Marvel's Spider-Man (PlayStation 4) Review

Perhaps what Marvel's Spider-Man gets the most right, is putting emphasis on the swinging, climbing, and general acrobatics behind Spider-Man. Combat, stealth, and the skill tree elements are all relatively simple, but work together in big ways to make high flying, hard-hitting, stomach-twisting swings, flips, kicks, and combos all just a few button presses away. Insomniac definitely nailed what it should feel like to be Spider-Man in a videogame, and this isn't just from a technical standpoint; while many titles before it dealt with the classic rise of the superhero, Insomniac opted for a more experienced, veteran Peter Parker. To offset this, the game features a few sections where players control Miles Morales, giving the origin story edge to the game, but leaving the focus on the main hero, Peter Parker.

Insomniac have crafted a story worth of the Spider-Man name. They took quite a few artistic liberties with the story, but have done a better job than some of the official comic writers as of late. Characters stay true to character, but are put in situations or given abilities they haven't had in other Spider-Man media, which makes for a lot of interesting twists and turns. Spider-Man fans will see a lot they recognize, but in shades of colour that keep things fresh and entertaining. The game's voice cast does a phenomenal job bringing these classic characters to life, and the writers behind it all deserve props for their top-notch handling of the various personalities involved.

This isn't without its flaws, yet even those can be boiled down to being solid but overly distracting side-missions. The stealth missions, for instance, where players take control of Miles Morales or Mary Jane Watson, while integral to the story, quickly become tedious. The same can be said for the puzzle-solving mini-games. Most of these are relegated to one area, but this does little more than let players decide when they want to slog through these boring, tedious quests. Still, these aren't overly complicated and don't take long, so they never quite get in the way of the whole experience at large. The skill tree elements also come across as weak, with most of the necessary skills being available from the start, and earned skills only serving to offer minor improvements along the way.

While the writing is strong overall, the relationship between Peter Parker and Mary Jane more often than not falls flat on its face, with a lot of cringe-worthy moments where the two characters - mostly just in how they interact with each other - rely almost exclusively on two-dimensional "fighting couple" clichés. That said, the main focus is the relationship between Peter and his mentor, Otto Octavius, and this is an emotional powerhouse of a story that the team executed flawlessly. One aspect that also falls short is in the bonus costumes; this is always one of the most hotly anticipated aspects of any Spider-Man game, and while a few of the included costumes are fun nods and Easter Eggs for superfans, the vast majority of them are obscure, detract from Peter's abilities more than they add, or are just plain visually uninspiring or too visually similar to each other.