Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 review: The best superhero game I’ve ever played
Spider-Man is about balance. Right back to the earliest days of the Ditko and Lee comics, this has always been the case. Your friendly neighbourhood arachnid has always struggled to find the balance between his personal life, his duty as Spider-Man, the weight of his community, his power, and – as you might remember – his responsibility.
Whether it’s Maguire, Garfield, or Holland, the movies have always walked this tightrope, too, and in his Amazing, Ultimate, Superior or whatever-other-adjective runs in the comics, Spider-Man has had to interrogate the balance of his life for over 60 years. You wouldn’t think there’d be anything left that could surprise you, that could show the tension in Peter Parker’s life in a truly new and effective way. But, with deft, artisanal ease, Insomniac has made it look easy – delivering one of the best Spider-Man stories I’ve ever seen.
Going into Marvel’s Spider-Man 2, the developer made NYC its oyster, introducing Mile Morales as Peter’s ward, and establishing the universe and setting with aplomb over 1.5 previous games. And what a sublime use of that potential Spider-Man 2 is. From the off, in an introductory mission that shows off the scale and power of what the PS5 is capable off, the game astounds. And if you think one villain tearing through downtown NYC is as big as it gets here, wait until you play the next 20 hours. Setpieces just seem to get bigger, better, deeper, wider, prettier, more spectacular.