The title of this game is fun. For one, it’s at least the fourth video game to be called Spider-Man 2, one of the previous of course being based on the classic Tobey Maguire film of the same name. That film is the first of three Live-Action Spider-Man sequels, adding three more Spider-Man 2’s to take into account. But worst of all is the fact that this isn’t even the second game in this series, it’s the third, meaning Miles Morales was essentially a 1.5 (which cost fifty pounds).

Spider-Man 2 picks up 10 months after the events of the aforementioned second game and sees the former mentor Pete and student Miles standing together as New York’s two Spider-Men. The now-established duo face the threat of Kraven, who has made The Big Apple his new hunting grounds, and at the same time, a familiarly iconic Spider-Man staple Venom makes his “black suit” entrance into Insomniac’s Spider-Verse. Relationships are tested, former friendships resurface with Harry Osborne’s reappearance, and past traumas are faced head-on in this emotionally charged third entry.

If you’ve played either of the other two games, you’ll know what to expect in Spider-Man 2. The combat continues to be satisfyingly fast-paced, with a whole host of attacks, gadgets and combos to chain together, and now with increased power in the form of symbiote powers and Miles’ enhanced electric attacks, the weight of your moveset feels heavier than ever. It’s a case of, if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it, and that’s perfectly fine especially when it’s combat that genuinely has me holding my breath in concentration. I always thought of these games very similarly to the Batman Arkham titles, and while I still love that series, Spider-Man’s combat has always felt that degree better. With a more acrobatic character comes greater freedom of movement as well as faster-paced beatdowns, both of which persist here in the combat system’s strongest form yet.

Insomniac was hands-down the perfect choice to develop a Spider-Man game and If you’ve ever played Sunset Overdrive, you’ll know what I mean. They know how to turn traversal into the most satisfyingly enjoyable part of a game, which three Spider-Man games in, is more obvious than ever. After putting both main characters in black, now’s as good a time as ever for them to have introduced a very Arkham-style gliding mechanic. Like with combat, Gliding adds that extra degree of control by adding another movement option to your arsenal, making an already speedy trip across the city even quicker by utilising wind tunnels to zoom across a larger map that now includes Brooklyn and Queens. 

You may have picked up on what I feel is the main point to make with this review. It in most ways is the superior game, but only by improving upon previous features, which again is done very well, it’s just difficult to gush over the third time around. What I can say is a massive new improvement is how much Insomniac utilises the PS5’s capabilities. As this is an exclusive title for the console (for now), they employ the SSD, and improved graphical detailing to great effect. While the game obviously looks amazing, it’s the loading times, and the ability to switch between the two Spider-Men in seconds which seals the deal. They even chuck in a few different “Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart” style portals, to show off just how much the game can handle.

Having said this, the game did still crash on me unexpectedly a few times and had some soft locks that meant I needed to restart the game manually a few times over the 27 hours it took to platinum-complete the game. I can usually let a game get away with these, especially at launch, but I did get a laughable graphical error during the final boss that certainly hampered the dramatic nature of the game’s “epic” conclusion.

Look, I don’t hate the game’s main plotline, and I think especially with character portrayals and performances from Yuri Lowenthal, Nadji Jeter, Laura Bailey as Pete, Miles, MJ, along with incredibly well-done adaptations of Kraven and other villains such as Sandman and Mysterio, it’s certainly a strong setup for a game. It’s almost just maybe too predictable. Not just if you’re a big ol’ Spider-Man comic book fan, but if you’re even slightly familiar with the concept of Venom, you know how the majority of the plot will play out. It’s truly a great version of the Symbiote character, I’d even argue it’s the best rendition of the original Alien Costume Saga from 1984 that I’ve seen, especially being set in a Spider-Man universe that’s repeatedly been faithful to the source material. I think perhaps with the game being set in New York (understandably) for the third time, I’m getting a bit too much deja vu, and maybe if this game wasn’t seventy quid, I wouldn’t mind that as much given how solid of a package it is. That sense of having been here before, It’s just not a feeling that I can ignore when playing.

Something I don’t think I’ll ever get tired of though are the self-contained missions that run alongside the primary story. The side quest that follows up Yuri’s traumatic transformation from The City that Never Sleeps DLC is excellent and tests the morality of Pete’s no-kill rule. Miles’ endeavour to keep a cultural museum from closing demonstrates how Charlie Parker and other influential black musicians shape today’s music scene. It also includes some of the best one-off NPC interactions you could ask for, as well as a small museum walkaround which tricked me into learning something in a video game. However, all this being said, I don’t think anything hits quite as hard as either of the Spider-Men interacting with regular New York civilians in toned-down, grounded and very human scenarios. Remember the pigeon guy from the first game? Well, his side quest along with another that involves finding a lost grandpa genuinely had me tearing up, and made the game’s world feel that much more special, reminding us why Spider-Man will always be the friendly neighbourhood icon he is.

This is why it’s a shame that a certain few aspects from the past games don’t make a return. The first relates to the aforementioned community interactions, and that’s with the loss of the social feed. The app that’s used to request help from Spider-Man feels a lot more barren without it, as does traversing the city without the traversal challenges. Sure, both seemed pretty meaningless before, but without them, you realise just how much they did to fill in certain requirements. Swinging around feels less rewarding when you’re not getting challenges done, and the app feels less like interacting with a lived-in New York, and more like choosing a quest from a list. On a more personal gripe (that not many people will care about), the lack of character profiles in this game ticks me off, as I loved looking through them before to learn more about villains, friends and important characters in the story. It feels especially odd not to include it in a game where characters are now more complex than ever, Yuri is now a vigilante, Miles had to confront his best friend, and Pete’s still grieving from the loss of a family member, all things that could have been reminded to people through a character profile menu. Given how many characters are now in this universe, it’s strange that this is the game that doesn’t have it, but that could also be why Insomniac decided to scrap it, as they’d have to make double the amount than the last game.

I loved how inclusive the approach to Miles’ love interest Hailey is, with characters like Ganke trying his best to learn ASL, but the section where you actually play as her highlights a truly bad element to this series. Certain “gameplay sections” are barely gameplay at all. Using the adaptive triggers of the Dualsense controller to open Prowler stashes is quick and fun, while minigames based around Pete’s scientific endeavours are also fun (to me at least), but similar to how pointless quick-time events can feel, are long, drawn-out sections of the game that grind the flow of it to a halt. One minute you’re gliding around as Miles and the next you’re holding the trigger down and pushing an analog stick multiple times as Hailey to complete a sidequest that could have just been explained rather than played. The start of the Mysterio side plot does a similar thing by having a three-minute-long musical performance be timed up to the most mundane button inputs imaginable. I think a lot of people felt this way about the MJ and (pre-spider) Miles gameplay in the first game, and I get why. MJ does end up getting a taser in this game that makes her stealth-action parts feel a lot more exciting to play through, and if there’s enough emotional engagement behind a section with poor gameplay, then you can give it a pass, like with the Coney Island segment, but it’s been a noticeable thing in this series and still resists on occasion in this entry.

I think without a doubt the strongest element in this game is the character dynamics you’ll experience throughout the story. Miles and his interactions with his mother Rio, Ganke and Hailey are great but it’s how he deals with his arch nemesis Martin Li aka Negative Man that blows me away. Pete and MJ’s relationship turmoil is demonstrated in a startlingly realistic way and comes to a head with a surprise boss-fight villain inclusion that I personally loved. The most obvious demonstration of how strong these character dynamics are is how the two protagonists of the game interact. The Student and Mentor dynamic is tested to its limits with each having their own grief to deal with and feeling cut off from the people around them. With the return of Harry, Miles feels sidelined, and with the Black Suit making Pete a lot more aggressive to those he loves, you get multiple complex situations that are difficult for both to deal with. Miles really shines when he realises just how capable he is, and Pete when he realises the world isn’t on his shoulders, especially now that Miles is there with him. I’ve gotta hand it to the actors for both, especially Yuri Lownethals’ take on a Peter Parker that’s under the influence of his new suit, which has some brilliantly subtle moments that blew me away.

As I mentioned with the plot, the predictability of the game’s storyline isn’t exclusive to the bulk of this game, but also the set-up for the next game. I think I called what was gonna happen in Spider-Man 3 at the end of the first game, and if you’ve seen any Spider-Man film you probably could have figured it out too. It seems like 3 might be the end, which would be good to be honest as what I’m most excited about with Insomniac’s announced Wolverine game is just a change in setting. I will admit though that I did like the modern Spider-Man character nod in the post-credits sequence and can’t wait to see how that plays out in either DLC or sequel form.

Look, It’s a good game, we knew it would be good, but like with Tears of the Kingdom, the fear was that it would be too similar to the last. Where Zelda managed to rework an entire map and almost triple its size, creating a different, hundred-plus-hour experience, this game only feels like an improved continuation of the last two games that can be one hundred percent completed in under thirty. It is clearly an impressive experience and makes great use of its platform exclusivity, but it feels like the well is nearly dry at this point, which I hope the devs are starting to realise. I just hope they end this fantastic series before it shares the same fate as Marvel’s film fatigue. I’ve no doubt the next game will be good, I just hope that for enjoyment’s sake, it shakes things up just a bit more than the inclusion of gliding and symbiotes. At least if it’s gonna cost this much.