Be warned, this is a Spoiler Review of Spider-Man 2 and there will be unmarked spoilers ahead.
If you want a spoiler-free review please check out my Platinum Review here or the video below.
As I said in my Platinum Review, the thing that I liked the most about Spider-Man 2 was its main story missions and I think most of this review will be focussed on that. The introduction and tutorial against a huge Sandman wrecking New York was a great to get back into the swing of things and I liked how it set up the rest of the story. Flint Marko being on the run from Kraven and going on a rampage I thought was a neat way to pique interest in the hunter and what he was capable of. I also liked that it led to Peter losing his job, which is the start of Peter’s internal conflict for the game.
The narrative races along after this and I found it hard to stop while playing through it. I loved the flashback sequence where you play as a teenager Peter and Harry sneaking through their school, and it did a great job at selling the friendship that was talked about so much in the 2018 game, but we never got to see it. The game does a great job of showing the happier moments between characters too. The trip to the fair with MJ and Harry was a really great part of the game in making the friendships believable, even though you know something is coming that will change things. In fact, I think the relationships in the game are the strongest part of the writing and it makes some of the later events and boss fights feel even more impactful because of this.
It’s easy to believe the relationships when the acting is so good in the game. Yuri Lowenthal and Nadji Jeter do such a great job at selling Peter and Miles’s friendship and their hurts as the game goes on. Miles in particular has some really amazing scenes with Martin Li, and Peter’s descent into darkness as the Symbiote influences his mind more had me hooked.
I mentioned this in my main review but one thing the game did really well was keep a good balance between its two leads. It never felt like Miles’ feud with Li overshadowed what Peter was going through with Harry and MJ and it felt like the growth both characters had tied into each other really well.
One of my favourite boss fights was the one where you start as Peter, fighting Kraven and trying to stop him using the large bell in the middle of the arena, and once you have defeated Kraven it changes from Miles trying to save Peter from the suit and he tries to stop you using the bell. It’s such a cool moment both narratively and gameplay-wise that I didn’t think anything was going to top it, but then the game immediately does it with the next major sequence where you play as a fully powered Venom, who has re-merged with Harry.
This part of the game was such a great power fantasy moment and you felt invincible as you tore through the Oscorp Building and out into the city. It was such a great end to Kraven and a raising of the stakes in the story, I was genuinely shocked when the fight ended.
The idea of making other Symbiotes was really cool and I liked the enemy variety it gave some of the later fights, although I did hate the weird symbiote bombs you had to web up to defuse. I usually didn’t notice them until it was too late and half my HP was gone. Scream was an amazing boss fight, and the narrative mirror of MJ to Peter, and her brutal verbal assault against him was great. I do wish this boss fight had a little bit more mechanical complexity to it though as the fight itself was quite simple.
There is one other Symbiote you see in the game, which I didn’t see coming at all at first. In the Flame sidequests, it is eventually revealed that you are going up against Cletus Kasady, and the quest ends with him getting his hands on another Symbiote before escaping. I don’t know whether this is setting up a plot point in Spider-Man 3, or the inevitable DLC, or maybe even a Venom standalone game a la 2020’s Miles Morales, but I can’t wait. I love Carnage and if the Carnage suit you can unlock for Miles is an indicator of how cool actual Carnage will look, I am so hyped.
There are so many good villains and some great sidequests in this game, like Cletus, or the Mysterio quests, it’s a shame that some of them are so bad. The EMF quests are so boring, and they don’t even have a cool boss or reveal around them. The puzzles are not that interesting either, but none of the puzzles in the game are, with one Brooklyn Visions quest being the only substantial puzzle the game has. I know Spider-Man isn’t a puzzle game, but I would have liked more variety if nothing else. Even the other side content I didn’t enjoy much such as the Prowler Stashes and Bird Hunts, at least felt like they led to something, a cool villain tease or a nice moment with Miles’ family. I really liked as well that there was a lot of focus on redeemed villains in the story. Seeing Tombstone working at the Amusement Park, and both Mysterio and Sandman trying to go straight felt like Insomniac getting Spider-Man as a character and his motivations.
So let’s finish with the ending of the game, and my thoughts on that. I really liked the last Venom fight, I liked the different phases that were split between Peter and Miles and I thought mechanically these were really fun fights and they were actually quite tough too which I enjoyed. The set-up for the next game, however, was just perfect. It gives Norman a great way to become the villain they have been teasing for two games, and if they are going to bring back Otto as well, I can’t wait. If Carnage is a tease for the third game, and they have Green Goblin, Doctor Octopus and Carnage as villains in one game, no wonder Peter will have to come out of retirement.
Also on a final note, I think it is cool how willing Insomniac is to kill its villains. Kraven and Scorpion’s on-screen deaths were really cool, but I loved finding out that Kraven had already worked his way through some of Peter’s previous foes.
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