Good for them.
 
Hoof the ball said:
How would you even go about improving a game like Spider-Man in any way that is significant anyway?

Bigger NYC with more boroughs? The sequel has this, and there's a wing-suit to traverse quicker to compensate for that.

Multiple character swapping? They've implemented a seamless far travel system that is essentially instantaneous.

Who the feck else is doing instant far travel with zero load screen? No one.

This reinvent the wheel bullshit can get fecked. What wheel did FromSoftware reinvent over a decade? They just kept to their tried and successful formula.

That's why the God of War sequel criticisms were funny. No one else was expected to revolutionise gaming on a game per game basis, why should they?

Anyway, 92 on Metacritic. Good for them.
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Better side quests and writing. But still, the first was superb and this seems even better. They seem to have improved the already excellent combat and visual presentation. Lovely :drool:
 
Massive Spanner said:
I thought Miles Morales was much more fun than Spiderman. They really upped the combat and traversal, story was a bit crap though. If this is basically the combat from MM upped again with, what seems like a great story going by the reviews, that's more than good enough.

Side note, Insomniac must be the most consistent studio out there? Just seem to constantly pump out really good games.
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MM was fantastic. I enjoyed it more than the first game even though I really like both. But the new shiny console may have played its part. I’ll know soon enough as I’m playing the remaster version.
 
Hoof the ball said:
How would you even go about improving a game like Spider-Man in any way that is significant anyway?

Bigger NYC with more boroughs? The sequel has this, and there's a wing-suit to traverse quicker to compensate for that.

Multiple character swapping? They've implemented a seamless far travel system that is essentially instantaneous.

Who the feck else is doing instant far travel with zero load screen? No one.

This reinvent the wheel bullshit can get fecked. What wheel did FromSoftware reinvent over a decade? They just kept to their tried and successful formula.

That's why the God of War sequel criticisms were funny. No one else was expected to revolutionise gaming on a game per game basis, why should they?

Anyway, 92 on Metacritic. Good for them.
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Take a lot of the bloat out, like they did in Miles Morales. There's was a lot of filler in the original Spider-Man game, that really didn't need to be there and added nothing to the game. I still liked the game a lot, but that extra stuff did dampen my enjoyment somewhat.

Not sure if that would count as "significant" but it would really help.
 
Metacritic scores tend to go down over time. I see this landing around 87-88 or so.
 
Not playing it as it's not my thing (nothing against it) but i am interested in the fact that its apparently a very well made game from a technical standpoint. Ray Tracing is default which is pretty interesting to hear and it has quite a few graphics modes, including 40 FPS along with 30 and 60. The developer really does put a lot of effort into this stuff.
 
Crap, I wanted to finish Miles Morales before this came out and now it's almost here and I've not even finished the tutorial.
 
It didn't need to reinvent the game, it needed refinement. Like letting you skip cutscenes (please tell me they've done this?).
But seriously, a lot of content in the first game was pretty throw away and generic. Taking a bit more time and care with the world would help. Most of my complaints in terms of combat or traversal were solved by Miles Morales (like 60fps) so it'll be the small stuff that'll make or break it for me. I dont have much faith in them delivering a good story - a superhero story is a hard sell at the moment, hard to avoid that and i kind of hated the previous 2 games. I'll forgive and ignore that if the world has character and feels fleshed out and the minute to minute gameplay feels like it has depth.
 
KirkDuyt said:
Crap, I wanted to finish Miles Morales before this came out and now it's almost here and I've not even finished the tutorial.
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Take your time with it! This new one isn’t going anywhere.
 
Yeah, still can't find it for £50 or less so it will be a few months before I pick this up.
 
I'm waiting for a price drop. I'm sure it'll be even better after a few patches as well. What I've seen looks really good.
 
According to digital Foundry 40fps fidelity mode is the way to go for this.
 
DixieDean said:
According to digital Foundry 40fps fidelity mode is the way to go for this.
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DF have this weird fetish with 40 fps modes that can generally be ignored along with their excessive motion blur obsession. The way to go will be 60 fps, as always.
 
I've got the game downloading, right now. I'm hoping I can play before midnight UK time.
 
Ainu said:
DF have this weird fetish with 40 fps modes that can generally be ignored along with their excessive motion blur obsession. The way to go will be 60 fps, as always.
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Hoof the ball said:
40 fps. Yeah fvck that.
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I'm really not the guy to understand tech stuff but i thought the 40 fps thing was seen as a nice way to balance performance and quality mode? I've always gone for performance on every game i've played for the PS5 as i appreciate 60 fps and i'd pick that if I was going to play Spiderman but for slower paced games i wouldn't mind trying quality mode and 40 FPS (in theory) seems pretty nice to get a few extra frames. If Baldur's Gate III has a 40 FPS i'd play it in that mode if it enhanced the visuals in what is a turn based game.
 
Irwin99 said:
I'm really not the guy to understand tech stuff but i thought the 40 fps thing was seen as a nice way to balance performance and quality mode? I've always gone for performance on every game i've played for the PS5 as i appreciate 60 fps and i'd pick that if I was going to play Spiderman but for slower paced games i wouldn't mind trying quality mode and 40 FPS (in theory) seems pretty nice to get a few extra frames. If Baldur's Gate III has a 40 FPS i'd play it in that mode if it enhanced the visuals in what is a turn based game.
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I think that's fair, for slower paced games I would definitely consider it, something like A Plague Tale for example. Hell, in Baldur's Gate I'd probably be fine with 30, even an unstable one.

But that's the thing, Spider-Man is a really fast-paced game compared to almost anything else, with possibly the fastest open-world traversal out there. It's one of the last games you'd ever want to compromise on performance. Some people might find it good enough, but to suggest it's the way to go when you've got a perfectly locked 60 mode with ray tracing, is just really weird.
 
Ainu said:
I think that's fair, for slower paced games I would definitely consider it, something like A Plague Tale for example. Hell, in Baldur's Gate I'd probably be fine with 30, even an unstable one.

But that's the thing, Spider-Man is a really fast-paced game compared to almost anything else, with possibly the fastest open-world traversal out there. It's one of the last games you'd ever want to compromise on performance. Some people might find it good enough, but to suggest it's the way to go when you've got a perfectly locked 60 mode with ray tracing, is just really weird.
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Isn't the 40fps recommendation if coupled with 120hz and vrr? To be fair, I'm 60fps all the way but there are a lot of people who pick fidelity mode on Spiderman for the resolution and ray tracing.

It might be fast paced but it's not competitive. Plus let's be honest - it's absolutely piss easy. The timing is more than forgiving enough and you can button bash your way to killing hounds of enemies.

Got this downloaded. Buzzing to smash through it.
 
Alock1 said:
Isn't the 40fps recommendation if coupled with 120hz and vrr? To be fair, I'm 60fps all the way but there are a lot of people who pick fidelity mode on Spiderman for the resolution and ray tracing.

It might be fast paced but it's not competitive. Plus let's be honest - it's absolutely piss easy. The timing is more than forgiving enough and you can button bash your way to killing hounds of enemies.

Got this downloaded. Buzzing to smash through it.
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VRR doesn't come into play for a locked 40fps, but 120Hz is a necessity or you're going to have judder. And you don't need to pick fidelity in Insomniac games to get ray tracing, all of their PS5 releases have had a performance RT mode. In fact, Spider-Man 2 has ray traced reflections in every single mode, it can't be turned off.

Competitive or difficulty has nothing to do with it, it's just about what you find enjoyable. Fast motion that isn't smooth is just not enjoyable for me, and I'd guess for many others. Whether 40fps can be considered smooth enough is a matter of personal taste, but I would say no.
 
Ainu said:
VRR doesn't come into play for a locked 40fps, but 120Hz is a necessity or you're going to have judder. And you don't need to pick fidelity in Insomniac games to get ray tracing, all of their PS5 releases have had a performance RT mode. In fact, Spider-Man 2 has ray traced reflections in every single mode, it can't be turned off.

Competitive or difficulty has nothing to do with it, it's just about what you find enjoyable. Fast motion that isn't smooth is just not enjoyable for me, and I'd guess for many others. Whether 40fps can be considered smooth enough is a matter of personal taste, but I would say no.
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No but my point is its ease and the fact its single players makes a 40fps recommendation fair enough not some crazy shout.

Its not like they say 40fps is the only way to go.

I know you can get RT in performance but it's not the same as in fidelity.

I'm with you though personally. I pick performance option in every game.
 
Just started it now. Obviously can’t feed back on much but I have to say I would have expected the cutscenes to look a lot better.
 
Been playing it for about 2 hours now. Very good opening like the previous two games. I’ve hardly progressed much with the story. Just been having too much fun swinging around NY and doing some of the crime side & photography side quest stuff.
 
Lack of day/night cycle I find poor for the immersion.
 
Reditus said:
that and the big giant sandmonster
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b82REZ said:
As opposed to the man who got super powers from a spider bite?
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This is a bit silly. It's possible to be immersed in a world based on rules already applied to it (superpowers, etc...) but it constantly being day time can also then take you out of it a bit.

I get immersed in Baldur's Gate that has wizards, devils, etc.. but if someone started talking about their iPhone that would take me out of it too. It's whatever is set within the rules of the world.
 
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