Topic: Spider Man

Only 6 months late to the party, but I’m having a good time with Spider-Man 2. I’m clocked at 7 hrs of playtime and the difficulty has climbed quite a bit. I don’t remember either of the first two games being quite this challenging. I may need to drop the difficulty.

Some of it has to do with the emphasis on abilities and the fact most enemy groups now have at least some that have undodgable attacks with the new parry mechanic, and that many will block most standard punch and kick attacks.

I don’t mind the special ability cycling combat, but I actually just finished FF16 and this combat system is like a more dynamic version of that one. But my internal clock is still set on the FF16 combat and so I keep trying to trigger an ability and the cooldown isn’t over yet. The abilities and gadgets refresh much slower and are a little weaker than I would expect. Same for the focus bar. So it’s made for many frustrating deaths.

Leveling up does happen quickly however so I’m hoping I can use my skill points and all the bazillion kinds of leveling currency (I don’t even know how I’m earning “hero points”, or whatever their called 😅) to somehow make this easier. The game keeps prompting me to buy more suits, but I’m like “Quit tempting me — I need to stockpile resources to spend on making myself stronger and less fragile! I don’t care what I look like right now! 😂)

I think I’m around level 12 now, so I’ve just barely scratched the surface of all the skill trees and upgrades available.

Story-wise, I really like it so far. Both Peter and Miles have some meaningful arcs going on and I’m interested to know more. I actually really like Harry in the game. I never clicked with him in the movies, but his friendship with Peter is very well executed here so far. The whole Emily May Foundation and all the pseudoscience babble is a bit much as far as suspension of disbelief goes, but hey this is a story about superhero powers, so being able to splice plant genes with a simple hexagon puzzle or kill off bee predators with a bee drone and not expect to drastically alter the balance of the ecosystem… well it’s all just something I have to chuckle and go along with. It makes for unintentionally funny moments like when Peter is at the koi fish pond and the researcher starts a sentence and Peter finishes it for her with something about layered cellular molecular structures or something and she’s like “yes, exactly!”. 😂 Peter is basically a world renowned robotics, genetics, physics, botany, aerospace and electrical engineering, biochemistry, and apparently aquatic biology expert 😂 and the only job he could get was teaching high school.

But my enjoyment of the game is quite high, despite some of my early criticisms. Insomniac really are experts at keeping gameplay fluid and fun and they’ve effectively pulled me back into the world where each play session just flies by and before I know it it’s time for bed.

Still enjoying SM2, although I went ahead and adjusted some difficulty sliders to make the combat less frustrating. I like the way they made customizable sliders, so I didn’t have to drop the base difficulty (yet 😅) but rather just adjusted a couple modifiers like dodge/parry timing window and enemy damage and now the game is much more forgiving, despite my still being on the default “Amazing” difficulty level. I reserve the right to drop it at any time though. 😅

There’s some inconsistency of difficulty in the different encounters though, which I don’t remember being a problem in the first game. Especially some of the Flame encounters are quite tough.

The best storyline continues to be Harry’s as far as I’m concerned. I’m still early days so time will tell but I’m enjoying swinging and punching.

I hit a very emotional point in the game that I wasn’t expecting. Just out of the blue on a certain side quest, it really moved me. For those that played the game, I’m referring to Howard’s side quest.

Otherwise, I am really noticing so much the nice polish on this entry, with just the way the city is so smooth and expansive and the way the travel is even more impressive with the wing suit. I also am really enjoying the different kinds of activities that are included and the way that it keeps things fresh. Like the trip to Coney Island for example and the various side quests.

I’m coming close to the end of Spider-Man 2. I can tell because I only have about 5 trophies left and I feel like the story’s climax is around the corner.

I’ve 100%’ed all the districts, done all the collectibles (except the experiment one), and maxed out my level to 60.

If I were to do it all over again I would not have wasted effort chasing down every single crime that popped up. I hit level max way too soon. But it was good for me to maintain my survivability because the game is pretty tough and even with everything maxed and 40 hrs to ‘git gud’ with the mechanics, I’m still dying from time to time. Those symbiote nests are crazy.

I’ve had a lot of fun though. Insomniac should be recognized for their real skill at balancing the gameplay and keeping things fresh, playable, and enjoyable. The symbiote powers are so good and a blast to use. I knew next to nothing about the Venom character before this game and it seems to be such a stunning version of it in the game.

Anyways , just giving the game its flowers. In my opinion it’s much better than the first two games, both of which I liked a lot. I’m not done with the game yet, but if it holds, then I would consider it a solid 9/10 and the first two games were around an 8. Miles Morales was better so maybe an 8.5.

Started Miles Morales in my hunt for the next game to grab me in the hope that it will convert me to then try Spider-Man 2 at some point, and I felt that a light insomniac super hero jaunt might be spring/summer compatible (even though its a festive setting) I just want something a bit more mainstream with easy saves that I dont have to be that bothered about.

I let out an audible sigh as soon as they introduced the "find the crate" for upgrades mechanics. Insomniac needs a good slap when it comes to adding stuff like this. It is so tedious and I hope to high hell they do not make a Wolverine game in this manner 😵‍💫😵‍💫

The game seems fun enough, but every so often it just kicks you in the face with something annoying within its traversal or design or just how the game responds to inputs.

The combat seems really dated to me, too.

Overall it might end up a solid 7/8 for a digestible story and graphics etc, but I really hope they change how they make their games in future tbh, as the gameplay just doesn't seem very modern or impactful at all.

How is Spider-Man 2 in comparison? Copy/Paste, or more to it combat and exploration wise? (I was thinking of skipping straight to the trial of that, but as I know the story of 1, but not MM, I thought I might as well play it)

@Ravix I think I’m as qualified as any to speak to your concerns.
As for Miles Morales vs Spider-Man 2, I guess honestly it’s just a few evolutionary steps toward more polish and more focused open world gameplay. I personally liked it quite a bit more than MM because of the variety of being able to switch between Miles and Peter and experience slightly different battle animations and powers depending on who you play as. The side content is also arguably more varied. The cinematic nature of the setpieces and cutscenes is dialed up a notch and there’s more creativity than before with some of the environments. It’s still NYC but new neighborhoods are opened up and then there’s a few little wrinkles along the way.

That all said, MM is the most digestible and leanest of the three games. As such, many consider it the best. It has the least side content and the simplest and most direct story. Miles is a great character and his powers do evolve to feel quite different from what you experienced in the first game.

Nevertheless, all three games are similar enough that you really have to like the core combat and traversal or else you won’t like any of them. The story, new characters, new villains, and new setting isn’t going to be enough to carry you if you don’t like the combat or webslinging. Because that’s still most of what you’ll spend your time doing.

My suggestion is to try to stick with MM since the whole thing can be mainlined quite quickly. If you don’t engage in optional activities then it’s just a few hours. By the end of it if you like the Miles character and grow to love Miles’s specific powers then you’ll probably like SM2 because it does all that and then some.

@Th3solution yeah, I'm probably being a bit harsh overall. I think it is mainly the repetitiveness of the combat that eventually makes me frustrated with the games, when it feels like they could maybe try something different 😅 I played some more tonight and it seems quite playable and enjoyable, but mostly when it's not just the waves of goons which is just a real gripe of mine. Because the city is just the city and exploration is more just zipping about, it makes the goon encounters just grate on me more than they would in any other games, as they are the only thing to do half the time.

Now, I loved the original Arkham series (which this is still ripping off, I suppose? Definitely in terms of the style of comic book hero combat gameplay) but in those the exploration felt a bit better, they were interesting well designed environments and lots of small scale stuff within the main areas. And they were more quest driven rather than just open world with nothing in it but random gang attacks or opening crates in really illogical places (and now time capsules, come on...) The fact that superhero games from what, 2009? Had pretty much the same basic setup in terms of stealth picking off of enemies, and open combat vs goons with the exact same goon types and goon moves, makes it seem like nothing has changed in all that time other than graphics and it jist seems a bit lazy from Imsomiac. And those older games maybe had a bit more charm overall too, and were just more fun and engaging. Again, though, I am being hyper critical. And the combat, at least from the player perspective, suits spider-man. And you can set up some cool moments, especially if you try and spend as much time fighting in the air as possible. It's just the enemy variety means it feels the same most times.

At the moment I am preferring Miles to Peter, so that is a plus. The game looks great, and I've had a few of the set pieces, which obviously are what they do best. I just wish the game didn't make me roll my eyes as much as it does 😅😅

I've saod it many times, but partly its because I'm really hoping in Wolverine there is a bit more to the filler encounters and itnisnt just the same stuff reskinned, I feel like it should be more even and balanced where groups can overwhelm you and kick the s*** out of you because you can't do a flip out of the way, and almost like a bare knuckle brawling dirty tactics style of fighting, with chokeholds, kidney shots and face stomps, and more small scale fighting in cramped spaces, and then of course the blades can come out when the guns and knives come out, or when a child is in danger and s*** gets real so people need punishing excessively.

Total tonal shift... Did you ever play Guardians of the Galaxy, btw? That is one I really quite enjoyed. And it was just different enough to the usual superhero stuff to really keep me entertained throughout. Thoroughly fun and charming, really. And not open world, so there was always a new destination to head towards with a goal, which I feel helps the comic superhero games tbh. Even parts of the Avengers game worked for that reason, there was a journey to go on with a goal. Just they added all this other random s*** to it as well and it kind of felt a bit half baked.

And you can't deny, stuff like this does look really cool when building combos

So it has that going for it.

@Ravix I had some similar thoughts regarding combat repetition and lack of meaningful exploration when playing the first game. I ended up really liking it, but MM was less egregious and the new powers helped keep it feeling a little fresher. But yeah, that’s partly why I was surprised how much I liked SM2 and I think it largely resonated better with me because of the variety of combat moves that open up. Tough to say more without spoilers, but it brings the largest degree of combat diversity of the bunch. But most of the scenarios are similar “group of goons” types of situations.

As far as your other question — yes, I played and really loved GotG. I agree that it was a nice diversion from the Arkham combat of the other comic hero games. I only partly agree on Avengers though. Yeah, the single player campaign had its moments, but it was just too full of other garbage and even booting up the game it was just a mess to navigate all the service game elements that it shoved in your face. It ruined what could have been a decent game. So far I’m finding Midnight Suns to be a better ‘Avengers-style/get a bunch of heroes together in one space to interact with one another’ game.

@Th3solution the Avengers I just mainlined the campaign on a free weekend (left it in rest mode and it let me keep it for longer than the trial period) but yes, it was just okay, and the rest of it was silly garbage. It was like two ideas badly smashed together, but some memorable moments from the single player story team, they did a decent job making a world that felt very marvel, i'd say, and there was some cool set pieces, and I do think more of a linear purpose driven game suits super hero stuff better than open world filler stuff.

GotG definitely nailed the way these comic book games should be, it should definitely get much more credit.

I'm enjoying MM to a decent enough level now, anyway. It still baffles me at how detailed the world is, with all the effort the team went to, and there is never any reason to slow down and explore naturally in that open world to appreciate it. It is literally zip to checkpoints on a map to collect sh**. I tried to make myself travel by foot for a bit to take it all in, but there is just nothing to do on foot or at walking pace, so it is just wasted effort from the devs. Web swinging is fun, to an extent, but they made New York and you never really exist in the world, so I don't think I'll ever be fully immersed in their Spider-Man games, which is a shame, but it is always very obviously just a game with some game stuff to do within it, which is just a bad trait for open world games. RDR2 doesn't feel like everything exists just to be part of a game, KCD doesn't feel that way. GTA doesn't feel that way. And I think Spider-Man is a good few levels below the Open World Assassin's Creed games, which are a mix of genuine immersion but with lots of silly game sh** shoved on top.

It is an interesting topic whether some games should just not bother being open world, and I think Spider-Man would benefit from having the open area, but without any random added stuff, but way more cutscenes and set peices and more of a focused story driven feel, so you dont feel obliged to treat it as an actual open world game. Or maybe add some stuff that is actually fun and worth exploring if you want to be considered a genuine open world game.

There was a point where I was forced into being Miles for a bit, and I thought, yes this is its chance to slow it down and make use of the world and its characters. But it was just: walk to a place, talk to someone and then go be Spider-Man again to go and fight goons and turn some levers or press a button 😪

Doesn't anyone ever think these games would benefit from more small scale stories at some points where you have to be the regular person and solve some regular person sh** in a way that isn't just relying on your ability to do some rad backflips? It's like there are hints of it, and the characters are always geared up for that kind of stuff, but because they have to get back to the set-in-stone game action they can't ever expand on it in a meaningful way that involves making some decent new game mechanics for regular Miles or Peter.

Again, I started wanting to be positive as overall I am enjoying it. I just see these opportunities to make a great game being missed over and over again and it causes me to type all of this in frustration 😅😅

Guess I'll go mindlessly swing around to collect a time capsule wedged half way up a massive building by regular kids before any of them got any super abilities... just... because 🙄🙄🙄

Goddammit games, be better 😅

@Ravix The open world trappings are slightly better in SM2, in that you have decent MJ missions this time and relatively well circumscribed side stories that you can engage with regarding the supplemental characters. There’s still loads of random crimes and goons though, so you have to actively ignore those and just jump to the main and side missions of consequence in order to keep the flow compelling. I think if one tried to do that — ignore crimes and the few collectibles (yes, scattered chest of tech supplies exist) and just stick to the story driven events then it would be a lot closer to what you’re hoping for. Because the actual city still does not have street level exploration, but the game does have more meaningful divergent stories for each hero.

How are you getting along with MM at this point? Probably are close to the end by now, I would expect.

@Th3solution yeah. I'm literally checking out the final mission now (got a point of no return message anyway) it is very much a bank holiday weekend type game, really, so very appropriate.

But I have been enjoying it, I really have. I just wish they were more focused on the stuff they did well, as that stuff is really top notch. There have been some eye rolling storyline moments where you have to take a huge "Marvel character logic" pill and ignore it as best you can. But overall it is a pretty good game, made better by it not being too long.

I'd definitely play the hell out of a 30/40 hour campaign plus sidequest entry, if it just completely did away with the mindless boring bits, but alas, it isn't going to happen.

The big Rhino boss fight was a piece of pi** lol, despite it taking away some of your powers for it, and I feel maybe they have gotten boss fights a bit better in SM2? The rhino fight basically felt like the Fisk fight from SM1. Dodge, fling a thing, zip attack, repeat (if I remember correctly)

The random duo Vulture fight was a fun moment from a kind of side quest that felt kind of worth doing, in terms of it let you unlock moves and learn combat, rather than it being actually compelling in any other way lol. But the end fight of that kind of made up for it with the humour element and it being unexpected.

Story wise, I do care about the characters, even though sometimes they are incredibly dumb or completely forget the fact so many lives were put in danger during the chase scene, and its still like, oh but I'm not trying to hurt anyone 🥲 eventually they do actually address the "blinded to their actions by their rage" elements, but for a while it was kind of like... ermmmmm ooookay then. And at first it was kind of weird that Miles was so against the actions, really early when it wasn't putting anyone in danger and it was obvious that the big Corp was the one putting people in danger.

But all that is to be expected from a Marvel product, so eh, I let them get away with it to some extent 😅

I keep forgetting to use to photomode in combat too, as I'm usually dialed in looking for dodge timing from those pesky ranged attacks from offscreen. I'm sure I could have got tmsome cool shots, but oh well 😅

Also: Fidelity 120hz VRR mode seems to work well. Smooth gameplay and no annoying sped up cutscenes. Technically I think they are top notch and something others should work towards. It says aims for 40, but with VRR my readout hits 120, 80 and 60 without any real stuttering, which is impressive.

@Th3solution all done 🤟 these games would be untouchable in terms of all out summer blockbuster action if they really doubled down on what they do best. I'll definitely get the PS Plus trial of Spider-Man 2 and probably pick it up in the next big sale

@Ravix “There have been some eye rolling storyline moments where you have to take a huge ‘Marvel character logic’ pill and ignore it as best you can.”
😂 This made me laugh, and it’s true. Although it’s not necessarily unique to Marvel, there’s definitely some suspension of disbelief that comes as a requirement. SM2 has its share too.

I’m glad that you did find some enjoyment from MM. At this stage, we’re probably due for a sale on SM2 so I do think it’s worth giving it a look at a discount. If you can do a trial, then that might help also. There’s a pretty bombastic first hour to the game, probably designed to help sell people who do a trial.