Marvel's Spider-Man Review

Spider-Man has been in a renaissance in the past few years. After the less-than-ideal ending of Sam Raimi’s movie trilogy and Marc Webb’s underwhelming duo of films, the character had hit a bit of a slump. But since the entertainment behemoth Disney acquired Marvel and started throwing their weight at Sony, the chipper webslinger has been hitting it out of the park. Marvel’s Spider-Man continues that tradition by giving gamers a game that is a delight to play with an excellent story.

At the core of it, Marvel’s Spider-Man is an open-world action RPG, with combat inspired by Rocksteady’s Arkham trilogy and the bevy of side quests similar to every open-world game in the past decade. Almost every mechanic in the game is something players have seen before, but they are all given a Spider-Man touch up that makes them feel new and delightful. The combat, for example, is made a joy thanks to the inclusion of Spider-Man’s mobility and gadgets. Instead of monotonously punching faces like in the Arhkam trilogy, you can web-zip across the battlefield, leaving no enemy out of reach, and string up your foes with an impressive array of gadgets that are all a blast to use. There is a combo meter as gamers would expect from this style of combat, but as you build you string together more combo hits, you are growing a focus meter in parallel, which can be cashed in for either super moves or health regeneration. This allows players to use the game’s cooler moves without having to avoid damage entirely during fights, making it far more accessible.

Traversing the game’s condensed version of Manhattan might be the most fun part of this game, which isn’t short of fun parts. Spider-Man is an acrobatic hero and the games web-swinging traversal mechanics allow players to feel the same delight. The basic mechanics of swinging are simple, press R2 to fire a web and start swinging, release R2 to release the web. That knowledge is enough to get anywhere in the city you need to go. However, there are hidden layers beneath that which allow you to show off and have a good time with it. With good timing, players can release the web strands for additional speed and height, which lets players who want more get more out of the swinging, while leaving it totally uncomplicated for those who only want to get from point A to point B. Additional skills unlocked through the game’s skill tree give players more options for travel, including quick air dashes, vaulting somersaults, and even X-Games style midair tricks that grant bonus experience points.

As players progress through the game, Spider-Man will level up and gain new skills in classic RPG fashion. Spider-Man’s unlockable skills are separated out into three different trees: Innovator, Defender, and Webslinger. Innovator is where you start to upgrade Spider-Man’s more unusual attacks, such as pulling guns from the hands of aggressors or swinging enemies like human wrecking balls. This tree is just as important as the Defender tree, but it’s honestly a lot more fun. The Defender tree contains most of your basic combat abilities, improving his punches, kicks, dodges and throws, basically all of Spider-Man’s natural abilities. Lastly, the Webslinger is all about Spider-Man’s airborne antics. This tree helps with combat, by pulling enemies into the air for a gravity-defying beatdown, but also gives Spider-Man new mobility options as he swings through Manhattan. Some gamers might be inclined to skip this tree since it has less combat applications, but I implore you to at least get the Air Tricks skill because it’s a real blast doing a backflip over Times Square.

The story of Spider-Man focuses on one major question: Is Wilson Fisk, aka The Kingpin, keeping New York safe from someone worse? The very first mission of the game sees Spider-Man helps the NYPD arrest Kingpin for his multitude of crimes, which involves a lot of gunfire, explosions, and swearing Spider-Man will pay. After Kingpin is put behind bars, strange new crimes begin occurring across New York. I won’t go into detail, but several famous faces from Spider-Man’s past become more active with Kingpin out of the way. Overall, the story, side quests, and characters are all fantastically written and fun to play through. If you have even the basest knowledge of the Spider-Man comics, you’ll probably predict some the plot, but a few things might still surprise you.However, there are a handful of sections where you are forced to play as people who are not Spider-Man. During these moments, you have access to none of Spider-Man’s powers or gadgets and are instead forced to rely on the game’s limited stealth mechanics and contextual distraction tactics. The inclusion of these sections is confusing to me, since the name of the game is Marvel’s Spider-Man, not Marvel’s Spider-Man’s Friends Who Don’t Have Powers and Are Boring. These sections are a slog but are thankfully short, with the longest being around 15 minutes. In regards to the game’s ending, I won’t spoil anything but I do need to issue a PSA: have a loved one or pet when you play the final mission, because you’ll need some emotional support.

I think Spider-Man’s biggest weakness is its boss fights. You go head-to-head with some very big names from Spider-Man’s rogues’ gallery, but those moments are ruined by an odd mixture of boredom and stress. After having designed a quality combat system, they throw it out for all the boss fights and instead rely on weird gimmicks. While each fight has its own specific trick, it boils down to a 2-step process: Dodge devastating attacks until enters a special state, then push R1 and/or L1 to do your special move. Do this three or four times and the boss is done. The only exception is an optional boss locked behind a series of challenges, but that enemy is focused on Spider-Man’s combat abilities, so they let you use the normal combat controls for those fights. Another thing that might be a sticking point for some players are the various puzzles in the game. These take place in a lab, so are very different from the action-packed streets of New York. Personally, I enjoyed these moments as both a refreshing change of pace and as an excellent characterizing moment for Peter Parker, he is one of the smartest Marvel characters after all.

All in all, Marvel’s Spider-Man is a fantastic game. Yes the major story boss battles are annoying at best and yes the moments where you play as someone who happens to know Spider-Man are boring, but those are small flaws when compared next to the full product of the game. When you’re in the blue and red shoes of Spider-Man, the game is a terrific, free-flowing game set in a vibrant world filled with cool stuff to do and see at every turn.

Buy this game at full price

It’s worth every penny they’re asking