Marvel’s Spider-Man

Marvel's Spider-Man is an open world adventure game developed by Insomniac exclusively for the Playstation 4. It does away with the typical origin story that we have been told time and time again in recent history and instead picks up at a time period where Peter Parker has been Spider-Man for a number of years. Throughout the main campaign you maintain a juggling act between Spider-Man's duty to protect and serve the people of New York City and the mundane responsibilities that Peter Parker has. It makes for a really grounded and human story. You have to fight crime throughout the city as Spider-Man while also tending to your job as a laboratory assistant and spending time Aunt May helping her with the outreach center that she works at.

Without spoiling too much the villains included in Marvel's Spider-Man are fantastic, well fleshed out characters who always pose an ominous threat to you throughout the game. They all play into the story perfectly and there has been room left for many more of Spidey's nemesis to appear in future sequels.

Visually the game is absolutely stunning. The amount of detail that has been put into New York City is outstanding and was such a thrill to explore especially after recently visiting the city. Times Square looks like Times Square, Central Park looks like Central Park, Grand Central Station looks exactly as it should. So much effort was put into recreating the real world location and I love it so much. It's also really nice to see that the developer hasn't pigeon holed the game and confined it only to the Spider-Man universe with multiple easter eggs referencing other Marvel properties found throughout the city which expands the world without having those characters actually physically appear in the game.

The collectibles in the game have been done so well. I'm not normally one who will stray from the main story to do side missions but Marvel's Spider-Man had me constantly diverting to collect things which then allowed me to obtain tokens to upgrade my suits, gadgets and abilities. I think why I enjoyed it so much is because of how easy it was to drop a pin on the collectible or see it on my radar with the press of a button which caused me to pick something up on my way to the main objective. It was a very clever way of getting the player sidetracked.

The thing I love most about Marvel's Spider-Man is the traversal. I can remember fondly playing Spider-Man 2 on my Xbox and traversal being my favourite aspect of that game too and boy have we come a long way since then. Simply put, swinging around New York City is the best part of the game. It feels so rewarding once you get the hang of the controls and you are able to build up and sustain your momentum as you fly around the map. And even when you hit a wall or fall to the ground it's so easy to quickly recover and be on your way again. I can honestly see myself spending so many hours just swinging around NYC because it looks and feels so good. Insomniac nailed this aspect in every way and should be so proud of what they accomplished.

My only gripe with Marvel's Spider-Man and the thing that is stopping it from being my Game of the Year are any of the missions you have to do not as Spider-Man. I found the stealth missions with Mary Jane and Miles Morales to be tedious and whenever I had to play then all I could think about was when am I going to get to be Spider-Man again. The other game mechanic that I really didn't enjoy were the stupid puzzles Peter Parker had to complete when working his job as a laboratory assistant. As someone who is not at all fond of puzzle games I had zero interest in completing them and would often just skip past them as I felt they slowed down the flow of the game completely.

Marvel's Spider-Man is another fine example of a brilliantly executed Playstation exclusive title and once again proves that single player games are alive and thriving. I can't wait to see this game battle it out with God of War for Game of the Year. I highly recommend everyone check this game out wether you're a die hard superhero fan or simply a casual gamer.

4.5/5

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