Marvel's Spider-Man

This is where you can deliberate anything relating to videogames - past, present and future
Post Reply
User avatar
JaySevenZero
Admin
Posts: 2643
Joined: August 27th, 2012, 4:28 pm
Location: Liverpool, Europe, Earth
Contact:

Marvel's Spider-Man

Post by JaySevenZero »

Here's where you can contribute your thoughts and opinions of Marvel's Spider-Man for potential inclusion in the forthcoming podcast.

A friendly reminder to all that where feedback for the podcast is concerned, we love it - but self-editing (brevity) is appreciated. We do want to include a breadth of opinions where appropriate, but no-one wants a discussion podcast that’s mainly reading. Better to save yourself time and cut to the chase if you can.
User avatar
Nupraptor
Member
Posts: 94
Joined: April 10th, 2018, 8:42 pm

Re: 417: Marvel's Spider-Man

Post by Nupraptor »

There are lots of good things about this game, but I would like to focus on two.

First: the web swinging. If this part of the game was bad, the game would not work. But it's good. It's really good. Swinging around the city always feels like a fun, liberating and joyful thing. They throw in little tweaks and upgrades to add variety and keep it fresh, but even at it's most basic, the web-swinging is just good fun.

Second: the sense of Spider-Man as part of his community. This is a core appeal of the character for me and I think they nailed this aspect too. Spider Man isn't a dark and brooding vigilante like Batman or a heroic outcast like the X-Men, he is a Friendly Neighbourhood Spiderman! They really captured this facet of the character. He makes banter with pedestrians as he swings around. People in the street call him "Spidey" and shout out to him. Side missions have him cleaning up the environment, performing relatively mundane tasks for his community and even chasing down lost pigeons. The quick travel has him riding the subway, often slouched next to other passengers and listening to music on his headphones like any other commuter. Even as Peter Parker, he helps out at his Aunt's homeless shelter. This sense of Spider-Man as a friendly and benign part of his community, really makes it a positive experience to have him as your avatar.
User avatar
ThirdDrawing
Member
Posts: 571
Joined: October 13th, 2016, 2:33 pm
Location: Poverty Stricken StudentLand

Re: 417: Marvel's Spider-Man

Post by ThirdDrawing »

I really disliked aspects of this story. Particularly
Spoiler: show
killing Aunt May
- it felt like they did it just to set it apart from other iterations of Spider-Man.

I liked that they used a lot of old villains, and I was okay with them tossing in Mr. Negative as a newer one for variety. It worked well, and he was a cool boss fight.

The mechanics, particularly swinging, are the best of any Spider-Man game ever, hands down. I have literally just put on a mix of music from the old 60s Spider-Man cartoon and swung around the city for a couple of hours. They absolutely, 100% nailed it.
User avatar
Magical_Isopod
Member
Posts: 993
Joined: May 29th, 2018, 11:57 pm
Location: London, ON, Canada

Re: 417: Marvel's Spider-Man

Post by Magical_Isopod »

I really liked this game. At first. Plain and simple, the gameplay here is great - both the traversal and the combat feel amazing, absolutely fantastic. But I think part of my issue with this game was expectations - the press had hyped this one up as some grand subversion of expectations, some kind of fantastic narrative that transcends typical comic book schlock. I didn't get that. I got a very rote, bog-standard story that didn't do anything at all to wow or surprise me. For a game as long as this one, I really needed a narrative hook to keep me interested... It didn't have one, and I dropped it during the last few hours of the game from sheer disinterest.

But on a more positive note, I will recommend a hidden gem indie game called Valley from 2016, as that game has similar quality of movement mechanics, albeit done differently. If you like flying through the sky as Spidey, you'll probably enjoy Valley too.
User avatar
TheEmailer
Member
Posts: 93
Joined: October 5th, 2015, 10:46 am

Re: 417: Marvel's Spider-Man

Post by TheEmailer »

Traversal around the city feels very good in the main, although not necessarily for close quarters precision movement, chasing pidgeons is not fun.
The combat is maybe not unique, but I like that almost all of the powers/abilities feel useful; I didn't end up spamming 1 or 2 things as per some games of this ilk. However in the late game and the DLC the difficulty was ramped with increasingly obtuse enemy types.

In the context of not being a superhero fan, I found the story likeable enough, mainly because of the light tone and humour. I enjoyed the set pieces more than I expected, not too heavy on the quick time event. And I LOOOOVE the accessibility options to replace button mashing with a hold (mashing brings me no enjoyment).

Overall an enjoyable romp, never sets out to chart new ground but succeeds at what it tries.
User avatar
Jobobonobo
Member
Posts: 574
Joined: July 27th, 2016, 4:30 pm

Re: 417: Marvel's Spider-Man

Post by Jobobonobo »

While much has been said of the sublime movement of Spiderman in this game I would suggest that its other main strength is its top notch combat system, refining and building on from the solid system established by the Arkham games. Being all stealthy or going all out, webbing up bad guys was a true delight. One of my favourite tools to use was the suit with the robo-spider arms which you could absolutely dominate any fight with but had to be used sparingly. Building up focus while you were low on health against a foe before using such techniques went a long way into making the combat a delicate balance on the knife edge and could determine if you were getting out alive. Pulling such a stunt off always felt incredibly satisfying.

Marvel’s Spider-Man is a remarkably well made tight experience which I absolutely recommend to fans of the wall crawler. Insomniac did a fantastic job of capturing the appeal of the character and I would be well up for more crime fighting adventures from them in the future.

Three word review: Web slinging joy
User avatar
The Walking Dad
Member
Posts: 3
Joined: January 9th, 2020, 1:45 pm

Re: 417: Marvel's Spider-Man

Post by The Walking Dad »

It's going to be tough to not simply heap praise on both a fun game starring a favorite hero *and* the incarnation that first got my daughter to love the wall crawler, but here goes.

Marvel's SPIDER-MAN is a banner example of a game that does a couple things perfectly, many things solidly, and just about nothing badly. Movement, both around the city and from foe to foe during combat is exhilarating while requiring enough concentration to make you feel like you're controlling spidey rather than in autopilot, and there's a lot of very effective narrative and character work (both in terms of immediately establishing circumstances via an intro with strong "BACK TO THE FUTURE opening shot" energy, and genuine legwork done to develop characters and raise stakes through the course of the game.

While it still has a few niggles related to the inherent tug-of-war associated with narrative-heavy games that take place in leisurely open worlds, one thing that elevates SPIDER-MAN a bit above the likes of ARKHAM CITY is how getting distracted by side guff is very appropriate to the title character. Stopping to foil a mugging or break-in on the way to meet MJ for dinner or help Aunt May at the shelter is about the Spider-man-est thing you can do, so I felt far less guilty chasing extras, but still engaged in the unfolding narrative. Because I rarely used fast travel, I could easily plan routes across town to story missions that would have a few side quests or collectibles on the way. This is the only game I've ever platinum'd, and it never once felt like a chore.

It also presents a darn-near platonic ideal of characters, with recognizable classic traits mixed in with modern tweaks that the occasional drastic reworking (like more or less turning MJ into Lois Lane) feel like natural extensions, especially given the familiar personalities and relationship dynamics from various other media versions.

(NB: except J. Jonah Jameson. I get the logic of turning him into a mustachioed Alex Jones-a-like, but I still hate it.)

This is the game that I wanted SPIDER-MAN 2 to be just about every moment I wasn't swinging around the PS2 version of New York, and while there are still a few obvious seams in Insomniac's latest, the whole is pretty spectacular.
User avatar
chase210
Member
Posts: 1075
Joined: June 3rd, 2013, 11:22 am

Re: 417: Marvel's Spider-Man

Post by chase210 »

I inadvertently ended up buying the Spider-Man PS4 Pro, the special edition with statue, and a regular copy of the game that came with the console. I was excited for this game.

I love the web slinging. I love how arcadey it feels, I love how it never stops feeling exhilarating. I love how gorgeous New York never stops feeling. I love the story. I love how although we know what Doc Ock will turn into, the game makes us wish and wish it could be different, I love peters relationship with MJ and Aunt May. I like the way Miles Morales is brought into the story. I like the combat, people always comment on how similar it is to the Arkham series, but I’m not sure I agree. It flows much different, it’s a lot faster, more aerial. I mean, obviously. I like clearing the map, I like almost all the side activities.

What I don’t like? The times the game forces you to play as non Spider-Man/Peter Parker characters, not all of the side activities work. Some of the taskmaster challenges didn’t excite me either honestly.

Overall, truly the amazing Spider-Man game.
User avatar
Alex79
Member
Posts: 8423
Joined: September 2nd, 2012, 12:36 pm
Location: Walsall, UK.
Contact:

Re: 417: Marvel's Spider-Man

Post by Alex79 »

I had no interest in this whatsoever before or during launch. I then borrowed it off my sister after it got good reviews and people seemed to be enjoying it. It really follows the standard template that lesser open world games have rigidly stuck to for the last decade. Repetitive missions, piling on more and more collectables throughout the game, tedious minigames and (in my opinion) a lackluster story.

But guess what - this game is excellent! All of that is washed away by some of the best world traversal ever seen in gaming. It almost seems passé to go on about it, but boy they nailed what being Spider-Man must feel like. It's just so exciting zipping through the city, and it never gets old. I was having just as much fun as I drew towards the end of my 40 or so hour playthrough as I did at the start.

Add in a highly responsive and hugely enjoyable combat system - one so good that I actively seeked out groups of thugs rather than swing by them - and you have the making of one of, if not the best superhero games of all time. Batman is my guy, I've never been in to Spidey and love the Arkham games, but I had at least as much fun with this as I did them.

The game is far from perfect, but the criticism I mention above, along with some massively irritating and pace breaking forced stealth sections in which you play as other characters, is easily ignored in favour of the sheer awesomeness of being Spider-Man.

Three word review: Spider sense tingling...
User avatar
chase210
Member
Posts: 1075
Joined: June 3rd, 2013, 11:22 am

Re: 417: Marvel's Spider-Man

Post by chase210 »

Oh here we go, knew I had a photo of it somewhere

Image
User avatar
Caliburn M
Member
Posts: 15
Joined: September 22nd, 2019, 5:00 pm
Location: Kintyre, Scotland

Re: 417: Marvel's Spider-Man

Post by Caliburn M »

Spiderman ...
Web slinging and traversal - Excellent, traversal is maybe as fun as that in second light (far better than in the much touted slow and dull traversal in BOTW).
Story - Perhaps not the best but pretty good on the whole with excellent voice acting.
Visuals and sound - Top notch
Combat - Fun with far more variation than any of the recent batman games. Does it copy batman ? yes but no more than batman's combat copies from games before it. Strange how batman seems to have spider sense in the Arkham games wonder where that came from ??
Non story activities - Better than most with the fun traversal and combat overcoming any tedium. Not sure why people complain about too many icons on a map when they are completely optional. If you're forced to clear the map to continue the story then feel free to hate but otherwise...

On the a whole a great game, showing what a licensed game can achieve with decent developers given the time and resources to do a good job. Take note square enix :)
User avatar
RinseWashRepeat
Member
Posts: 46
Joined: December 20th, 2019, 7:24 am
Location: UK

Re: 417: Marvel's Spider-Man

Post by RinseWashRepeat »

I have to say that I had a really fun, totally enjoyable and ultimately brainless time with Spiderman.

The movement, as I’m sure has been said a million times already, feels amazing. I can only assume people ever took the subway just to see the cute loading screens and to get the trophy. Why else would you not spend time swinging through the NY skyline?

The rest of the gameplay is fairly ‘safe’ though. You’ve got combat that feels like a simpler version of Batman: Arkham Knight, some forced stealth missions straight out of the PS2 book of level design and then an open world filled with Assassin’s Creed viewpoints and about 4 or 5 different types of sub-mission to complete.

This isn’t to say it’s not well done. The stealth bits aside, which felt a bit ropey, the rest of the game is incredibly well made - though it never does anything new. After a while, because of the lack of variety, the game does feel a bit repetitive. Having to stop so many of those ‘crimes’ became a real drag after a while.

A slight spoiler here - but after the city gets somewhat trashed, I thought this would change things up, but it didn’t really. It just meant you saw more litter, more flaming trash cans and there was another repetitive task to undertake; destroy all the checkpoints.

Luckily for me, I played the game the right way - in 30 minute chunks over a couple of months. This meant I never got bored and found the game to be my ‘comfort food’ game of choice. I knew what I’d be doing when booting up Spiderman, I knew there’d be no surprises and I knew I’d enjoy my time. I couldn’t imagine spending a 2 hour ‘session’ with this game.

The only other thing I’ll say is that I think the story’s really nicely done. The cutscenes are great to look at and I can’t wait for the inevitable sequel - where I hope they put their neck out a bit more when it comes to mission and level design.

A really great, if not somewhat unoriginal game. Easily the best Spiderman game - ever.

TWR - Great but repetitive.
User avatar
delb2k
Member
Posts: 211
Joined: September 3rd, 2012, 11:35 pm

Re: 417: Marvel's Spider-Man

Post by delb2k »

The best compliment you could ever say about Spiderman is that you feel like Spiderman. From movement to script to acting to being in the city it feels like a mostly perfect mix of providing the ability to be the friendly neighbourhood hero you want to be. Which meant it all felt good to play, everything flowed smoothly and the combat was well crafted enough to be able to allow you to do everything you wanted to with full confidence and without having to second guess any of your button presses.

I did have a slight disappointment as to how often the game did reduce itself down to large combat rooms with the overall flow characterised mainly as platforming moving into a fight moving into a possible quick time event while some of the side quests, especially the clearing an areas, became a wave based brawl. At least they made it interesting by attaching goals to each one in order to give me something to aim for.

My view on this may have also been influenced by how much of it was evident in the DLC, which did contain some incredibly important story beats that are almost certain to be used in the sequel.

But this is a nit pick, mostly caused by my desire for completing this game as throughly as I could. Which is the biggest recommendation I could ever provide in the end, and means that this is a title I think everyone should try.
User avatar
shadowless_kick
Member
Posts: 116
Joined: May 1st, 2018, 12:16 am

Re: 417: Marvel's Spider-Man

Post by shadowless_kick »

There’s a scene midway into Captain America: Civil War where Peter Parker tells Tony Stark that he wears special goggles while swinging around because there is “too much information” that he needs to tune out in order to focus effectively. That’s exactly how I felt while playing Spider-Man. The fantastic web-swinging mechanics combined with the great recreation of NYC make simply traversing the map a game in and of itself and tons of fun.

...But there is just so much going on at any one time—calls from Yuri, MJ and Aunt May, Peter’s own nagging, police dispatches, social media feeds, surprise attacks from “infected” citizens—that I always felt like I was either being hurried along to the next story beat or being distracted by something else on the way to it. At one point in my playthrough, during a street battle with Demons, Peter started yapping about a pigeon from a side quest getting away. I felt I needed to wrest control away from the game in order to play it at a pace I was comfortable with.

When I managed to do that, I had a great time, but it required a surprising amount of discipline. And that was BEFORE I began messing with Photo Mode…

Another area where the game reminded me of its movie cousins was the music. The adaptive score that kicks in whenever you begin doing something “heroic” is cool technically, but the tunes themselves are just as safe and forgettable as anything you’re likely to hear in an actual superhero film. What’s here is merely functional, and as a result, the game misses a huge opportunity to carve out more of a unique identity for itself.

Those issues aside, however, I still had great fun with Spider-Man and I’m looking forward to returning to the world via the DLC chapters I’ve yet to tackle.


Three-word review: Fast travel? WHY?
User avatar
JCVanDan
Member
Posts: 10
Joined: April 13th, 2020, 7:36 pm
Contact:

Re: Our next-but-one podcast recording (3.5.20) - 417: Marvel's Spider-Man

Post by JCVanDan »

I guess I'm going to be going against the grain here when I say I didn't particularly like this game.

I was initially wowed by it. The graphics, the city traversal and the bright and exciting overall feel of the game blew me away for a couple of hours after first picking it up. But after that initial impression I wanted to pick it up less and less as I got further into the story. At about 6 or 7 hours I didn't pick it back up again.

I was a big Spiderman fan as a teenager and the game nails the tone, and like I said the tech etc is amazing, but I think it falters on what a lot of open world games falter on: boring busywork. I found a lot of the missions to be 'Go to this rooftop and fight these goons' type of missions, and after a few of those I just didn't want to do any more.

Also I think the swinging gets a bit old after a while, as you essentially just hold R2 and point him in the right direction and the engine does it all for you. I think in reality Insomniac did a great job with this one and it comes down to a personal game preference. Open world games really aren't for me anymore (GTA V made me realise this a few years ago). Another nitpick I have is the character design, I found Peter's design to be very generic and boring as I did with most of the other designs. They all just looked a bit flat and lifeless and I think a more cartoony artistic direction would have worked a lot better.

I might end up picking it back again in a few years and changing my opinon, who knows? But for now this one is a pass from me!
User avatar
Shugler
Member
Posts: 2
Joined: May 24th, 2020, 9:18 pm

Re: Marvel's Spider-Man

Post by Shugler »

In my circle of friends, I am known somewhat as an apologist when it comes to Spider-man games. None of the releases since Spider-man 2 (arguably) measure up. While I agree there were a some of stinkers (I’m looking at you Spider-man 3), there were some pretty good ones. Web of Shadows, Shattered Dimensions and Amazing Spider-man 2 were pretty good entries, but nothing that would really shine. When Marvel’s Spider-man was originally announced, I was completely blown away. Not only was there a new Spider-man game coming out, but it was being produced by Sony, developed by Insomniac and they were basically working in tandem with Marvel Comics proper to give us an original story! I could barely contain my excitement.

I put myself in a bit of a bubble during the next couple of years, as I didn’t want to be spoiled by the story, gameplay mechanics, etc, although I had heard Mr Negative was one of the main villains and the combat was akin to the Arkham series, which I thought made a lot of sense, as Spider-man can easily jump around enemies and would use an array of different web attacks.

I purchased the digital deluxe version and got to play it day 1. To say that this game met all my expectations and surpassed them is a complete understatement. I love love love this iteration of Peter Parker, and I was very surprised and happy with how much story there was regarding Peter’s actual life. In pretty much all the previous games it was practically all about Spider-man and his enemies, paying very little mind, if at all, to the Peter persona. I found it actually really helped strengthen the other characters like MJ, Miles, Dr Octavius and Aunt May. I really enjoyed walking around the FEAST building talking with the different people. I had always argued with my friends that developers are doing a disservice not adding the civilian personas to superhero games, and they would always bite back saying who would want to play Clark Kent, or Bruce Wayne, or Peter Parker when you could just fly, zip or swing around the city. This game proves there can be a formula for it where it can work.

The story overall was very enthralling and I found myself intrigued and invested in it. While it can seem to run on a bit long, I never really found myself trying to rush through it just to get it over with. Even the somber moments are done very well. I found Miles’, Dr Octavius' and even Norman Osborne’s stories to be quite tragic and moving. It really serves the game well that the main baddies (Mr Negative, Norman Osborne in a sense, and Doc Ock) may be villains, but they are not truly villainous.

The combat is so natural and responsive, it’s like spreading butter on toast with a hot knife. I found that I took to it and somewhat mastered it about halfway through the game. Even on the hardest difficulty, I rarely got hit. I’m not trying to boast my skills in any sense, but rather give the gameplay itself the huge kudos it deserves.

And the web-swinging! *sigh* It really is breathtaking on how fluid and intuitive it feels. Within a few hours, I was swinging around buildings, pivoting between them, running up the walls and point launching from rooftop to rooftop, all without stopping. I find myself coming back to this game every few months just to web-swing around the city for a couple of hours.

The costumes themselves look absolutely GORGEOUS! You can tell the developers went into painstaking detail for each of them, and there’s over 40 (including the DLC)! Not only are there the more recent costumes from the movies, they even managed to put in obscure ones, like the Spirit Spider suit, the Secret Wars suit, and, my personal favourite, the Last Stand suit.

This is the ultimate Spider-man game that I think every fan was waiting for, and I can’t even fathom how they can top this entry with the sequel. Insomniac surely has a lot to live up to, but I give many praises and thanks to them for creating this masterpiece of a game. I am no longer an apologist.

My three word review: Amazing, Sensational, Spectacular
User avatar
Angry_Kurt
Member
Posts: 395
Joined: May 1st, 2020, 2:53 pm

Re: Marvel's Spider-Man

Post by Angry_Kurt »

I was really looking forward to this game after really loving Spider-Man 2 on PS2 and felt this could be a step up from that game with it's improved combat and I wasn't disappointed. Swinging around the city was always fun and was even quite deep as to whether you did quick zipping around or using long arcing swings to get around. I also enjoyed the combat which even though wasn't quite as good as Arkham combat in my opinion, was probably the best cloning of that combat style I have played. The main story was engaging and the boss battles were some of the best I have ever played in a super hero game, particularly the 2 vs 1 battle against Falcon and shocker (that might not be the correct villain, I can't remember) and the final battle atop the skyscraper against Doc Oc. The endning was also quite touching with Aunt May.
My only complaint would be the pretty dull side missions and activities which I never felt compelled to do due to their repetitive nature.
User avatar
chase210
Member
Posts: 1075
Joined: June 3rd, 2013, 11:22 am

Re: Marvel's Spider-Man

Post by chase210 »

What are the odds they’d announce a remaster and expansion to this the same week you release the podcast for it.
User avatar
ratsoalbion
Admin
Posts: 7918
Joined: August 28th, 2012, 9:41 am
Location: Brighton, England
Contact:

Re: Marvel's Spider-Man

Post by ratsoalbion »

Well, you know we have a number of industry insiders among the team.

Also, our Spider-Man podcast came out on May 11th.
😉
Post Reply