Review: Spider-Man 2 gives more freedom, but doesn’t take risks – 10/16/2023 – Illustrated

Five years after “Spider-Man” and three years after “Spider-Man: Miles Morales”, the franchise that can already be considered as the most successful adaptation of superhero stories for video games returns with “Spider-Man 2” to give impetus to a new, but still faltering, generation of consoles.

The game will be released this Friday (20) exclusively for PS5. “Horizon: Forbidden West” and “God of War: Ragnarok”, two previous major releases from Sony, also had versions for PS4, a video game released in 2013.

Because of this, technical developments are the most evident. There’s a larger, more detailed New York, minimal loading times between cutscenes, stories that unfold while the player is in control, more elaborate boss fights, and everything else that gives the title a big-budget veneer.

The game begins a few months after the events of “Spider-Man: Miles Morales”, from 2020. Peter Parker, who was out of town — in an excuse for us to play only as his younger colleague —, returns to play the role of Spider-Man. Tutor.

He is divided between the great responsibilities of a young adult, such as a real job, personal finances and a stable relationship with Mary Jane.

After the duo of heroes faces the Sandman in the first scenes, Harry Osborn, Peter’s best friend and son of the Oscorp tycoon, appears for the first time in the franchise cured of a neurodegenerative disease.

But the treatment he was subjected to for months used nothing less than an alien substance with regenerative powers — the symbiote, origin of the story’s main villain, Venom.

Harry, now cured and with an alien in his body, meets Parker again to talk about the future. With money from Oscorp, he opens a research institution named after his mother, who died from the same disease that affects him, and Aunt May, who died in the first game.

While Peter tries to pay the mortgage on his house, Miles deals with the problems of a teenager. He is in his last year of high school, has a crush on a classmate and worries about getting into universities.

And as if adolescence wasn’t enough of a headache, he also has to face the hardships of a Spider-Man — his father, police officer Jefferson Davis, was killed by the villain Martin Li in the first game.

In relation to “Spider-Man” and the lean sequel “Spider-Man: Miles Morales”, little has changed in terms of design. Most of the adventure still consists of getting from point A to point B on the map, swinging through buildings and facing various enemies.

This movement is still the biggest attraction of the series. The idea that interactivity is the great advantage of video games over other media takes on another scale when it comes to embodying one of the main symbols of pop culture.

Insomniac Games knows this and makes “Spider-Man 2” a more fluid experience and gives the player more freedom.

Not the kind of freedom that games like “The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom” and “Baldur’s Gate 3”, this year’s unmissable hits, offer in terms of mechanics, creativity and customization.

It’s a more literal freedom, like that seen in games like “GTA 5”. Not only because here, as in the game released ten years ago, it is possible to switch between Peter Parker and Miles Morales at any time, each with their own objectives and abilities.

But more for the pleasure of ignoring everything the game bureaucratically offers — side missions, collectibles, battles — to treat it like an amusement park. The addition of Brooklyn, Queens and the possibility of gliding, in addition to swinging with the web, enhanced one of the best ideas in the series — walking around New York.

No matter how good a Spider-Man film is, only in video games will it be possible to go from the Financial District to Queens, riding currents of air and crossing the East River, with the feeling of being in control.

And while in the 2018 game bureaucratic activities were repeated to exhaustion, here they are better distributed —both on the map and between the two characters— and concise, although they still seem to exist to increase game time.

On the one hand, Parker and Morales seek to find a balance between their hero and personal lives. On the other, Kraven, a high-tech supervillain hunter, pursues enemies from previous games and increasingly realizes the powers of the heroes and the symbiote. It’s only a matter of time before the core of protagonists enters the crosshairs of his hunt.

The loss of his father gives Miles the dramatic edge essential to any Spider-Man story. Having been repeated over and over again over the last 50 years, there is always room for new formal approaches.

But even though Miles is a more complete character than Peter in “Spider-Man 2,” his conflicts are presented as items to be crossed off a to-do list, rather than as a way to develop him. It doesn’t reach the heights of what was done in recent “Aranhaverso” animations.

Although this game doesn’t risk anything new, it is a better resolved experience. The action, one of its strong points, remains dynamic and fluid, reminiscent of the “Batman: Arkham” series. Now, each character has a series of their own skills, which make fights less repetitive and critical plot points more challenging.

The interesting moments of the main missions refer to the hero’s film trilogy directed by Sam Raimi, which evoke scenes from the metropolis and the more banal side of the characters. But, unfortunately, there are few. Even though the PS5’s graphics capabilities allow for a more vivid New York, most of the time the player flies over the city, and there isn’t much incentive to see it up close.

It is, however, a form of development that has been successful for the sector and has become a symbol of PlayStation’s top-tier games — efficient gameplay with an acceptable narrative is the formula for obtaining billion-dollar profits.