Topic: So That’s It For Spider-man 2 Huh?

@Rudy_Manchego im curious about how you'd describe the arkham series

Are any games aimed solely at "massive gaming enthusiasts" these companied spend millions developing these games they need to appeal to every gamer so they can maximise their profit they dont do it for fun they are big businesses.

I’ll jump in here too as I really enjoyed Spider-Man 2. Gaming comfort food of the highest quality. My son and I played through it together, him being into Miles and me being a lifelong Spider-Man fan. It was accessible for him and challenging enough for me with the flick of a button and made for a special experience so I suppose we were pretty much the target market. Co-op is admittedly a huge missed opportunity. I actually thought the story was great as well, though I did play it in tandem with Alan Wake II, making it feel like Citizen Kane in comparison.

@Jimmer-jammer

Amen to that, brother!

@LN78 😂 Story structure, proper set up/pay off and character development not so on the nose as to be insulting do a lot of leg work on the way to a successful narrative. I breathed a sigh of relief in Spider-Man 2 every time I was allowed to observe a character flaw or moment of growth through a character’s actions rather than having them look into the camera to inform me of it.

@Jimmer-jammer And I thought the story in "Spider-Man 2" was pretty weak! Tells you how much I though of "Alan Wake 2" - when I saw it was up for some "best story" awards at the end of last year, I almost choked on my Cadbury's Roses.

@Max_Headroom I think it's fair to say that some games have broader appeal than others. You are right, companies still want to sell millions of copies. But some games are inherently designed to have larger mass appeal than say other titles. I mean from what I undertsand, as of 2022 Spiderman and Spiderman Miles Morales have sold over 33 million copies which is pretty huge. The game isn't M or 18+, is largely older child friendly, has recognisable sales branding and is careful not to take too many risks.

AAA games are sold for gaming enthusiasts but they will often expect lower sales revenues. The Dark Souls trilogy has sole 35 million units - that's 3 games across two platforms with 2 re-releases in that and you could argue that this is one of the most lauded series made in recent gens. I would expect that by the end of the PS5 gen, Spiderman, Miles morales and Spiderman 2 will have sold at least another 30-40% more.

@nomither6 That's a good point - I played Asylum on release and it felt incredibly new. The stealth and combat was different, as was its independence from any licensed movies. Then City and Knight took that concept and expanded it with each iteration. City felt like an evolution from Asylum. Now, to a certain extent, the Arkham style is the basis for a lot of games, Spiderman included. It's almost its own sub genre of combat. So Spiderman is a really solid to the Arkham style of games but apart from some small additions, the base game of Spiderman 1 and 2 are almost identical in terms of the game systems, mechanics and everything.

And of course Insomniac have received threats over this. I just do not understand the mentality behind moronic behaviour like this.

@JohnnyShoulder Indeed.

I’d like to see the data on how often people actually play NG+. I guess it’s an expectation at this point, but I can count on one finger the number of times I’ve done a full NG+ run. 😅
(Although I did do the first boss on NG+ in Dark Souls just to get the satisfaction of beating it down in an overpowered state.)

I can’t imagine many players are clamoring for NG+ but maybe I’m missing something.

I do think the idiots who are launching Twitter threats at Insomniac are a very sick and feeble minded minority.

We've chatted about this before, but just to add balance / give context, I've been voraciously hungry for NG+ ever since watching the game's credits roll back in October. I was sorely tempted to start a second save regardless, but opted for patience when I saw Insomniac detail their forthcoming update. In the meantime, I've gone back and completed full 100% from-scratch playthroughs of the previous two Spidey games whilst I wait. The instant I'm able to return to Spider-Man 2 and revel in its story, soak up its details, process my feelings without having to rush to avoid spoilers, and fully abuse its Photo Mode (which is also being expanded with new features) I'll be clearing my gaming schedule for a solid month.

But I also recognise that most game developers are overworked and underpaid (whilst still wanting the best for their product) and that's before I also stop and consider that these specific developers have recently been the victims of a cruel and humiliating criminal attack.

So yeah, as important as a NG+ update is to me personally, let it take as long as it takes. It's not worth a single minute of extra stress to an individual developer, let alone an entire team.

My only disappointment remains in people's total lack of patience, however it's expressed.

As someone accustomed to From Soft’s games, it does always surprise me that NG+ isn’t just part of the game at release. I mean… it’s no deal-breaker for me or anything but just something that I would consider to be such a formality to add, it’s strange that they don’t.

In regards to anything else, such as dlc and the like… **** dlc!

@Th3solution for how short it was , NG+ is needed . it ended too fast & i actually took my time with it because i heard beforehand how short it was . within me stretching it out to over a month i’ve only accumulated 23 measly hours of playtime when i beat it

and that’s most likely counting the time whenever i had the game paused for long periods , so it’s probably less than that

@colonelkilgore people saying me & others alike are impatient but ironically i would’ve rather the game be delayed for NG+ , but they wanted to rush it out for the holidays

talk about impatient , am i right ? LOL

@nomither6 I dunno mate as I haven’t played it yet (I wasn’t nearly as impressed by the original Spider-man as everybody else seemed to be… so I’m not overly eager to play the sequel) but the main thing I find today is that there are just so many games… that a second playthrough of something seems far less interesting than a first playthrough of something else 🤔

NewGame+ is not an essential part of a game. If the main game was more than ready to launch, why delay it over an optional feature? If a game really needs the optional features in order to be enjoyed, then it wasn’t a good game to begin with.

@RogerRoger @nomither6 Certainly, I don’t begrudge those who are eager for NG+. And I’ve never claimed to be normal or average, by any stretch, so I’m definitely not going to speak for the majority. But I did look at the trophy numbers (just based on looking at my own trophy list, so there’s no deep dive into any greater analytics , mind) for Spider-Man 1, the completion rate for the game appears to be 49% (as represented by the trophy called “End Game”) and the completion rate for “One More Time” (for completing NG+) is 4.9%. Ironic how the numbers worked out perfectly, but even my poor math can calculate that’s 10% of the people who finish the game do NG+. That’s actually higher than I expected, but is still quite low, all things considered.

Miles Morales has similar numbers. Completion rate appears to be 47.7% by trophy data and NG+ completion rate is 9.0%. It’s a higher rate by almost double than SM1, and I suspect it’s because it’s a shorter game and also because it was required to do NG+ for the platinum. (Although the platinum rate is 6.2%, so roughly 3% of people who played NG+ did it solely for the experience and didn’t bother to get the platinum). But 9% is still a small minority.

So, I guess the point is, NG+ is great to have but I think that realistically speaking it’s a small part of the overall fandom

@Savage_Joe well i hate to say it but considering how short it is , i think it really needed that optional feature.

@Korra so you don’t replay any of your old retro games, play multiplayer, or rewatch movies or tv shows? lol . you make it seem like replaying through a game is done in one sitting .

it’s really not hard to understand , the idea of replaying through a game has been around since almost forever with the option of having multiple save files in a game

@Th3solution well maybe if SM1 released NG+ when the game came out the numbers could’ve been higher . like i mentioned in my initial post , i can’t even be bothered anymore to play NG+ as i’ve lost almost all interest, id come back if they ever release DLC.

@Korra I'm the same with replaying games, I very rarely if even ever do that.

I even stopped a second play through of Miles Morales after about hour, as I was getting a bit bored having only just experienced the game. And I would rather my memory of the game be a positive one, rather than be dragged down due replaying a game.

I get everyone will different with this, but the clamour for something like NG+ is ridiculous. It just proves some don't really understand game development and appreciate how much work goes into these games.

I think it is a generational/society thing, as we expect and want everything dumped on us all at once.