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Contains spoilers for the first game (Marvel’s Spider-Man)
My first playthrough of Marvel’s Spider-Man PS4 was unforgettable. Growing up watching Tobey Maguire’s Spider-Man, then Andrew Garfield’s, and later Tom Holland’s built up three very different identities for the character in my head. From awkward, to confident, to goofy – each had their own unique spin on the character. I then dipped into the comics starting with David Michelinie’s Amazing Spider-Man run which was paired with Todd McFarlane’s iconic style. Here, I began to see where the film characters were themselves born. However, playing through Insomniac’s first game completely changed my understanding of who Peter Parker was.
Insomniac’s Peter Parker was slightly older – a pre-established hero with countless victories and defeated nemeses under his (spandex) belt. Well equipped with high-tech gadgets and combat skills, stepping into the suit was ridiculously fluid and exciting. However – better than all of that was how fun it felt to finally be Peter Parker. Brought to life by Yuri Lowenthal’s charismatic performance – now having fully replaced how the hero’s voice sounds in my head – every moment swinging through New York was seasoned with Pete’s quips, JJJ’s slander, and MJ’s reason.
The game let you live as Spider-Man – and it felt 3D. Not just in a literal sense, but in terms of how reactive and real environments felt, how podcasts spit local lore in your ear, or how crimes pop up through the city. Insomniac’s Spider-Man is somehow the truest interpretation of the character I’ve ever experienced – and so Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 has a lot, and I mean a lot, to live up to.
Pete’s story with Otto is a much more complex and fleshed out relationship than I’d ever experienced before, and MJ is re-spun as an investigative journalist. Everything is fresh, unique, and different. It also never forgets one of the Spider-Man’s most important axioms – when Spider-Man wins, Peter Parker loses, shown through the decision between saving Aunt May’s life or the lives of countless other civilians.
We know by now that the sequel is going to feature both Spider-Men together, with a dual-narrative driving the game forward. There’s something about this that worries me. Miles has just had his own game, so we can safely assume that this is going to be a primarily Peter Parker focused story, with Miles taking up secondary here.
With the Aunt May’s death defining the first game for me – this game needs a proper response to it. In terms of narrative, sure, but in terms of scope and scale too. It’s going to be difficult to one-up the impact that it had on the first game, but if Insomniac want to lead into a well-crafted trilogy at some point, this game needs to hit all of the right spots in terms of stakes. The few bits and bobs we’ve seen regarding Harry and Norman Osborn look as though they’re headed in the right direction, but Insomniac will need to pull out all of the stops to make a game better than the first.
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