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Marvel's Spider-Man 2: One Year Later

Oct 20, 2024

44 min read

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It's been one year since Insomniac’s Spider-Man 2 was released. As a massive fan of its predecessor, this game was my most anticipated title of 2023. I watched the Game Awards presentation over and over again, marveling at the sinewy surface of the Symbiote suit, bristling at Yuri Lowenthal’s gnarly voice for Peter, and worrying for the young Miles Morales as he found himself in the middle of this deadly new retelling of the alien suit saga. The opening hours had me hooked; the gameplay was smoother than ever and the story was barreling me over with emotional revelations and “they went there” moments. I finished the game with a mostly positive takeaway, but as time’s gone on, the magic’s worn off. A year’s gone by, and my feelings about the game are much different than they were.  


Going back into the game again, my main objective was to diagnose exactly what made me feel this way. While replaying, I did pick up smaller details I missed the first time around, like different musical cues, combat techniques, and how good (and lazy) the level design can be. This is a game I’m deeply conflicted about, as most of its aspects are serviceable, sometimes even brilliant, others seem to fail in breaking through a self-imposed ceiling to become something…greater. 


What the game has going for it is its transversal and combat. Insomniac’s fluid Web-swinging system is further bolstered by the web-wings, which allow the player to glide at increased velocities. You can also catapult yourself from any perch in the open-world. In combat, the Spider-Men (seriously, why wasn’t this game called Spider-Men?) feel distinct from one another, with different abilities and animations. Miles is most fun to fight as, since his expressive animations beautifully dovetail into one another, but Peter’s new Symbiote abilities make the player feel the addictiveness of its otherworldly power. The flaws lie more in what Insomniac didn’t do. 


Peter feels weaker in battle, but it's never reflected in the actual story. There’s a lot of rich subtext in an aging Peter falling short in combat to his younger counterpart that could be expressed in gameplay and story that…simply isn’t. If Peter had to rely on gadgets and his webs while Miles exclusively uses his bioelectricity powers, that would reinforce Peter’s need for the Symbiote later on, but sadly, there’s no such dimension added by Peter’s relative weakness in battle. Both Spider-Men share the same pool of gadgets and interact with them nearly identically. I know some players found the gadgets in the first game to be overpowered, but I found them to be a fun addition. 


Another “correction” from the first game I feel this one suffers from is the removal of suit powers. Now, the Miles Morales game also didn’t feature suit powers, but this choice made sense in that context. Why overshadow Miles’ own powers by adding all these other, random ones? But in Spider-Man 2, where combat is in desperate need of a shot in the arm, getting some weird tools to tinker around with would be a godsend. Quite honestly, the loss of the arcade-feel to the combat is a travesty. The first game had replayable enemy bases that I’d frequently go back to just to employ self-imposed challenges. It was thrilling to get run through the whole Demon base without taking a hit or dropping a combo, using every gadget and suit power at my disposal. Thanks to a lack of replayability in general, as well as shallower combat, there’s no such opportunity here.


What I can say for the combat here is that the addition of the parry mechanic is a net positive. It gives the player a defensive option besides dodging or running away. The reward for a successful parry, a few messy hits of added damage, is weak and easily wasted, but it's better than nothing. Enemy variety is never much of a problem until the endgame, where you’re mostly fighting color-coded Symbiotes. You’ll still encounter Hunters, members of the Flame, and regular old thugs. Symbiotes are the most engaging to fight since they take the most damage (too much, frankly), but the Hunters are my favorite faction. Yanking their weapons away or turning their own gas bombs on them is always fun. Their airborne electro-net even gives them the chance to take Spidey’s air superiority away.


On my first playthrough, I actually had a really tough time. I found the enemies numerous and difficult. Every encounter was an adrenaline-pumping thrill ride that hit home how dangerous the antagonists were, how high the stakes were raised…then I realized I never upgraded my damage and health. Once I did that, suddenly, there wasn’t much challenge left to combat. 


The last thing to mention would be MJ's gameplay segments, which are much improved from the first game with the simple act of giving her a gun. These srgemnts will never be as fun as playing as either Spider-Man, but they are at least engaging stealth encounters that you can't simply sleepwalk through. In the last laster MJ segments, she has a web attatchment to her taser that allows her to do more things. Unlike the first game, I didn't dread playing as MJ so good job, Insomniac.


Oh, the stealth. When playing as a Spider-Man, stealth is hardly a factor. The game literally tells you when its safe to take down an enemy and when its not, so you will never have to really make a plan of attack or creatively use a gadget to get through an encounter. A total waste, honestly. WhiteLight, Australian video essayist, commented on this by saying that Insomniac can't commit to "disempowered gameplay," which I 100% agree with. They can't ever let the player feel weak in any meaningful way. Is this to fulfill the superhero fantasy? Or just sheer insecurity at their own game design? Interestingly, there's the bones of a survival horror game in MJ's segments as well as the slower, more exploratory segments with the Spideys, but since the game is an action battler at its core, it never gets to really express itself in the mode, which is a total shame. There was potential for the gameplay and story to come together to portray a crime thriller turned sci-fi invasion with true horror, but it just never came to be.


Anyway, that's all I've got on the gameplay.I think it's serviceable for the game’s runtime, but not deep enough to keep someone coming back. That’s what the web-swinging is for. Insomniac’s traversal is at its best here. I love reaching blistering velocities, nailing chains of air tricks, and nabbing photo mode opportunities. Insomniac’s New York still isn’t anything special, but getting to swing around Brooklyn and Queens is a treat, just for the novelty. 


Side activities are vast and varied. Some are middling, like chasing drones, taking photos of New Yorkers, or collecting little Spider-Bots around the city. The more worthwhile ones are the combat related activities like the Mysteriums, little combat trials run by Mysterio, each one building up an interesting story of redemption and trust regarding the classic Spidey villain. The best side mission is a story-based one called “The Flame,” in which Peter reunites with his old friend Yuri, an ex-cop who’s now a vigilante called Wraith. Their history and chemistry are what carries these pretty generic missions. It's a classic tale of one hero saying “we should kill our villains” and another saying “no, heroes don’t do that!” In the end, they reach no real conclusion, but their back-and-forth was worth a subpar ending. 


The world is bigger, but none deeper. Despite having more activities to partake in, Insomniac’s New York (which I’ll get to later in the story section), just lacks a concrete identity. Well, it has an identity, just not one that isn’t weak as hell. You snap a photo of two New Yorkers throwing around a frisbee and Robbie Robertson writes a soliloquy about it because that’s what New Yorkers do, right? Talk about how great New York is all the time? I’m from New Jersey, so I love mocking New Yorkers, but this is just a bad impression. Insomniac tries and fails to say anything meaningful about New York or living in it. Miles’ mission with the museum proves it. I like that Miles has the opportunity to connect with his family and heritage by collecting these parts of Black music history, but it just feels like more plastic Insomniac performance. As a pasty white person myself, I could be speaking out of turn, but it didn’t land for me. Most of Insomniac’s attempts to praise the glory of NYC do not land for me. 


Now, onto the big stuff: the story. There’s a lot of moving parts, so I feel like a recap is in order. Classic Spidey villain Kraven the Hunter debuts in the Insomniac universe by storming New York City and hunting every superpowered individual, hero or villain, for sport. This coincides with Peter’s childhood best friend, Harry Osborn, returning from a prolonged disease treatment, an experimental process in which he bonded with the famous black wad of gum known as Venom. Oh, and while this is happening, Miles Morales is struggling to write his 500 word college essay. Sorry, that's only a slight embellishment. He’s also struggling with the fact that Mister Negative, the villain who murdered his father, has been broken out of prison by Kraven.


Beginning with positives, what the story does exceptionally well is give clear, contextualized reasons for the events of the game in the opening hours. It's clear why the families of Peter and Miles are in danger, why their rogues gallery are involved, and, most importantly, why Peter feels he needs the strength of the Symbiote. One of my favorites is a mission in which Peter asks Miles to check on his old flame Felicia Hardy, AKA Black Cat, as she’s a target of Kraven’s. What ensues is a Batman Arkham-style crime scene investigation that rolls into a stealth combat encounter outside of Dr. Strange’s house, the Sanctum Sanctorum. Afterwards, Miles has to chase Felicia as she uses the Wand of Watoomb to make portals that shoot buses and cars at you, transports you into office buildings and even the arctic, until you team up with her to fight waves of Kraven’s Hunters. The game is at its best when the fat is trimmed and the player can go full tilt into bombastic superhero antics. 


The stakes are high, and you can feel it. Each combat encounter in the story has weight. The Coney Island mission, another one of my favorites, really shows the severity of the situation. Combat spills over into not just Peter and MJ’s life, but into the lives of civilians. It felt like nowhere was safe, an electrifying feeling in a story with this much potential. 


In effect, the game separates itself into three distinct parts: Act I makes all the introductions, Act II is the black suit saga, and Act III goes full Symbiote invasion. Make no mistake; the game doesn’t actually follow a three act structure. If it did, “Act I” wouldn’t drag on so long, wasting time with introducing side activities and lethargic flashback sequences, and Peter wouldn’t have gotten the black suit in the first two hours of the game. Instead, these “Acts” are merely three distinct sections of the overall story. The consequence of this is a disjointed plot that never has the time to develop one aspect of itself because it's juggling two others.


Despite Act I being the weakest, the following Acts are able to somehow execute well on most of the emotional beats that it set up. The game improves as it goes on, getting bolder as it introduces tougher enemies, more chaotic set pieces, and more fraught emotional conflicts. Insomniac is really trying, and most of the time, they succeed, but it's really like 60%. The other 40% lies in their aforementioned authenticity problem. They want their New York to feel like its own character, but having a couple annoying podcasts play as Spidey swings around is not enough. Even a mission where you help civilians feel hollow because this doesn’t feel like Marvel’s New York; it doesn’t feel like anything. 


The only character that they truly understand is Peter, as shown by his excellent characterization in the first game, but their Miles pales in comparison to his comic book counterpart and especially the Spider-Verse version. Thankfully, he’s much better here than in his own game, as he finally comes into his own by story’s end. Mary Jane Watson is Insomniac’s truest failure. Their version has none of her classic fire or wit. She’s not even an actress, she’s a journalist for some reason, making her feel more like a budget Lois Lane than MJ. Again, despite this, seeing MJ, Peter and Miles band together to take down Venom actually landed. These three actually have chemistry as a team, but it takes nearly the entire game to get there. 


Fundamentally, the game doesn’t know where its strengths lie. Act I is too long, Act II is too rushed, but Act III is just right, but it's harmed by how poorly the previous acts set up Venom. I’m not a huge Venom fan, so you won’t find me complaining about how well he was adapted, only how poorly he was implemented. There’s a fantastic mission in which you can play as Venom, feel the power and brutality in his attack and stature, and it's one of the best in the game. Insomniac’s Venom being a purely evil creature feature monster is totally cool with me, I love how scary he is here, but it robs Peter and Harry of their agency as it's explicitly stated that they are not responsible for their actions while bonded to the goo.

Actually, Oedipus made all those mistakes because he had a black goo parasite on him the whole time! 


Let’s talk about Harry and Peter for a sec. I was giddy when Harry showed up. He was alluded to in the first game and seeing him in that green tank, Venom bonded to him, raised so many interesting questions. I like everything about him up until Peter gets the Symbiote. He and Peter don’t have electricity chemistry or anything, but the smaller moments of characterization work. The mission in which Pete and Harry go superheroing together is a highlight. Moments like those, where the story had locomotive momentum, are the best in the entire narrative. These moments possess real stakes and danger, but are also thrilling and jubilant to play, capturing the essence of what it means to be Spider-Man. Harry’s stock rises just for showing up for some of the best missions of the game, like the Tombstone rescue, Coney Island, and the fight against Kraven at the zoo (which is in New Jersey). 


Where Harry fails is in the fact that he’s absolutely rizzless. Before the Symbiote is taken from him, he’s got nothing interesting going on as a character, only that he’s here to begin with. He and Pete do that thing where they go “Hey, remember that time when XYZ?” and then they just laugh at a totally uninteresting, irrelevant memory. What I would have loved more of are sequences like that at Coney Island, where Pete, MJ, and Harry are all together and interacting. Harry and MJ, despite being best friends, don’t have any interesting interactions. By the end of “Act II” they have the same goal of getting the Symbiote off of Peter, but they don’t work together to do so, even though they’re friends and MJ would definitely try to help Harry, even though he’s become kind of an asshole by then. Harry was one of my most anticipated parts of this game, but by the end, he’s a huge disappointment. His transformation into Venom characterizes him in some interesting ways, but by then, it's too little, too late. 


Despite all of my criticism for the story, the ending still got me. The final boss against Venom is heart-pounding-ly intense and Harry’s demise is tragic. Getting to see Miles, MJ, and Pete come together to fend off the Symbiote invasion was great. “Act III” is surprisingly solid, delivering some great missions and story beats that feel like they get the story back on tracks after the detour that was “Act II.” If it feels like I’ve neglected Miles, it's because that game has as well. The best Miles stuff comes from his interactions with Mr. Negative and how he plays a part in his redemption. Their relationship is the one mature thing this game possesses. Miles doesn’t just forgive Matin Li for killing his father and all those other innocent people in the first game, but does come to respect Li for his hardships and commitment to do better. Putting this shoulder to shoulder with Peter's journey with the black suit isn’t a bad idea, (themes and all that), but it reduces Miles’ story to one about reckoning with the choices of others, not about any that he's made himself. 


At the end of the story, Peter half-heartedly retires and Miles, in his new ugly costume, is New York’s #1 Spidey. Since Insomniac confirmed there will be no story DLC post-launch, all we have left to do in the endgame is any uncompleted side quests. Unfortunately, the endgame suffers more than any other part of the game from bugs and glitches. Fundamentally, this game is unfinished. Insomniac clearly needed more time to cook but the money people shoved their incomplete game out the door. As it stands, there’s no way to replay any combat encounters outside of Mysteriums as Miles or any already completed side activity. That’s a huge bummer considering how the combat kept me coming back to the first game. Random crimes are the only real endgame activity to pursue besides New Game Plus. 


I’ve been largely negative throughout this retrospective, but there are plenty of things I like about this game and one of them is the costume selection. I like the balance between classic inclusions, Insomniac originals, and new suits from the comics and movies that have never been in games before. I particularly like Miles’ 20th anniversary suit as well as the matching Hellfire Gala outfits for the boys. The Symbiote suits are also a nice touch. Being able to swing around in the classic black suit, or purple if you’re nasty (I’m nasty), is a dream come true. While I never really use the movie costumes, the black Raimi suit looks amazing, and I always appreciate how well the Spider-Verse suits translate into these games. 


Before we wrap things up, I’d like to let you know that my exhaustive notes, mission by mission, will be attached below. I didn’t replay everything for this mino-retrospective, just the main story and some side-activities that I was interested in or remembered fondly. If you want to know my thoughts about any specific story moment, it’ll probably be that section of exhaustive notes. It captures my gut-reactions of my second playthough.  


In the end, Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 is a lopsided, unfinished game containing equal amounts of brilliance and incompetence. While it's made quantum leaps over its predecessors, this is not Insomniac's definitive Spider-Man experience. In a lot of ways, the first game was that definitive experience, but I’m still confident that this team still has their best Marvel work ahead of them. It's pretty clear that Insomniac has moved on to working on their Wolverine game, which I have high hopes for. I only ask that when they get back around to the Spider-Men, they learn from their mistakes here and deliver that Spider-Man experience I know is in them.



Exhaustive Notes:

(If there's a contradiction between my notes and what I say in the retrospective, that's because I had a little character arc and did something thinking. Remember, these are gut reactions below)


Prior thoughts: 


  • Story has great moments but doesn’t come together 

  • Improved combat with parry system

  • Upgrades are largely meh

  • Largely Peter and Harry’s story and Miles is just…there. 

  • Miles’ part of the story is cliche and not very interesting. 

  • I actually like MJ’s parts. Much improved from the first game by literally just giving her a gun. 

  • Stealth is fun but largely easy and unnecessary with no skill needed.  

  • Insomniac’s Miles fails to find his own identity outside of cliches

  • My day one copy is still buggy as hell*

  • Weird emphasis on science 

    • Why do Peter and Miles both need to be science guys? 

    • The tech in the spidey mask seems so advanced that Ganke’s role becomes questionable

    • The technobabble is annoying and meaningless

    • The inclusion of sci-fi aliens and magic makes the very real science feel corny in comparison. 

  • Game still lacks a concrete visual identity

    • Insomniac still feels the need to put unnecessary lines on classic suits

    • Wraith’s design looms like a reject CW Flash costume

    • Original Insomniac designs lack any staying power. 

      • Except for the Advanced Suit from the first game

    • What the fuck did they do to the Advanced Suit in this game?



New Game Plus notes: 


Act 1: 

  • Surface Tension // Sandman Intro

    • Amazing re-introduction to the boys

    • Peter teaching at Miles’ school would have been a great status quo for the game, actually, but its quickly thrown away

    • Chemistry is palpable between the Spider-boys

    • Oh, and Ganke is here. 

    • Cinematic and bombastic, kinetic fight that is truly comic booky

    • The scale never gets this big until the end of the game

    • Switching between the boys is seamless

    • Sandman’s plight is introduced but sadly only followed up on in side-missions

    • Stinger at the end introduces Kraven in a cool cutscene

    • Established Kraven is brutally strong, fierce and intelligent 

  • One Thing At A Time

    • Aftermath of Sandman’s fight is awesome to see, truly transforms for the streets of NY

    • Neat to just save some people 

    • Rare Ganke and Peter moment 

    • Techno-babble is absolutely exhausting already

    • re-establishes the Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man app from the previous Miles game

    • Drone minigame subtly uses equipment from the Emily-May foundation

    • Introduces Sandman memory crystals

    • Breaking the crystal makes a great sound from the control speakers

    • Rough quips from both Peter and Miles

    • Saving JJJ from his limo is a funny gag

    • Miles/Haily/Ganke friend group is cute. The emphasis on sign language is nice.

    • Peter gets fired :(

 

  • Show Me New York

    • Name checks Robbie Robertson

    • Introduces the photo side missions

  • Roll like we Used To // Harry introduction

    • MJ has a bitch’ motorcycle

    • MJ is also way hotter now

    • Game looks beautiful in twilight

    • Reporter MJ is just budget Lois Lane 

    • Peter inheriting Aunt May’s house after her death is heartbreaking

    • Game is at its worst when its a walking simulator

    • May “Balance” flashback makes you miss her. Attempts to give her her her own “Great power, great responsibility” moment.

    • MJ/Harry/Peter reunion is awesome

    • Bike riding with Harry isn’t as awful as the memes made it out to be, I actually liked it. 

    • Pete and Harry do that thing where they recite a memory that they were both there for for the benefit of the audience. 

    • For some reason they break into their old high school

      • (some thematic tie to harry living in the past) 

    • Young Pete’s look is spot on

    • Flashback 

      • Decently campy, a fun stealth level that further sketches in Pete and Harry’s relationship

      • Serves as a good tutorial for traversal methods

      • Harry’s Rickroll is a delight

      • The sequence ending in Norman crashing the heist with a helicopter to break the news of Emily Osborn’s death is typical of him, what an asshole

    • Insomniac wasted their time on barebones a one-time only basketball mini game

    • Harry invites pete to his lab

    • Kraven arrives in Manhattan

    • Oh yeah, Miles has a dead dad. 

    • Miles and Rio’s relationship is nice, almost too nice, without much conflict, beside Miles seemingly being unable to write a two paragraphs college essay

  • Not On My Watch // Raft mission

    • Scorpion cameo

    • Martin Li/Mister negative returns, kicks off Miles’ awful revenge plot

    • Quick but effective build up to the prisoner transport going haywire

    • Boat set piece is one of my favs

    • Kraven’s theme is scary

    • Inside of the boat is cramped and colostorphoice in the best way possible

    • Miles’ scarecrow gas fever dream was unnecessary but relevant I guess

    • Miles’ rage at Li is neat, and the fact that he was going to let Li die

    • The action and kineticism is amazing. 

    • Miles having to choose between saving innocents and pursuing Li should have created more drama between the Spider-boys. Peter just kinda moves on. 

    • Li and Miles’ powers getting entangled is neat

    • Ending fist bump was endearing. Miles should've have been moodier to contrast Peter’s incessant optimism. 


  • Amends:

    • I like the complex relationship between Miles and Aaron

    • Aaron is good, wish he was in more than just a side mission

    • Introduced Prowler hideout missions

    • Neat puzzles 

    • Well-contextualized in the framework of the plot (Aaron doesn’t want Kraven to get his tech)

  • Healing The World

    • Introduces Emily-May Foundation

    • Norman jumpscare. He says “cooking”. Makes reference his appearance in Spidey PS4 

    • Walking simulator moment with mid mini games sprinkled in. More science techno babble. I like that they pay lip service to global issues but it’s not a theme of the game at all. (I guess it introduces a way that Peter could help the world in a way that’s not Spidey related)

    • Kurt Conners works at Emily-May 

    • Work from Otto’s lab appears at the facility

    • Interesting feeling knowing that this will be battleground for the end fight 

    • Emily-May foundation has big Jurassic Park vibes

    • Chekhov’s particle accelerator

    • Plant puzzles have big Ratchet and Clank energy, and the Emily-May music

    • Mission sets up the Emily-May stations you’ll see in the overworld

    • Peter joining the Foundation is a great moment 

  • Bad Guys on The Block

    • Peter finds a cloaked hunter base with some intel from Miles

    • Cleverly introduces both the drone chase missions and the hunter base side activities in one mission 

    • Drone chase is fun 

    • Transitions into one of the more memorable stealth encounters of the game

    • Stealth is pitiful in this game. No skill because it literally tells you when to act and when not to

    • Hunters lab is pretty spooky. Seeing them workshop ways to kill Scorpion and Li is neat

    • Kraven vs Scorpion scene goes crazy

    • Miles has his spider-suit in full view of his bedroom window 

  • Make Your Own Choices – Black Cat Magic Msiion

    • Rare MJ and Miles team-up moment

    • Introduces molecule minigame

      • Not awful but not exciting either

    • Post crime scene investigation is budget Arkham detective mode

    • Electric web line puzzles are fun

    • First sign of actual magic in this universe, Wand of Watoomb name dropped

    • Stealth sequence around the Sanctum Sanctorum is awesome 

      • Stealth is still mid tho

    • Black Cat’s new suit is better

    • Black Cat chase scene is awesome, great use of the portal to put the player in different scenarios where different methods of traversal are needed

    • Bi Felicia, you will always be famous

    • Felica seems to know MJ

    • Black Cat as a combat ally is cool, even if it's only used the one time

    • Best combat encounter in the game???

    • Felicia and Miles are an interesting pair

    • Best mission in the game?

    • Wong sticky note cameo

    • Felicia is written out in an entirely believable and well-contextualized manner

  • Master Illusionist – Miles at Coney Island

    • Introduces Mysterio and Mysteriums

    • Mysterio has drip

    • Miles DJ segment is a fun idea but last too long for what it is

      • Lacks the depth of a real rhythm game. Just kinda loops for a while, and is unresponsive at times

    • Mysterium arena feels very Ratchet and Clank

    • Peter has white boy drip

  • A Second Chance – Peter at Coney Island

    • Rare (only???) moment where the Spidey’s supporting casts meet

    • The plot bends over backwards so that the characters cannot meet for some reason

    • The best ride at Coney Island is the bench

    • Peter/MJ/Harry don’t have much chemistry as a friend group. Dialogue is forced, sauceless

    • The rides are cute time-wasters but not very interesting

    • Being able to cheer and put Peter’s hands up on the rides is a cute touch

    • Tombstone is set up as a mechanic at ths Go-Karts

    • You can find Hailey and her artwork at Coney, didn't catch that the first time

    • Harry goes crazy at the Muscle-Up

    • The Ferris Wheel being called the Big Wheel is nice

    • MJ’s Bugle plot is awful. The fact that it punctuates this emotional scene at the Ferris Wheel is a misstep

    • Coney island is an amazing combat arena

    • Roller coaster sequence is incredibly intense and kinetic, shows how good Peter is at being Spider-man while also showing his limits. The hunters also attacking him while he’s trying to save people jacks up the stakes. 

    • Harry’s save + he and harry find out each other’s identities is amazing

  • Science Buddy

    • Harry backflip

    • Pete and Harry stress tst the Symbiote’s powers

    • Harry acknowledges that Peter told MJ about Spider-Man but not him and he just…rolls with it.

    • Norman finds the boys wrecking the office and asleep on the couch

    • Sets up that Jurt Connors is missing

    • “He doesn't take days off” says so much with so few words. 

  • Spider-Spy?

    • Introduces the multiversal Spider-Bot collectible

  • Hunt to Live, Live to Hunt – Agent Harry Team-Up*

    • Felicia just…hands you the location of Tombstone

    • An abandoned steel factory is an awesome location for any mission

    • Stealth encounters feel better designed. They have, like, actual level design. This feels like an actual level in a video game. 

    • Harry as a combat companion is awesome. 

    • The Symbiote has no weakness to fire, only sonics

      • A creatice choice only made so they culd have Venom look cool in fire

    • Combat encounters are noticeably more hectic

    • Harry’s look emulates Agent Venom

    • Harry charges headlong into battle

    • Last chase sequence is absolute mayhem. 

    • Best mission in the game

    • Tombstone is a refreshingly mature presence. 

    • You can run into Agent Harry in the overworld but only for this mission

    • Best mission in the game? 

  • Funky

    • Miles comments on how Peter has been putting him off to deal with Harry stuff

    • Oh yeah, Miles’ Mom is running for…mayor? Something like that

    • Rio and Aaron speak to Miles in platitudes. Miles also speaks in platitudes, Mr. “I always have time for my community”

    • Lays the foundation for that museum side quest

    • Ew, Spider-bot level

    • Chase ensues. Two trucks full of museum items take off and Miles only recovers one. 

    • Story seems entirely unrelated to the plot at large, which would be fine in the story were about anything interesting or about characters I cared about. 

    • Its neat that they want to actually incorporate real world Harlem music history but there must have been a better way to do so. 

  • Good Men

    • Peter blows Miles off once again

    • At this point, the pacing is super off. We’re still in “act 1”, which is not how acts work

    • Pete should have the Symbiote by now

    • These short intermission levels throw off the pacing by wasting time on unrelated story elements

    • I could not stand the spider-arms so I switched the symbiote powers 

    • Peter goes to EMF to meet Harry but MJ calls, saying she knows where Dr. Connors is

    • First MJ Mission

    • Kraven has made a base out of a zoo in JERSEY and MJ infiltrates it.

    • MJ takes a gnarly crossbow bolt to shoulder ( she’s seen to be bleeding, but in combat, the blood is gone. She doesn’t even comment on any pain or traume. It might as well have never happened)

    • The Hunters trying to reactives Connors’ reptile genes is so gross and invasive, it might be the most effective bit of horror in this game

    • MJ finds a room with with Vulture’s wings and recording with Kraven saying he killed him

    • MJ stealth is honestly more engaging than Spidey stealth. 

    • MJ has to pretend to be a Symkarian Hunter over the radio to get the cell code. Probably would have been more impactful if MJ was an actress in this universe.

    • “There are no good men. Only good prey.” 

    • Mj frees Connors but Kraven arrives to inject him with the serum to bring the Lizard back. Then Peter and Harry arrive

    • Zoo combat encounter is frantic and challenging. 

    • Absolute insanity. Connors Lizards out, Peter gets stabbed and thrown through a window, and Harry goes sicko mode

    • Peter seems to be much weaker in this game physically. There’s no reason he shouldn’t be able to overpower Kraven with his spider-strength and sense the knife with his spider-sense. No explanation is given as to why he didn’t, other than the situation was particularly hectic. 

    • MJ walking with Peter while Harry and Kraven fight is amazing

    • It really feels like Peter could die. Okay, Peter actually dies until the Symbiote gets on him.

    • Harry’s voice performance in this mission is great

    • First symbiote surge is awesome. The controller screaming at the player is genuinely frightening 

    • Kraven changes objectives from the Lizard to Spider-Man with the Symbiote

    • Peter tries to give Harry back the Symbie, but it fails, only pulling out the knife blade in Pete’s side (underrated moment)

Act II:

  • The Flames Have Been Lit

    • The Black Suit added new details on the web wings, new animations for traversal specials and black tendril webbing. 

    • The default black suit costume is amazing. 

    • Always moving, its alive

    • New Symbiote abilities are powerful, add new depth to combat and have great sound design

    • Mj uses a symbol on Kraven’s knife to investigate him further. Pete goes to a pawn shop. The pawn shop was hit by Hunters, and the owner knows Kraven from their homeland. Calls him Kravinoff. 

    • Hunters light pyres on rooftops with Volgograd vodka, preparing for a celebration.

    • Harry is noticeably more irritable without the suit

    • Peter infiltrates Kraven’s party, the suit morphs into a tux. 

    • The manor party is neat, tons of Hunters there. Animal heads, weapons and armor mounted on the walls. 

    • Kraven’s study has family photos, a family tres, two red “potions” that Peter speculates might augment his strength, and medication for late stage chemotherapy. 

    • Kraven worships the hunt because its a fiath passed down by his mother, and seemingly, all Kravinoffs

    • Kraven wants a hunt that will give him a warrior’s death

    • Peter absolutely bodies a hunter (but the tension is deflated because he immediately recognizes that “that wasn’t me”

    • At the chapel, Peter fights the shield-bearer. Mini boss is mid. Can be cheesed with special abilities. 

    • Peter confronts Jraven in the chapel, gets bodied by the church bell

    • Seeing Kraven gets visibly excited when finding Peter’s weakness was a great detail. 

    • Peter nabs the Lizard serum from Kraven

    • Actual interactions between Kraven and Peter are good, but they are two few and too late. This sequence should have happened hours ago. 

  • Stay Positive

    • Peter goes back to EMF to analyze the serum

    • Have to do one of those molecule puzzles

    • The boys use a particle accelerator to fix the serum

    • Crawling inside the accelerators is cool. Switching it up with a hazardous crawling segment was refreshing. Wish there were more of them in the game. 

    • Hunters assault Emily May, hectic fight ensues. 

    • “I’m fresh outta honey” is probably Peter’s best quip in the game

    • Emily May gets super fucked up, literally blown to smithereens

    • Norman is surprised Harry is hurt (because he knows about the Symbiote)

    • Rift between Peter and Harry is starting to form. 

  • Wings of My Own

    • Miles investigates a Kraven drone to find Li

    • Drone chase is whatever. Bombs are annoying

    • Introduces the drone chase side activity

    • Rare interaction between Harry and Miles. Harry is clearly feeling useless, offers to help run the app, but Ganke is already doing that. 

    • Miles visits his dad’s grave. Miles outlines his entire emotional conflict but he resolves to just…thug it out, I guess. Nothing is changed. 

  • New Threads – Game Awards mission

    • MJ calls Miles to tell him to stand ready in case Peter needs backup chasing Lizard

    • Miles is dismayed to find out that Peter did ask MJ to do that, it was Mj’s idea. Miles is clearly feeling left out of the Spider stuff. 

    • Peter goes to Connors’ house, which shows signs of struggle. Its honestly pretty spooky. 

    • An easily cheeseable puzzle later, and pete goes to the lab beneath the house

    • Hunters show up, and Peter is PISSED. Might be some of Yuri Lowenthal’s best work, the way Peter’s anger at Kraven is delivered. This mission sells Kraven’s evil, as he attacks a recovering man with family problems, just to make him into a lizard for his “hunt”. 

    • Switch to Miles to intercept Lizard in Harlem

    • He has to leave a date with Hailey to go Spider-manning

    • Ganke and Miles hack a Hunter drone so Ganke can pal around

    • Miles following Lizard through the fish market is playing at horror. 

    • Peter seems to have changed on a dime. He’s more intense in his dialogue now, 

    • The best chase in the game ensued. Pter and Miles chase Lizard, who is also being chased by the Hunters, along the river. The game looks its best during twilight or dawn, and this sequence is doused in this yellow light that really makes the scene pop. 

    • Switching between the Spider-Men on the fly is seamless. 

    • Peter gets overzealous when chasing a gunship and takes some missiles, leading Miles to catching him and end up in the water, which leads a Crash Bandicoot style segment. 

    • Peter says that Miles was off his game. This is the only time he has ever given any feedback to Miles as Spider-man.  

    • Everyone is really weirded out by Peter being aggressive, probably because he has a personality now, and everyone else is weirdly sanitized. 

    • The difference between Peter pre and post Symbiote is stark because before, all of his interactions with everyone were boring, and now, his interactions are interesting. 

    • It's clear how none of these characters had any tension in their dialogue before Peter took the black. 

  • It Chose You – Lizard fight

    • Peter goes into the sewers to track Connors

    • He calls Harry. Harry says he hasn’t heard from Pete “in a while” even tho its been like 12 hours since the EMF got blown up. 

    • Exploring the sewers and seeing Lizard’s destruction is neat. The lack of indoor areas in this game sucks when Insomniac can really nail it. 

    • Peter tracks Connors to an old Oscorp lab underground

    • Whiteboard alludes to the Symbiote meteor and the spiral symbol of Knull

    • The lab contains the Symbiote rock

    • The Lizard has rapidly mutated a a result of Kraven juicing him with more Lizard formula. Boss fight ensues. 

    • Lizard boss fights are good. On first playthrough it kicked my ass, but second time around, it's easy to stay on the defensive. 

    • Its a neat detail how Peter’s frustration builds through the fight. You cans ee himreaching out to Connors but as the fight drags on, Peter gets nastier, and impatient with Lizard and the destruction he’s causing. 

    • Peter has already used the Symbirote’s tendrils is adept ways. He quickly and cleverly uses them to restraint Lizard before his roar messes the Symbie up. 

    • Lizard escapes, breaking through a dinosaur exhibit at ESU. A chase ensues. 

    • The chase is cool. Peter angrily shouts at Connors about how he’s hurting civilians. The threat escalates as he blows up cars and police cars and helicopters get involved. Then the hunters arrive. 

    • Lizard climbs up a building and Peter’s web line is still attached, so you slide UP the building, avoiding explosions and gunfire from Hunters. This shit rules. 

    • At the top of the building, Kraven appears in a  helicopter. He shoots Lizard with an explosive arrow, sending him flying to the street below. Peter dies down to grab him and administer the antidote, but they both crash through the street, back into the sewer. 

    • Peter breaks his arm but the symbiote snaps it back into the place 

    • Back into the sewer, there’s a THIRD phase to the Lizard fight. This might be the best mission in the game. 

    • Peter gets NASTY while fighting Lizard. “No wonder your family left you” was uncalled for. 

    • Peter administers the antidote after the fight and brings Connors back to the Oscorp lab. The rock shows a flashback of Oscorp and Connors finding the Symbiote after it crash landed on Earth. The Symbiote is actually the reason Connors lost his arm. 

    • In the span of like 4 missions, (about a day’s time in the game’s story), Peter goes from “Gee Wilikers, this suit is strong,” to complete psychopath. 

    • Peter and MJ talk on the phone. You can see how the Symbiote is affecting their relationship. MJ expresses concern that the suit is an alien and that Pete and Lizard rampaged through half the city, but it doesn’t phase Peter. This is what inspires MJ to then go on and write about Spidey at the paper. 

  • Wake Up – Final girl MJ

    • Peter goes to shleep. 

    • The suit creepily pulls covers over him. 

    • Hunters attack the house, so you have to play as MJ

    • Idea; MJ shouldn’t have had a etective mod spidey sense and the player would have had to rely on their own sense alone to traverse stealth encounters. 

    • MJ texts Miles for back-up

    • MJ attaches webshooters to her very gun-like taser…baton thing? 

    • Hunters are all over the neighborhood so MJ has to stealthily navigate. The suit is puppeteering Peter’s sleeping body, making him animalistically roar and leap around

    • Genuinely pretty spooky set-up. More of that survival horror influence

    • MJ segments are actually pretty good in this game. 

    • Miles shows up and tracks Peter to the Queensboror tunnel.

    • Miles engages hunters at the tunnel. Feral Peter will, in gameplay, engage the hunters as well. 

    • Miles seals Mj and Peter in the tunnel so she can snap him out of it, 

    • Sequence in the tunnel is good. 

    • The combat encounter with Miles is great. The construction crane is falling and Miles goes to save the operator but when he does, the operator turns out to be a hunter in disguise who knows Miles out. 

    • MJ running from Feral Peter is an effectively heart-pounding moment. MJ is appropriately frightened. 

    • Peter wakes up the next morning on a park bench well rested, in his evil black turtleneck. He has voicemails from Rio Morales. 

    • Miles was taken by the hunters. 

  • I’m The Hero Here – Bully Maguire

    • Harry calls, needing the suit back

    • MJ publishes her new article

    • Harry is visibly weaker. 

    • MJ confronts Peter, he storms out. 

    • Peter finds Norman in his lab, weird moment. Harry is jealous that Norman reaches out to Peter??? Comes out of nowhere. 

    • Harry disease doesn’t even seem to kill him, just makes him into a little bitch honestly. 

  • No Escape – Miles versus Li

    • Rio calls Peter, wanting to know where Miles is. 

    • Peter visits Rio’s office, rare Rio and Peter moment. The only one. 

    • Switch to Miles, who has been taken by the Hunters. Wakes up in one of their bases.

    • Finds some cells with photos of previous Spidey rogues like Vulture, Shocker and Scorpion. Li was also imprisoned here. 

    • You can find Kraven’s pet like Dima in one of the cells

    • The hunter base has a distinct vibe. Walls are close and combat encounters are tight and intense. Wish the whole game has this kind of interesting level design. 

    • Miles enters a ritualistic gladiatorial battle put on by the Hunters in which he must fight Li to the death. 

    • Mister Negative boss fight ensues. Fight against Li is a fav. Hard but fair. His pattern is easy to recognize but hard to deflect. The dialogue between them is neat. Li is totally down to kill Miles and Miles thinks he’s down to kill Li. When Miles gets close, Li fires off a blast that finds it way into the sky light abovel, breaking it. 

    • Li takes Miles into his own mind, where Li taunts him with shadow versions of his friends and family dunking on him. Its genuinely pretty gut-wrenching. The final specter is Miles’ dad, and once he accepts that he’s lived up to his father’s legacy, he’s able to master his new powers and escape the Dork Dimension. 

    • Outside, Miles has Li on his knees. Lie wants Miles to kill him. Miles throws Li through the window in the skylight and tells him to find Peter on the outside. 

    • Miles sacrifices himself, leaving himself still in the custody of the hunters. 

  • Anything can be Broken – Kraven/Peter fight

    • Mister Negative shows up at F.E.A.S.T with a big blue beacon in the sky. Peter goes to investigate

    • Peter becomes fiercely protective of Miles. 

    • Connors also calls, asking Peter to come to the lab and get the Symbiote taken off him. 

    • Peter meets Li. He immediately wants to fight, but Li explains that Miles is still captured and needs to be rescued. Li wants to help but Peter says no. 

    • “You should be proud of him. He reminds me of you” destroyed me. 

    • On the way to Kraven’s lair, Peter starts tweaking. The suit (Tony Todd) talks to him, telling him to kill Kraven. 

    • Peter goes crazy in a forced Symbiote Surge segment that’s honestly pretty rad. The symbiote is affecting his voice. He shouts “Where’s Spider-Man?” to find Miles. He threatens to crush a hunter with one of their vehicles. Peter is really scary here. 

    • Kraven traps Peter in an unbreakable glass cage. Kraven has miles captured, uses him as leverage to get Peter even more enraged. 

    • Kraven boss fight. Phase 1 is in his entrapment pit. Pattern is easy to follow. Employs mine and his fists. Phase 2 is out in the yard. He uses a bell to subdue the suit. He also goes invisible and uses an axe. He’ll ring the bell with his spear and you have to web it up to stop the ringing. Kraven will also send out dog machine and find out ina tree and shoot you.

    • Kraven is an absolute freak. He wants Spidey to rip him apart and leave his body for the maggots. 

    • The suit starks egging Peter on. 

    • Peter starts to choke Kjraven with the symbiote and he literally says “harder:

    • Miles intervenes to stop Peter from killing Kraven. Symbiote Peter boss ensues. 

    • Peter hits hard. You have to use the same bell from the Kraven fight to stun Peter for an opening. Miles and Peter argue. Peter calls Miles out on wanting revenge (which he definitely did), but Miles says it was really because he wanted Peter and his family safe. Peter doubles down on wanting the suit because it makes hima  better Spider-Man, and accuses Miles of wanting to steal the suit for himself. 

    • Peter gets aggressive as they fight goes on but you can be just as aggressive with your specials. 

    • What I like about the dialogue is that Miles has resolved his character arc (mostly) so he’s able to more believable reach out to Peter. He emphasizes how they’ve both lost people, and that Miles won’t lose Peter, too. Really, the relationship between the Spider-Men should have been the cornerstone of the game. 

    • Peter ripping off the suit is a triumphant moment that works pretty well. Seeing the Spider-Men reunite is great. 

    • Peter says that Connors knows of way to destroy the Symbiote. Miles brings up that Harry needs it, but Peter says that Norman is working on another cure

    • Peter calls Connors to tell him he got the suit off. Connors tells him to take the suit to Oscorp Tower. 

  • Don’t be Scared – Venom 

    • Peter goes to the tower’s lab.

    • Harry confronts Peter. Pete wants to destroy it but Harry wants to suit back. He wacks the containment device with his cane and cracks it, allowing Venom to leak out and graft himself onto Harry. 

    • Venom is here.

    • Norman comes in. Oscorp guys come in and surround Venom. Norman stresses non-lethal engagement. 

    • PLAYABLE VENOM 

    • VOICED BY TONY GODDAMN TODD

    • Venom is huge and powerful (and hot) l. His attacks are wide, sweeping and damaging. The UI has different aesthetics for the health bar and objective window for Venom exclusively. In photo mode, he even has unique poses. Norman tries to reason with Harry over the intercom. 

    • Venom leaps larg distances instead of web swinginging. Venom has bhis own special attacks as as well. 

    • Hunter show up with their own helicopter. Venom leaps off Oscorp tower and takes the chopper down to Time’ Square. 

    • Venom engages Hunters in Times Square until Kraven himself shows up. Boss fight ensues. 

    • Kraven uses a shield and spear, dust bombs, invisibility and a gun. He finally sees a worthy opponent in Venom. Inside, Harry remarks on how it was because of Kraven that he and Venom were separated, and that the Hunters blew up the EMF. 

    • Phase 2 is just beating on Kraven over and over. Kraven does express some anguish over his body betraying him as he suffers from that disease. 

    • Venom defeats Kraven then bites off his head. Awesome. 

    • Harry flees and goes to his Mom’s grave, where the symbiote mimics her voice to convince him to start the symbiote invasion. It raises the church graveyard into the sky and starts to infect the rest of the city. 

    • The Symbiote infests the entirety of the world.

Act III

  • Trouble with Harry

  • Peter wakes up in the wrecked Oscorp tower. He goes to find Harry via tracking his EMF badge.

  • The signal leaves him to the underside of an overpass where he finds a symbiote nest. Civilians are now getting infected. 

  • Peter tussles with the symbiotes and calls Miles for back-up. He also recaps the last mission.

  • Miles picks up the phone and tells Peter that Kraven is dead. 

  • Miles swings to the docks to use a smapleing app on his phone to mimic the bell’s frequency as a weapon against the symbiotes. Plot now connects to Miles’ college study of music tech.

  • Peter shows up and they concoct a gadget, a sound grenade.

  • Rio and Ganke call, they say the subway is getting attacked, so the boys check it out. 

  • Venom is spotting hauling people into the subway. Peter and Miles follow, finding a subway car filled with civvies and Rio and Ganke. They resolve to clear all the symbiote goo thats trapping them. 

  • A glowing ball, when hit with the sound grenade, clears a section of tendrils. 

  • To free the subway, the boys chain together some sound grenade and have to defend them while they sync up. Pete and Miles fight together, and Peter encourages Miles. 

  • Rio and Ganke show the civilian perspective pretty well. Its cute that Rio takes Ganke home to make him something for dinner. 

  • Ganke and Miles’ friendship is cute on the surface but when they try to hang emotional moments on it, it falls flat because it's so thin.

  • This mission unlocks the symbiote nest side activities

  • This Isn’t You – Scream 

    • Norman call Peter, heartsick over Harry disappearing. Peter rpomsies to look for him. 

    • Peter goes to Harry’s apartment. He fiend an audio log of Norman’s on the balcony. He’s said that Emily Osborn is dead. 

    • Peter decides to call MJ. 

    • MJ gets a call from J. Joanh Jameson, and he loves to critical story MJ ran on Spidey, and tells her to run more of that. MJ isn’t pleased. 

    • She then  decides to call Peter and tll him. Pete catches her up on Harry as someone knocks at the door, and its Harry. 

    • Black Symbiote tentacles enrapture MJ and then the phone call is cut. 

    • Peter rushes to the house to save MJ.

    • On the way, Connors calls and says that the Symbiote taps into a greater hivemind and a part of that might still be lingering in Peter. Checkhov’s hivemind. 

    • Peter finds Harry and MJ sitting in the kitchen. Harry has become a supervillain. He says this is the “real him”. He’s entirely bonded with the Symbiote. 

    • Harry becomes Venom and puts a Symbiote onto MJ, making her into Scream. 

    • A boss fight ensues. 

    • Phase 1 takes place outside of Peter’s house. Attacks are pretty easy easy to counter or dodge. Dialogue and story are the real focus. 

    • Phase 2 takes place further down the street. Not much has changed, but eh dialogue is escalating in intensity. 

    • Phase 3 takes place in the construction site. MJ is trying to fight from the inside. 

    • Phase 4 is more of the same. 

    • Probably has the best dialogue in the game, since the characters aren’t being needlessly polite with each other. Regular MJ’s voice peaking through Scream’s just to shout platitudes is a little cringe tho. 

    • MJ regains herself and she and Pete work together to get rid of Scream. She then calls Jonah to quit. The juxtaposition of a restful reunion and then MJ quitting kinda sucks. 

    • Mj confirms that there’s a symbiote hivemind. 

  • Set Things Right – Anti-Venom

    • Miles alls Peter to tell him that City Hall is under attack by symbiotes. 

    • Peter catches Miles on on the last mission. 

    • Peter then call Rio, and they bury the hatchet. Cute. 

    • A giant goo hive is routing out of City Hall. Peter and Miles fight up to the roof, where some civilians are sheltering. Once there, the giant grey symbiote enemy is introduced. 

    • Peter is thrown down to the street where he’s swarmed by symbiotaes. Miles go down there tos ave him but is swarmed too. Miles is saved by Mister Negative, who seems to be able to destroy symbiotes. 

    • Peter has been taken over the goo. Li and Miles go inside of his mind to free him. 

    • Li says the symbiote works a lot like his own power, and that the symbiotes fear his abilities. 

    • Li leads Miles to where Peter’s pain is darkest. 

    • The first place they go is inside the raft, where Peter thinks about all the criminals he’s put away, Miles lives the beating that Peter took there by the Sinister Six. 

    • Miles and Li are ambushed by neverending shadows, which emulates Peter’s frustration that criminals he puts away are back on the street to cause more harm. 

    • Crawling through a symbiote infesting tunnel, Peter sees his villains all defeated by the suit. 

    • At the end of the line, they find May’s house. Its crawling with symbiote goo. 

    • From there, they go to FEAST, where they find the source. Li and Miles work together to destroy it, but together, they aren’t enough. Li then wants to use all of his power to neutralize the symbiote, most likely killing him. Miles says he can’t forgive Li, but he puts away his hate for him, once and for all. 

    • After a brief combat encounter, Miles and Li both use their power to break through. Li loses his negative energy powers.

    • The heart of Peter’s pain is him losing May in the first game. 

    • On the street, Peter wakes up, donning a white symbiote powered by Negative energy. The scene mirrors the time when Harry gave him the black suit. 

    • Li embodies May’s words of “You help someone, you help everyone”. Li walks on into the sunset, hinting that he’ll making things right “they’re way”, perhaps meaning he’ll be be a hero, if his powers remain. 

    • MJ calls and says that she’s moving out of her apartment to live with Peter. She says there’s nobody she’d rather be goo’d up with. This is the only time that these character have chemistry. 

  • It’s All Connected – Venom gets the rock

    • Connors calls Peter and tells him “it” is in his lab, meaning Venom. 

    • Peter finds Oscorp equipment at the manhole cover entrance to the lab. 

    • Below, Venom confronts Venom, Norman wants it to give Harry back, but Venom says “we are your son”

    • Venom went back to the lab for the rest of the rock he crashed to Earth with.

    • Connors says that Venom and Harry are entirely fused, which means that Harry is effectively gone. The only want to defeat Venom would be to kill Harry. 

    • Peter is caught between saving his friend and stopping the threat. 

    • Goo tendrils are everywhere throughout the city, like giant dead tree branches over the streets, going through buildings. It's more than sufficiently spooky. 

  • Finally Free

    • Peter gets called by the fire chief to help out some civilians getting attacked by Symbiotes

    • Peter bounces between crisis. Enemies spawn below you at random since the full invasion is in effect. 

    • Peter meets with Miles ont he rooftop, where he unveils his infamous Adidas suit. The Evolved suit seemingly comes out of nowhere. 

    • Peter tells Miles about Harry. Miles consoles Peter about May, and about everyone they lost. He says that Harry is till in there, and that they should fight for him. 

    • Thye split up to find the meteorite 

    • Miles clears out a symbiote nest, and while doing so, Venom reaches out to him. 

    • Miles enters the Symbiote hivemind. Inside, Venom tries to get Miles to join him.

    • Miles sees through hivemind that Hailey is in trouble and that the meteorite is under the Harlem subway station

    • Peter rushes to the subway tunnel. Miles says he needs to check on Hailey before he can join Pete, and urges him not to go alone. Peter agrees, but after h ahngs up the phone, decides to go alone anyway. 

    • Peter fights his way to the tunnel, calling out to Harry and Venom. He gets close to the same harsh tone he used when wearing the black suit as he gets frustrated with the hoard of symbiotes between him and Harry. 

    • A symbiote sneaks up on Hailey as she helps at FEAST. For some reason, this is the time that Miles asks Hailey out. Hailey has swag. 

    • Peter enters the tunnel. He leaves a message on Harry’s phone apologizing for messing up and letting their dream die. 

    • The atmisphere of the tunnel is awesome. Its spooky and gross, as its all gooped up and symbiotes are crawling inside it like bees inside a hive. 

    • In a wider part of the tunnel, Peter is ambushed. The lights go out and a hoard of symbiotes attack. The lights go in and out as you fight through them. 

    • After the symbiotes are defeated, their unconscious floating bodies float in the flooded tunnel. It's a small but unsettling detail. 

    • At the deepest part of the nest, Peter finds Venom but no meteor. 

    • Venom wants to “free” everyone by bonding them with a symbiote. 

    • Miles shows up and bails Peter out. 

  • Together 

    • Peter, Miles and MJ form up at May’s house to form a plan on how to steal the meteorite.

    • Whe you get there, there’s a “point of no return” warning.

    • The meteorite is in the central park reservoir, pumping the water full of goo. 

    • Miles, Peter and MJ map out their plan with board game pieces and pet rocks. 

    • Peter will destact Harry, MJ will swoop in and grab the meteorite while Miles…helps. 

    • At Central Park, Peter hands MJ an upgraded version of her gun. 

    • He three of them have chemistry as a trio, its a shame that it took the whole game to showcase that. 

    • Peter draws Venom out of his hiding place so that MJ can get inside and get the rock. Miles takes care of the outside symbiotes so she can slip by them. 

    • MJ segment begins. Big Resident Evil energy. 

    • There are flares left on the ground by someone, who knows if they made it out tho. 

    • Oscopr guys are in the sewer, Norman sent a team after Harry. 

    • You can effectively run and gun with MJ. 

    • MJ gets the rock and then runs out of the tunnel. 

    • MJ fights one of those grey titan symbiotes, which are hard to fight even as spider-man. You can just shoot it to death but it's better to weaponize the Oscorp sound barrels for more damage. The whole thing is Insomniac’s best RE impression, but I’m not complaining. 

    • Venom chases Peter to their old high school. Venom makes a three-platformed arena out of the gymnasium, which seems to be decorated for an Oscorp career fair. 

    • Boss fight ensues. 

    • Phase 1: Venom’s attacks are wide and brutal. After a few combos, he’ll send a wave of chomping little heads to swarm the platform and you will have to vacate one and find another to continue the fight. You have to actually elarn Venom’s patterns to stay alive. 

    • Like the Scream fight, the dialogue is intense. Harry isn’t all the interesting but Venom is. Yuri Lowenthal is what really sells it. 

    • Phase 2: Venom summons the rabid gren symbiotes as back-up. Venom has an armor bar that can only be cracked by anti-venom attacks. (Tony Todd is absolutely nailing every line, holy shit). And the music is popping the fuck off.

    • Venom overpowrs Spidey and has him by thr throat. Pete says that he won’t heal the world with Harry as long as he’s Venom. Venom feels the meteorite get disconnected from the hivemind by MJ. Then, Venom sprouts wings (awesome)

    • Miles and MJ go to the EMF to use the particle accelerator. Venom crashes through the roof and throws Peter at the accelerator, knocking him out. Venom’s suit has changed and he’s gotten visibly bigger and more sinewy

    • Phase 3: Miles fights winged Venom at the EMF. He lobs spiked balls at Miles from the center of the arena. You have to lob the projectile back to create an opening. Mils says he promised Peter he’d fight for him, but Venom remakes that Miles doesn’t know or care about Harry, which…yeah he kinda clocked him there. Miles references that one weird phone call they had once. After Venom take enough damage, the wings go away and you fight him on foot. Hisn ground movies is the same as the previous phase. The pattern is easy to exploit. 

    • During the fight, Harry expresses jealousy over Peter’s reliance on Miles, jealousy that was not at all hinted at previously. (could be the symbiote talking tho)

    • Phase 4: The arena is gooey now. Venom has new moves on the ground. There are Oscorp sound barrels around to use. This phase is much more difficult. Venom has a new pattern, is faster and has more deadly moves. Halfway through, he’ll sprout his wings again and have a whole new pattern. 

    • Venom gets the rock overpowers Miles but MJ alley-oops a sound grenade into his mouth. The grenade briefly allows Harry to poke through. 

    • Peter and Miles chase harry after he flies through the ceiling. Thye pummel Venom in the air and retrieve the rock. Miles puts it in the accelerator while Peter distracts Venom outside. Miles charges the machine with his electricity.

    • Vein recreates that awesome winged venom cover on top of the cathedral. 

    • Harry concdedes that he has to die for the world to be saved. He opens his chest so that Peter can blast him with anti-venom, which is hella gay (affectionate). 

    • Harry lays dying. Peter tells him he loves him, his hand on Harry’s heart. 

    • Also, the accelerator fries the rock, destroying all of the symbiotes in the city. 

    • The Venom symbiote is killed, and so is Harry. Miles tries to jumpstart his heart with his bioelectricity. Harry is revived, but he’s still sick with that disease. He’s taken home by Norman,but not before he chews out the Spidey boys. 

    • Harry is now being taken care of at home. Norman crashes out, similarly raging with a cane like Harry did earlier. He calls someone on the phone and orders that a “G-Serum” be readied, most likely a Goblin serum. 

    • MJ’s stupid new podcast narrates the next segment. She’s quit the reporter business to join the overstuffed podcast industry. The pod is called “The New Normal”, which is an ass name. 

    • All the supporting cast members have a dinner at May’s house. They’re having May’s wheatcakes (aw). Peter shows MJ his plans to restart the EMF in his garage. Peter gets a Spider-alert and Miles shows up. He wants to retire and Miles to take over. Peter passes the torch and its a nice moment. This Peter and Miles have great chemistry. 

  • Post Credits

    • Norman sees Otto Octavius in prison to recruit him in his mission to avenge Harry. Teases Otto’s involvment in the “Final chapter”

    • The date that Rio mentioned earlier in the game turns out to be the dad of Cindy Moon, AKA Silk, teasing her inclusion for the next game. (Evolved suit jumpscare)




  • Sandman Memory Crystals: 

    • Same song and dance every time

    • The reward for a cheap, easy fight is a short lore dump of mostly uninteresting information

    • Sandman has a daughter, like in that one movie 

    • On his own, Sandy isn’t that neat, but his paranoia about the hunters hunting him is a unique angle

    • Rinse and repeat

    • Ends with the crystals forming a little Sandman that’s then gifted to Keemia. 


  • The Flame

    • Mission1: Where Were You?

      • Spider-Bot gameplay is boring

      • The Flame is an awful name 

      • Yuri is back, goes by wraith

      • Her costume is kinda mid, big CW show vibes 

      • Yuri still uses an NYPD lighter

    • Mission 2: Everything Burns

      • Yuri calls Peter

      • Double takedown with Yuri is a cool story/gameplay integration

      • Yuri and Peter’s dynamic is genuinely has chemistry and is engaging

      • “The Flame” being introduced by saying “We really have to stop meeting like this” is so sauceless.

      • The Flame and Yuri have history, as he had a prior cult that was smaller, but his new operation is much more deadly

      • Yuri prioritizes getting the bad guys over saving civilians

    • Mission 3: I Knew You Had it In You

      • Yuri runs ahead of Spidey into the Flame’s base

      • The Crimson Hour is some cultish apocaplstic event. A book of prophecies clearly shows a symbiote invasion of some kind

      • A cultist says something like “You dressed up for the Flame” mostly likely commenting on the fact that Peter is wearing the Symbiote at the time I did the quest

        • pretty sick if I'm honest

      • Peter stops Yuri from killing the Flame, and a fight ensues

      • Peter saves the Flame but he blows up the arena, starting yuri’s second boss phase

      • The “no killing” argument between Peter and Yuri is pretty tired, but their shared history makes it interesting. 

      • The voice performances are popping off. 

      • Yuri says she'd rather lose sleep over killing one person as opposed to all the one’s she didn’t save, when she has made no effort to save civilians thus far. 

    • Mission 4: It was Meant for Me

      • Ganke calls Peter to tell him that some Flame guys were spotted ona  rooftop in Brooklyn.

      • Peter investigates, finding some evidence that the Flame have plans for a nearby dockyard that Oscorp uses.

      • They plan on pulling the trigger on the Crimson Hour

      • The dockyard has multiple bombs that Peter has to quietly disable. 

      • After the bombs are disabled, Yuri shows up. She expected the Flame himself to be there, but he wasn’t. 

      • Peter says that the Crimson Hour is happening, and Yuri says “Good thing I’m stopping yet” despite the fact that Peter literally just disabled 4 explosives before she showed up. 

      • After Pete and Yuri defeat the cutlists, a train comes though, and it its not stopped, it will ram through a gas tanker. 

      • Yuri and Peter derail it, but Peter is stuck underneath the train. The Flame shows up, saying that he has a follower that worked on the Symbiote, so the whole plan has been for the Flame to get his hands on a Symbiote. 

      • The Flame was Carnage the whole time.

      • Yuri jas the chance to chase the Flame, but instead, she chooses to save Peter

      • Yuri takes off, saying she’ll let Peter know when she finds the Flame again.

      • Yuri says that one of his old aliases was Cleetus Caddidy


Hunter Blinds/Bases: 

  • Complete enough blinds to reveal a larger base

  • Bases are large stealth encounters with multiple objectives

  • An audio log plays after each base revealing info about Kraven’s larger family, and how Kraven’s death will result ina  succession crisis of the Kravinoff “Empire” (whatever that means)

  • The bases probably have the best level design in the game. 




  • Combat: 

    • Peter: 

      • Muscle memory from PS4 is back in full swing, minus the gadgets. 

      • Spider-arms attacks feel weak compared to the explosiveness of Miles’ Venom blasts. 

      • Symbiote attacks feel much stronger in their impact and sound design (most likely something done on purpose) 

      • In the end, not much of an innovation over the previous two games.

      • (Pitch: Peter’s physical strength should have been demphaszed for me web related abilities, like web whips like shattered dimensions, to let Miles be the more physically powerful Spider-Man)

    • Miles: 

      • Much more fun to play as

      • Special moves seem much better integrated into Miles’ base attacks and animations (slide under doge into Venom punch is still amazing) 

      • Invisibility is render useless in this game thanks to awful stealth but it still could be used in combat

      • Special abilities are more useful thanks to the Venom status effect


  • Misc. Details

    • Meeting the other Spider-Man/other vigilantes in the open world is cool

      • Especially Harry/Agent Venom

    • Kraven’s plot creates a sense of urgency for all the characters involved. The way it escalated proves that there’s no safe place for anyone

    • Spider-Arms ???

      • Did Peter make them? 

      • Why do they come out of nowhere? 

      • Why aren’t they explained in the actual story? 

      • Are they Otto’s designs that Peter perfected? That’s important to mention. 

        • They share some design cues, so probably 

      • In gameplay, they are the weakest set of special abilities in power and sound design

    • Survival Horror Elements?

      • When the game slows down, the slow movement and close camera emulate survival horror aesthetics. That one MJ mission explicitly evokes horror but committing fully to disempowered gameplay in the vein of Resident Evil would have truly sold the Spider-Man fantasy. Swinging high above the skyline hits a whole lot harder when you know what its like to locked to the ground. 

      • This game jacks up the violence and leans into cosmic horror by the end. The story sheds light on some of the darker corners of this universe in quests like The Flame. 

    • Peter seems noticeably worse at being Spider-Man this time around. Felt like set-up for a dropped plotline about him aging/growing out of being Spidey while he has an obvious successor in Miles. Most of this is silent set-up for Peter feeling more powerful with the Symbiote.

      • Pete takes major damage in the Sandman fight, and its Miles who does most of the damage

      • His future as Spidey is called into question when he joins Emily-May

      • He struggles to save the people on the roller coaster at Coney Island before harry comes in with the assist

    • Peter has different dialogue while competing random crimes when he has the black suit on in Act II. He’s much more aggressive. 

Oct 20, 2024

44 min read

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