Topic: Insomniac's Spiderman

@Th3solution Spidey's already listed on my backlog, but I'm definitely gonna play it immediately and probably over the next few days too. I'm trying to finish Persona 3 before then, but Spidey takes priority once it's out.

I may wait a week to play Spider-Man so I can beat Rise of the Tomb Raider first and have time to setup my Spiderman PS4 Pro...I'm very unsure.

I'd also love to see Insomniac become first party for Sony, besides most of their games have been PS4 exclusive regardless...

@KidBoruto Except for Sunset Overdrive, Song of the Deep and a handful of mobile games they have pretty much been a Sony first party studio

@Tasuki and of course 'Fuse' that is often forgotten when talking about Insomniac - however they do also make a number of VR games for Oculus Rift too. Sucker Punch were a 3rd Party Developer who only made PS games until 2010 when Sony bought them up.

It doesn't make sense though for Insomniac as I am sure they benefit from being 'independent' whilst also having a great relationship with Sony. The fact that Sony trusted them with Spider-Man instead of giving it to one of their own studio's is testament to that. The only reason Sunset Overdrive was not PS was because Sony turned down the idea and so Insomniac went to MS who saw the potential and invested. I believe though that Insomniac have the 'rights' to the name - which is 'important' for any developer studio - something they maybe wouldn't have if they were owned by Sony.

Of course 'rights' can work for or against some, the fact that ND don't own Crash or Uncharted despite creating and developing these is somehow wrong but then some games can continue long after a studio closes or moves on. Halo is an example of that, and we saw games in Uncharted, Killzone etc franchises not made by the studio's who created them for PS Vita.

I think it actually doesn't matter if Insomniac remain independent. Its not as if Sony 'need' studio's and Insomniac are in a vulnerable position that they may want to give up their independence anyway.

I'm still butthurt over Sunset Overdrive not being released on PS4.

The language cannot be changed! What the...? This is a huge deal breaker. I'd rather play the game with english audio...

Just watched an unboxing video and I have to say that the statue looks good. Only problem is that paint job didn't looked perfect.

@Fight_Teza_Fight I am a little surprised at how 'high' the metacritic score for this game is. Not that the story or game-play mechanics haven't appeared interesting in the numerous build up video's but that a lot of things have been criticised in recent years in quite a few games (numerous Ubisoft open worlds for example) so I was expecting them to be equally judged here.

Just take the towers that open up the map and reveal points of interest - a staple in Ubisoft open worlds that have been criticised yet Spider-Man gets away with it as well as the collectathon and 'mundane' side quests/activities (I would love to hear the Dastardly and Muttley in their Flying Machines theme during one of these ). The Boss battles, at least the ones we have seen, seem to be a case of dodge until you get an instruction - whether that's to slam an object into a boss, jam up turrets or what ever action is scripted next rather than allow you the total freedom to take on the boss in whatever way you want.

It just seems that if 'Ubisoft' had made a game with 'similar' open world activities, towers and quite scripted boss fights, it would get around 80% (+/- 3%) at the most (when averaged out across all reviews). They would be accused of rehashing a worn out open world template and padding it with meaningless tasks. Story may not be as strong as you would like so maybe that's why this is that much higher?

I am NOT criticising anything, especially not the game. I haven't yet played it through myself and only basing all of this on reading quite a few reviews as well as the video's and info we had leading up to this point. I had expected that Sony bias reviewers may well of given 9's, maybe a few 'Spidey' fans too, but I had expected a lot more '8's'. Maybe when I get to play mine later on, I will form my own opinion and score but based on the reviews (a lot of which do talk about the towers and mundane side activities that normally result in 'lower' scores) and pre-release video's, I am a little surprised its averaging 87%

I couldn't resist

@BAMozzy To be perfectly honest (and cynical I suppose), I don't think I've seen any review so much as mention any of the previous bazillion Spider-Man games as a point of reference. I get that the game is a solid, pretty package - but I can't shake the feeling that if this were another CoD or the like, there'd be more scrutiny and comparison. Perhaps it's just that good, but it really seems like there are embargoes in place.

Also, I feel like I'm 'that guy' always with the '...but what about TASM2' - and I say that because no one really answers. Nothing other than the graphics and the story seems of particular note in comparison. It was tied to a hot mess of a movie, but the game was enjoyable and traversal and gameplay looks almost identical - with more content to boot!

This is weird - you'd genuinely be forgiven for thinking that there had never been a Spider-Man game before, let alone one already released on the system...

EDIT: Regarding mentioning other Spider-man games; just this from Glen's review here: "there hasn't been a good Spider-Man game since 2004's Spider-Man 2, and that's criminal" - which is beyond nonsense really.

@AdamantiumClaws @Tasuki I'd love to play Sunset Overdrive, still holding out hope that we'll get a PS4 port eventually...

@BAMozzy TBH I had completely forgotten about Fuse...I used to want it until I realize what genre it was. (co-op shooter etc).

@RenanKJ Spider-Man's default language isn't in English? Where did you buy the game from?

@KratosMD I don't mind the scores particularly, I don't doubt it's a good, well put together game. Just that it seems to be being reviewed in total isolation and as if it's the second coming!

Okay, I'm happy for Sony and everything, but was it really necessary to update SHAREfactory to make it Spider-Man themed? Install the latest update for it and the entire interface is red and black webbing with white highlights. It's very distracting (there was a reason the background was black whilst editing a video) and feels a step too far, especially when SHAREfactory is used by everybody for all sorts of functions, not just Spider-Man gamers.

@RogerRoger i actually didn't notice that until AFTER i had finished making a video although i was a bit bummed there wasn't a Spider-Man Share Factory Theme to use (also bummed there is no FFXV theme either)

@KidBoruto I wouldn't count on a port.of Sunset Overdrive as yes that game was made by insomniac but it was published by Microsoft so the only way you are going to play it is by buying an Xbox One.

@KALofKRYPTON Quite a lot of te reviews I have read have said this is the 'best' Spider-Man game which to me indicates that they have considered the previous ones and rated this accordingly. It does seem that a lot of reviews, whilst mentioning the side quests, collectathon and towers, haven't been as critical or as negative as perhaps they would have been in a Ubisoft open world that, in the past have been a mainstay of their open world games and become overly used and lacking innovation. H:ZD used a more inventive 'tower' system, turning it into a 'mini-puzzle' of sorts (looking for the path to climb and jump onto the back) and having the towers as moving robotic giraffes and Far Cry 5 mocked towers. Both of these though were noteworthy enough to be commented on positively - the fact that H:ZD showed innovation in this and that Far Cry 5 basically did away with towers. If I was being cynical, I would say that the reviewers skipped a LOT of the side activities and collecting and just focussed on the story and thus didn't really fully explore or get 'bored' of the mundane activities outside of the main quest line.

@KratosMD With reviews, you do get an 'opinion' based score and whilst there is some consistency, at the end of the day though we all come to our own conclusion. For me, God of War isn't a 10, its not really a 9 either and I can say this after getting the platinum trophy. That's not to say the game isn't good but its got a lot of filler (the two realms that are just repetitive combat arenas), and the game is very linear and 'old school' in its construction. There are some 'wider' areas but the path through is still very linear. Paths off the main one either end in a dead-end with loot or loop back to the main path - again with loot. Even the big Lake of Nine area is made up of linear areas - you can't make you way around the coast line without having to go back to the boat and sail to the adjoining linear cove. The story is good, but the missions are 'similar' in that you get to objective, find you need a 'tool' to progress, so embark on a mission to acquire said tool only to be thwarted by needing a new tool to progress and thus embark on another mission to acquire said tool etc - of course these 'tools' were hinted at earlier by passing dead-end 'loot' areas blocked by something that these tools opened up so some back-tracking would be needed. Its no different from a lot of 2D games from years ago that had loot/doors locked behind some tool requirement that you only got later and one main path through a game but with 'loot/collectable' off the main path but still either had to return or looped back to the main path. The RPG mechanics are 'decent' too but not as extensive or variable as others. It does add to the game though rather than be seen as a negative.

Before anyone criticises me, this is a generalisation and that's not to say the game isn't well executed and graphically impressive too. I would certainly give this an 8.5 but its not 'perfect' and therefore cannot give it a maximum 10/10. That's being 'objective' after playing 'everything' the game offered at launch. Fans of the franchise, genre etc may well be a bit more generous and score it higher but I do think they could have been more adventurous and innovative with the mission structure, been a bit more innovative and creative with the pathways and need for backtracking.

Anyway, my point is that God of War to me wasn't as 'good' as a 10 in my own personal opinion and scoring system. I can't yet say what I think Spider-Man will merit on my scoring system but I do find it funny that a number of things that go against open world games in other reviews don't seem to affect this. I know some of those are not necessarily great 'stories' - Far Cry 5 is quite forgettable as a story but as a complete package, its not that bad - a good 7-7.5 overall - let down by the awful 'arcade' mode and forgettable story. Its why God of War is my Game of the Year so far but yet to play Spider-Man, Tomb Raider, Assassins Creed and of course RDR2. As I said, this isn't meant as a criticism of any game or review, more an observation and a little surprise at how certain things can be seen as big negative in one game yet brushed aside in another...

@Tasuki they also published Rise of the Tomb Raider so it's not impossible unless they also own the IP that is

@FullbringIchigo That was clearly a times exclusive from the start though. We could see a Sunset Overdrive 2 on PS4/5 though since Insomniac owns the IP. I think that’s why Sony shot it down, they had to own the IP instead of Insomniac to make the deal.

@BAMozzy And that's all they say, never why. It's all just really emotive language rather than - 'actually, the web swinging and traversal is almost identical to TASM2' - or not, as the case may be. As I say, there's just a lack of interest other than to gush about the new game rather than objectify it and actually measure it against previous entries.

From what I can see, there is precisely zero innovation (beyond the presentation) present in Marvel's Spider-Man, which is fine. It's a difficult thing to bring originality to. But in that case, yeah - damned sure I want to know how different a game it is form TASM2 beyond story and presentation. Did I play pretty much everything this game has to offer, cheaper, 4 years ago?

@BAMozzy @KALofKRYPTON I think Ubisoft and others get flack for the 'towers' because that's what the game is basically built around. I haven't played Spider-Man yet, but I can imagine the focus bring more on narrative and story missions, thus making it less important to weigh in on for your overall experience of the game.