Marvel

To be brief, if you enjoyed Marvel’s Spider-Man, you’ll enjoy Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales. If you are looking for more innovation, you’ll be disappointed by this title. That being said, I do think that Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales is a solid game all-around. In many ways, I found it had some improvements over its predecessor. But at the same time, all the major gameplay elements are nearly identical to Marvel’s Spider-Man. I don’t think it’s a bad thing to hone in on some minor improvements, but Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales feels derivative. Despite this, it’s still a fun game.

Peter Parker has gone on vacation and has left the responsibilities of being Spider-Man to his protege, Miles Morales. During this time, Miles discovers that a shady corporation is opening a dangerous energy reactor in his home borough of Harlem. He also runs into a mysterious gang who is hellbent on fighting said corporation. Like any classic Spider-Man tale, Miles has to balance his personal life and superhero life, which often clash and lead to some tough decisions.

I felt like the overarching plot of Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales was solid. There’s a mostly charming cast of characters, some wholesome moments, some laughs, and some sadder moments as well. Everything you’ve come to expect out of a modern Marvel production is present. My favorite aspect of the narrative was how Miles grew more connected to Harlem specifically. I enjoyed spending time there and assisting the locals protect their home from gangs and crime. It felt more personal than just beating up baddies to save the entire city. Moreover, the Christmas setting added to the cozy vibes with snow-covered streets and lights decorating the city.

While I mostly enjoyed watching the story unfold, I felt as if the villains were pretty poor. One is a rich CEO who is willing to ignore safety concerns in the pursuit of more money. Which may be realistic, but is a tad boring. The other villain is more egregious. They make dumb decision after dumb decision and are extremely shortsighted. I can understand the “blinded by revenge” angle, but this particular character was infuriatingly obtuse.

While I felt that the story was serviceable, the real draw of Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales is the gameplay. Like its predecessor, swinging around New York City and fighting crime is just plain-old fun. The web-slinging traversal is so fluid and natural, it’s probably my favorite method of getting around in any video game. I don’t know why anyone would want to use fast-travel when you can zip around the city with ease.

When it comes to combat, Miles has a few more tricks up his sleeve than Peter Parker. While Peter focused on using gadgets during combat, Miles has Venom powers. As you land attacks and dodge hits, you’ll build up a Venom meter which can be used to unleash some more powerful attacks. While I still think that the combat in the Marvel’s Spider-Man games is a bit rudimentary, it’s easy to get into a satisfying flow of attacks, dodges, Venom moves, and finishers. There’s some fantastic animation work at play here which automatically makes any action you take look seamlessly heroic without you having to do much at all.

While the game nailed the cinematic aspect of combat, I do wish there was a bit more mechanical freedom in execution. I don’t need this to be a full-blown character-action game, but some more options other than mashing square would be great. Sure, you can throw debris around with your web-slinging powers or use gadgets, but the best way to do damage is just basic attacking until you charge up a special move.

Along with combat, stealth makes a return as an option to tackle enemy encounters. While it can be fun to catch enemies and hang them from the rafters like an actual spider, it’s a little too easy to be truly engaging. Since you can always be above enemies you can almost never be spotted as you move around. You can be spotted when performing a takedown, but the game explicitly tells you when it is safe to takedown an enemy and will warn you that you will be spotted. The combination of these things means you will never fail stealth unless you intend to. Moreover, Miles has a camouflage ability that you can activate to become invisible. Even if you do get spotted, you can just enter camouflage and wait until it’s safe to start performing stealth takedowns again.

I don’t think having simple combat and stealth is necessarily a terrible thing. Not every game needs to have the combat depth of Bayonetta or the carefully crafted stealth sequences Metal Gear Solid. But Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales needed to supplement its enemy encounters with something else. Swinging around the city is fun, but most of the time you are just traversing from encounter to encounter. There are a few side-objectives to break up the monotony, but the majority of objectives involve disposing of enemies. I would have loved to see more chase scenes or something similar to utilize Spider-Man’s powers in other ways than combat. The traversal is so smooth and fun, I wish it was better utilized for actual gameplay challenges.

I do have to give props to Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales for cutting down on some of the extraneous aspects of its predecessor. One of my biggest complaints about Marvel’s Spider-Man was how frequently the game veered off from playing as Spider-Man. Not to mention the annoyingly common circuit board puzzles. Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales cut down on this filler content significantly. There’s still the occasional environmental puzzle, but at least you still get to play as Spider-Man while you solve it.

For the most part, Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales feels like a fine-tuned retread of its predecessor. It trims the fat and adds a few new mechanics to make Miles’ gameplay feel distinct from Peter Parker. But it’s risk averse. It doesn’t do anything to wow the player or meaningfully distinguish itself. Nevertheless, it is still a fun game that manages to feel cozy and welcoming due to its setting and endearing cast of characters. It is for these reasons that I give Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales a 7.5/10. A refined Marvel’s Spider-Man game is great, but I would love to see Spidey’s powers taken even farther.

I have to acknowledge that I am not a big fan of superhero flicks and I barely follow the Marvel cinematic universe. With that being said, Spider-Man for the PlayStation 4 managed to reel me in regardless of my distaste for Marvel movies. In essence, Spider-Man is the direct translation of a superhero film into a game. All the elements are present: big-budget action, quips and banter, and a story that tugs on your heartstrings.

While I find superhero movies boring and repetitive, the interactivity of games makes playing as a hero far more engaging than simply watching one. Swinging about New York City, climbing walls, zipping from point to point, and fighting common thugs just feels natural. Its easy to get into the swing of things as the controls are extremely simple. The accompanying cinematics and animations of Spidey’s swinging, fist-fighting, and web-slinging imbues the sense of heroics. Most of the spectacle is fairly automatic, and you can look stylish just by holding down a button.

I was shocked by just how similar Spider-Man was to a genuine Marvel movie. Granted, I don’t watch a ton of Marvel films but the striking similarities are hard to ignore. Where this was most evident was in the story and writing. It’s about more than just beating up bad-guys, Peter Parker’s personal life takes precedence. His relationships with Aunt May, Miles Morales, Mary Jane, and a few mentor figures is what drives the story. The theme of mentorship is present through the entire game, as Peter is mentored by Dr. Octavius and in turn mentors Miles. The writing itself parallels modern Marvel movies in all facets. The cheesy one-liners and quippy banter permeate less serious scenarios, but there is no shortage of tear-jerking scenes. If you are a fan of Marvel and their cinematic universe, then Spider-Man will be right up your alley.

The gameplay of Spider-Man mostly consists of effortlessly swinging across Manhattan and busting up baddies along the way. Peter is a scientist and develops a horde of gadgets and suits with different powers to assist in combat. Gadgets consist of items such as web-shooters, web-grenades, trip-mines, and drones. You are heavily encouraged to switch gadgets mid-combat and play with different combinations for some effective takedowns. Like webbing enemies with a grenade and then sticking them to the wall using a sonic-blast. Peter also gets access to a variety of suits which are both fashionable and functional. Each suit has an ability such as creating a large explosion around you, summoning a helpful drone, or webbing up all nearby enemies. These abilities are incredibly powerful and as such have a few minute recharge period.

To unlock all of these gadgets and suit powers, the player has to traverse the city and gather a variety of collectibles and complete challenges. From collecting backpacks, to finding lost pigeons, to fighting crime, to completing time-trials, Spider-Man has a ridiculous amount of content to do out in the open world. Doing these tasks provides the player with tokens that will allow them to upgrade their gear. Normally, such a ludicrous number of collectables might be off-putting, but Spider-Man is unique in a way. Just swinging from building to building, fighting crimes and collecting goodies along the way is so enthralling. It is easy to just take a break from the main story and just be a crime fighting hero. The collectables are far from intrusive and they encourage the player to explore and experiment.

The combat of Spider-Man mostly succeeds because of the gadgets and the options they offer. Other than that, the combat just feels automatic. The most effective way of dealing with enemies is to just mash the punch button and press the dodge button whenever the game indicates that something is going to hit you. Sure, it looks cool, but without gadgets Spider-Man lacks depth. Sure, you could use other tactics like throwing objects, using the environment around you, or even use stealth, but in reality, it is just far faster and easier to just beat up the enemies by mashing the square button. The issue lies in the fact that for the vast majority of the game you are fighting the same enemies, just reskinned. The basic grunts of all the different factions the player encounters just get boring and monotonous after the hundredth encounter. I had a blast with the boss fights, but those are mostly concentrated at the beginning and end of the game.

The most pertinent issue with Spider-Man is its reluctance to let you be Spider-Man. A good chunk of the main campaign is filled by missions playing as Mary Jane or Miles Morales. These missions are generally stealth missions where the player is forced to slowly make their way through areas without being seen at all. I like stealth games, but these sections were the most basic and boring stealth that they could have shoehorned in. Playing as Peter was also fairly uneventful and mostly served as expository. As Peter, the player has to solve some incredibly banal puzzles that really had no business existing. Maybe these sections were meant to pad out play time, or perhaps flush out character development. Either way, much of what was accomplished in these missions would have been better served in a short cutscene or a phone call to listen to as you swing through the city.

At its core, Spider-Man has a multitude of different genres and styles that it attempts to appeal to. It is a story-driven, action, stealth, puzzle, collectathon game. Appealing to a broad audience is fine, and as a result I am positive that most people could find some aspect of this game that they like. But in the reverse, that means that most people can find some aspects that they don’t like. Perhaps the game would have been better as more refined experience. I really enjoyed Spider-Man regardless of this, and even though I am not a Marvel fan, I had a blast. It is for these reasons I give Spider-Man an 8/10. Playing as everyone’s favorite friendly neighborhood Spider-Man was immensely satisfying, I just wish the developers realized this and cut-down on the superfluous other aspects.

stephensopinions

Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales (2020)

Spider-Man (2018)