Marvel's Spider-Man

Ever since 2009’s Batman Arkham Asylum, the genre of open-world superhero games has sort of been broken down into a checklist of ideas. A similar combat system as the Arkham games, jamming in as many side characters as possible, and filling the map with collectibles to keep the player invested beyond the main story, are some of the main staples of these games. 2018’s Marvel’s Spider-Man (hereby known as just Spider-Man) uses that same outline but fills in the gaps with some intelligent and unique takes on the genre.

I’ll start with the small things before I get to the big things that bring the game together in a spectacular way. For starters, the collectibles on the map aren’t just there for achievement. In this game, they provide different tokens that can be used for various suits and upgrades. Whether it be stopping crimes in progress, stopping various forms of pollution, or just seeing the sights of the game’s facsimile of Manhattan, each activity will provide you with a token, and each upgrade and suit requires different tokens. I can go both ways on this as it could mean you spend hours grinding away on an activity you don’t like, just to get the suit you want, but it does make every side activity feel important and necessary which is always better than them just kind of being there for no reason. The second thing I want to touch on is the J. Jonah Jameson podcast. I don’t read comic books or watch many superhero movies, so I have no idea who most of the characters in this game are, but making Jameson a Rush Limbaugh/Alex Jones type character makes him instantly memorable and rather entertaining throughout the game. There were many moments where I would remain perched on a rooftop after a mission just so I could listen to what Jameson would be saying about it. The last thing I want to bring up is the game’s fake Twitter feed. There is too much there to go into any particular details, but it will suffice to say that the citizens of New York have a lot to say about Spider-Man, and a whole lot more to say about many other things. To be honest, if there’s one thing that these last two small details demonstrate, it’s that being a superhero is the toughest and most thankless job there is. There are a few other small details that I would like to point out, but they're not important enough to go into more detail about. The way the game uses its day/night cycle and weather to accompany the narrative beats is a good way to add a little more emotion to each event, and the way the music swells during traversal furthers the exhilaration of jumping off a tall building. This is also literally the only game I’ve ever played that just straight up allows you to just skip puzzles if you don’t want to do them. With as well as this game hits the minor details, there are some major things that this game nails that make it a fantastic game.

Obviously, anybody who has ever heard of Spider-Man knows that he uses webs to get from place to place. It would figure that a Spider-Man game would feature a whole bunch of slinging around, but I was not prepared for just how good the traversal felt. In the beginning, the simple act of swinging around New York is a joy, but as you keep progressing and unlocking upgrades, it only gets better. It feels exactly how you would think a Spider-Man game should feel. I was so enamored with the traversal mechanics that even if an objective was on the other side of the map, I would still take the long route instead of using the fast travel. Beyond just the traversal, the game also nails the combat. Not only does it feature the usual Batman Arkham combat, but it makes a ton of smart additions that fit Spider-Man wonderfully. On top of a bunch of web-based attacks and techniques, it also manages to perfectly implement Spidey Sense as the counter system. Among all the instances of punching bad guys in the face, are some okay stealth sequences that at the very least mix things up a bit. With this game being made from the mold of the Arkham games, it’s no surprise that it feels good to play. That being said, there is one surprise I didn’t see coming with this game until I was halfway done with it.

When it comes to both superhero movies and video games, stories usually range from god-awful to okay, with your occasional amazing stories peppered in there. This being a video game about a superhero, things could have gone downhill in a hurry. But the story maintains a reasonable quality for the first half, before jumping into high gear for the last half. Every part of this story, from the interpersonal relationships between Peter Parker and those around him to the overarching mega bad guy puts the city in danger trope, is surprisingly well written and it kept me going even when I thought I had my fill of stopping street crimes. I’m not going to say it was anything groundbreaking, but given my expectations, I was pleasantly surprised with how much I enjoyed the narrative of this particular superhero video game.

One last thing I want to say about this game is how it represents the city of New York itself and Spider-Man's role in the city. In this fantastic piece about Batman: Arkham Knight's version of Gotham loses so much by being devoid of the citizens, Austin Walker further explores the relationships superheroes have with their respective cities and the people therein. In short, he makes a great point that Arkham Knight lost something by having all of the citizens evacuated. In Spider-man, you spend your time slinging around a fully alive city, and just the simple fact that there are civilians present immediately adds a sense of urgency to any given situation and ups the stakes of not fulfilling your duties as a crime-stopper. There were multiple times throughout the game where I was headed to a mission marker, only to reverse course to help put an end to a robbery or a gigantic shoot out. There is something about having actual citizens to protect and having them make reference to all of your actions that elevates this game above any other superhero game that I've played before it.

There’s not much else to say about this game. I really enjoyed the act of playing it, and the story was surprisingly good for what I had expected. Due to it coming out years after the Batman games, this game may not be looked upon as fondly as those, but I feel that this game is the best superhero game that I’ve ever played. Had I played it in 2018, it would have been a top 5 game for sure, but playing it in 2019 has at least given me a front runner for 2019’s Non-2019 Game of the Year, so at least I can give it that recognition when I get the chance. Thanks for reading.