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A little inventiveness will get you a long way, and a lot will bring you to the top. Marvel's Spider-Man, designed by the brainiacs at Insomniac Games, shines with the joy of creative crime fighting. You swing and catapult through the air, moving from one point to the next in a flash and punch criminals where it hurts the most before trapping them behind unbreakable bars of web. An ever-increasing assortment of gadgets help you out, so does everything not nailed down in your surroundings, as you throw it around to knock enemies on their backs.
It's an instant classic - a power fantasy of dreamlike, superhuman mobility that utilizes the interactivity of the medium to make it a better, more engrossing superhero story than most movie counterparts.
A fair share of the awesome stunts you witness also funnels through the controller into you. After all, you're in control. The astounding amount of animations making them happen is the final touch that heightens the experience to the brink of vertigo. To a middle-aged gamer like myself, Spider-Man is as rejuvenating as it is amazing.
From a pure control standpoint, Spider-Man's gameplay is second to none. All of these advanced moves you perform with ease, as if they're second nature. Assisted by your spider sense alerting you to danger, it feels like you're always one step ahead of the competition, and the transition from one action to the next brings fluidity to the way you play.
Just travelling through the air along the high-rises of New York is such unparallelled joy, you'd be forgiven not to notice the astounding level of detail all around you. Careful design details are everywhere, but you mostly just swing on by, focusing on some distant quest marker. You'll of course notice the bigger picture, like the beauty of the cityscape as the sun reflects on the skyscrapers, the bustling city life far below, or the distant lights of neighborhoods yet unvisited.
What you'll likely miss, though, are the details down on the street level, since you're rarely there. The litter, the graffiti, the unique storefronts, people reacting to your presence, cheering you on or damning the day you were born - it's a totally different world. Some parts of the city are so run-down you feel like picking some people up into the skies to let them admire the view.
You'll also likely miss how Insomniac furnished and decorated the insides of homes and skyscrapers as seen through the windows. You might not notice, either, that every line of Spider-Man's gameplay dialogue was recorded in two versions - one strained and one normal, depending on whether you move around or not.
This is good use of a triple-A budget, investing money into details that we wouldn't miss if they weren't there, but take great enjoyment in finding out. The story works well on both levels. Whilst never forgetting the small-scale, subtle and personal, it keeps pointing out that the entire city is at stake. Spider-Man/Peter Parker (voiced by Yuri Lowenthal) has double jobs, rent to pay, a crime-ridden city to maintain, and relationships with his aunt May (Nancy Linari) and ex-girlfriend Mary Jane (Laura Bailey) to keep up.
He works for a small-scale inventor, a brilliant scientist by the name of Otto Octavius (William Salyers), who is on the verge of revolutionizing limb prosthetics. Peter is a great assistant, but constantly late for work. He is plagued by so many different responsibilities, he's about to burst at the seams. This is when a bunch of super-villains decide to make his life a living hell. Life as a crime fighter can be a bitch.
It's perfect for an open-world formula of balancing a hundred different tasks. In his desire to help everybody and fix everything, he's on the verge on failing everyone. His safety web of goodness is simply spread out so thin, it might break very soon. The narrative is well constructed, neatly paced and superbly acted, and takes a jab at the demands of the 24-hour online society.
Most impressive is that it allows the gameplay to take the driver's seat, keeping its story details on the sidelines as a motivating force. By progressing through the main campaign, you constantly unlock new side activities like thug hideouts, landmarks to photograph and different challenges, just to name a few. Completing these provides you with reward tokens that all go into an addictive leveling system of equipment upgrades, consisting of gadgets, suits and suit modifications.
Finishing these is a blast rather than a chore. This can be attributed to the ease of traversing New York. By simply holding a button, you automatically shoot a rope of web at the closest building, tree or lamp post, and release the button to let go and soar to the next one. You can change your intentions in the spur of the moment, losing only a few seconds to grab a nearby collectible on the way. It's like child's play, and kind of befits the sarcastic cockiness of the Spider-Man persona.
This sarcasm makes Spidey my favorite superhero. When creating a cinematic experience like this, the better developed your hero is, the better he may serve the game. We all know that wearing masks allows our true personalities to shine through, and the smart, nerdy Peter Parker is the most appealing when his unreserved alter ego is let loose. He has an endless supply of wisecracks even in the gnarliest situations. Playing into the power fantasy, this wit makes you feel practically unbeatable. And who can resist the charm of a superhero talking to a cosplayer, whilst taking the subway to fast travel?
This Spidey is so imperative to the overall experience that the only parts of the game I don't like are the brief segments where you control someone else. These are story-heavy scenes that usually involve stealth or pure exploration. They break the euphoria of limitless parkour. Above all the contrast to flying through the skies makes you feel shackled.
But who knows, maybe I wouldn't appreciate the good stuff without the "bad"? Like in real life, a change of pace once in awhile might shield you from completely burning out. Marvel's Spider-Man contains that special flame that makes it remain fun, no matter how much time you put into it. I personally exhausted almost all side activities and still craved more. I enjoyed all of them with the same unabashed bliss. And the fact that most of them revolve around the core gameplay mechanics might explain how ridiculously strong they really are.
It's an instant classic - a power fantasy of dreamlike, superhuman mobility that utilizes the interactivity of the medium to make it a better, more engrossing superhero story than most movie counterparts.
A fair share of the awesome stunts you witness also funnels through the controller into you. After all, you're in control. The astounding amount of animations making them happen is the final touch that heightens the experience to the brink of vertigo. To a middle-aged gamer like myself, Spider-Man is as rejuvenating as it is amazing.
From a pure control standpoint, Spider-Man's gameplay is second to none. All of these advanced moves you perform with ease, as if they're second nature. Assisted by your spider sense alerting you to danger, it feels like you're always one step ahead of the competition, and the transition from one action to the next brings fluidity to the way you play.
Just travelling through the air along the high-rises of New York is such unparallelled joy, you'd be forgiven not to notice the astounding level of detail all around you. Careful design details are everywhere, but you mostly just swing on by, focusing on some distant quest marker. You'll of course notice the bigger picture, like the beauty of the cityscape as the sun reflects on the skyscrapers, the bustling city life far below, or the distant lights of neighborhoods yet unvisited.
What you'll likely miss, though, are the details down on the street level, since you're rarely there. The litter, the graffiti, the unique storefronts, people reacting to your presence, cheering you on or damning the day you were born - it's a totally different world. Some parts of the city are so run-down you feel like picking some people up into the skies to let them admire the view.
You'll also likely miss how Insomniac furnished and decorated the insides of homes and skyscrapers as seen through the windows. You might not notice, either, that every line of Spider-Man's gameplay dialogue was recorded in two versions - one strained and one normal, depending on whether you move around or not.
This is good use of a triple-A budget, investing money into details that we wouldn't miss if they weren't there, but take great enjoyment in finding out. The story works well on both levels. Whilst never forgetting the small-scale, subtle and personal, it keeps pointing out that the entire city is at stake. Spider-Man/Peter Parker (voiced by Yuri Lowenthal) has double jobs, rent to pay, a crime-ridden city to maintain, and relationships with his aunt May (Nancy Linari) and ex-girlfriend Mary Jane (Laura Bailey) to keep up.
He works for a small-scale inventor, a brilliant scientist by the name of Otto Octavius (William Salyers), who is on the verge of revolutionizing limb prosthetics. Peter is a great assistant, but constantly late for work. He is plagued by so many different responsibilities, he's about to burst at the seams. This is when a bunch of super-villains decide to make his life a living hell. Life as a crime fighter can be a bitch.
It's perfect for an open-world formula of balancing a hundred different tasks. In his desire to help everybody and fix everything, he's on the verge on failing everyone. His safety web of goodness is simply spread out so thin, it might break very soon. The narrative is well constructed, neatly paced and superbly acted, and takes a jab at the demands of the 24-hour online society.
Most impressive is that it allows the gameplay to take the driver's seat, keeping its story details on the sidelines as a motivating force. By progressing through the main campaign, you constantly unlock new side activities like thug hideouts, landmarks to photograph and different challenges, just to name a few. Completing these provides you with reward tokens that all go into an addictive leveling system of equipment upgrades, consisting of gadgets, suits and suit modifications.
Finishing these is a blast rather than a chore. This can be attributed to the ease of traversing New York. By simply holding a button, you automatically shoot a rope of web at the closest building, tree or lamp post, and release the button to let go and soar to the next one. You can change your intentions in the spur of the moment, losing only a few seconds to grab a nearby collectible on the way. It's like child's play, and kind of befits the sarcastic cockiness of the Spider-Man persona.
This sarcasm makes Spidey my favorite superhero. When creating a cinematic experience like this, the better developed your hero is, the better he may serve the game. We all know that wearing masks allows our true personalities to shine through, and the smart, nerdy Peter Parker is the most appealing when his unreserved alter ego is let loose. He has an endless supply of wisecracks even in the gnarliest situations. Playing into the power fantasy, this wit makes you feel practically unbeatable. And who can resist the charm of a superhero talking to a cosplayer, whilst taking the subway to fast travel?
This Spidey is so imperative to the overall experience that the only parts of the game I don't like are the brief segments where you control someone else. These are story-heavy scenes that usually involve stealth or pure exploration. They break the euphoria of limitless parkour. Above all the contrast to flying through the skies makes you feel shackled.
But who knows, maybe I wouldn't appreciate the good stuff without the "bad"? Like in real life, a change of pace once in awhile might shield you from completely burning out. Marvel's Spider-Man contains that special flame that makes it remain fun, no matter how much time you put into it. I personally exhausted almost all side activities and still craved more. I enjoyed all of them with the same unabashed bliss. And the fact that most of them revolve around the core gameplay mechanics might explain how ridiculously strong they really are.
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