Spider-Man 2 (PS5) - Game Review
man there is so much I want to talk about in this video this is one of those reviews I I just have to accept the fact that it's never going to feel complete it's just going to get uploaded also letting you know this is going to be a spoiler-free review for the Spider-Man 2 game I will talk about you know what villains are in it things that you've seen in the promotional material also in a world where Insomniac games came out and told the world who Venom is not before the game even came out I'll talk about who Venom is not but I'm not going to tell you who Venom is because I feel like that's a reveal you're supposed to experience as The Story Goes On maybe you find it obvious I don't know but in a world where I got to talk about Venom here I'd rather air on the side of caution with that all right here we [Music] go so Spider-Man 2 is insomniac PS5 exclusive very successful sequel to the very successful Spider-Man you have Peter Parker Spider-Man Miles Morales a Spider-Man you get to play as both craving the hunter come to New York for the good hunt Peter Parker gets the symbiote suit and everything that leads to to New York is bigger than it was before once again you do feel like you are New York's protector no matter who you are is Spider-Man that's one of the things I liked on the Fly you can swap between Peter Parker or Miles Morales some of the side missions are specific to one Spider-Man or the other but when you're generally going through the city taking down criminals you can pick whoever you want that's awesome that they know there are fans of both people want to be who they want to be and I felt this game did a really good job at balancing the importance of the Spider-Man would have been easy to be like yeah equal to Peter Parker story and the DLC guy I know he's not DLC got his own game I'm just saying it could have felt like that but this does feel like a team effort miles has some great story arcs just for him personally plus when you as Peter get the symbiote suit it's what you know about the Symbio suit feels really cool at first and then it becomes a problem because Peter Parker becomes an I like the fact that even when Peter is an you still play as him it can be immersion breaking I felt like I was supposed to do some of the side missions before I went on with the story so the story Peter's becoming much more hardcore and then I'll go and take out a bunch of criminals and he's like hey just doing my job New York friendly neighborhood Spider-Man also the blood the slaughter he doesn't say that but you know what I mean so I like that you get to play as more hardcore Spider-Man also you get to see it Through The Eyes of Miles Morales which is my friend he's changing and I feel like he's in trouble it balanced the themes you have villains that play off of the themes in the game like you take the lizard Dr Connor is a victim of the lizard he's essentially a hostage of the lizard when the lizard is out as Peter Parker is a hostage of the symbiote suit though he doesn't quite know it yet also the dude I got it the dialogue when I was fighting the lizard was epic cuz your symbiote suit Spider-Man starts becoming a bit more of a dick and I'm fighting the lizard he's like no wonder your family left you I was like L blow dude but in order to Traverse this more enormous New York you now have new abilities namely the web gliders you can glide around like your Batman or some you got some good updrafts to keep you in the air some jet streams you can find to make it faster cuz there were moments where I was like is gliding truly faster than web swinging you find one of those jet streams the answer is a resounding yes also at a point fast travel unlocks it does it per section you have to do enough missions in any given section and then fast travel unlocks for that section and fast travels awesome it just it looks cool you can aim the cursor at any point on the map in a section you have unlocked fast travel 4 hold that button down the map becomes reality and in you go in terms of gameplay the fighting very familiar to what you know from the previous Spider-Man game the combos are very familiar I will say this game in terms of combat was much easier than the previous Spider-Man game it's probably because they inundate you with so many Tech and special abilities you essentially have eight that you can do even if you run into one of the big guys it's supposed to be a big problem you can hit him with one of your Tech abilities that'll stun him you start comboing him he snaps out of it you hit him with another one you start comboing him rinse and repeat at a point you figure that out they cease to really be a problem but also in terms of just the general multitasking I felt the first Spider-Man game had a lot more you had to keep your head on a swivel floor a lot more enemies with rocket launchers if I'm stacking it up taking out a base in Spider-Man was much more difficult than taking out a base in Spider-Man 2 you have a myriad of side missions in here you have the sciency things no longer a 2d puzzle I like puzzle mechanic side missions I just do give me those Bioshock one puzzles all day long I just get a kick out of them this one the puzzles are far easier but you do have puzzles nonetheless feel like that's a big theme in Spider-Man 2 in every real sense I can think of the game is easier fighting groups of enemies is easier the bosses are easier the puzzles are easier the platinum trophy itself is easier but for the side mission some are fun some are lame I have myself to blame I just wasn't connecting with the whole Miles Morales helping his high school out so I finished those missions up when the was hitting the fan and I was like oh by the way let me help you with those yearbook photos you do it and they're like oh by the way uh can you take three more pictures oh by the way when you're done with that can you just swing around the school presumptuous dicks but I helped them out did it because I need that platinum trophy and you do have missions where you play as Mary Jane and here yes you remember Spider-Man 1 those MJ missions that just ground the momentum of the game to a halt there are missions in Spiderman 2 where you play as Mary Jane I will say though the game play much more engaging and exciting not saying I buy the fact of Mary Jane Watson sneaking up on and taking out a squad of Craven Hunters don't give me that I'm being sexist you know it doesn't make a lot of sense most people wouldn't be able to do that that's my point I was going through that thing like I was Roar Shack or some one do you seem to understand I'm not locked in here with you you're locked in here with me I will reiterate though the MJ gameplay much more fun this time around and I'll take fun over sneaking around slog Fest one of the new and absurdly fun abilities you get in this game is the ability to make this little web Highwire you can walk out on take enemies out from above via stealth but you can also like aim it up and create web ramp High wires and dude by the end I was just looking around I'm like this looks like a spider layer it's not like the Arkham games the Arkham games people you get spotted and they're shooting at you you go across a couple gargoyles people like ah I where you go he's right here I it was like he was here and then he he went that way and he just became invisible Spider-Man's like no I saw you I could see you doing that too what are you doing it's not as easy to escape I found that fun that makes the stealth kills more gratifying and fulfilling when you pull them off when you clear out a whole room you just feel badass but the villains man I got to tell you this I feel really bad for Aaron Taylor Johnson at this point because what you get in here is craving Prime Craven's great in here first of all he's coming to New York to hunt Spider-Man's enemies because he's like that's the real game right there he's this apex predator who lives for the hunt Spider-Man has some very huntworthy villains out there I stress villains because that was such a cool part of this game you have to protect your enemies from another enemy because Spider-Man's like I'm not about killing people unless Jeremy's playing as Spider-Man I heard that you can go around the building and you see them web to the building that broke my heart all right fine I'll save my blood Lust For The Wolverine game whatever but you don't just get Craven it's not like he's this guy who comes into the city I mean he is but it's the Craven culture you get you really feel like this guy's entire life and sense of being is all about the hunt in a very Primal sense you get it you understand it that's so cool also the symbiote suit the symbiote suit is in and of itself its own story it's dealing with also a villain a villain posing as a friend there's so much cool power to be had by wearing the symbiote suit but my God they do such a great job at illustrating that this suit is a parasite it's not a symbiotic relationship it's a parasitic relationship it's taking far more than it gives it gives you the illusion of getting something but in the end you are simply a host for its will that's always been the story of the Symbiote soup but when you have hours of gaml fleshing this out it just hits different it hits deeper I even love the aesthetic of the suit where you look a little deeper and you can tell it's moving a little bit it is a living epidermis and then at a point Peter really starts losing himself to this thing and it just looks like a straight up alien skin I just got a deeper sense of how one loses themselves to this parasite via the alteration of their brain chemistry it's wild how at the whim of our brain chemistry we are this game actually doesn't scientifically go into it like this but in terms of what I could see through the characters that's really how it landed with me where it's more than you just become an version of yourself who creates memes for the rest of the internet's life I mean '90s me was all about Venom the symbiot suit it's what I lived for in Spider-Man back when so I've seen more than a few iterations of this I just felt this one was a very clear picture of what this thing's doing to him for my life of Spider-Man fandom I've always been like yeah but man if I got that symbiote suit that'd be awesome like Eddie Brock being like no you're going to listen to me and we're going to be anti-heroes you get the sense that that's really not how this works here that is a delusion it'll make you think so it can just kind of take you over as for Venom yes Venom is also in the game as Insomniac said Eddie Brock is not Venom in this game what the hell I will be honest with you the arc they have for Venom is actually a really good one man Venom is aggressive in this game that's when the really starts hitting the fan it's when all that stuff I said before about like oh yeah the fights are easy well I mean it's still easy but it does crank up the intensity at a point in the game there's actually a scene with Venom that very much reminded me of the Hulk in The Avengers movie angry and bloodthirsty more importantly angry at you also Tony Todd is Venom come on we're going to kill the world that's a layup that's god tier I will say if there are fundamentalists out there who like no Eddie Brock needs to be Venom he's probably going to bother you but I actually I do get I have my weird Boomer energy gripes for this game like everyone in Miles morales's life and Peter Parker's life all know that they are the Spider-Man they don't need to hide it from their friends and loved ones not like the world knows but their friends they know in terms of fundamental lessons of life I mean there's a good argument to be like yeah open communication with your friends that's a healthy thing I wouldn't be surprised if that was exactly the conversation and the reason that said if I were a superhero I wouldn't tell anybody just saying but it has officially been 15 years since Iron Man mainstreamed the idea of not hiding behind the mask that is to say a child who was born when Tony Stark ended his film with I am Iron Man telling the world who he was this will differ depending on state or country but for looking at about 15 years that child born will be able to get a learner's permit to drive a car it's been some time so I feel like anyone between the ages of 1 and 30 are not going to give a but when I see it I'm like oh I missed that it's a fundamental thing of the superhero's journey in his life looking the in Spider-Man 2 it's great but what you really want to know is is it better than the first game it is bigger than the first game no doubt that's not even a question better not for me I feel like that's a hot take but I felt the first game was just in the zone 100% of the time except the MJ side quest this definitely hasn't over one there no doubt first game was more challenging on every level where you really feel it of the fight scenarios I I just felt the first Spider-Man game forced me to change up my tactics more than two two for most of the game launch the enemy in the air either with an uppercut or a web swing kick then juggle them in the air with air combat when you knock them out hold triangle web the next person pull them up into the air air combat them there were battles there were fights in this game My Feet never touched the ground if an enemy is too big to web into the air don't worry you have a lot of tech to dispatch that enemy with also a lot of tech to take out the bosses with however they're telling a very complex and personal story in Spider-Man 2 not that the first one didn't have that really personal story between Peter and Doc O and it th in tears by the end but whereas in the Final Act of these games it gets bigger I felt in Spider-Man 2 it got too big I was like I don't require that this game like the last was at its best when it was really hammering home that more personal story and that story in here the story of Peter Parker and the power you feel with the symbiot suit and then the damaging presence in Peter's life it becomes all the while your Miles Morales seeing your friend go through this Spider-Man 2 deserves all the props for existing in a world in which these Spider-Man stories for both heroes and villains have been told many times over over the course of decades so they go a different direction with these stories for the sake of them feeling new but they also do the characters and their arcs Justice that for me is the gold and that's what makes it worth buying at full price which is funny cuz full price is more now game prices are going up physical media is going away I got to rethink the structure of my entire rating system all right so Spider-Man 2 have you played it what did you think about it whatever you thought comment below let me know also spoiler warning for the comment section if you haven't played the game you should probably steer clear of that and as always if you like what you've seen here and you want to see more click right here to see [Music] [Music] more