The gaming world is excitedly preparing to play the latest title from Insomniac Games. In collaboration with Marvel and Sony Interactive Entertainment, they created another game from the Spider-Man universe – Marvel’s Spider-Man 2.
With the outstanding critical and financial success of its predecessor, this upcoming title promises great potential to elevate the superhero gaming experience outside the usual boundaries. So let’s see what Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 will have to offer and what you might expect from the newest adventures of our friendly neighborhood Spider-Man.
[Warning: Spoilers from Marvel’s Spider-Man, Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales, and potential spoilers from Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 are below!]
A larger world and new ways of traveling
One of the key aspects that excited players in the first installment and its spin-off was the vibrant and detailed open-world New York City and its vicinity. In Marvel’s Spider-Man 2, the developers have taken this a step further, introducing a combination of two maps. The one from Marvel’s Spider-Man, and the one from the Miles Morales spin-off + a much larger NYC area.
We’ll be able to comfortably travel and explore different places. The map will be bigger and to compensate for the huge amount of time that we would spend on exploring every inch of it, developers added new features. The first one is called “Web-Wings”.
If you remember, Tom Holland’s Spider-Man as well as Josh Keaton’s had this feature in their suits. It allowed them to travel faster between tight spaces or in areas where there are no big buildings. That’s the same case in Marvel’s Spider-Man 2. To travel through New York City, sometimes we’ll have to use those “wings”. But the add-on that comes with it “Speed Rings” will give you a speed boost If you fly through them. That way instead of traveling for 10 minutes, you’ll be able to travel a certain distance in a much shorter time.
If you’re a fan of swinging mechanics, don’t worry, there’s also something for you. With the new game, comes new acrobatics. Both Peter and Miles will receive both refreshed and new swinging/acrobat visuals.
You can play as either Peter Parker or Miles Morales
The first game allowed players to step into the shoes of Peter Parker a.k.a. Spider-Man. The sequel takes it up a notch by introducing a dual-protagonist system. Players will have the opportunity to control both Peter Parker and Miles Morales, each with their unique abilities and playstyles. Peter will remain the acrobatic, experienced Spider-Man using his Battle IQ skills and gadgets. While Miles will use more of his bio-electric venom strikes, invisibility, and other new abilities.
The gameplay will alternate between the two characters. Whenever you want, you’ll be able to swap between Miles and Peter. Some missions will be available only for one of them, while some will be available for both. This mechanic will allow players to play New Game+ and discover new endings to different story arcs/missions.
The combat mechanics in the first game were already praised for their fluidity and satisfying combination of melee attacks and web-slinging. But after a few hours of playing, they felt really monotonous and kinda boring. Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 provides a fresh look at those mechanics.
This sequel will introduce a new revolutionary combat system in Spider-Man games. During the story, Peter will acquire Iron Spider arms which will allow him to easily defeat huge enemies. Or some that he can’t touch. Miles on the other hand will depend on his abilities which won’t be as useful as they were in certain situations.
But the dynamic combat feature will undoubtedly raise the bar for superhero games, providing a deeper level of control and personalization.
With great power, comes a great story
The main storyline will focus on Peter, Miles, Ganke, MJ, and Harry Osborn, months after the events of Spider-Man: Miles Morales. Harry finally got out of his healing tank in which there was a part of the symbiote. But as we discover later in the story, he’s still sick. While many fans speculate Harry is Venom, well… the answer is not that obvious. I can just say that there’s more than one host.
MJ started to work as a reporter for Daily Bugle whose new boss now is… J. Jonah Jameson, again. Peter becomes a teacher and tries to do everything in his power to become a good mentor for everyone. The one his Uncle Ben and Otto Octavius (before he started to use his additional arms) were. And that’s how he met Curt Connors a.k.a. The Lizard.
Even though we’ve already seen that Norman Osborn cares about his son, and we’ll do everything to cure him, there’ll be more to his story. We’ll learn how he got into the possession of the symbiote, and what he discovered while studying it. We will further explore the grief of Miles who lost his father in the first game. By confronting Mr. Negative, fans will get an emotional scene that might change Miles forever. Also, the story itself will have a lot of emotional, epic, and breathtaking moments.
One of those will focus on Kraven. Sergei Kravinoff will be a deeply explored character in this game. If you remember The Amazing Spider-Man 2 video game, then you know he was a villain there. But comparing those two games, in this one, he’ll have his whole background explored and you’ll forget about his bad version from the TASM 2 game. Kraven, Venom, and Lizard are the main villains in Marvel’s Spider-Man 2. Although they’re not as big of a threat as the Sinister Six, they’ll still be a big challenge for our heroes. Peter and Miles won’t have an easy job defeating them, especially when they’ll be fighting each other.
When the symbiote starts to corrupt Peter, we as the players will be able to see how Peter changes. With each mission accomplished, his paranoia, evil side, and symbiosis will grow. This will also affect the gameplay and environment around us, which will evolve.
As for the story as a whole, I expect this will be more emotional and more devastating than the endings of the two previous games. With a story created by Akshai Ajit, Brittney Morris, Jamie Mayer, Jon Paquette, Lauren Mee, Nick Folkman, Paul Mastroianni & Rob Forma, we can expect another great addition to the Spider-Man games saga.
Beyond the main storyline which will be bigger than the previous one, players will be able to expect a wealth of side quests and activities scattered throughout the open world. Also, a whole range of different suits will be available at your disposal, including variants for specific suits. Additionally, classic Marvel easter eggs will make appearances in these side quests, offering fans delightful surprises to uncover.
The voice cast for Marvel’s Spider-Man 2
Joining Yuri Lowenthal (Peter Parker/Spider-Man), Laura Bailey (MJ), Nadji Jeter (Miles Morales/Spider-Man), Griffin Puatu, (Ganke), Darin De Paul (J. Jonah Jameson), Mark Rolston (Norman Osborn), Jacqueline Piñol (Rio Morales) and Stephen Oyoung (Mr. Negative) will be Tony Todd as Venom, Jim Pirri as Kraven the Hunter, Graham Phillips as Harry Osborn and the list goes on. I can only reveal some of the big names from the voice industry who also joined this project, especially Doctor Connors, so stay tuned.
When to expect this new Spider-Man game
Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 sounds like an amazing game. Its potential is just as big as the imagination of the people who created it. For sure this will be the perfect game for every Marvel and Spider-Man fan. And as a big fan of this universe, I have to say that I really can’t wait to commit myself to this game for a very long time.
Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 will release on October 20, 2023, exclusively (for some time) on PlayStation 5. Did you like previous Spider-Man games from Insomniac? Are you hyped for Marvel’s Spider-Man 2? Let us know on Twitter and our own Discord channel.
1/19/2023: NEW! Check out our review of Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 here!
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