Marvel's 'Spider-Man' (PlayStation 4) Review

I'll be honest, I've never been that big a fan of superheroes. I've always found their characters to be flat, obvious, and a little cliched. I've also never been a massive fan of the 'superpowers' aspect. What can I say, I prefer my protagonists to have a better backstory than 'bitten by a radioactive spider'. And, in recent years, I've found my interest in video gaming declining somewhat. Maybe it's just all those rather flat, dull, repetitive shooters I've been playing, but, apart from the Star Wars: Battlefront series, there's been little I've been excited, or even interested in. Sure, I enjoyed Battlefield 1, but, to be honest, part of me was thinking about selling up my PS4, so I wouldn't have another outlet that was a drain on my time and money. However, I'm very glad I didn't, because, after a little persuasion, I bought myself Insomniac and Marvel's Spider-Man; a game that so perfectly captures the Spider-Man universe, that it's simply a joy to play. With an engaging plot and some fantastically simple but fun game mechanics, this is a true delight, and possibly one of the strongest video games I've played in many years.

Story

This game has a very cinematic feel to it, and, I suspect, a lot of this has to do with the plot, which I could easily see being made on the big screen. There's a huge scope to the story, taking place across the whole of New York and featuring more villains than you could shake a stick at. Of course, it's a lot longer than a movie, as you need some time for the gameplay mechanics to breath. Despite this, however, you never feel like the story has been protracted for no reason; it's consistently gripping, as you work your way through each twist and turn. The side quests feed into the main story as well, meaning that it is worth your time to complete them (with some paying off later on in the DLC content), but you can just play the main story if you so desire, and still get all the main beats. This approach is certainly more interesting than games of this ilk that I've played in the past, where side missions aren't really that important to the main game at hand. These side missions feed into the high stakes that the story has: the wide-ranging scope of the plot is one of this game's strengths, particularly because you, as a player, are trying to piece together the mystery alongside Peter Parker. The game isn't just a punch-em-up (although there's plenty of those elements), but a full story.

One thing that I was particularly glad about was that, while this game creates its own continuity separate from the comics and the various film universes (The Raimi trilogy, The Amazing Spider-Man, and the current Marvel films), it isn't an origin story. To be honest, one of the most boring stories I've found with regards to superheroes has to be the origin story. Sure, it's a key part of the character arc that we have to experience, but I just often find them to be fairly dull and, by this point, predictable. This game, however, assumes that we all know the Spider-Man backstory, and so can dispense with having to set the character up. Instead, we can just get into a gripping and interesting story, that sees the genesis of two of Spider-Man's villains, Mr. Negative and Doctor Octopus, in ways that directly relate to Peter Parker. Sure, it is a massive coincidence that Parker's friend Martin, and his boss Otto, both turn out to be bad guys, but what it lacks in realism, it more than makes up for in emotional impact. Otto's turn to the dark side, for example, is a heart-wrenching moment, as it's not just a failing of Spider-Man to stop Doctor Octopus from unleashing chaos, it's also a failing of Peter Parker to keep his friend safe. Otto's backstory is genuinely tragic, and he's a sharp contrast with characters like Rhino and Shocker for example, both of whom are more in line with your traditional comic book villain. It's nice to have a contrast, however, and it makes the boss battles different in tone and feel.

It isn't just Spider-Man's nemesis' we get in this game, however. We also get some of his allies returning too. Some (like MJ and Aunt May) will probably be familiar even to passing fans of the franchise (like myself), while others (such as Yuri and Miles) might by new to some players. Regardless, their relationships with Peter Parker/Spider-Man are set out right away, and each one plays a key part in the story. Setting up the character of Miles Morales here, in particular, is a great idea. With Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse being released soon after this game, this is a good primer for that movie, allowing us to see how Miles also gains the same powers as Peter Parker. Each character gets that moment in the spotlight they deserve, especially MJ and Aunt May. May, in particular, has some fantastic scenes with Peter, and the ending is truly tragic because of them. One element I wasn't as keen on was Norman Osborn's absence from most of the story until the very end. Sure, the character of Silver Sable was a fascinating antagonist force, but I would have liked more scenes with Norman, especially as the city descends into a mob-controlled hellscape. He just ends up becoming a shadowy figure off-screen, and the potential he has is sadly wasted. The rest of the characters, however, are well-integrated into the plot, and have plenty to do, both in relation to Spider-Man and the wider story and universe.

Gameplay

One major concern, I suspect, during this game's development would have been how to balance the need to engage new players in the story, but also provides enough satisfying content for hardcore gamers. And, to me, I feel like Spider-Man balances that fine line perfectly. It's an easy game to play; you don't need to feel like you have to be a gamer to get through the levels. The controls are easy to get your head around, and after about fifteen minutes, you get very used to them. The web swinging, in particular, is a fantastic feature: simply by pressing R2, you can zip across the Manhattan skyline, without having to worry too much about if you muck it up. The beauty of the game's success is, I feel, because the system is so simple to use. You can just swing your way across the city effortlessly, with no worry about the difficulty that controls can sometimes bring. I'd say it's probably one of the easiest systems to master on a Spider-Man game, ever. The combination of abilities, combos, and gadgets is vast, and I think the developers have done a great job in creating a vast range of techniques you can use to play the game. The combination of dodging/attacking gameplay allows for no one specific style to dominate, which I particularly like, as it keeps the gameplay different and unpredictable, as opposed to some games, which fall into predictable patterns very quickly.

As well as the main story, there are a variety of side quests and extra missions, as is typical with open-world story games. These do come across, at times, a little pointless (especially taking photos of various New York landscapes), but, let's be honest, that's par for the course for these type of games. However, none of them feel like chores, but fun little side quests that add to the open world feel of the game. Sure, some of them get a little repetitive, but I don't think it's to the game's real detriment. Some of them are, at least, fairly substantial, with Spider-Man having to infiltrate Demon hideouts and Sable bases, that help build up the picture of this world. The environment is a part of the game, with missions tailored to the different parts of the city that you find yourself in. This approach shows a great deal of thought has been put into the world and the gameplay mechanics, more than games like Assassin's Creed or other such competitors. They function in harmony, and the result is a fluid, easygoing experience, that's a delight to play, despite the slightly repetitive nature of the actual content.

Graphics & Sound

The last Spider-Man game I remember playing was Spider-Man 3 on the PlayStation 3, and this is a gargantuan improvement upon that game. This makes full use of the full HD capacity that the PlayStation 4 offers, and so looks amazing as a result. Some of the cut-scenes look so realistic that you'd think they were live action, due to how much work has been poured into making the game look good. The graphics and motion capture is crisp, meaning that there's no jerky movements, even within the playable sections of the game. The landscapes are just as realistic as any modern game, with some wonderful vistas of the New York landscape. The night-time landscapes, in particular, are simply wonderful: the vibrantly colourful New York comes through perfectly in this game, to the point where you feel like you are actually there. I love the work that has been put into building up the look of this game: the camera angles, the colour pallet, even little things like the weather. I particularly like the choices of weather for each segment of the game depending upon the tone that the story takes. For example, it's overcast and raining when the story is more downbeat and dark. Sure, it's an old technique, but it helps to build an atmosphere and an ambiance that helps make the game so enjoyable. The city takes on a different look with each type of weather, and this makes the experience so much stronger. Graphics wise, I'd say this was one of the most sophisticated titles in recent memory.

The music score for the game is fantastic as well. With a subtle mix of traditional themes and melodies, but with a modern twist, John Paesano's score is simply sublime. It's not too intrusive either, so it doesn't ruin the action or the drama of the moments that it underscores. It's mixed perfectly and comes into the game at just the right moments. When you start to swing through the skyline, Spider-Man's rousing main theme fires up to accompany you on your journey, which changes in speed and tempo depending on the time of day, and the tone of the game at that point. It's just another way this game makes you feel like your in control: too often with games like this, because of the rigid game mechanics, it's hard to feel like you're in control of the story, instead of feeling like you are just fulfilling the desire of the game. Here, however, you take things at your own pace, and you feel like you're totally in control of the game. It's very well executed, and it allows you to get lost in all the extra content on offer. Graphically, there was little to fault in the game—Insomniac's level of production was fantastically high, and it comes through in a very polished and enjoyable product.

DLC—'The City That Never Sleeps'

Almost a month after the game's release, Insomniac Games released the first part of a three-part addition to Spider-Man, The City That Never Sleeps. While not quite as strong an experience as the main game, it's still a fun arc of DLCs that advance this gaming world for Spider-Man slightly more, as well as picking up on a few of the threads left dangling from the main game's side missions. The first part, The Heist, sets up a new, ongoing conflict with Hammerhead, as well as reintroducing Felicia Hardy, AKA Black Cat (who features in one of the side quests in the main game). There's certainly a lot of backstory packed into this first DLC, and, while some of it is delivered in heavy info-dumps, this exploration is integrated well into the story. However, and this is a problem which affects DLC two and three as well, is brevity. There's some content there, but only enough for three or four hours of gameplay. I polished off each of the three sets in an evening, and I don't just mean completing the main story: I mean completing the whole thing. There's nothing wrong with that necessarily, considering I only paid £15 for the set of three. But if there's no more to come, I think it's a bit of a shame we couldn't get more content in these packages, because they just feel a bit empty to me. And while I want to say The Heist's story made up for the lack of gameplay content, I just found the ending a little bit of a shame, because it seemed like it was building up to something more exciting than what it did. Sure, it's commonplace in heist movies (which, in terms of structure, this mirrors) to twist what we know about the story, but the twist in the tale does remove a potentially interesting development for future Spider-Man content. There's certainly good moments in there, and it was fun to play for the length of time I played it. However, it could, and should, have been a bit more, in my opinion.

Part two, Turf Wars, focuses upon the escalating battle between the Maggia families and Hammerhead, as well as painting in the backstory of Yuri Wantanabi, a police chief who aids Spider-Man throughout the main game. This was, out of the three DLC packs, the best in my mind. There's a clear escalation of tension in the story, as you start to see the scale of Hammerhead's ambitions and the anger and desperation of Yuri start to come through, and the events of this part, unlike The Heist, have real consquences. Sadly, the play time is just as insubstantial as the first DLC, although I feel like the bonus mission here offer a more fulfilling experience than those of the first DLC. This gives us a chance to see Hammerhead in action, and, while he is an intimidating presence, he ultimately just feels like Fisk from the main game, only with a strange looking forehead. I don't deny that he isn't a fearsome antagonist, but there's little to make him stand out against a slew of Spider-Man bad guys, most of whom feature in this game. Also, the whole 'city descending into chaos and anarchy' is exactly the same plot as the main game, only on a slightly smaller scale. That being said, the developments regarding Yuri and her ongoing relationship with Spider-Man are certainly interesting, and promise something potentially interesting, especially with what we learn about her in the final DLC chapter.

The final DLC package (for now!), Silver Lining, sees anti-hero Silver Sable return to the narrative, in order to reclaim the weapons and amour stolen by Hammerhead in his quest for control of New York. Of course, this part of the story had its work cut out for it, as it has to tie up a number of plot threads (both from the base game and from the ongoing DLC story) and set up the potential world for a follow-up game. And, in one of those things, this game succeeds admirably, while the other item on that list sadly isn't as strong as it could be. Let's start with the positives—this DLC sets up some fantastic potential avenues for future games/downloadable content to go down. Particularly regarding developments for MJ and Yuri, I love where this story leaves them, and where we could go in the future with this characters. There's so many possible avenues that the production could take them down, so I'd love to see where it's going. There's so much promise from this ending, so I hope we get something to follow up on these threads and build upon them. I also love how the writers build upon the relationship between Spider-Man and Sable in this part as well, forcing the pair of them to work together to track down Hammerhead. However, I did mention that, while the set-up for future content was well handled, I felt the resolution of the City That Never Sleeps story strand wasn't entirely satisfactory. While probably the longest of the playable DLCs, I didn't feel like that play time was used to it's fullest, with an ending that failed to satisfactorily tie off the elements that were put into play in the previous two stories. The final boss battle with Hammerhead certainly was nowhere near the Mr Negative/Doctor Octopus boss battles from the main game. I would like to make it clear: The City That Never Sleeps is not a bad trilogy of DLCs. However, it's nowhere near as strong as the main game, and is, perhaps, the only really disappointing part of the game itself.

Overall Thoughts

Overall, however, the Spider-Man PS4 game is an absolutely stellar example of superhero games and even single-player, story-focused games. With a compelling story, some fantastic gameplay and high-quality graphics, music and vocal performances, Spider-Man stands as a clear example of video games at their very best. Cutting out the overblown, micro-transaction fulled multiplayer modes that have dragged a number of games into the mire over the years, this 'back-to-basics' approach feels new and reinvigorating. Sure, there are a couple of little issues with the game itself, and its DLC follow-up is simply unable to compete with the strength of the game. However, this game's faults are nothing compared to its strengths, and it's to this game's credit that it managed to refire my love for video games. Spider-Man is an absolute standout game, one that, I hope, sets a new benchmark for games to aspire to in the future.