Games Review: Spider-Man 2 (PS5)

Synopsis: In Spider-Man 2, Peter Parker and Miles Morales struggle to navigate the next steps in their personal lives while combating several new threats, including a private militia led by Kraven the Hunter, who transforms New York City into a hunting ground for super-powered individuals; and the extraterrestrial Venom …

The Story

This much-anticipated sequel to the hit 2018 game Spider-Man sees Miles Morales and Peter Parker working closer together than before. This is a natural progression from the events we saw play out in Miles Morales: Spider-Man (2020), which saw Miles grow into his role as New York’s newest protector as Peter went on Holiday for a few weeks. The games story naturally follows on from the events seen in those first two games. Miles is getting ready for Tech College while Peter is trying to score himself a regular paying gig.  Much of the gameplay elements seen in the first two installments remain, but there seems to be less emphasis on stealth in this game, which feels odd given that the games main villain is Kraven the Hunter. The story kicks off with Sandman attacking New York City, which pulls Peter Parker away from his new job of teaching at Miles Morales’s school. As he joins Miles on an emergency mission to stop an overpowered Sandman. However, once they stop The Sandman things take a turn for the worse when Kraven The Hunter releases a load of supervillains onto the streets of New York.

The Graphics

The graphics are very much in line with what we get in the Miles Morales game and the Spider-Man remastered game. As with both those releases you get two options in Fidelity Mode which allows you to play at 30 Frames Per second with an emphasis on Ray Tracing, which allows you to see very real-looking reflections on glass and in water, or Performance Mode, which gives you a full 60 FPS experience with a little less emphasis on Ray Tracing and looks to give you more fluid gaming experience.

I chose to forgo the 60FPS frame rate for my first playthrough and was blown away by seeing the reflections on glass and in puddles and things.

Overall. I like the graphics of the game and was generally happy with the visual side of things.

Gameplay & Playability

To be honest. There is very little to say about the game controls at this point given that if you have played the previous games. You’ll find the game controls very easy to pick up as they are pretty much identical. As with the previous games you earn new movements and tech upgrades for your Spider-Man as you progress through the game. Some of the moves you can pull off are truly spectacular and many of the favorite move sets from previous installments make a welcome return.

Perhaps my one minor nitpick about the playability of the game is the fact that less attention has been paid to stealth missions, which were a feature that I really enjoyed about the Miles Morales game from 2020.

Once again we get lots of side missions to play that allow you to deviate somewhat from the main game story. This once again means that we’ll still be cleaning up New York City long after putting an end to Kraven The Hunter and Venom. In fact, in some of my play sessions, I’ve just been putting a stop to arsonists and collecting Sandman’s Crystals as well as taking snapshots of some of New York’s popular landmarks. So there is plenty to do in this game.

Voice Acting

Yuri Lowenthal and Nadji Jeter make a much-appreciated return to their roles as Peter Parker and Miles Morales respectively and continue to do great work in these roles. Griffin Puatu also returns as Ganke Lee who provides equal doses of tech support and comic relief, but also gets a bigger role in this game as he is tech support to both Miles and Peter. Laura Bailey returns as Peter’s main love interest and daring journalist Mary Jane Watson, who once again gets some missions in the game. So pretty much all the key players from the previous games are back. 

Playing the key villains are Jim Pirri who is fantastic as Kraven The Hunter and the wonderfully talented Tony Todd does a brilliant job of voicing Venom.

Overall

Spider-Man 2 does a great job of continuing the story from the previous games. From a storytelling point of view, we get some great character development for both Miles and Peter as they try to balance navigating their daily lives while continuing their mission as New York’s protectors. The cutscenes throughout the game’s story keep you engaged and more importantly have you caring for the fates of these characters.

Graphically, Spider-Man 2 is on a par with Spider-Man: Miles Morales, which for me set the bar high from the storytelling and graphics point of view.

In regards to the playability. It plays really well no matter what difficulty you choose to play. You are going to have hours of fun from this game.

Spider-Man 2 is available to buy now at all good retailers that sell Video Games. If you haven’t already. Pick it up or put it on your Christmas list.