Rating: 8 out of 10
When I purchased my PlayStation 4 in 2018, it came with copy of the brand new Spider-Man game by Insomniac Games. Though not originally on my wishlist, it proved to be a fun game to play through, so here’s my game review for Marvel’s Spider-Man!
Drive-by Game Summary
You are Peter Parker, the one and only amazing Spider-Man. You play in a massive open world of the island of Manhattan in New York City. Throughout the city are several different types of missions to go through. The main story missions will lead you through a twisting tale of sacrifice, selfishness, and beating up random thugs on rooftops. The game features stealth, combat, and exploration aspects throughout.
The game also features a skill tree, different suits that give special attributes, and various craftable gadgets that you can make with tokens found in side missions. However, you do not have to use most of these to complete the story. Side missions range from sneaking around enemy compounds and taking them out, to searching for backpacks webbed to walls around the city. The core story missions can be completed without having to focus on the side missions.
Save Game Convenience: 7/10
Saving is possible at any time when not in a main story mission. When in a story mission, the game has several checkpoints throughout the level. These are rather frequent, so if you need to quit for any reason, you won’t lose a lot of progress.
Story Complexity: 8/10
The story is easy to understand without a doctorate in Marvel superhero lore. It’s written well and you don’t have to know the origin stories of every single Marvel villain or hero to grasp who people are.
Control Scheme: 7/10
The control scheme is moderately complex, but the game does a good job teaching you the ropes. It does have some difficult combo attacks, but the good old smashing the punch button is a perfectly valid strategy on lower difficulties
Character Customization: 7/10
It is fully possible to try optimizing the loadout of gadgets, suit, and skills for your character, but it is also fully possible to stick with the suit that looks the coolest. If you do want to customize gadgets and skills, the interface and tutorial for doing so are explained well by the game.
Complete Game Review
The game opens up directly into a level, where your intention is to capture Kingpin. This level acts as the tutorial, teaching you the different types of enemies, how to web swing, and various other controls. After that, you can either move on to the next level by swinging across New York City to reach the location of the level, or chill out and go on some side missions. As you progress through each level, new types of side missions may open up. The game will teach you about these, but then it’s up to you whether you chose to do the side missions.
The controls are somewhat simple, and should be easy to learn for those used to fighting in games. Spider-Man has both melee and ranged attacks, and you can utilize different types of webbing, such as electric webs or explosive web bombs. The game has combos, but they aren’t necessary to win the game.
Since these reviews are aimed at people who love to game but don’t necessarily always have time to get around to it here is the breakdown on the key “time” involved elements. The control scheme is slightly complex, but follows the standard model for combat in videogames, so it’s relatively simple to relearn the controls in a timely manner. Each level takes about 20 minutes to complete, but you can exit them without losing all of your progress. The side missions are also beneficial if you don’t have the time to complete a full level, as many of them will take 5 minutes or less
I found Insomniac Games’ Spider-Man to be entertaining, fresh, and well written. It has the perfect balance between complex gameplay to not being simplistic to the point of boring. The game is cleverly designed to appeal to audiences with all different sorts of time on their hands. I’d highly recommend picking up a copy of Spider-Man for yourself!
If you’ve played this game and enjoyed it, you’ll probably love the sequel, Spider-Man: Miles Morales
