![]() The R2 trigger on the controller is basically your ‘Go’ button. There have been endless amounts of trailers, demos, and promotional materials to tell you that the gameplay in Marvel’s Spider-Man is excellent. If it looks like I’ve been banging on about the story for four paragraphs without mentioning gameplay, it’s because I really don’t know what to say about it. I really hope the team at Insomniac Games are proud of themselves. It culminates in what will undoubtedly go down as one of the best Spider-Man stories of all time. But like the best Spider-Man stories, it has our main characters dealing with the unforeseen consequences of a few people with great power, trying to do the right thing. I don’t want to spoil too much of what ends up being a surprisingly nuanced and somewhat heart-wrenching tale. With the Kingpin gone, a power-vacuum has formed in New York’s crime world and a new gang of masked criminals known as the “Demons” are rushing to capitalise on it. The opening mission is bombastic and exciting, full of one epic set-piece after another and culminating in a bone-crunching boss fight against Fisk himself, but its best part is the story it sets up. ![]() Spider-Man’s opening hero shot of the the game is accompanied by a punk rock ballad from 2016 and again, if that’s not the most quintessentially Spider-Man thing of all time, I don’t know what is. ![]() In this Spider-Man game, the very first major moment is underscored neither with any of the hero’s classic themes, nor with the excellent new one composed by John Paesano (Daredevil, The Defenders). Let’s stop and talk about this for a second. The second most immediately beautiful part of the game shows itself soon after the opening scene where Peter, choosing to put aside his rent to take down Fisk, jumps out his window and you’re immediately given control of him, soaring through the Manhattan skyline as “Alive” by Warbly Jets plays in the background. If that’s not the most quintessentially Spider-Man thing of all time, I don’t know what is. In the very first scene, Peter has a dilemma between not getting evicted and taking down one of his worst enemies. At the same moment, a note slides under his door informing him of his overdue rent. ![]() This is made clear to you in the game’s opening moments, kicking off early morning in Peter Parker’s apartment as our hero wakes up to his police scanner informing him of a raid on his eight-year nemesis, Wilson Fisk. None of the shows and none of the films - even though a lot of them have been great - have understood the character as deeply, and portrayed him as honestly as it’s done in this game. The best thing I can say about Marvel’s Spider-Man is that it ‘gets’ Spider-Man in a way I haven’t seen before. It is that kind of story that the team at Insomniac Games have told within their magnum opus, Marvel’s Spider-Man. Guerilla Games with Horizon Zero Dawn, Santa Monica Studios with God of War, Naughty Dog with The Last of Us are all studios who have delivered amazing stories in ways nobody expected of them. All of their first-party developers have been stretching their narrative muscles in ways they haven’t been known to, before. In the last few years, I’ve noticed an on-going trend within Sony’s Worldwide Studios.
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