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Spiderman!
Recap! Spider-Man (2018)
Growing up, I’ve been a longtime fan of the webslinger. I remember waking up and tuning in to the FOX channel to catch the 90’s Amazing Spider-Man series (Y’know, the one with the awesome intro theme with Joe Perry from Aerosmith). I even played through nearly every video game adaptation of Spider-Man, even those weird ones on the SNES back then like Spider-Man and The X-Men in Arcade’s Revenge.
When I heard about Insomniac’s new Spider-Man game and saw the reveal trailer, I felt like a kid on Christmas day again. I spent years waiting to hear more news about the game and when when the PS4 Pro and the Collector’s edition was announced, I pre-ordered both instantly and destroyed my bank account without hesitation.
Then, the day finally came. I went to my local GameStop, picked up my new shiny Spider-Man PS4 Pro, hooked it all up, and put in the game. From that point on, my friends and family did not see me for 2 weeks (worth it).
Insomniac’s adaptation of the friendly neighborhood Spider-Man was everything I imagined it to be and more. The webswinging was smooth and fluent, combat felt great (similar to the Batman Arkham series), and the story was captivating at every chapter. Even the little side missions and collectables you can find were amazing as they added more lore to Peter Parker’s life story. If that wasn’t a selling point, the game gave you A LOT of suits to collect and wear along with unique abilities from the suit. You can save the civilians of New York wearing the same suit Peter wore in the MCU like his homecoming suit or infinity war suit, to the Scarlet Spider suit Ben Riley wore (my favorite suit of all time).
Before I get carried away and go on and on, let’s continue on with the story and where the timeline takes place for Peter Parker in this adapation. With that said, there will be SPOILERS coming up, so if you intend to play this spectacular game and want to avoid anything being spoiled, you’ve been warned.
- Bullet Point 1
- Bullet Point 2
SPOILER WARNING
The game starts you off as a 23yr old Peter Parker in his apartment, snoozing until he hears on a police radio scanner that trouble is brewing. As soon as he’s made aware of the situation, Peter gets ready, makes some toast, dawn his red and blue spandex suit, and swings away to save the day. As he reaches the destination, police are being cornered by Wilson Fisk’s henchmen. Before things could get escalated, Peter (as Spider-Man) jumps in and stops the henchmen from overwhelming the police.
Peter then swings to Fisk Tower to confront Wilson himself, and stops the tyranny that Wilson was planning. However, in the process of apprehending him, Wilson informs Spider-Man that putting him behind bars will only cause more chaos, as he was the one keeping the balance of other criminals causing havoc. Ignoring what Wilson said, Peter swings away and gets ready to do his everyday normal adult life stuff. Showing up to his job late, helping Aunt May at the homeless shelter, and dealing with his love life.
However, that doesn’t last as what Wilson to Spider-Man said was true. While he was behind bars, a new crime syndicate appears out of nowhere and starts wreaking havoc and stealing what appears to be a top secret file with a deadly weapon. While Peter is dealing with his own personal life, he now has to figure out what this new syndicate plans to do with the deadly weapon before it’s too late.
Through this whole ordeal, the game does an amazing job to show you the struggle Peter deals with as a young adult, juggling between his personal life and his heroic persona. Without providing much details on his background, the side missions and collectables you find around New York helps you figure out what Peter went through in his past to get to where he is now. It adds more of an incentive to complete and collect these to learn more of how he became the friendly neighborhood Spider-Man and the relations he had with the people in his life. Most of the time, other games will have you collect collectables that doesn’t add much flavor text or lore to the world built around them. In Spider-Man, once you pick up a collectable or finish a side mission, you’ll hear Peter talk about the item and how the item represents a memory of his past.
Aside from the collectables, the story does a great job putting you in Peter’s shoes to see the struggle he’s pit against to please everyone while saving the day. One moment, you’re faced against some wacko who is putting you on blast on their livestream while putting you through a crazy obstacle challenge. Then, the next moment you’re trying to fix your relationships or trying to make sure you aren’t late to another meeting. It’s not easy living a double life, and I don’t envy what Peter does to separate the two.
As you progress further in the story, Peter’s life becomes more chaotic to handle. More foes come out of the woodwork to test our friendly neighborhood superhero, the city is in danger, and there are tough decisions he has to make for the greater good. I would be lying if I didn’t say this game hit me in nearly every emotion after playing. From happy go lucky, to anger and vengence, to sadness and despair.
Although Insomniac does an amazing job on majority of the game, from the story to the mechanics, there are some cons it carries. An example is sometimes you have to go through some mundane stealth missions, not as Spider-Man, but as his companions. I understand this adds more perspective from the companions’ side to include them in the story and run the game time longer, but they are dull and unexciting as a player. Another con as a Marvel fan is, compared to other game installments of the web slinger, this one probably has the least (if any) cameos of other heroes from Marvel. Whether it was due to contracts and licensing of other characters, this adaptation of Spider-Man definitely is a lackluster of having cameos.
Level Score Review
Apart from the cons, the pros of the game definitely outweight them by a huge margin. I personally love this game and have completed it twice (both times with 100% completion). If you’re a Spidey fan or even a Marvel fan looking for a fun time to play a superhero, I’d definitely recommend putting this on your bucket list to play. Overall, I’d give this game a score of 8.5/10 levels.
If you’re interested in trying out Insomniac’s take on our friendly neighborhood Spider-Man, the game is available on PS4/PS5 and PC! The game also has additional DLC called “The City That Never Sleeps”, which extends more on the lore of specific characters you came across in the base game itself. Give it a whirl, and if you love it, share it with a friend who shares a similar interest!
Thank you for taking your time to read this review! I will be posting recaps of games I’ve played every Monday, giving reviews of how I felt about them (whether good or bad), and sharing them with you! Again, thank you for tuning in and I’ll see you next Monday!
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