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Even with the very first Spider-Man game, developer Insomniac managed to nail down the feeling of what a game like this should be. The movement, the combat, and the feeling of being a superhero in New York were something that only a few games managed to pull off correctly.
In Marvel's Spider-Man 2, they essentially ironed out what did not work, improved on what still had potential, introduced new mechanics, and even included a dual-protagonist story. Basically building on the groundwork that the previous two entries had set in stone.
In this of Marvel's Spider-Man 2 review, I’ll cover the story, combat, and traversal, as well as what I liked and disliked about the game in a more in-depth way compared to my 4-minute review on YouTube.
Need to know
- Developer: Insomniac Games, Nixxes Software
- Release date: 30 Jan, 2025
- Publisher: PlayStation Publishing LLC
- Supported platforms: Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 5
- Official page
Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 delivers an incredibly fun experience. And even though the story is rushed and complex, it is a reliably fun superhero action gameGame Score
Combat – 10
Story – 6.8
Gameplay – 7.5
Visuals – 10
Audio – 10
8.9
Great yet flawed
TL;DR
In Marvel's Spider-Man 2, you play as both Peter Parker and Miles Morales while also stepping into Mary Jane Watson's shoes from time to time. You can expect to see a far larger open-world NYC than before with the addition of Queens and Brooklyn. A significantly more ambitious story with various classic Spider-Man villains showing up to wreak havoc, as well as your usual Spidey sidequests, like helping out the citizens find their lost grandpa or taking down various gangs. However, the formula is definitely visible, the side-quest design is lackluster, the open-world activities are fairly outdated, and the final arc of the story should have been a separate game all on its own.
Pros
- You can fly with the web wings
- Movement has improved over previous SpiderMan games
- Expanded map size
- Shared and personal skill trees
- Vast number of suits to unlock
- Combat that's far better than in older titles
Cons
- Best arc of the game feels rushed
- Some side missions are boring and unimaginative
- Lack of racing content
- Use of dual Spider-Men is underutilized
What is Marvel's Spider-Man 2?
Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 is the latest sequel of Insomniac’s highly popular Spider-Man game series. It’s action-packed with a surprisingly deep and dramatic story, which, I might say, bit off more than it could chew. With multiple game arcs, main and side villains, interconnected storylines, and character growth all packed into one, it can start to feel like Insomniac was given an unlimited budget but limited time to get everything ready for launch.
During gameplay, you’ll spend a lot of your time swinging and flying – yes, flying across an immense and very well-crafted, open-world NYC. It’s a good thing that traversal and movement in this game are the best they’ve ever been, with boosted speed, maneuverability, and fun tricks to do in the air.
Spider-Man 2 also brings a lot of the side content and activities that long-time fans have certainly gotten used to. Here is a list of just some of the things you can expect to do:
- Unlocking multiple skill trees that impact both Spider-Men or have specific effects for one of them directly
- Gadget upgrading
- Unlocking dozens of spidey suits and their alternative variations
- Collecting Spider-bots
- Finding Marko’s memories locked in sand crystals
- Photo Ops across iconic New York locations
- Prowler stash raids left behind by Aaron Davis
- EMF experiments (short puzzle minigames)
- Mysterium combat challenges
- Symbiote nests (late game combat challenges)
- Hunter outpost/stronghold challenges
- The Flame (multi-part quest story tracking down a pyromaniac)
- Brookly Visions (short side quests helping out students)
- FNSM app requests
- Cultural Museum (Investigations of stolen musical items)
The story of Marvel's Spider-Man 2
When it comes to Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 story, it’s quite the wild ride as it does not hold you away from action for long. Right from the very first minutes, you’ll be fighting a city-sized Sandman, dodging boulders, and hitting him with all you’ve got. It’s, in my opinion, one of the most fun openings to a video game I’ve had in a long time.
Once all the dust settles, you get tossed into New York with more and more features unlocking. Quite the standard show, just this time with two controllable heroes that can actually team up on occasion and fight some baddies together.
Overall, the story is sliced into different arcs, each one interconnected with the next and slowly building up to the finale as well as some cliffhangers that rub me the wrong way. Without spoiling the story, there was one major plot point that got a ton of screen time and dedicated missions, yet it just disappeared in the middle of the game. No updates, no DLC’s, no nothing, almost like the developers forgot.
Apart from that annoyance, both Spider-Men will get their fair share of screen time. You will slowly get to know them, their lives, friends, and family through side content, flashbacks, and dedicated missions. Some of them are quite sluggish and really take you out of the action, but are important for the main story. If you’re replaying the game, be ready to get impatient with those, as you can’t skip or shorten them.
Now, for a game that already has many different villains, it also crams the Symbiote story into the last arc. To no one’s surprise, it’s rushed, short, and underdeveloped. The symbiote should have its own game from start to finish, one where you slowly, over the course of the entire 30 – 50 hours, see Peter change into a more unstable character. But no, that’s not what we got again.
On the bright side, this game reminded me of the old Spider-Man Web of Shadows game, which was developed in just 16 months, yet had more fun with the symbiote and Venom. Heroes and villains were infected, you could choose different paths to take, reach different endings, and do so much more.
Is combat good in Marvel's Spider-Man 2?
In short, yes, the combat is good, I’d even say great. It’s faster, more fluid, still familiar to those who played the previous entries, but more dynamic than before. I’d even say Spider-Man 2 manages to juggle two characters fairly well by introducing both shared and separate skill trees to unlock. One is for Peter, the other for Miles Morales, while also keeping room for shared upgrades, which makes sense. You would not want to upgrade the movement speed for one character and then be stuck with one that lacks the speed you already got used to before.
In general, you can expect to find these worthy to mention changes:
- New abilities for both Spider-Men as well as swappable special attacks
- Dodge and parry options to make combat more fluid and cinematic
- Symbiote and Anti-Symbiote powers that completely change Peter’s playstyle.
- Gadgets that are streamlined compared to previous entries, yet still really fun to use
- Boss fights that are larger in scale with more movie-like quality
After playing this game, it would be quite hard to go back to the previous entries as I would constantly feel things are lacking or just not fast enough.
Open world content
The open world is significantly larger with the additions of Brooklyn and Queens being added. The city overall feels more alive with pedestrians high-fiving you at random times or asking for a pic with the superhero. That being said there's not that much to really do as the side content and activities are mundane or already explored in older games even from way back before Insomniac took this franchise over. It's lacking creativity in my eyes.
You can expect the typical gang fights, car chases, looking for random collectables like spider-bots or using your web wings for glider chase scenes. Nothing I haven't seen already or experienced in older games like Web of Shadows. There arent even any racing minigames included which just seemed odd. This could have been taken in some many directions with the inclusion of two protagonists. For example imagine fighting off some bad guys together and then instead of just high-fiving like now, they could get a notification that a fire broke out a mile away and they decide to race to get there. It would be fun and also explore more of the dual protagonist dynamic.
Visuals and audio of Spider-Man 2
Visually, Spider-Man 2 is gorgeous, and at least on my PC it ran as smooth as butter even on maxed-out settings.
The character models look excellent and sharp. Although Peter did get quite the makeover from the earlier games.
The variety of different suits will keep any player happy, considering that most of the suits have a total of four alternative color mixes.
The city is detailed with impressive lighting, interactive objects, picture spots, car chases, and even a theme park to explore. It’s basically like a Spider-Man wallpaper generator.
The soundtrack complements both the emotional scenes and high-speed action, while voice acting is consistently impressive throughout the cast.
Marvel's Spider-Man 2 review verdict
All in all, Marvel's Spider-Man 2 nails the feeling of what you should feel like as a superhero. It builds on the strongest foundations that earlier entries offered, and tries it's best to improve where it can.
The story is compelling and quite broad even if a bit rough around the edges. It could also use a bit more focus instead of trying to do everything all in one game.
Traversal is the best it's ever been, and combat remains consistently entertaining even after 30-40h.
While side activities become repetitive and the formula is familiar, it's still one of the strongest action-adventure games in recent years and an easy recommendation for both Marvel fans and newcomers alike.
Prefer watching instead of reading? Here's my 4-minute review of Marvel's Spiderman 2
