Marvel's Spider-Man Review: The Sheer Power of Fun

Marvel's Spider-Man came swinging in to many a gamer's living room a few weeks ago, riding on the back of some serious hype and glowing reviews. This is a game that was single handedly selling PS4s for christ sake (I don't have numerical evidence for this but I work at GAME and yeah, it definitely was). The unrelenting noise that surrounded the game meant I backed down from my initial policy of "I'll pick it up in a few months when the price has come down a bit" and coughed up the full price for it. I didn't regret this. Partly because the game is just such good fun to play and I did have a blast but also because I was able to finish and trade it in just 2 weeks later and get most of my money back for it. I certainly enjoyed those two weeks but there really wasn't much else there in the game other than a lot of fun for me to sink my teeth in to. So it was slightly jarring to me to hear colleagues, customers and other reviewers talking about this game with such effusive praise. I see why it got the hype it did but I do think that, with this one, time will bring about a more considered appraisal.

I do have to begin by acknowledging there is certainly no argument that this game is truly bloody good fun. The virtual New York that the team at Insomniac have built is the most alive, vibrant and kinetic game world I think I've ever had the pleasure of being transported to. Back in 2004, it was fun enough to swing around the poorly rendered, polygonal big apple of Spider-Man 2. 14 years later and swinging, zipping, climbing and free falling through this exquisite recreation with perfectly tuned physics and mechanics is truly something very special. It kept me entertained for hours and made the game such an absolute joy to play. It was even enough to excuse the open world gaming cardinal sins that Spider-Man commits. Having the player climb towers and do a broad tech-y thing to unlock each region of the map and absolutely cramming that map with collectible upon collectible upon collectible are probably the most obvious of these. Normally tedious when done in other games (looking at you Ubisoft), in Spider-Man these just present the player with another reason to whip out the web shooter and get swinging. I, and it seems everyone else who picked this game up, couldn't be happier to do so.

It's not just the swinging that will get you giddy. The combat has a fantastic freneticism to it that keeps things fun and different and is constantly inviting the player to try out different combos and gadgets and moves by simply giving so many to choose from. There's definitely an ancestry in the combat system that stretches back to that of the modern classics that is the Batman Arkham trilogy. Though Spiderman has swapped the rhythmic and powerful feel of those games and instead bought in a more nimble sensation for the player that focuses on freedom and experimentation.

However, if it weren't for the money recouped from trading the game in, I would have been left feeling rather short changed. Even with how immensely fun Spider-Man is to play, it doesn't really do much beyond be really good fun. In fairness I realise that in making a really fun game the developers have probably achieved what they set out to accomplish and they do fully deserve to be able to look back on their work and call it an indisputable success. What I am saying, however, is that a game can be massive fun and have a compelling narrative with have a bit more oomph to it. One just has to look at Sony's other huge exclusive this year, God of War, which achieved just that. I've kept hold of my copy and believe I'll be remembering and replaying it for years to come. Once I'd finsihed the story, wrapped up the final collectibles and unlocked that last, and most ridiculous of, Spidey-suits though, I felt felt like I was done with Spider-Man. There wasn't too much else there that the game really had to offer me. I would like to stress that I'm not dunking on the story and the writing as worthless by any means. The characters and their dialogue were, for the most part, well written and believable; they just don't really do much that gets me interested or invested and whilst the first two acts linger somewhere between average and good, the third certainly lets the side down. Once the sinister six are out in the open and on the prowl, it feels like the game doesn't really know what to do with them and whilst there was some potential, I was left disappointed with a lot of the execution. By the end, I was left with the feeling that this game had a storyline mostly out of obligation rather than any real desire from the team behind it to tell this Spider-Man story. It isn't terrible by any means, just very forgettable.

Still though, Spider-Man is unquestionably great fun and certainly deserved the huge buzz it got for the month or so when it released. It's still a game that I'd recommend people give a whirl if they're after a world to escape to where they'll have a roaring good time. However I've heard the hyperbole used around this game a tad more than I'd say it deserves and, for me, when we're talking about games of the year or decade it just really doesn't do enough to be in that discussion.

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Other notes:

- A lot of extra buzz around this game came from the fun people were having sharing their creations in the games photo mode online. Photo modes are getting more and more popular in general but was particularly prominent for this game. I must admit it is a mode I used for a combined total of about four seconds..... and only half of that time was on purpose. What can I say? I just can't be arsed with that stuff!

- Whilst, as mentioned, the general gameplay was great and super fun, I do have to note that the boss fights were mostly average and sometimes outright bad. Truly a shame.

- So all the different suits come with different associated super moves that you can then use with any other suit you've unlocked. This is a great progressional system that lets you look cool and fight how you want. One problem though: web blossom is really OP and had to force myself not to use it for fear of just taking all the fun out of the combat.

- I've seen a lot of people roll their eyes at the sections where you play as MJ and Miles but I enjoyed these bits and thought they bought more to the game than a lot of the other story missions.

- This is the second review in a row I've talked about the Batman Arkham games. I fear if i make it a hat-trick in my next one, Adam might start a tally count a la Playstation Access and Rob Pearson's obsession with dropping MGS in to his Friday features.

- Adam would like people to know that when he got to the Arkham reference in this review, he did consider starting a count system of some sort. Then he saw the previous bullet point and is giving Rob the leeway of one more review to start playing a game that doesn't have Batman in it.

#spiderman #ps4