Hey now everybody, hope you're all doing well adjusting to this new update, and welcome to my review and discussion of Marvel's Spider-Man! I was hoping to get this review out much earlier than now, but things in my personal life have been a mess lately, and this new update to the site has made me a little hesitant as well. Things seem to be calming down now, so it's time to get back on track. Spider-Man has always been one of my favorite superheroes ever since I was a kid. Unfortunately we never got a game that did him any justice. Needless to say, when I saw footage of Marvel's Spider-Man for PS4 I was very excited to get my hands on it. Not only have I finished the game now, but I got 100% completion in all areas, and continued playing until I got the Platinum trophy. I'm not sure how many hours it took to accomplish all this, but I certainly got my money's worth out of the game, and it didn't disappoint. So sit down, relax, and I'll tell you all about it.
Spider-Man for PS4 is an open world action adventure game, developed by Insomniac. Taking place in modern day New York City, it tells a completely original story that's not featured in any comic or movie, that focuses on both Peter Parker, and Spider-Man aspects of the character. You get to explore the massive city sandbox, completing missions for the main story, or taking on a wide variety of side quests. There are loads of collectables to find, real time crimes happening around the city, and a bunch of new suits and moves to unlock. Finishing all the side content is totally optional so don't feel obligated to do all of it, but doing so will add a lot more depth to the story, and the gameplay itself so it is recommended.
This game has a lot going for it, and excels in almost every aspect, but the best thing for me was the compelling story. Taking place eight years into Spider-Man's career we skip over all the origin story stuff, and begin the game as an experienced, masterful crimefighter. Most of the city's Supervillains have already been caught by Spidey, and are locked up in the Raft, a high tech maximum-security prison. The game opens by finally taking down Wilson Fisk, aka The Kingpin, who controls all the crime in the city. But now with him gone the streets are up for grabs, and a new threat begins to take over. Someone named Mr. Negative, and his gang of Demons, picks up right where Fisk left off, only with a much more sinister intent.
Now Spider-Man has a lot to deal with, and Mr. Negative proves himself to be his toughest foe yet. Meanwhile, Peter Parker has his own set of problems that need to be dealt with. He works with Otto Octavius in his lab, trying to create a new form prosthetic limb, which isn't going very smoothly. Peter also helps his Aunt May run the city's homeless shelter called Feast, and he's been on the outs with Mary Jane after they broke up a few months ago. The game does an excellent job of covering every aspect of Spider-Man's life, in, and out of the suit. This gives the player a well rounded look of the character, fleshing him out better than any previous game. The voice acting, animation, and performances are all fantastic, and I was fully engaged the entire time. All these characters have important roles to play as the story escalates, and the city begins to fall apart.
An important aspect of any Spider-Man game is the web swinging. Usually this feels clunky, and unresponsive, but this game finally nails it. Swinging through the city is as easy as holding the right trigger, but there's more to it than that. While swinging you can press X to shoot yourself forward for some extra speed, run along the side of any building seamlessly, and latch on to certain areas to slingshot yourself across great distances. All of this feels very smooth, and satisfying, and it makes traversing the huge city landscape a breeze. The environment, characters, and pretty much everything in this game looks beautiful, with highly detailed graphics, and animations. So you'll probably be doing a lot of sightseeing while snapping pictures in the easy to use photo mode. I think I had about 150 pictures taken by the time I was done.
The combat is very similar to the Batman Arkham games, but finetuned to fit within the Spider-Man universe. There's your basic attack, dodge move, special attacks that build up over time, and a whole slew of gadgets for webbing up the bad guys. You can knock enemies into the air to perform aerial attacks, web them up and swing them around, or pick up objects in the environment to smash people with. On top of the already large move set, and plethora of gadgets, each suit has it's own special combat ability to give you even more options, and there's about thirty of them to unlock. Plus you get a bunch of new moves to choose from as you progress through the game and level up. Combat can be as easy as mashing the attack button while dodging your enemies, or it can be a brutal, complex ballet, the choice is yours.
All of these features, the web swinging, the combat, the side content, and the main story all blend together seamlessly to give the player an amazing experience. Once I started the game it totally hooked me, and I couldn't put it down. But it does have some flaws that I have to address. For one thing, there are stealth sections of the game where you play as one of the side characters. These quickly became tedious to me, breaking the otherwise excellent pacing, especially towards the end. I wish there were more boss encounters. The boss fights were great, but there weren't enough of them. If you're trying to 100% the game you will be forced to complete a bunch of the same side challenges over, and over, which can be a pain. And finally, I wasn't a huge fan of the sad, downer ending. I felt it was unnecessary, ending things on a low note.
Don't let those minor complaints fool you though. They didn't really take anything away from my enjoyment of the game, and most people might not be bothered by them at all. I've been waiting for a game that did Spider-Man justice for a long time, and now I finally have it. The environment is beautifully crafted, and densely packed with content. The combat can be as simple, or as complex as you want it to be. Web swinging around the city has never felt so fluid, or easy to control. You get a wide variety of side quests, challenges, real time events, collectibles, and easter eggs. It features a pretty big cast of characters that all play an important role, some that I didn't expect. And the story is surprisingly well done, covering both Peter Parker, and Spider-Man aspects of the character. If you haven't played this yet, I highly recommend picking it up, it's a spectacular superhero game. I'm going to give Marvel's Spider-Man a grade of...………………….
A -
Thank you for reading my review of Marvel's Spider-Man, I hope you enjoyed it!
Hey, @jameslashomb.
It's probably time they made a decent Spider-man game. I think I may have tried to play an earlier version (can't remember which), and really never got into it for all the reasons you describe.
My sons both have it now, and with the opportunities they've had to play it so far, they echo what you've said about how good the game is. I'm not sure how much of the side quests they'll do, but they do like to do that kind of thing.
I'm kind of surprised about not having enough bosses. Some games I've played over the years had way too many, or they seemed pretty tough to beat. I admit to being a button masher, though. :)
A sad ending is not necessarily a bad one. Why did you feel it wasn't a good fit for this particular story?
As your title says, "A Spectacular Superhero Game" Who does not like spiderman? It's also from my favorite childhood characters ..
You see it's a spectacular game, you should have a lot of free time to get that platinum trophy, right?
Although I am not a gaming I loved your post and the way you wrote and explained the game, I think your blog super interesting I could remember good moments from my childhood in some of your previous post.
I will follow you to be aware of your next publications, a big hug @jameslashomb!!
So you actually completed the game stages ? wow you are a game freak i must say. hahaha
well i'm not that type but i love soccer a lot but with your review on this, i will surely placed my hands on the Pad.
awesome review. i'm convinced.
That sounds really exciting, reading through your description. I believe starting from beginning there are many things we start our acquaintance with in childhood and from my own experience they still will be there for the whole life, probably because they were a part of our childhood. Another thing probably because of Peter Parker who is a usual normal guy of teen age we also felt like this could happen to you and me and who of us was not keen to fight for good things and safe planet and dear people.
With nowadays advanced technology it is a great emotional experience to play such computer games, you are a part of it and you really take part and not just watching from sitting on sofa.
I believe it would be a great surprise as a X-mas present for coming holidays :)
Thank you for the supportive comments everyone! I really appreciate it, and I'm happy you enjoy my reviews!
I congratulate you for having reached platinum in the game and what you invested already took it out in the game if it was worth playing many hours. the graphics are spectacular very real of the games if it looks very entertaining and when we started playing from the beginning we were stuck more in the game, if it is easy for you to play and dominate the pj you are a maste in this @neymarth10
Thank you!
I following you. Please follow me.and give me upvote. Thanks for your support.
Hi jameslashomb,
Visit curiesteem.com or join the Curie Discord community to learn more.
I appreciate it guys, thank you!
this version of spider man is great , nice review man ! plus checkout my mixes
Hello jameslashomb, Excellent, correct and comprehensive review of this game. Congratulations on your platinum trophy achievement. Wonderful as you explain all the details of this game. I love all the details you gave us step by step to enjoy all the benefits of this fun game. Very good recommendation to enjoy with the family. I really liked that you brought us this proposal. You are a winner and specialist of this game. It was very animated because you offered us all the details. Have a great day.