Spiderman (PS4) review

    SPIDER-MAN (PS4) is a game that inspired me to get the PS4 as a whole. I've been wanting to update one of my two consoles for a long time and the decision to get a PS4 to go along with my Xbox One seemed like a reasonable one. The ability to play Infamous (which I played at a friends), The Last of Us, Uncharted, and other exclusives was a easy decision. However, at the end I just wanted to buy it for this game.

    How much do I love Spider-Man (PS4)? So much so that I'm including the hyphen. This is probably my favorite video game since Batman: Arkham City. So, what game does this remind me most of? Batman: Arkham City. So, yes, there may be a little bit of bias. This game is entirely up in my wheelhouse and is exactly what I wanted from a Spider-Man game. It's kind of ironic because Arkham Asylum incorporated a bunch of elements from Spider-Man 2 while recent Spider-Man games have pulled a lot from the AA series but not very well.

Spider-Man's webs stick to the sky. Which is fine by me.

    I've enjoyed previous versions of Spider-Man but with rare exceptions, they've often had very little in the way of plot. This, however, seamlessly incorporates a major overarching plot as well as deep characterization alongside an open world. Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions and Spider-Man: Edge of Time had plotlines but were the most linear of the Spider-Man games. The Amazing Spider-Man games had plots but they weren't very good. Maybe it's just me but the difference between this and it's predecessors feels like hamburger and fine restaraunt steak.

    The premise is Spider-Man has been crawling across the surfaces of New York City, fighting crime and spinning webs for about eight years. The game makes the correct choice to have Spider-Man as an adult versus Marvel's inexplicable decision to keep Peter in high school. It worked for Ultimate Spider-Man but Steve Dikto got Peter out of high school and into college after thirty issues.

    Spider-Man is characterized perfectly being a guy who is incredibly successful at saving lives but really bad at managing his normal life. Being Spider-Man doesn't pay anything and he doesn't have the Avengers footing the bill for his apartment so he's on the verge of eviction. He's also broken up with Mary Jane but it was for reasonable reasons of "I hate having you worrying over me while you risk your life every day." It also lets you feel like a badass by starting the game off with the capture of Wilson Fisk a.k.a the Kingpin.

Punch, Punch, Dodge, Punch, Super-Punch, Swing-Kick.

    I know it's a minority opinion but I actually prefer the Kingpin as a Spider-Man villain than a Daredevil villain. Yes, Daredevil has gotten much more mileage out of him over the years but I just love the idea of a working class hero like Spidey against the incarnation of New York City corruption like Fisk. Part of it may be the fact I started loving Spider-Man before Norman Osbourne's return and associate him with the Clone Saga. Also, I hate-hate him versus love-to-hate him because he arranged for the loss of Spider-Baby. Yes, I am a dork.

    Despite being defeated in the opening part of the game, the Kingpin's influence hangs over the rest of the game as you have to dismantle his organization in order to keep him from getting out on a technicality. Later, the game incorporates new fan favorite Mr. Negative and his gang the Demons. There are some other supervillains in the book as well plus an unexpected appearance of both Black Cat (not that surprising) and Silver Sable (very surprising). I could have used more supervillains spread throughout the game but I'm not complaining as this is a game that could very easily go four installments before tiring out.

Some of the graphics could use more polish.

    The gameplay isn't particularly innovative but it's refined. You feel like Spider-Man traveling across New York City, smashing bad guys, and making quips the entire way. There's no need to reinvent the wheel and while Arkham style combat is about as well-worn as cover-based shooting, that's because it works. The addition of webs to it and various grapple-based super-moves also keeps it fresh.  There's also the usual collectible quests and side-missions that are pretty transparent Arkham City stand-in like the Taskmaster Challenges (Azrael challenges) and racing challenges. There's nothing anywhere near as annoying as the Riddler, though. Indeed, the only quest I hated doing was capturing pigeons. I mean...why?

    The game is a respectable twenty-hours long for the base game and about maybe thirty-hours total if you purchase all the DLC. It's enough to justify the purchase cost and the season pass (which is frustratingly just not named "Season Pass"). There's also no attempt to sell you individual purchases like costumes or in-game bonuses. Gathering collectibles, attacking fortresses, and taking pictures are filler but they're mostly fun filler. Besides, taking pictures is actually Peter Parker's job so it's not a problem. The fact you can skip all of the scientific research mini-games, though, tells you that the developers were aware they were the parts that no one actually wanted to play.

Others are great.

    The supporting cast is probably the best and most innovative part of this game. J.J. Jameson is re-imagined as an Alex Jones-esque commentator (though his conspiracy theories about Spider-Man are still more plausible). Mary Jane is a sweet love interest that draws more from the Raimi Spider-Man films than the character in the comics. I also appreciate the appearance of Miles Morales as part of the Spider-universe. Peter Parker doesn't need to die for him to be Spider-Man.

    There's some things I'm not entirely onboard with. I'm not a big fan of Mary Jane's design and her character is one of the few failures. I also felt that there weren't nearly enough D-List supervillains to fight. While the Secret Six eventually shows up, I felt like this game could have had side-missions against people like Boomerang or the Rhino because that's what they exist for. I really loved the DLC for this game, though, and am glad they actually made some meaty plot-driven ones.

    There's a bit of iffiness in the game's focus on stealth that is fine for Spider-Man himself (he's the master of sneak attacks after all) but actually extends to a number of sequences where you play Mary Jane and Miles Morales (sans powers). There's no one in the world who will enjoy these things more than the base game and I'm curious why they were inserted here. Mary Jane is a bit like Max Caulfield without her time reverse powers and while it may be okay for one mission, it happened multiple times throughout the game itself. I also wouldn't have minded playing Miles with powers but without seems like something better handled in a cutscene.

The boss battles are a mix of good, bad, and indifferent.

    The game's boss battles and equipping of Spider-Man with multiple gadgets are things I'm iffy on. I mentioned I could have used with more fights against Spider-Man's extensive rogues gallery but those that do occur feel like they were more about learning the "gimmick" of the fight than actually being able to choose how to beat down a foe. There's also plenty of the dreaded quick-time events. However, the fact that they do incorporate such things as "race against the clock to save a building from planted bombs" is pretty damn cool. As for the gadgets? They're fine and pretty fun. It's just, well, Spider-Man using drone spiders and a utility belt is pretty damn weird.

    Indeed, if I'm entirely honest, I'm going to say the gameplay is more a solid B+ than a A+ and nothing new to anyone who has played Spider-Man (or Arkham) games before. However, the feel of Spider-Man is captured and the storytelling is good. It's weird but I think what makes this game is the large chunk of it where you're having to be Peter Parker or at least deal with his problems. Batman can get away with a game where he's Batman 24-7 but the fact you have to do Peter's life alongside Spider-Man's is something previous games missed capturing. At one point Peter is evicted and the realization he has to sleep on his Aunt's office couch (at a homeless shelter) is really potent.

    It feels like the Peter Parker I grew up reading and incorporates elements from all the incarnations I liked. There's Dikto (R.I.P), Raimi, Lee (R.I.P), Bendis, Sclott, and even some Defalco. That means I would have loved even an inferior game but this is definitely one with meat. If you have a PS4, you should get it. I'm really sad for my Xbox-using friends, though.

9/10