Spider-Man 2

[AngryGazelle]

This is looking really nice.

The first game was fantastic but left a lot of room for improvement; let's hope Insomniac have filled it.

I'd like to see a bit more depth to the combat as it could get a little repetitive. I'd also like better side missions and activities. Give me B-list villains in the open world!

[oggyraiding]

I don't think I regularly used fast travel in the first one, because swinging about felt so good. Liked the side missions where you take out enemy bases. Starting off stealthily then it usually turning into a brawl. It's like they took a lot of stuff from the Arkham games, but made it faster, more fluid, and more fun. If I were to criticise it, it would be that everything it does it does very well, but it does nothing new. Compared to the Spider Man 2 movie tie in on PS2, which did feel ground breaking at the time with the freedom of movement. Still, we get Kraven and Venom, a step up from Mister Negative.

[Claude the Racecar Driving Rockstar Super Sleuth]

I thought Mr Negative was a perfectly decent villain. The problem was that he pretty much gets dropped halfway through and his story gets repeated with Doctor Octopus.

Is this only on PS5? I enjoyed the first one a lot, but I'm not forking out for a new console to play the sequel.

Liked the side missions where you take out enemy bases. Starting off stealthily then it usually turning into a brawl.

They all turned into a brawl, didn't they? I managed to take out all the baddies stealthily a few times, but then the second wave all ran in, guns blazing. It would be good if there was some reward for taking the stealth option, like you win the mission faster or something.

[oustropique]

Is this only on PS5?

For now, but a PC port is likely in a couple of years.

I 100%ed the first one and Miles Morales, but Venom leaves me cold and I'm not looking forward to Kraven being the villain they set up just to sack off halfway through. The redesigned UI doesn't look great, either, and the open world side missions need to be less repetitive. Amazingly, I might not buy this at launch when I was up at midnight for the first game. September / October is a busy time for games as it is with Starfield / Payday 3 / Super Mario Wonder.

[AngryGazelle]

I'm excited for Kraven and Venom -- hopefully Kraven has impact on the story and is more than a warm up villain. Mister Negative is also back and that could be interesting given he killed Miles' dad.

Also I'm incredibly excited to play with the black suit.


I agree that the open world missions really need some work, though. Apparently some of the side content is locked to either Peter or Miles which indicates there might be more story in the side stuff. The Miles game made some improvements but it definitely need to be pushed further.

[Marner and Me]

Loved the first one and Miles Morales was great too! Really looking forward to this one!

Agree that taking the stealth approach seemed to just lead into a brawl come the end of it. No matter how hard you tried. Must be something in the game mechanics.

Hopefully no fucking pigeons this time, but I don't think we'll be so lucky.

I have a feeling this is the first major game out for the PS5 so hopefully it will test it

[AngryGazelle]

The stealth sections are really under baked -- The Arkham series was much more dynamic in this regard.

I think it will test the PS5 and we are almost certainly getting a 60fps mode .

[Cold Meat Platter]

Seems rather unrealistic.

[AngryGazelle]

Seems rather unrealistic.

Which part?

[AngryGazelle]

This is going to be a lot of fun.

[madhair60]

AAA box ticking bilge saved only by some decent traversal

[bgmnts]

These games look fun but it really needs this track in it somewhere:

[oggyraiding]

Got to do Miles Morales before this comes out. Will be interesting to see if they do anything unique with the gameplay. The 2018 one was good but, as madhair says, very much a typical AAA open world action adventure. I don't mind that necessarily - it does it well. But for £70 I'm expecting something amazing.

[Mobius]

Yeah don't think I have ever completed one of these. They are well made, nice graphics, all that, but ultimately yeah just another open world, tick boxes off, go to this question mark on the map then this one sorta games. There's no real incentive to 'explore' because it's all viewable on the map, and no nooks and crannies because you can just zip past half the environment in 10 seconds.

[VelourSpirit]

It just looks like the first one

[AngryGazelle]

I think it looks great - probably the best traversal system in gaming has been improved upon for the sequel, along with updates to an already fantastic combat system. It may not be to everyone's taste but it's not bilge.

Regarding exploration, the devs have said that some things will have to be discovered by the player, before showing up on the map. Will it be Elden Ring levels of exploration - fuck no - but moving around the map and fighting people is gonna be a lot more fun.

[Claude the Racecar Driving Rockstar Super Sleuth]

What is point gliding wings? The web swinging is the USP of being Spider-Men.

I really enjoyed the first one, odd story structure aside, but I don't much feel the need to buy a PS5 for this. Kraven? Krap'un, more like.

[Magnum Valentino]

Wrong!

Kraven? Greathanks, you'll find.

I love Kraven. First time I saw my brother during the first lockdown we chose to spend our time watching the Kraven episodes from all the Spider-Man series on Disney+.

Kraven roolz you droolz, fool

[AngryGazelle]

I also like Kraven. Everyone knows Last Hunt is genuinely great.

The web wings are an addition rather than a replacement. Generally not a fan of them but for gameplay purposes, I'm ok with it.

[AngryGazelle]

Reviews are strong across the board. Roll on Friday!

[madhair60]

Reviews are strong across the board.

wow what an amazing surprise

[AngryGazelle]

[oggyraiding]

Just done the opening, very much a spectacle, but very on rails. Probably a better set piece than anything in Miles Morales. I really like the character of Miles even if the electricity/invisibility seems like a bit of an arsepull.

[oustropique]

I saw this going cheaper than expected so went for it.

Soft-locks (one happened to me in the opening sequence and a few more besides), sustained slide-show frame drops in the open world, invisible character models, cutscenes weirding out. It's playable without the day one patch, but I wouldn't recommend it. I don't remember the previous games being like that at launch.

Otherwise: apart from full stealth being an option as it was in Miles Morales it hasn't moved on mechanically at all. The bosses are even more repetitive, and the phases are often just 'do the same thing again, and we've just restored their health bar'. The tendency for difficult enemies to show up in droves in the late-game comes back as well.

It has a good story, though. The villains were more interesting (and better served) than the previous games, I enjoyed the themes of redemption and mortality, and the take on Venom was fairly unique. It has a familiar structure to the first game, which lets it down.

I haven't done any of the side-content this time: I'm a bit bored with the template by now. Unless they rework the formula for Wolverine and Spider-Man 3 (they tease the latter with two post-credit scenes), I might just watch the cutscenes online.

[Mobius]

it's weird to hear about bugs and glitches. these games are usually well made if nothing else

seen a lot of people complaining about graphic issues. some people suggest turning film grain off. some people say it looks great, others dogshit. seems strange to have such disparity on consoles

i'll have to give it a try later. annoyed to hear there's more of that stealth shit. guessing the bosses, side missions are as derivative as ever.

[AngryGazelle]

I think the bosses are significantly better than the first - it's not just web, punch  dodge repeat like it was then. Bosses have fairly varied movesets now and parrying changes things up a fair bit.

Traveral and combat are both much improved. Swing assist set to zero is awesome but challenging at first.

[Mobius]

I'm enjoying it. Looks nice, and so silky smooth to control and web about.

Just can't be fucked with all these cutscenes. And the stealth, controlling robot bits..

[oggyraiding]

I feel like there's a lot of minigames that are only used a handful of times. Like the hexagon puzzles with the plants, the bee drone thing, the Spider-bot investigating a collaping building thing, the Prowler stashes where you have to hold each trigger within a certain range.

[Mobius]

Yeah just shot some bees now I'm walking round a lab this is shit I want to be Spider-Man

[Mobius]

Oh thank god there's a skip puzzle button