Playstation Insomniac's Spider-Man 2

[Sithborg]

Spoiler

They COULD kill Peter in 3, but I would much prefer they don't and it end on a happy note. I wouldn't be shocked if Peter is a father next game

Spoiler

I'm leaning toward them getting married in the next game. Although, depending on their plans, it is always possible that they are going to "kill" Peter. They do seem to like Slott's stuff, so Superior isn't completely out of the realm of possibility, sadly.

 

[The Joker]

My only complaint with this game is the story. The third act falls off completely for me. I pretty much have the same issues with the story and Venom as Michael Frost noted on the previous page.

I do agree with this.

Spoiler

The symbiote apocalypse on New York just felt like Devil's breath 2.0 with the city in chaos again and the symbiotes replacing the Raft inmates with their little bases around the city and random attacks. Except there wasn't any real build up to it like there was with Ock and Li.

 

[samsnee]

There’s way too many “follow someone” side stories. I just want to swing and hit bad guys

 

[Michael Frost]

Couple more general nitpicks that I felt were slightly wasted or could've been improved:

Spoiler

Mysterio being this game's Taskmaster missions is such a disservice to what could've been a fully fledged side quest. I was expecting him to be this game's Scorpion/Scarecrow part but instead we get more fight arenas with a twist. The boss battle was better and had a bit of that flair but man, how cool would it have been to have to actually guess what's real or not in a gameplay sequence. Maybe flooding the level with enemies/hazards and you need to rely on the Spider-Sense Dodge/Parry indications around Spidey's head in order to know when you're about to get punched by a real threat or an illusion.

Spoiler

Killing off previous villains in off-screen is a bit of a lame way to bump up Kraven's threat. I don't mind them commiting to murdering one of Spidey's rogues gallery for good but, man, did they wipe out A LOT. Shocker I'd have kept alive just for the sheer versatility of him as a D lister villain that you can pop in anywhere in a side-mission or DLC. At the very least, Screwball shoulda been part of the dead list just as a peace offering to us fans, haha.

Spoiler

I was a bit annoyed that the Focus meter takes so much to charge in this game. It felt an integral part of the last game to be able to chain together 2 or 3 finishers but this time around they were pretty rare even with all the perks maxed out. Which leads me to another complaint - we had to rebuy Spidey's and Miles' abilities from the last games and we actually LOST stuff. I miss mainly the gadgets like Web Impact and the trap web that would instaknockout an enemy.

Spoiler

Norman's progression was also a bit affected by a case of "too little too late" in terms of narrative development. He absolutely loves Harry and would die for him on this version of him but he suddenly pivots to blaming the Spider-men for Harry's problems while just a couple scenes before he was begging them to save Harry...
It's also funny that he always shows up at the worst times for Peter to try to pull off the whole secret identity thing, since he's always around when just pure destruction and mayhem happen at his Oscorp facilities. A simple character beat here that could've been emphasized was both Norman and Harry actually being devastated both financially and emotionally by the Foundation/other Oscorp sites being absolutely leveled to the ground and therefore posing a serious setback to them being able to find a cure, risk of going bankrupt, etc. - the amount of property damage in this game is INSANE and gave me Man of Steel vibes. Specially when you start the game with a Raimi-inspired version of Sandman that's just destroying half of New York in a casual manner.

 

[Sithborg]

https://www.sideshow.com/collectibles/marvel-venom-hot-toys-912829

Just because lol at the scale of Insomniac's Venom.

 

[TheWallCrawler]

I've looked at clips of swinging with assist set to zero, and though I love the concept, I'm a little bit underwhelmed by the execution. Right now the setting only effects physics when you're holding onto a web, not when you jump off the web, which is like 50% of swinging

Specifically I mean the ability to turn in the air. Realistically, if you jump forward, your jump arc will be locked forward. Provided you're not pushed by a massive gust of wind. So like in a Spider-man movie, control over your direction would depend entirely on which way you shoot the next web.

Now with all the new moves added in SM2 like the wingsuit, loop de loops and corner tethers that allow you all sorts of maneuverability, the unrealistic ability to turn in mid-air makes the traversal feel a bit too "soft" for my liking, with the added downside of looking artificial. Any takes?

 

[samsnee]

Couple more general nitpicks that I felt were slightly wasted or could've been improved:

Spoiler

Mysterio being this game's Taskmaster missions is such a disservice to what could've been a fully fledged side quest. I was expecting him to be this game's Scorpion/Scarecrow part but instead we get more fight arenas with a twist. The boss battle was better and had a bit of that flair but man, how cool would it have been to have to actually guess what's real or not in a gameplay sequence. Maybe flooding the level with enemies/hazards and you need to rely on the Spider-Sense Dodge/Parry indications around Spidey's head in order to know when you're about to get punched by a real threat or an illusion.

Spoiler

Killing off previous villains in off-screen is a bit of a lame way to bump up Kraven's threat. I don't mind them commiting to murdering one of Spidey's rogues gallery for good but, man, did they wipe out A LOT. Shocker I'd have kept alive just for the sheer versatility of him as a D lister villain that you can pop in anywhere in a side-mission or DLC. At the very least, Screwball shoulda been part of the dead list just as a peace offering to us fans, haha.

Spoiler

I was a bit annoyed that the Focus meter takes so much to charge in this game. It felt an integral part of the last game to be able to chain together 2 or 3 finishers but this time around they were pretty rare even with all the perks maxed out. Which leads me to another complaint - we had to rebuy Spidey's and Miles' abilities from the last games and we actually LOST stuff. I miss mainly the gadgets like Web Impact and the trap web that would instaknockout an enemy.

Spoiler

Norman's progression was also a bit affected by a case of "too little too late" in terms of narrative development. He absolutely loves Harry and would die for him on this version of him but he suddenly pivots to blaming the Spider-men for Harry's problems while just a couple scenes before he was begging them to save Harry...
It's also funny that he always shows up at the worst times for Peter to try to pull off the whole secret identity thing, since he's always around when just pure destruction and mayhem happen at his Oscorp facilities. A simple character beat here that could've been emphasized was both Norman and Harry actually being devastated both financially and emotionally by the Foundation/other Oscorp sites being absolutely leveled to the ground and therefore posing a serious setback to them being able to find a cure, risk of going bankrupt, etc. - the amount of property damage in this game is INSANE and gave me Man of Steel vibes. Specially when you start the game with a Raimi-inspired version of Sandman that's just destroying half of New York in a casual manner.

I keep trying to point launch after landing and it’s annoying me I can’t. But I do love flying

 

[Michael Frost]

I keep trying to point launch after landing and it’s annoying me I can’t. But I do love flying

Yeah it's annoying. You can unlock it on the Suit Tech tab, under Traversal.

 

[Drizzle]

Yup

Spoiler

I LOOVED the way they introduced Cletus in this game. Having him be part of a cult made him even scarier, imo. i also hope we get chameleon in the dlc too

Also, with the way the game ends

Spoiler

I'm just so excited to see the Goblin storyline be featured and of course the return of Doc Ock. I don't know about anybody else but I definitely think Peter is gonna end up dying in the 3rd game.

Spoiler

They COULD kill Peter in 3, but I would much prefer they don't and it end on a happy note. I wouldn't be shocked if Peter is a father next game

Spoiler

I'm leaning toward them getting married in the next game. Although, depending on their plans, it is always possible that they are going to "kill" Peter. They do seem to like Slott's stuff, so Superior isn't completely out of the realm of possibility, sadly.

Spoiler

I don't want Insomniac Peter to die but it's definitely a possibility given how many characters these games have killed off so far. The way I see it, if the Arkham games could get away with killing off the Joker and retiring Batman then these games can get away with killing Peter. It's happened in the comics, after all.

Spoiler

Killing off previous villains in off-screen is a bit of a lame way to bump up Kraven's threat. I don't mind them commiting to murdering one of Spidey's rogues gallery for good but, man, did they wipe out A LOT. Shocker I'd have kept alive just for the sheer versatility of him as a D lister villain that you can pop in anywhere in a side-mission or DLC. At the very least, Screwball shoulda been part of the dead list just as a peace offering to us fans, haha.

Spoiler

If Kraven had killed Screwball, I'd have refused to fight him out of principle and respect.

 

[Spider-Fan]

Spoiler

I don't want Insomniac Peter to die but it's definitely a possibility given how many characters these games have killed off so far. The way I see it, if the Arkham games could get away with killing off the Joker and retiring Batman then these games can get away with killing Peter. It's happened in the comics, after all.

Spoiler

If Kraven had killed Screwball, I'd have refused to fight him out of principle and respect.

Spoiler

I don't see it as being necessary. Miles is already a Spider-Man, and classicly Peter died to pass the torch to him. We are there already. I would rather see Peter end up just giving up the life and raising a family. Maybe we get a Spider-Girl DLC or sidequel out of that idea. I agree, Peter COULD die next time. But in principle I am against it. Just cause it's the last one doesn't mean ya gotta kill the hero

 

[Drizzle]

Spoiler

I don't see it as being necessary. Miles is already a Spider-Man, and classicly Peter died to pass the torch to him. We are there already. I would rather see Peter end up just giving up the life and raising a family. Maybe we get a Spider-Girl DLC or sidequel out of that idea. I agree, Peter COULD die next time. But in principle I am against it. Just cause it's the last one doesn't mean ya gotta kill the hero

Spoiler

Or instead of dying, he could suffer a serious injury that forces him into retirement from being Spider-Man. If I remember correctly, the original Spider-Girl run had him walking with a cane because he lost a leg. Something like that could happen here too. Devastating but not too bleak.

 

[Zantera]

Rolled credits on this last night before bed. Still got some side activities left to do - have not done all the Mysteriums or the Hunter bases, as well as some Spider-bots left to collect. Will probably wrap that up today hopefully. Here's some thoughts I'll put in Spoilers:

Positives

Spoiler

I liked the setup of Kraven coming to New York to hunt, it makes sense considering all the special powered characters there. Kraven has never been among the top of my Spidey villains but I thought they did him quite well and he felt like a force to be reckoned with. I liked that they had him kill off Scorpion on screen to show us that he was a real threat. I'll save the negatives for later. Great choice to have him unleash the Lizard and thought it worked well within the story, Peter losing himself to the symbiote chasing Dr Connors and his growing anger towards Kraven. I also liked the way Peter got the symbiote in the first place, it made sense.

Venom was obviously the big spotlight villain going into this and in terms of how he was portrayed I think they nailed it. I know the choice of having Harry as the host was controversial among fans but honestly I don't mind it because they set up his motivations well. There was maybe a minute where I thought maybe they had fooled us and would bring Eddie Brock into it, when Mary Jane first says her article wasn't selected and someone else "won" instead - I thought "are they gonna introduce Eddie Brock here?". But that quickly passed and it felt clear it would be Harry.

Loved the opening with Sandman and I loved that he felt like the Raimi Sandman - not necessarily a bad guy, just someone with powers.

Loved what they did with The Flame storyline and I just knew from the first appearance that the leader would be Cletus yet when that was revealed at the end, it still felt satisfying to me.

Really liked what they did with Martin Li, and I liked him and Miles teaming up. I like having a villain who feels remorse and isn't firmly cemented down the villain path permanently. Someone trying to make things better.

Negatives

Spoiler

A big bummer for me was Kraven killing off multiple of the first game's villains off screen. That feels both like a big waste of taking them off the board permanently but also not giving us any satisfying resolution with them. I liked that they killed off one on screen to raise the stakes, I'm fine with that one being Scorpion. But why kill Electro, Vulture and Shocker off screen? They should have made it so Kraven identified the strongest (in his opinion) of that group of villains, and when he killed that one easily there would be no point in his head to go after the others.

The final third or so of the game just felt too rushed for me. I would have liked for the game to calm down after Venom is introduced and escapes where everyone sort of collects themselves, I would have liked more interactions with Dr. Connors. There should have been another scene of going to him to gather more info on the symbiote and learn of ways to stop Harry. I was also shocked there wasn't a scene like that after Peter gets the Anti-Venom suit, where he would have consulted with Dr Connors if the new suit was actually "safe". The corruption of New York and the symbiotes taking over really should have been more of a slow evolution while we got another ~2 hours of plot building before it goes crazy. It went a bit too fast from Venom being unleashed to all of Manhattan being covered in symbiote goo and for me that was a bit disappointing.

Thoughts on the future

Spoiler

As expected we're now on track for Green Goblin being the big focus of SM3 and even though most of us expected that even after SM1, I think they have laid the foundations well for breaking down Norman over 2 games. It was also teased that Doc Ock might make a return and I would not be against that. It would be personal for Peter and he's such a great villain, and was only used for a small portion of the first game really. The more interesting thing will be how they clash because Otto and Norman clearly clash on a personal level so it's hard to imagine a team up.

Carnage was set up really well IMO, the big question will be if that's the DLC or if he is saved for SM3. I have a feeling Chameleon will return for SM3, he could probably be a good side villain for like the Taskmaster type activities. Someone who isn't a key villain in the main story but is an annoyance on the side.

There's a lot of villains off the board though - either dead or back to their 'human' selves - like Lizard, Sandman or Li. But we still got some big players floating about, Green Goblin and Doc Ock are arguably the 2 biggest Spidey villains and both could be key players in SM3. We still don't know if Carnage will be saved for SM3 or used in the DLC, but that's a big one too. Add to that Chameleon and you have a solid foundation. I guess Kingpin and Rhino are still alive? Could also maybe see someone like Beetle or Jackal, or even Hydro-Man? They seem to have a good feeling for what villains to bring in and how to use them.

 

[blueharvest]

 

[BatsAndNights]

The Lando Norris one actually looks pretty clean

Other than the race helmet

why?

 

[Drizzle]

I finished the game 100% last night. I may or may not try to go for Platinum but I didn't do it for the previous two games so it's not a vital thing for me. I still have to finish up buying all the suit color mods for Peter and Miles but besides that, I'm waiting on the update where we can replay missions. I'm dying to play the

Spoiler

Venom escaping Oscorp

mission again.

Since it's been a few more days and I've had time to think on it, here's what I liked about the game:

Spoiler

It didn't pack quite as big an emotional punch as the first game did for me (well, except for that Howard side mission ) but I thought Insomniac hit it out of the park again with this one.

I really liked where the story took Peter and Miles. I never found myself missing playing as the other character because they did a really great job balancing the two in the story.

While I prefer the more traditional Eddie Brock Venom I liked him a lot in this game, especially the part where you get to play as him. I'm hoping that means he'll be the one to have his own spinoff game to bridge the gap between 2 and 3. Kraven was awesome, . Sandman was cool even if it was more than a little derivative of Spider-Man 3. I also liked Mysterio. I'd have preferred him as more of a larger threat than a side mission boss but I really dug his boss battle.

The traversal in this is just *chef's kiss*. Never once while playing the first game or Miles Morales did I ever wish for web wings but now I don't know how we managed without them.

The MJ missions were more fun this time around, and I say that as someone who didn't mind them in the first game.

Basically MJ missions between games went from this:

To this:

And some stuff that needed improvement:

Spoiler

The third act, while still a blast, felt a bit rushed. There is a significantly large chunk of the game where there are no boss fights basically from Sandman in the beginning until Lizard towards the end of the second act, then the third act starts and bam-bam-bam it's one boss fight after another from Lizard to Mr. Negative to Kraven to Peter to Kraven again to Scream and then Venom. It was all fun but the boss fights could have been spaced out a bit. Maybe a first fight against Kraven earlier in the game or a 1v1 boss fight with Scorpion before he got killed. Speaking of which, I wasn't a fan of most of the first game's villains being killed off but if they mean to end the series after 3 (or at least Peter's part in the story) then I guess it's an easier pill to swallow. I wouldn't have minded another Electro or Vulture boss fight at some point but if the third game is strictly Goblin(s) and Ock then I'm fine with that too.

I wasn't a fan of losing most of the gadgets from the first game. I get that each game has its own identity, etc. and the symbiote powers are a substitute for that but overall it was an obvious step down from the last game in that department. On that note having to wait until the meter was full to heal is a slight against it too but that also became less relevant the more you upgrade the health bar.

I know there have been some complaints on Reddit about how Insomniac didn't bring back all of the suits from the first game. I kind of lucked out there because I always gravitated more towards the movie suits anyway and those were all ported over except for the ITSV Peter B. Parker suit for some reason, although I'll take Spider-Man Noir as a consolation for now. So my hope is that they keep bringing back more of the suits from the first game but specifically I'd like to see more Spider-Verse suits: Peter B., Sweatpants Peter B., Peter B. with Mayday (like how Miles has the suit with Spider-Man the cat), Miguel, Hobie, and Pavitr Prabhakar. While they're at it they can also throw in the Tobey Wrestling outfit from Spider-Man and the proto-outfit from TASM1.

All in all it felt shorter than the first one but I'll definitely be replaying it multiple times as I have with the first game and Miles Morales. I definitely think they should wrap up this main storyline in 3 but there's definitely room for plenty of spinoffs featuring different Spider-People in this series.

 

[Gothamsknight]

Can't wait for New Game+!

 

[Spider-Fan]

My play time on 1st game was 51 hrs, but with the DLC. This one I had 35 hours. Got Platinum on both games. So I think theyre similar length. Miles I didn't Platinum and did 16hrs

 

[Gothamsknight]

My play time on this one, with the platinum, is 20 hours apparently. I could've sworn it was longer than that.

 

[Drizzle]

I got to 100% after 26 hours. Definitely didn't feel that long but I did play all day Saturday.

 

[Ninjablade]

I got Platinum in 31 hours, but I also invested a lot of time in exploration and messing around in photo mode.

 

[Spider-Fan]

My time is probably slightly elevated cause I had to pause on occasion for kids stuff, which added to my time. But that happened first game too, so it's a wash

 

[darthcoolness3]

Rolled credits on this last night before bed. Still got some side activities left to do - have not done all the Mysteriums or the Hunter bases, as well as some Spider-bots left to collect. Will probably wrap that up today hopefully. Here's some thoughts I'll put in Spoilers:

Positives

Spoiler

I liked the setup of Kraven coming to New York to hunt, it makes sense considering all the special powered characters there. Kraven has never been among the top of my Spidey villains but I thought they did him quite well and he felt like a force to be reckoned with. I liked that they had him kill off Scorpion on screen to show us that he was a real threat. I'll save the negatives for later. Great choice to have him unleash the Lizard and thought it worked well within the story, Peter losing himself to the symbiote chasing Dr Connors and his growing anger towards Kraven. I also liked the way Peter got the symbiote in the first place, it made sense.

Venom was obviously the big spotlight villain going into this and in terms of how he was portrayed I think they nailed it. I know the choice of having Harry as the host was controversial among fans but honestly I don't mind it because they set up his motivations well. There was maybe a minute where I thought maybe they had fooled us and would bring Eddie Brock into it, when Mary Jane first says her article wasn't selected and someone else "won" instead - I thought "are they gonna introduce Eddie Brock here?". But that quickly passed and it felt clear it would be Harry.

Loved the opening with Sandman and I loved that he felt like the Raimi Sandman - not necessarily a bad guy, just someone with powers.

Loved what they did with The Flame storyline and I just knew from the first appearance that the leader would be Cletus yet when that was revealed at the end, it still felt satisfying to me.

Really liked what they did with Martin Li, and I liked him and Miles teaming up. I like having a villain who feels remorse and isn't firmly cemented down the villain path permanently. Someone trying to make things better.

Negatives

Spoiler

A big bummer for me was Kraven killing off multiple of the first game's villains off screen. That feels both like a big waste of taking them off the board permanently but also not giving us any satisfying resolution with them. I liked that they killed off one on screen to raise the stakes, I'm fine with that one being Scorpion. But why kill Electro, Vulture and Shocker off screen? They should have made it so Kraven identified the strongest (in his opinion) of that group of villains, and when he killed that one easily there would be no point in his head to go after the others.

The final third or so of the game just felt too rushed for me. I would have liked for the game to calm down after Venom is introduced and escapes where everyone sort of collects themselves, I would have liked more interactions with Dr. Connors. There should have been another scene of going to him to gather more info on the symbiote and learn of ways to stop Harry. I was also shocked there wasn't a scene like that after Peter gets the Anti-Venom suit, where he would have consulted with Dr Connors if the new suit was actually "safe". The corruption of New York and the symbiotes taking over really should have been more of a slow evolution while we got another ~2 hours of plot building before it goes crazy. It went a bit too fast from Venom being unleashed to all of Manhattan being covered in symbiote goo and for me that was a bit disappointing.

Thoughts on the future

Spoiler

As expected we're now on track for Green Goblin being the big focus of SM3 and even though most of us expected that even after SM1, I think they have laid the foundations well for breaking down Norman over 2 games. It was also teased that Doc Ock might make a return and I would not be against that. It would be personal for Peter and he's such a great villain, and was only used for a small portion of the first game really. The more interesting thing will be how they clash because Otto and Norman clearly clash on a personal level so it's hard to imagine a team up.

Carnage was set up really well IMO, the big question will be if that's the DLC or if he is saved for SM3. I have a feeling Chameleon will return for SM3, he could probably be a good side villain for like the Taskmaster type activities. Someone who isn't a key villain in the main story but is an annoyance on the side.

There's a lot of villains off the board though - either dead or back to their 'human' selves - like Lizard, Sandman or Li. But we still got some big players floating about, Green Goblin and Doc Ock are arguably the 2 biggest Spidey villains and both could be key players in SM3. We still don't know if Carnage will be saved for SM3 or used in the DLC, but that's a big one too. Add to that Chameleon and you have a solid foundation. I guess Kingpin and Rhino are still alive? Could also maybe see someone like Beetle or Jackal, or even Hydro-Man? They seem to have a good feeling for what villains to bring in and how to use them.

Spoiler

for SM3, they are probably going to introduce new villains, since they killed off 90% Spider-Man's villain gallery from the comics/first game with Kraven

 

[Spider-Fan]

Spoiler

for SM3, they are probably going to introduce new villains, since they killed off 90% Spider-Man's villain gallery from the comics/first game with Kraven

Spoiler

Exaggerating a bit hard, but even if that ratio were true, wouldn't we want new villains next game anyway? I know I would rather fight new bosses

 

[Sithborg]

Spoiler

There are enough villains that refilling out the Sinister 6 isn't a problem

 

[Drizzle]

Spoiler

Exaggerating a bit hard, but even if that ratio were true, wouldn't we want new villains next game anyway? I know I would rather fight new bosses

Spoiler

I'd have liked maybe one or two more small boss fights with certain villains like Scorpion, Electro or Shocker since we really didn't see much of them in the first game but I'd rather they keep it simple with Goblin(s) and Ock in game 3 for the most part anyway.

Related note, apparently there were plans to have Rhino killed in this one too.

Spider-Man 2 Player Goes Out of Bounds, Discovers a Grisly Fate for Poor Rhino - IGN

Spider-Man 2 features a number of familiar Spider-Man supervillains, but there’s one conspicuous by his absence: Rhino.

www.ign.com

I'm guessing they might have changed their mind so as to not kill off too many of the villains but to me Rhino would have been the first one on Kraven's list for just being a hulking behemoth in a rhino suit. We also already fought him in two games so I don't think he'd be missed. At the very least he makes more sense to be one of Kraven's victims than a ****ing 80-year-old cancer-ridden Vulture.

Spoiler

There are enough villains that refilling out the Sinister 6 isn't a problem

Spoiler

I'd rather them not attempt a Sinister Six again but it would be kind of hilarious if they did with the remaining big villains they have left. To name a few, Ock would just end up betraying Goblin and Carnage would probably rather just kill everyone.