Marvel’s Spider-Man Remastered (PlayStation 5) Review

Available day one for PlayStation 5, Marvel's Spiderman Remastered, has done its utmost to fully utilise the power and tech available. Insomniac Games have improved upon the already impressive graphics, such as buildings and environments, bringing Manhattan even more to life. Weather and lighting effects have been re-worked with shadows and reflections now featuring improvements via raytracing. Insomniac Games have also re-worked Peter Parker's face, although the reasoning for this is not overly clear. At this point it might have been worthwhile to bring in Tom Holland, but perhaps there were a few things such as licensing and money that got in the way of that.

The PlayStation 5's technology has also helped the team bring forward a host of visual options. By default, the game focuses on high fidelity graphics with features like ray-tracing, enhanced lighting and additional VFX at 30fps. Alternatively, Performance mode is 60fps without the bells and whistles of ray-tracing and enhanced lighting, although the team have since patched in Performance RT mode which is 60fps and added raytracing, reflection quality and pedestrian density. The latter was preferred during this review playthrough, the major reason for this is the pace of traversal, and combat often means that Spiderman is zipping around constantly. Having a better frame rate for this just completes the fluidity of the experience. Traversal feels incredible, swinging across the New York City landscape, zipping at high speeds from building to building and once Spiderman's skill sets are fully upgraded it is a joy to do. Combat likewise is phenomenal. It is centred around melee attacks and dodging but is heavily focussed on showcasing Peter's arsenal of Spidey-gadgets and special powers, giving everything an ecstatic feeling of power.

For the uninitiated, David Lovato's original review can explain in further detail about how the base game pans out, although the only deviation in opinion is the relationship between Peter Parker and Mary-Jane which provides a comical and whimsical set of cutscenes, even if some of them are a little cliché. Gameplay itself is incredibly varied, from solving crimes in each of Manhattan's neighbourhoods, restoring way-point towers, finding Peter's lost backpacks, shutting down crime rings or completing time-based challenges set by a character whose presence won't be spoiled in this review. In fact, the sheer number of characters from the Spiderman franchise that make an appearance is quite a mean-feat, sometimes so much so that it is interesting to see how it all inter-connects with one another, even if it does deviate from the source material slightly.

Marvel's Spiderman Remastered also throws in the three-post game DLC packs for free, all of which add a few more challenges and tasty cutscenes to the mix. The enemies pack a much harder punch, not to the point where the game is harshly more difficult but it is more noticeable when an enemy does manage to land a hit. All of the DLC help position the story to what comes next. To get maximum enjoyment from this, it is quite achievable to complete the entire package 100% from base game to DLC. It feels overwhelmingly rewarding to do so, and given that traversal, combat and the soundtrack are top notch it is easy to continue spending time in this digital recreation of Manhattan.