Reviewed for: Playstation 4
I'd like to start this review off by making something clear: I've never been a huge fan of Spider-Man. I find smug, quipping heroes to be almost completely insufferable most of the time, so I've never cared too much for the web-slinger. That being said, if you've followed my E3 coverage for the past couple of years, you'll know that I started off thinking that Insomniac's Spider-Man looked excellent. Then, this year, I started to feel a little more negative (no pun intended...), as combat looked a lot more quicktime-event focused and scripted in the E3 presentation. So, I went into Spider-Man with conflicting expectations and absolutely zero nostalgic feelings or investment in the world and characters. I bring all of this up as a way of saying this: These truths makes it all the more stunning, all the better an indication of the game's quality, that Spider-Man is one of my favorite games of 2018 thus far (and the first game of this year that I finished with 100% completion). As I make a point of saying when I really really enjoy a game, that doesn't guarantee it'll be GOTY, but let me take a step back to explain why, if you own a PS4, you owe it to yourself to play Spider-Man, regardless of whether or not you love the titular hero.
At the start of the game, Spider-Man gets the chance of a lifetime: after 8 long years webslinging and working with the local police, he finally has the chance to put Wilson Fisk, the Kingpin, behind bars. After doing so, however, he finds that there are plenty of other sinister folks willing to fill the power vacuum in Fisk's absence. From out of nowhere, a supernatural gang of thugs called "The Demons" step into New York and put a plan into motion centered around a mysterious, top-secret project labeled "Devil's Breath." It's up to Spider-Man to find out what their motivations are and to save Manhattan. As far as stories go, it's about what you'd expect from a Superhero tale. Just reading the label, "Devil's Breath," I'd be willing to bet that you've already figured out what it is, and even if you know nothing about Spider-Man's villains, you'll be able to tell who the leader of the Demons (Mr. Negative) is if you pay attention (and/or have subtle racial biases). So it isn't exactly an unpredictable story, but that doesn't mean it's boring or stale. In fact, the moments that focus on Peter Parker lend a lot more humanity to this narrative. Watching his bond with his mentor and boss, Dr. Otto Octavius, change as Octavius slips closer and closer into his role as Dr. Octopus serves as a simultaneously touching and tragic preview of an eventual downfall. Watching him worry about a text he sent to classic Spider-Man love interest Mary Jane Watson, get teased about a time when he burned dumplings he was cooking, and get evicted from his apartment all serve to add a down-to-earth side to this quipping superhero. Watching this game's stellar ending serves as a harrowing reminder of the true meaning of heroism. So overall, the story is quite good, even if the hero bits are what you'd expect. All of this is helped along by stellar voice acting across the board. Yuri Lowenthal as our hero is especially notable for the sheer range of emotion he brings to the character. But even if the story sucked as much as the second Avengers film, it would be ok because of how well this game plays.
Right, it's cliche to say that this game makes you feel like Spider-Man. Hell, at this point, it's cliche to say it's cliche to say that this game makes you feel like Spider-Man. But dear reader, this game makes you feel like Spider-Man. Let me start from the beginning. The game opens up with a quick cutscene in which we're told we're on our way to arrest Wilson Fisk, and from there, it leaps right into the action. Not even a minute passes before we're thrust into the webslinging shoes of Spider-Man, and the results are glorious. The first thing we get to do is learn the intricacies of this game's webslinging mechanics. There's a bit of a learning curve to overcome in order to really get the most enjoyment out of it, but even just starting out, swinging around New York feels phenomenal. It's fast, responsive, has the potential to become even faster, and the sheer act of doing it, regardless of skill level, is enjoyable. Whether you're running up a building then using a well-placed web to catapult yourself over it once you reach the top, launching off of a point at just the right time to get a satisfying extra burst of speed, or flying through the grates of one of those little rooftop water towers, the mobility in this game is just....*clenches fist* mmmmm! What's more, the excellent webslinging seamlessly integrates with combat. A not-so-well-known fact about me is that sandbox games with combat "modes" really annoy me. Games with a separate set of controls for combat and a separate set of controls for the world traversal get under my skin. Spider-Man is no such game. You can be swinging around the city, see a crime in progress, leap into combat, and leap back out anytime you wish. You have your full set of moves and controls at all times, and it makes the whole Spider-Man experience feel more complete and cohesive.
As for the combat itself, the inevitable comparisons to the Arkham series have already been made, but I'd argue that Spider-Man takes the core concept of free-flow combat and elevates it. While the Arkham series focused on building up your combo to execute several one-hit-knockout finishers, Spider-Man focuses more on using your base attack and the world around you, while making decisions about whether or not defeating an enemy is more important than recovering lost health. You press square to punch enemies, triangle to use web-based skills like removing weapons or zipping over to a restrained foe, circle to dodge, and both l1 and r1 to pick up and throw items from the environment. Likewise, square can also be held to knock an enemy into the sky, at which point you can leap up and dish out punishment in mid-air. All of these controls play out differently depending on where you are. A basic dodge will take a different form facing an enemy than when in the air, or facing away from an enemy, or when executed after a standard attack. Knocking an enemy into the air can look different when done while already in the air. There are only a couple of buttons you can press and actions you can perform, but there's so much variety in how these actions are actually executed, and it makes combat feel fast, smooth, and often surprising. As you beat down on thugs and dodge attacks, you'll build up "focus." Focus is what you use to heal. How much health is restored depends on how much focus you've generated, so in a pinch, you'll want to be able to use a full focus bar for this purpose. However, a full focus bar also allows for a one-hit-knockout attack that, after a certain upgrade, can be chained to another enemy. As the game progresses, this finishing move can eventually be applied to higher-grade enemies. In the flow of combat, you'll have to make decisions based on this focus meter. Do you use what little focus you have to restore a bit of your health when things start to look bad, ensuring that you'll at least survive a couple more seconds? Do you wait it out for the possibility to pull yourself back from the brink of defeat? Do you wait it out for the possibility to finish off that one strong brute who has been causing you grief? Every battle will be different, but they will all test your decision-making skills. The focus system is an example of something that made 2016's Doom so fantastic: In order to survive combat, you have to engage with combat. In order to have the ability to heal, you must have the ability to land punches and dodge attacks effectively. The better you get at the game, the more options you have to control the flow of combat, and that is a triumph of game design. But you know what the real takeaway from all this is? The combat is fully, entirely, quintessentially Spider-Man. It's fast-paced, all over the place, and full of acrobatic maneuvers. So, when you're swinging around the city, you feel like Spider-Man. When you're pounding on thugs, you feel like Spider-Man. Hell, when you're just walking through the streets, stopping to high five and take selfies with citizens, you feel like Spider-Man. There's just no point here in which the game stops letting you feel like Spider-Man!
Well...that is...except for the sections where you literally don't play as Spider-Man. Every once in a while, the game forces you to play as either Mary Jane or Miles Morales (who I'm sure is important, but I don't know the lore) in fairly linear stealth sections. These sections are the game's biggest low points. At best, they aren't bad. At worst, despite being "not bad," they constitute a significant drop in quality compared to the rest of the game. These sections will have the player navigating enemy locations while hiding behind boxes and using contextual button-presses to distract enemies temporarily. They're really fine as far as forced stealth sections go, but when 95% of the game is all about freedom of mobility and speed, these sections ended up giving me whiplash.
Stealth as a whole is kind of weak in Spider-Man. Outside of the forced MJ/Miles sections, there are also portions of the game that require stealth and you have the option of engaging enemies stealthily most of the time. Again...it's fine, but it isn't great. What stealth in Spider-Man mode (as opposed to MJ mode) essentially amounts to is perching above an enemy and webbing them up and using webs to distract enemies if too many of them are together to take them all out without being noticed. It's really light stealth, I'd say, stealth for the sake of stealth. For stealth to shine, it has to be about moment-to-moment tension and concocting and executing plans while being ready to adapt to any situation if things go wrong. It's about the thrill of barely evading an enemy's notice, and the feeling of relief when a spur of the moment decision covers up a mistake in your plan. Spider-Man has none of that, so the stealth is more of a crutch used in the name of variety than anything else. One could also argue that it's another way that the game is quintessentially Spider-Man. The various stealth challenges around the city put the focus on the speed at which you quietly dispose of enemies, which strikes me as how Spider-Man would handle stealth. However, unlike every other Spider-Man-esque decision the game makes, this doesn't make for great game design, so there you go.
At the end of that last paragraph, you may have noticed that I referenced various challenges scattered throughout the city. Spider-Man takes a page from Ubisoft's playbook, and as a result, Manhattan is full of content. The most strikingly Ubisoft aspect of the open world is the radio towers. These towers, as you'll guess if you've ever played a Ubisoft title, reveal portions of the map as well as the locations of collectibles and events. Then there are 4 types of enemy bases (another Ubisoft staple) to complete, each with optional objectives to earn greater rewards, but more on that in a bit. Beyond these bits of content, there are also bits of content that haven't been done to death by the EA of Europe. There are backpacks with bits of Spider-Man easter eggs, pigeons to catch, 4 types of crimes (each with 5 individual crime "events") to stop, landmarks to photograph (including several Marvel easter eggs), side quests with actual stories attached to them, research stations with missions in which Spider-Man helps the environment, and little "I spy" puzzles. Finally, there are the 4 kinds of challenges. There are combat challenges, stealth challenges, bomb challenges, and drone challenges, each with a bronze, silver, and gold ranking to be achieved. The combat challenges test your ability to keep a combo going, keep your health high, and take out enemies quickly. The stealth challenges test your ability to remove enemies in quick succession without being seen. The bomb challenges have you swinging around the city disposing of bombs, and it tests your ability to control your webslinging as well as your ability to keep your speed up alongside this control. In other words, aiming too high and having to take the time to fall onto a roof instead of slinging directly to the roof from its exact level will dock you points. Finally, the drone challenges have you following a drone and deactivating the security cams it leaves behind (in the form of orbs you have to swing through), and while this does test your speed, these challenges are more about sheer, unbroken control of your movement. All of these challenges are exceedingly difficult and will require multiple attempts to get the gold. Now, what does all this side content actually do for the game?
Each type of side activity gives you "tokens," which are used to purchase new suits, gadget upgrades, and suit perks. There's one type of token for each type of side activity (other than the vanilla side quests), and different combinations and amounts of tokens are required for each item you might want to purchase. Certain side activities yield more tokens for completion of optional objectives (more base tokens for completing all objectives in an enemy base), and you earn 1, 2, and 3 challenge tokens for getting the bronze, silver, and gold respectively in the challenges (meaning that if you get the gold, you get a total of 6 challenge tokens). However, you aren't required to do absolutely everything in order to get all the upgrades you can purchase. I ended up with several leftover crime tokens even after I'd unlocked everything, so while you still need to stop all the crimes in order to 100% the district, you don't need to if all you care about is getting fully upgraded gadgets or perks. On the other hand, you'll have to complete each base plus many of the optional objectives to have enough base tokens to get fully upgraded. Likewise, you'll have to get the gold in almost all of the challenges to have enough challenge tokens. This. Is. Freaking. Brilliant. Why? Because this makes it so that getting everything you can purchase is less about ticking off boxes on a list and more about proving you're worthy. The crimes (which some might view as busywork) are a dime a dozen. You can pick and choose which ones to stop if you wish, and you'll be able to end up with all the crime tokens you need without much thought. However, the side activities that demand that you better yourself? You have no such freedom with these. If you want fully upgraded gear, you'll have to dedicate the time to get the gold on challenges and to replay base encounters to meet whatever conditions the game gives you. If you want the best rewards, you have to prove that you're good enough at the game to have earned them. Even then, you don't have to get the gold on every challenge, and you don't have to complete every optional base objective...but it's very close. There's just enough wiggle room so that you can leave out the challenges and objectives that you really don't want to do (and it won't impact your % completion), but not so much wiggle room that you can get out of tasks you have a long way to go on. I mentioned that I 100%-ed this game, and to do that, I had to do all objectives for all but 3 of the bases, and I had to get the gold on every last combat, stealth, and bomb challenge, plus the gold on one or two of the drone challenges. I friggin hated the drone challenges (hell, I hate all time trials in games in general), and I was able to leave out the drone challenges I hated the most, but I still had to master at least one track. To borrow from Dark Souls vernacular, I had to "git gud" at Spider-Man and replay challenges time after time after time, but it was always rewarding to get the gold and to know that, when I purchased a new upgrade, I'd truly earned it as a result of hard work. Spider-Man is a triumph in the cooperation between open world game design and progression. If you want, you don't have to do any of the side content! The abilities you get from leveling up are more than sufficient to get through the game even if you never get new suit powers, gadgets, or upgrades to gadgets you're just given. In a way, it hearkens back to what makes Spider-Man's gameplay so great: in order to thrive in combat, you must engage with combat. In the same way, you can feel like Spider-Man no matter what...but if you want to feel like an even faster, more powerful, cooler Spider-Man, you'll need to master Spider-Man.
Speaking of mastery, it's time to talk about the technical side of things! Spider-Man is a freaking gorgeous game. New York is beautiful, vibrant, and alive. There's so much going on in this game that you might miss if you never hit the ground. Not only are the graphics fantastic, but the crowds and traffic of New York are always moving, which makes it all the more astounding that the framerate remains consistent for the entire game. Morning, afternoon, night, rainy days, no matter what state the map is in, it's constantly beautiful and constantly well-performing. In addition, the game is well-scored, textures don't pop in, there aren't animation glitches, and there are all sorts of small, easily missable little technical details (like the fact that every line Spider-Man speaks in the world is recorded twice: once in a breathy, tired tone that plays if the dialogue is triggered while swinging and once in a normal tone that plays if the dialogue is triggered while on the ground or stationary).
That being said, despite my use of the word "mastery" at the start of the paragraph as a way of segwaying, Spider-Man is far from a perfect technical package. I experienced one hard crash in my time with this game, and at one point an enemy spawned inside of a crate during a base mission. This meant that I had to spend around 20 minutes using AOE abilities and ground pounds on the general vicinity of the crate in the vain hope of knocking him out (he was the last enemy in the base). I eventually succeeded, but it was a game-impacting bug. On most fronts, Spider-Man is far more competent a technical package than your standard AAA affair, but it still leaves something to be desired.
People, Spider-Man isn't just good, it isn't just great, it's a freaking brilliant game that has given me more joy in my time with it than I've had in a good long while. I found myself embracing my inner child, pouring myself a glass of chocolate milk every night and swinging around the city. And I never even was all that into Spider-Man as a child! This game revisionist history-d my inner child! When was the last time you could say that about a game? The sheer act of moving, of interacting with this open world is gratifying as hell, and when the swinging stops and the punches start, it's equally grand! For your money, you'll get all this plus an open world filled to the brim with varied, engaging side content to make the core of the gameplay even better! There are moments when the action comes to a halt in favor of the game's weak stealth sections, and it does have some noticeable technical flaws, but all-in-all, Spider-Man is a must-play if you own a Playstation 4.
Let us review:
Weak stealth - 0.3
Technical Issues - 0.7
The final score for Spider-Man is...
9.0/10 - Fantastic
Excellent work, Insomniac, excellent work.
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