Marvel's Spider-Man (PS4) Review

Spectacular.

 Like many others, I was huge fan of Spider-Man since I was a kid. I loved the live-action movies, fondly remember watching the animated series, even liked some of the less-than-stellar games. Spider-Man has always been an icon and will continue to be for me. Admittedly, when I first saw the trailers for Marvel's Spider-Man (Spider-Man, for short), spearheaded by the renowned Insomniac Games, I wasn't too thrilled. However, that feeling soon was forgotten after I got my hands on the game and so far, it stands as the best PS4 exclusive of the year.


 Insomniac's take on Spider-Man features an experienced Peter Parker whose fresh out of college and had been battling baddies as his alter ego, Spider-Man, for over the course of eight years. Things in New York City seen peaceful enough until an unknown group of terrorist calling themselves the "Demons" lead by the destructive Mister Negative, start terrorizing the city. Naturally, it's up to the famed webslinger to save the day, though not with the help of some of his friends.

 I have to say, the narrative is one of the strongest highlights of the game. Since it's not another origin story, we get to see Peter Parker already accustomed to juggling between his dual lives as a genius physicist and experienced crime fighter. It also paves the way for more focus on the characters around him for a change, who were all equally interesting. While I wish some would have benefited from more screen time, the story still managed to remain a captivating experience from beginning all the way to the emotional finale.

The story's both well-written and original.

 Spider-Man focuses is action-oriented by having you explore New York looking for criminals to beat down and apprehend. There are a few stealth elements included though my biggest gripes with them is that the game doesn't allow you to fully utilize them. For example, when you're stealthily picking out enemies in a hideout, the next batch of enemies arrive and mysterious manage to locate Spidey in an instant despite you being hidden. It gave off the impression that the game is holding you off of stealth and instead forces you to beat them up, which isn't a bad thing given that the combat itself is excellent, but nevertheless remained an issue that bugged me since I'm a fan of a more stealthy approach.

 In fights, Spidey has access to a range of gadgets to help him out against the coming waves of enemies. There's the standard web-shooters that sticks onto enemies, allowing you to lands a couple of hits on them while also introducing new gadgets such as trip mines, which stick your enemies to nearby thugs and objects, and sonic bursts, which sends your enemies flying off of platforms. Thanks to his Spidey senses, Spider-Man can also dodge coming attacks as well. My only griped with the combat itself is that it could have benefited from more enemy types as fighting the same one over again felt predictable and formulaic.

The gameplay manages to be faced-paced and 

more refined than previous Spidey outings.

 As you continue to build up combos, you also generate a "focus" meter, which favors skillful play over mindless button-mashing as you can use it to either pull instant finishers or slightly replenish health. Additionally, the game rewards you with experience in order to level u as you clear missions. Some of the bonuses you get when leveling up include skill points that grants new combat moves and improves Spidey's web slinging abilities. Furthermore, upon reaching certain levels, you get to unlock additional costumes for Spidey to wear ranging from popular suits to more obscure ones, though I found it baffling to learn that the iconic Symbiote suit has been strangely omitted. 

 Spider-Man features some neat fights with familiar villains, if you've keeping up with the trailers then you'll know what to expect. Fortunately, there are couple of surprise bosses thrown in the mix. The bosses follow a simple pattern to note down and though I felt some such as Tombstone's boss felt underwhelming but nevertheless, I found the end-game bosses to be the most and thrilling exciting out of the bunch. 

Featuring the coolest Spidey suit ever made.

 When you start exploring for the first time, it becomes clear that Insomniac has managed to craft a near-perfect depiction of New York City. While it's missing a couple of areas, the city itself is dense and a treat to explore thanks to the abundant amount of side-missions and collectables. It's not perfect as there are a few dull open-world designs seen in many AAA games such as the overdone control towers to activate and various enemy outposts to clear. I wasn't a fan of them back when they were introduced and still hold that stance today. They are tolerable the first few times, but manage to quickly become stale and much of a chore over time. As a result, it strips away some of the excitement I had in exploring the city's districts. In the end, I pulled through and finished all of them since the game rewards you with completion tokens that are required to craft some of the more interesting suits and gadgets.  

 It wouldn't be a proper Spider-Man review without mentioning the web swinging mechanics. His main method of traversal, Spider-Man can web swing through buildings by holding down the R2 button. Despite some slight delays, the mechanic itself was quick and first-timers can easily master the basics. Also, if you time your slinging correctly, you get a quick launch that will boost you to further distances. While you have the option fast-travel to set locations via the menu, I rarely did that since swinging around was smore fun that watching a brief loading screen.

New York's looking good.

 Spider-Man is a lengthy game that should take you around 20 hours to beat. If you're looking to 100% all of the districts, unlock all suits and gadgets, clear all side missions, and fully hunt down all of the hidden references scattered in the city, then that's another 10 hours of playtime. Replay-value is also high due to the snappy nature of the game and addictive gameplay. At times, I just found myself just casually swinging around the city and beating thugs for hours.

 Spider-Man is arguably among the year's best-looking games on the PS4 alongside the likes of God of War. What I liked the most were the meticulously handled character models and facial animations that gave off a sense of realism during the story scenes. While that can't be said for the regular NPCs, I'm still impressed with the amount of detail Insomniac have taken into account with the visuals. That sense of detail translated well into the game's open world as it's brimming with well-rendered buildings and impressive lighting at various points during the night. The voicework is commendable with terrific performances by many veteran voice actors. Though if you ask me, it's Yuri Lowenthal as Spider-Man that takes the cake due his excellent work in capturing the spirit of the cheeky humor Spidey's been known for. It doesn't stop there as the excellent soundtrack reaches the high levels of Marvel's live-action Avengers movies' soundtracks.

The presentation's high level of polish is impressive.

 Spider-Man has continued to surprise me in a huge way ever since I first controlled the webslinger. My initial thoughts of it going to play too much like the Batman Arkham games were quickly thrown off the window as it went above and beyond with the fun combat and web swinging. Couple that with an original story with great characters along with a polished presentation and the result is one of the best Spider-Man offerings we've seen in years. Despite some shortcomings, I've managed to still get invested in the overall adventure to the point where I fully 100% the game. If you've skipped through most of the review and looking for the TL;DR, then Spider-Man stands among the best superhero games ever made and personally, shoots top spot as the best PS4 exclusive of the year.