Topic: Spider Man

@KilloWertz Don't worry, it was always the plan. The game's story and set-piece craftsmanship was too important to me. No way I was gonna be freezing it every ten seconds.

But I appreciate your comedic concern, all the same!

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@oliverp Here's hoping for some decent discounts, for you and everybody else waiting for 'em. I doubt it'll be included in anybody's Black Friday / Cyber Monday listings, but maybe the January Sales might see it shave a tenner off its asking price? Best of luck dodging spoilers in the meantime!

@RogerRoger You're kind of welcome then.

I suppose you'll go through and get your usual screenshots in a second playthrough. I can definitely relate to not getting many screenshots in a game as I got hardly any in Horizon Forbidden West because it was such an important game for me.

@KilloWertz Well, in true Sony first-party fashion, its NG+ mode will be a little late to the party. I'm itching to restart its story all over again, but doing so in a new file would lose my hard-earned Spidey suits (which the Photo Mode allows you to freely switch between, once you've unlocked 'em) so I'm gonna have to wait. But then yes, rest assured it'll be business as usual.

You can't even change the time of day in the post-story city yet (assuming they do the same as before and add the feature in a future update) so my "let's go back in and mess around for a few snaps" plans have been rather limited, too. [sighs] Who will play me in the movie?!

Roughly 50 percent of the way through. Overall, I am very... whelmed by this, overall. I thought with time things would get better, and they did a little, but I still think the controls are overdesigned. I wouldn't have minded the parry if it was optional, but in an already really messy control scheme, throwing in attacks that can only be parried and can't be dodged just tips me over into frustration territory. Especially against bosses or large groups of enemies where you may be facing three or four types that all have to responded to very specifically.

It is a well told, well presented, story with regular breath taking set piece moments but... I dunno. Maybe it just an oversaturation of Spider-Man over the last three or so decades, but outside of a few fresh spins, this is like 'a Spider-Man story 101' and I guess there is nothing wrong with that, but at least for me it isn't much to really get all that excited about either.

The novelty of having you be able to play as both Spider-Men with slightly different ability sets is cool, but honestly fairly pointless. At least so far this has been Peter's story, the symbiote abilities are by far the most fun to use and Miles side content feels the most like filler. I am swapping to Miles when you get those missions that let you play as either Spider-Men, just because if I didn't I think I'd forget he is in the game. Who knows, maybe this changes in the back half.

I'm jealous of you all getting to play this! I very much enjoyed the first one back in the day on my PS4, but I do not currently have a PS5 and don't think I would be getting one any time soon. I might just have to wait a few years for it to come to PC. The first one is actually the only game I 100%'d (that took any effort, Telltale doesn't count). It's been funny seeing some of the online clips of this sequel though. The whole wingsuit seems like... an odd choice and very reminiscent of Just Cause. Not sure I'll be a fan of using that, but I'm sure it feels amazing to control either way judging from how Insomniac nailed the gameplay last time around. On the bright side, I still haven't actually played the Miles Morales standalone expansion or whatever you would like to call it and that's come to PC by now. Maybe I'll just play that and pretend like I'm a part of the party.

in attacks that can only be parried and can't be dodged just tips me over into frustration territory. Especially against bosses or large groups of enemies where you may be facing three or four types that all have to responded to very specifically

I play games on a fairly low setting as I prefer the story to the frustration of getting killed time and time again I have no issues with fighting groups I find the spinning bins attack (not sure what its officially called) very useful against groups the only small gripe I have is the burning petrol tankers and getaway cars are always the same so it gets a bit samey but that is a very minor complaint, I am still loving it.

Either I'm playing this game wrong or everyone else is (gonna have to assume the latter, tbh) because I was told this is a 20h game and I'm at 60% or something after 27

Yeah, it is one of those. I don't like having a game on a difficulty so low I am not really engaging with it's systems, I'd like to feel like I have a degree of mastery in my combat which you can't really do when the game is on the lowest difficulty and lets you just spam at random. However, I also don't enjoy being frustrated either, Souls games hold zero appeal to me. As such, I've so far never gotten properly stuck, even if some fights have been tough. And if I do ever get properly stuck, I have room to turn the difficulty down. But for now I am persevering in the hope a moment of clarity drops at some point and I feel like I am properly gelling with the controls.

I don't like having a game on a difficulty so low I am not really engaging with it's systems, I'd like to feel like I have a degree of mastery in my combat which you can't really do when the game is on the lowest difficulty and lets you just spam at random. However, I also don't enjoy being frustrated either, Souls games hold zero appeal to me. ..

You are are engaging with system not spamming as you still need to do the correct button combos to use the available attack instead of one that you have already used the only difference is in the easier modes you do more damage with each attack.

There are a total of 5 difficulty settings in Marvel’s Spider-Man 2, with each providing a slightly different experience for players. The options are as follows:
Friendly Neighbourhood
Friendly
Amazing
Spectacular
Ultimate
The default difficulty in the game is Amazing. This allows you to take on some tough but not overwhelmingly challenging battles while playing through the story. If you’re a fan of action games and want a balanced experience, this is the option for you.
For those who are new to action games, or simply want a more relaxing time in Marvel’s Spider-Man 2, either the Friendly Neighborhood or Friendly Difficulties would be the ideal choice. Both of these emphasize story over combat as enemies are less powerful and you take minimal damage. The main difference between these modes is that in Friendly Neighbourhood, you cannot get knocked out in combat so it’s very forgiving.
https://www.dexerto.com/gaming/marvels-spider-man-2-difficult...

No spoilers, but I felt the game got the balance right by the end (or at least justified the way it'd weighted the narrative between both Spider-Men). I do agree with you that, for best results, it's preferable to pick Miles whenever you're given a choice, and to tackle most of the side content as soon as it appears, because then you'll stick with him for longer stretches than the "main" story affords. It certainly feels like it's been designed for that approach, at any rate.

The whole game has me questioning the distinction between "main" and "side" stories, though. It blurs the lines so effectively, almost too effectively. A lot of the criticisms I'm seeing come from folks who blasted through the "main" story first, whereas those who spread the load seem much more positive.

Oh buddy, I wholeheartedly recommend that you play Miles Morales as soon as you can! It's an incredible, complete, and crucial standalone game! One of the best superhero games of all time!

@RogerRoger As a SM aficionado, how would you rank the 3 Insomniac games, in order of preference?

I will agree with the others, Miles is a must play. I think it is the best of the three games, Spider-Man 2 is probably the second best and the original Spider-Man is the weakest (but by no means bad)

Spider-Man 2 on the PS2 beats them all.

@Th3solution As games to be played? Well, the incremental refinements implemented by Insomniac would make that a simple reverse order ranking. With each new game, they strike a better balance of activities, and make the feel of being Spider-Man more and more empowering.

But as story-driven Spidey experiences, I reckon SM2 gives MM a real run for its money, to the point where it's almost too close to call. When taken together, all three games successfully distil the various facets of the Spidey character, so it'll depend on your personal preferences. If you want apocalyptic, super-heroic superhero action against what the MCU would call "an Avengers-level event" then Pete's got you covered; we did skip his origin story, after all, so you'd expect him to meet larger threats as an established figure. Running parallel to this, it's through Miles that we get to see the smaller-scale, more intimate "friendly neighbourhood" teenage drama. The trouble is that, from this perspective, all three games (and both Spider-Men) are so effectively cohesive that it becomes difficult to separate them out.

If you twisted my arm, I'd probably agree with @Pizzamorg and put MM at the top, closely followed by SM2 and then the original. There are some incredibly potent, truly epic emotions coursing through SM2 but a lot of them rely on the context of what's come before, or a wider awareness of Spidey lore. MM is a more complete experience by itself, and does some of my favourite character work.

Honestly, I think I'd do better breaking down all three games into individual moments / missions, and then ranking those, but that'd get real spoilerific! Thanks for asking, though. Sorry if I haven't helped!

@RogerRoger Oh, that’s helpful. It’s not like I’m not going to play SM2. I think I’ll go for it within the next month or two. I’m definitely putting MM over the first game, for the reasons you mentioned. I think there’s something inherently attractive for us non-superhero people to get that more intimate origin storyline. Plus, his powers were more fun to play with.

@RogerRoger Well, how can I not with that ringing endorsement? Should also be thematically appropriate since we're approaching Christmas! The Christmas music is already haunting my apartment. I'll make this the first thing I try out when I can.

tried to go back to my spiderman 2 game on gamecube this past april and couldnt do it, popped in ultimate spider-man instead and beat the game , so i dunno about that one.

@colonelkilgore I love how he got a loading screen in there! 🤣

Tagging @RogerRoger to share my thoughts about Spider-Man 2.

Disregarding my first disastrous hour of the game, I really enjoyed it! To say that it was completely bug-free after the first hour would be a lie though. I still encountered a fair amount of issues throughout my 27 hours of playtime. I still stand by that this is the most unpolished Insomniac game I've played. Never had any problems with the other Spider-Man games, the Ratchet & Clank games, the Resistance games and so on.

I feel like the game took a while to get going. Too many missions that didn't push the plot forward. Not to mention that I felt like I was at the end of the game and there was still around 5 more hours to go.

Those final hours were brilliant though. Playing as Symbiote Spider-Man, then Venom, then Anti-Venom Spider-Man, absolutely fantastic! I also really enjoyed MJ's final section that plays like a shooter. It made me realise that it's been a long time since I played a shooter and now I want to play one. Furthermore, playing as a darker version of Peter was awesome. I needed a cathartic outlet and I got it by playing as him. Playing as Venom was even more awesome though! He's definitely my favourite Spider-Man villain and I really hope Insomniac makes a Venom game now.

The side missions were surprisingly emotional. That mission where you helped a woman's grandpa genuinely made me teary-eyed. Or that mission where you set that guy's pigeons free was very sad. There even was a mission where you got to play as Hailey and experience what it's like to be deaf. The side content was overall a huge improvement over the first game's.

So yeah, I'd place Spider-Man 2 at the top out of the three Insomniac Spider-Man games. Very fun experience! It's far from my GOTY though. Just like with Assassin's Creed: Mirage, it didn't leave me any lasting impressions that made it stand out among the rest. However, I think this is the case especially for all games made by Insomniac. They are never anything special, they are just good games.