Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 Review

thesixthaxis.com:

Insomniac’s first Spider-Man game had it all. Exceptional traversal, an ever-evolving combat system, and an emotional narrative whose final moments tugged at the heartstrings like a strongman contestant pulling rope. With Marvel’s most beloved hero at its centre – he’s been the company’s number one hero for, like, forever – and it’s little surprise that it’s considered one of the PlayStation catalogue’s crowning glories. So, no pressure for the (full) sequel then.

Spider-Man 2 is familiar. That’s not all that surprising when the original game and Miles Morales’ subsequent outing were already so well refined. Why fix what is agreed to be one of the greatest super-hero games of all time? Insomniac has wisely decided to go with refinement rather than revolution, and this is a game that builds on the original’s mechanics while adding some welcome additions to the formula to help raise it above its forebear.

The biggest addition is the arrival of the wingsuit. Swing around the city, hit a suitable height and speed, and then unleash your web-based wings which allow you to glide through the city. You can hit air vents to throw you back into the heavens, or if you find a suitable air stream you can zoom along, circular markers showing you the way and letting you greatly extend your flight time. It’s a great way to speed up getting around, but there’s just enough weighting and limitations to ensure that you never fully swap it out for swinging through the city.

Otherwise, things are once again very recognisable, albeit multiplied by two. Each Spider-Man has his own skill tree, as well as one that applies across both of them, and you have a central XP repository, so no matter which spider-person you spend more time with, you’re not