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

The game is good in general, but the symbiote powers make it really dull.

Kraven was really good as an antagonist.


Storywise, the original symbiote/venom story, and the intro of Carnage 30+ years ago were the only legit good stories with symbiotes, they've been overused to oblivion now and every time I see a new symbiote I'm automatically disinterested in the story. Would much rather have Green Goblin as the main villain.


On another note, one of classic Spiderman's best qualities was his synergy with other heroes, like the Torch, Moon Knight etc. Would much rather see one of those in these games and let Miles have his own franchise.
 
I've got to play it and to be honest didn't like it very much even though I mildly enjoyed the first one, the story simply doesn't do it for me with either being all over the place or simply too safe , I know the main target audience for this game is on the lower side of things age wise but they could have been much more brave with it and as it stands it's basically a shallow reshuffling of spidy's greatest hits mixed up with some annoying writing and uninteresting characters added in,
take the church scene with kraven
, it doesn't really make much sense why we end up there aside from the fact that it's a memorable scene from other spidy media that they felt obligated to recreate.

Gamplay wise it's pretty much the same game loop as the first one which I did feel was over staying it's welcome towards the end with some minor improvements and while I understand why they had to add the gliding ability s otherwise the travel between water separated districts would have been a chore it basically demktes the swinging to an afterthought which is pretty strange in a spiderman game.

I'm probably not the target audience for this but I feel they could have done better considering how talented they are.
Yep same. I get that point of view. But theres something to hate or love about them. I think a lot of games are very derivative and safe and flat and inoffensive. The ones you listed rise above the generic sludge but not by much of a margin. I dont think you could call GoT imaginative. They were more stopgaps between more memorable experiences for me.
I suppose it has to do with their games not treating you like a kid and actually expecting you to get better which makes the experience much more exciting take for example how:
you basically have to relegated genichiro to an afterthought by the end of the game to even get a chance to fight the final boss
 
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Just got the platinum. Great game, vastly improves on the first and the only game where I've felt a genuine improvement from ps4 to ps5.
 
I like it, but isn't it essentially the same game every time? It's also a very checklisty open world.

Good fun, but nothing more than that so far. Not that I'm that far in mind you.
 
I like it, but isn't it essentially the same game every time? It's also a very checklisty open world.

Good fun, but nothing more than that so far. Not that I'm that far in mind you.

The gameplay is mostly the same which was my complaint earlier in the thread, but also you’ll see my comments when I finished the game.

It’s a pretty special game imo. The set pieces, story and bosses etc. just left me with my jaw on the floor.
 
The gameplay is mostly the same which was my complaint earlier in the thread, but also you’ll see my comments when I finished the game.

It’s a pretty special game imo. The set pieces, story and bosses etc. just left me with my jaw on the floor.
Ah, well, I'll post again after finishing it then. I do also need some time to wrap my head around the insane amount of options and gadgets in combat, but that might be me getting old.
 
Just got the platinum trophy, don’t usually care for doing this kind of stuff but loved this game! It’s as close to the perfect Spider-Man game as they can make in terms of combat (which is slight but improvement on number 1), traversal, graphics and story.

Only two complaints. I’ve had a number of technical issues, mainly with HUDs not disappearing when a section is cleared, enemies getting trapped in environment or game not registering when all enemies beaten in a mission. Also, not nearly enough Venom! Who has brilliantly done!
 
There's nothing revolutionary about it but there doesn't need to be. You don't need to innovate to be great.

It's just a very fecking fun video game.
 
There's nothing revolutionary about it but there doesn't need to be. You don't need to innovate to be great.

It's just a very fecking fun video game.
I agree. I had a great time playing it. Easy game and easy platinum but just a joy to play

betweeen that and Mario wonder its been a cracking few few weeks
 
Finished it ant the weekend and really enjoyed it after some small doubts at the early beginning but those quashed very quickly. Just a very fun game that decided to even go for the platinum trophy.

What a fantastic developer Insomniac are
 
Finished it ant the weekend and really enjoyed it after some small doubts at the early beginning but those quashed very quickly. Just a very fun game that decided to even go for the platinum trophy.

What a fantastic developer Insomniac are
Making a Wolverine game too :D
 
So this game has sort of passed me by. Not seen much of it online or anything about at all since release really.

I don't really have the urge to play it either. Is it basically better graphics, the swinging remaining quite fun to do, lots of random collection things like pigeons or something, groups of 5 or 6 bad guys in the street to beat up and lots of storyline set pieces that are essentially QTEs that might as well be cutscenes?
 
So this game has sort of passed me by. Not seen much of it online or anything about at all since release really.

I don't really have the urge to play it either. Is it basically better graphics, the swinging remaining quite fun to do, lots of random collection things like pigeons or something, groups of 5 or 6 bad guys in the street to beat up and lots of storyline set pieces that are essentially QTEs that might as well be cutscenes?

Yeah pretty much. They've just really refined the traversal and combat to its peak but it's the same stuff as the others essentially. I still really enjoyed it.

The gliding was top notch and meant I didn't need to fast travel at all until post game to collect a few spider bots. The extra venom powers were nice as well.
 
Yeah pretty much. They've just really refined the traversal and combat to its peak but it's the same stuff as the others essentially. I still really enjoyed it.

The gliding was top notch and meant I didn't need to fast travel at all until post game to collect a few spider bots. The extra venom powers were nice as well.

Cheers! Might save it for a PS Plus whenever it goes on there.
 
So this game has sort of passed me by. Not seen much of it online or anything about at all since release really.

I don't really have the urge to play it either. Is it basically better graphics, the swinging remaining quite fun to do, lots of random collection things like pigeons or something, groups of 5 or 6 bad guys in the street to beat up and lots of storyline set pieces that are essentially QTEs that might as well be cutscenes?
Pretty much.
The combat system has been slightly revamped so no more having to open the wheel to pick gadgets which is welcome and some new combat abilities.

The most major change is the gliding ability, you'll be mostly using that for traversal as it's much more convenient and yeah that's pretty much it.
 
Going to wait a while longer. Had a look in CEX the other day and it was still £60. Feel bad because they are very well made games and I love playing them but the run time on them just isn't worth spending that much personally. Miles Morales for example was really quick to platinum.
 
Solid game. It’s more the same, which isn’t a bad thing, but I wasn’t as engrossed with this game as I was with the first. The side-missions felt a lot more repetitive this time round.

Hopefully there’s a decent amount of DLC content next year.
 
Going to wait a while longer. Had a look in CEX the other day and it was still £60. Feel bad because they are very well made games and I love playing them but the run time on them just isn't worth spending that much personally. Miles Morales for example was really quick to platinum.

Does anyone know why digital storefronts don't do game rentals, the way physical stores used to?

I'd happily pay $15/20 to rent Spiderman 2 for a couple weeks, but I'm not willing to pay $100 (CAD) for it when I'm still working through Baldur's Gate and have a backlog as long as my arm. I'd feel the same about Alan Wake 2, that new Avatar game and likely others as well.
 
Replaying the first one (remastered PS5) has given me a greater appreciation for what Insomniac have created. The combat isn’t intended to be methodical and highly strategic but in terms of fun factor they have knocked out of the park. I didn’t use half of these abilities in my first play through back in 2019. Now properly using everything you can spend almost entire fights in the air, combining various moves and abilities whilst racking up 50 plus hit combos - lovely stuff.
 
Platinumed it. Very fun game, suffers with the same things the first game did though no major issue. Really liked how they did Venom and some of the cutscenes were excellent.

Look forward to the next one, though I assume there’ll be DLC in 2024 and there’s talk of a standalone Venom game which could be fun.

Read that the budget for this was $260m but it ended up being closer to $300m. Crazy numbers. Can see why they market is so heavily.
 
Still £55+ everywhere. Oh well. FF7 at the end of the month will tick me by for a while so this can reduce in price.
 
Finally finished this, though it was brilliant. Lots and lots of fun, the two main antagonists were, in their own ways, genuinely challenging to play against.

It started off feeling somewhat repetitive, but I think the ways in which the powers and game continue to evolve stop that from becoming a permanent issue.
 
just starting this now. love the first two installments. i'm excited.
 
Finished and hit the platinum. Fantastic job by the developers again.

Really enjoyed how they crafted the story and the new powers involved.

Interested to see where they take it next.