Spiderman: My Thoughts (Spoiler-Free)

[PhantomFear94]

So I just earned the platinum for Spiderman, and overall I really enjoyed it.  I thought it was a very good game which did a lot well but also had some flaws some people overlook.  8/10 would be my score if I wanted to give one, but this is more an open forum for my thoughts than a review.  No spoilers here! 

 

Pro's

- I thought the main story and casting was exceptional.  I didn't really grow up with any Spiderman knowledge beyond the Tobey Maguire trilogy of films in the early-mid 2000's, and I felt by the end of the base game that I had a really good grip of the lore of Spiderman.  There were a great mix of set pieces, emotionally impacting sections that didn't become cheesy, and some fantastic voice acting (virtually everyone I thought was cast incredibly well, no one more so than Spiderman).  The story does an amazing job at keeping new fans engaged without forcing older fans into an origins story and combines the old stories of Spiderman with new elements to create a wonderful narrative.  I thought most of the inter-character relationships were nuanced and not in your face, which can be difficult in a game about a wisecracking spider person saving New York from psychopaths.   Furthermore, I thought the length was pretty much spot on, and I thought the mission variety (in the MAIN story, I'll get onto side content later) was great.    Two quite small caveats I won't flesh out into full cons is that I didn't enjoy any section you weren't Spiderman, apart from a section in a train station as MJ, virtually all these sections are purely sneaking around sections, where if you get detected once you die.  They kind of make sense from a narrative perspective, but it does feel filler and it gets very repetitive very quickly.   Furthermore, I thought having 4 factions of bad guys was a bit too much.  It did (very slightly) dilute the story you were trying to tell, and make an already dense tale a bit TOO busy.  It also negatively affects the side content. 

 

- They absolutely nailed the movement in this game, and made the experience better tenfold.  The way you move about the city is rather jaw-dropping.   Swinging is fun on its own, but being able to action jump, wall climb, wall run, do air tricks, gain speed, dive and return to the skies is all so fluid that I genuinely only used the fast travel features 5-10 times in the entire 30 hours it took for me to platinum this game.    What makes this so special is that it doesn't just extend to exploration, but core gameplay too.  The majority of battles allow for a plethora of options.  Do you use your fluid movement to begin via stealth, do you go in all webs blazing with a vertical approach, or do you zip from wall to wall and web enemies to the sides of buildings?  The majority of fights have many levels, and enemies spread quite wide apart, which allows for the battle areas or buildings to become playgrounds from which point you toy with your enemies and play however you want to play.  Your movement only enhances the experience and makes the combat, which is otherwise just average in my mind a lot more enjoyable. 

 

- The open-world was very well done.  Aside from how beautiful the city looks, the size was absolutely perfect,  being large enough to explore and experiment with your movement options in and out of battle without becoming so vast it takes an age to get anywhere or too big to want to deep dive into.  It's also quite delicately varied.  Although each district is profoundly different, they do have different building heights, different degrees of open space, a more linear or more jumbled arrangement of buildings.  It does change the way you navigate each area of the city more than you think and helps facilitate a very dynamic gameplay style. It's a more subtle and equally efficient way of providing gameplay variety, without having ridiculously distinct districts all completely different in style or factions which are as subtle as Guy Fieri's shirts (which happens in way too many games).   Great game design decisions enhanced the game significantly. 

 

- Stealth was surprisingly smooth and engaging.  Not too much to say about this one, but considering you can only take enemies down in 2 ways using stealth I still found it so much fun to use the stealth route in missions.   This is a testament, again, to the movement and how many options you get in who you take out, when and why.  I actually thought the AI (which I won't dedicate to another pro for space) was pretty clever; I never thought "really, you DIDN'T see that?" or "wow, how the F**K did you see that?" Every mistake was fair, every cool moment was rewarding

 

- The game is immersive. This is a major praise, as some of my favorite games are so because the worlds are so immersive.   Metro 2033 has well above average but not superb gameplay, but it is one of my 5 favorite games of all time because you literally FEEL there.  You care about everything, you feel emotionally invested and you feel a part of that world because the way it entraps you with pieces of information, subtle pieces of lore etc. in everything you do, everywhere you go and everyone you encounter.  I feel very similar about Spiderman.  JJJ constantly berating you via podcats never gets old and is consistently hilarious, there is a bounty of such dialogue and it occurs in specific sound bites after you complete specific main AND side content (very much like in GTA, when you'd do a major mission and it would say about it over the radio).   It's very clever and thought out.  A lot of the side content also includes more minor bosses that allow the main story to tell the great story it does, whilst still giving you some more story from Spiderman's New York outside the main game.  It gives you more incentive to play on, and pads the main story in a very positive way (the side content is far from perfect, however, I'll cover that in the cons)

 

Con's

- The most major criticism I have for this game is that the combat does very little to evolve as you progress the game.  After around 5 hours, combat only really changes when you force it to due to the approaches you decide to take.   On normal difficulty, I still found the game very easy from start to finish by using virtually the same move set.  Just spam the Square (hold) square square square combo to instakill most normal enemies with a lift attack, and then air kick everyone else into the same combo.  For shield enemies, square, circle and then that combo.  For big enemies or whip enemies, throw something at them, web them then do the same or spam triangle if they're too big.  And that's virtually it.  Keep an eye on your hit detect, when it goes blue, hit circle to dodge and counter for more or less infinite health regains also.   I also found that your gadgets did very little to change the game.  With the exception of concussion and levitate (it is not called that, but the bomb that lifts your enemies), virtually every other gadget just webs your enemies in different ways.  By Act 2, virtually nothing changes, and you're fighting a lot so it does get quite boring quite quickly.  Big negative to the game.  

 

- The side content is incredibly inconsistent.  Some of it was fun and a great extension to the main game, such as the Taskmaster challenges and Black cat collectibles, requiring both alterations of gameplay whilst also incentivizing you to complete it to uncover more about some Spiderman bad guys even after you've finished the main story.  Despite this, a lot of the side content was incredibly repetitive and bland.  Having to do 20 crimes per district (aside from Central Park, only 5) was incredibly mundane.  There are 4-5 different crime types, and the repeat over and over and over, providing no challenge and nothing you won't have seen anywhere else.  They are ALL combat-related too (I think I had 3 or 4 science mini-games, that's it).   Also don't quite know when games will get that having to climb towers to un-fog a map ISN'T FUN.   Spiderman this is especially the case; in Far Cry games, where you are usually a foreign person in a foreign land, uncovering the map through landmarks kind of makes sense (even though they correctly stopped this in Far Cry 5).  A native New Yorker using towers to uncover New York, one of the most charted places on the planet, makes far less sense.  Minor, but without doing this the side content can be tricky to find so it's worth noting. 

 

 

 

[Fubuki]

I'm hoping they add something to keep the game going. After the city stories are finished maybe they can add MP?

[Upendo_Vitani]

No. Not every game needs MP. How they would implement it in this type of game would only make it seems shoehorned in for the sake of having it. Add STORY not unnecessary crap.

 

Good review OP. I agree with everything you said 100%. I loved getting the platinum with my only real complaint being there are too many crimes. Its not a huge grind to do them after the story was done (only did about half during), but like you said, having 4 factions was a little much. 

Edited September 20, 2018 by coldsphinx93

[PhantomFear94]

5 hours ago, coldsphinx93 said:

No. Not every game needs MP. How they would implement it in this type of game would only make it seems shoehorned in for the sake of having it. Add STORY not unnecessary crap.

 

Good review OP. I agree with everything you said 100%. I loved getting the platinum with my only real complaint being there are too many crimes. Its not a huge grind to do them after the story was done (only did about half during), but like you said, having 4 factions was a little much. 

 

1) I'm very happy its SP only as well, I don't love MP in most cases

 

2) Yeh they were irritating.  They technically won't bother people not going for the platinum, but its still too much. 

5 hours ago, The Titan said:

I'm hoping they add something to keep the game going. After the city stories are finished maybe they can add MP?

 

They are doing 3 DLC packs, all out before the end of 2018 under the collective title "The City Never Sleeps".

 

Unconfirmed at this stage whether they'll have trophies or be like South Park: TFBW and just add trophy-less side content.  Was only £15 for me w/ the physical purchase, so it probably won't be masses. 

[Fubuki]

I mean MP was just a suggestion. I'd take anything really. After the City never sleeps pack then what?

[PhantomFear94]

11 hours ago, The Titan said:

I mean MP was just a suggestion. I'd take anything really. After the City never sleeps pack then what?

 

I think that's the only planned DLC for now.