Marvel’s Spider-Man review for PS4

Reviewed on: PS4

The game Spider-Man has deserved since 2004

The great strength of Single Player games lies in the plot, and in how much of it stays hidden from the player until it’s revealed. Marvel’s Spider-Man not only makes use of this obvious concept, but also uses another concept that is rarely used with Spider-Man: familiarity. I can start this review by saying that Insomniac’s best direction choice was to assume that Spider-Man is a famous superhero. Not only that, but he is a hero many fans identify with, precisely because he balances the weight of adult life with the extra activities he chose for himself. Right away the game has an achievement: it is the most advanced work in Spider-Man’s life outside the comics. The character’s cartoons and films focus on the origin story (Uncle Ben dead, with great power comes great responsibility, etc.), as do several other web-slinger games.

Here, Peter Parker has been a hero for 8 years. The weight of the double life can be felt at every moment of the adventure, and the hero doesn’t get a moment’s rest the entire story. Every decision he makes to balance his personal life and his hero life has its consequences felt by the player, with the twists the plot takes around Peter’s life.

Gameplay

For this review, I believe it’s interesting to highlight the most relevant points for the “Spider-Man experience”: the web-swinging movement mechanic and the combat. Let’s start with movement: it’s intuitive.

I think before continuing, it’s worth mentioning the existence of Spider-Man 2, for PS2, Cube, Xbox and others, from 2004. That particular game was a milestone in Spider-Man’s existence, because in one of the last weeks of its development a single developer created a mechanic that reverberated through generations: the physics of the web sticking to buildings. It was such well-implemented, so well-made physics that almost everyone who played the game back then spent hours loafing around the city, just taking the chance to beat up a thug here or there who showed up.

Back to the present: no Spider-Man game has significantly evolved this mechanic. At least not until now. Marvel’s Spider-Man took precisely that feeling of crossing large spaces with ease and converted it for current times. If before you had to “slow down” to make turns, now you press X to use the equivalent of an Air Dash in any direction you want. If you didn’t have much to do when you reached the top of buildings, now you press R2 + L2 and X, and can choose an edge from which to catapult forward. The whole movement mechanic was made so you keep moving (as obvious as that may seem written down, the end result is sensational), and the effect of this on gameplay is sensational.

The combat is deeply drawn from the Arkham series. That is far from bad, since the Batman combat is sensational. Here there’s a certain evolution of the concept. When there were two separate enemies, the Bat kind of flew between them. Here you have to move between one and the other, but the game helps you with that by giving you a dedicated button to close the distance. Visually it’s more pleasant. Marvel’s Spider-Man is constantly mixing realism with a more arcade style. Launch an enemy into the air and you’ll see a mechanic to make a Marvel Super Heroes envious: the enemy only comes down after you finish the combo. But within that same aerial environment, Spider-Man pulls himself with webs to dodge a projectile.

Audiovisual

Marvel’s Spider-Man is visually flawless. The sense of speed as you move around the island of Manhattan is almost palpable. The effect of impact on enemies – and on you – really gives weight to the blows. The music follows Spider-Man’s activities – while you swing on webs an orchestra accompanies you. By the way, it’s worth mentioning that the game pokes fun at other Spider-Man games – and films. Saying which jokes and which works would be the biggest disservice I could do with this review.

Narrative

It’s very hard to talk about the story without giving away anything that was part of this journey. Suffice it to say that it’s quite direct – sometimes taking the player by the arm too much, as seems to be a problem of recent generations – but still delivering a concise, fun and well-structured work. The liberties the creative team took with the Web-Head’s plot will certainly shock some fans. And that’s sensational. The game would be a rougher experience if it had an older age rating, but it certainly wouldn’t have been the resounding success it was.

Worth the purchase?

YES. Every minute you spend swinging around the city makes you more certain that buying Marvel’s Spider-Man was one of the best decisions you made this year.

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