.png)
Spiderman PS4 Full Game Review
- That Review Site
- Oct 1, 2018
- 6 min read
Finally it is that time of year again, when a new game we’ve all been waiting for since the last PS4 conference or E3 comes out and companies all over the city have calls coming in saying someone in their office can’t turn up because they are ‘sick’, when in fact everyone knows they were up all night playing the new release title. Well this year, it is Spider-man that took the world by a storm. It was teased way back in June of 2016 when he swung into the big screen at the Ps4 conference and everyone lost their minds and been waiting since. Insomniac, yes the studio behind ratchet and clank, is the one behind spider-man. I have to say, they’ve done a great job, the game feels like the team really put in the work and did their homework on the spider-man and went to town making one of the most anticipated game of this year.
This is a real spider-man game, everything about the game feels like spider-man from the swinging to the spidey jokes. From the beginning of the game you are introduced into the massive city of New York through the swing, and everyone knows a spider-man game isn’t a game without the swing. The developers really put their heads together to make every swing feel real and weighted.
You can see how the g-force is affecting spidey and how it pulls him down. The swinging has always been very comical in the past iterations of the game with the webs attaching themselves to the clouds or thin air, which never really made it an immersive experience. They’ve completely started it from scratch, with physics as the key component. The webs now attach themselves to the buildings or a contact surface making it more realistic. Furthermore, adding more animations during swings and while you release and connecting them through a state-machine meaning they feel more fluid between swings. The fluidity of the swing really shows when you’re close to buildings or have to go through fire escape stairs on the side of buildings, they connect through with animations which transitions you through these things without taking you out of the swing.
In a game it’s very important that you feel immersed into the story, and the key tool used in storytelling is the environment. In many games that is usually another planet with an alien, or a space station near earth, which are beautiful no doubt and works for the games they accommodate. In spider-man we have Peter parker, born and raised in Queens, New York, and Insomniac really brought the city of New York to life, with the density and richness and detail everywhere you look. This is the New York from the Marvel MCU, fully equipped with the Avengers Tower smack dab in the center. It is incredible to look at while you swing above the city, but when you’re down in the city line and you’re standing looking up, it feels majestic and it towers over you giving you the sense of the concrete jungle. The city is a character on it’s own, because spider-man is the city of New York, he’s a kid from Queens and he doesn’t know any better than the city. While you’re fighting enemies the city is your battle ground, and when you’re down on the ground, the animators have done a great job where you can say hi to the folks and wave at them just giving you that whole rounded teenage life experience of spider-man. The studio really kept that In mind, making the city feel like a character with a personality, the day time shimmers of the sun from the coast hitting the buildings.. just gives you goosebumps swinging around at that time. In contrast, the city at night feels like a diamond shinning in the dark, you can feel the energy of the city that never sleeps.
Now, Spider-man is the face he shows the world, but there is a man underneath, the real man. Peter Parker. The game really takes you through Peters life, it lets you live Peters life and feel what Peter feels. There are areas In the game, which I am so happy insomniac added, where you play as Peter Parker and speak to aunt may and Dr. Octavious, whom in the game he interns for, this really shows Peter from a human perspective, he isn not just the crime fighting vigilante, he is also a boy who has human responsibilities along with great power ( I feel like uncle ben all of a sudden, that brings back feels ). Peter is a smart kid and the studio took the time to incorporate those elements into the game for us to play, puzzles and brain teasers which lets you walk through Peters mind a little to give you the feeling that you’re not just brawn but also brains. You do feel a sense of vulnerability but you are Peter at the end of the day.
Peter Parker and Mary Jane Watson was the power couple which resonates through the Marvel comic book history. Insomniac really took that concept and ran with it. Mary Jane is a head strong journalist and you get to put yourself in her shoes at different stages in the game and this gives you an incredible feeling of just being part of the whole game. It was amazing to play as Mary Jane and to feel how it is to have spider-man as a partner.
Insomniac really did their homework. Spider-man has a very interesting rogues gallery of villains and they really just put their hands into the bag of villains and pulled out a whole bunch of the best ones. Shocker, King Pin, Scorpion Is literally just a few I can name out of the whole collection. They didn’t just pull the characters straight out of the comics and then stick them in the game, they really deconstructed the characters and gave them life of their own. These villains in the game, if separated, had something that made them unique without spider-man complimenting them, which is a very difficult task for any studio to accomplish.
The studio really wanted to tackle every aspect of spider-man from the comic books and the shows and every iteration available by adding in side missions and add-ons. The city in itself is filled with a ton of side missions apart from the original story line, swinging around the city and you find someone calling out for spidey and solving these missions gives you points, which can be used in the menu to buy yourself suit upgrades and suits themselves.
Suit upgrades is a tree based upgrade system that evolves your move sets and powers as you play the game. This is achieved through in-game points which you gain from either finishing side missions that pop up, finding bags hidden across the city which give you small pieces that can be used to upgrade your suit or, the most interesting one, landmark points, which is taking photos of different landmarks around the city. These points can also be used to unlock different suits in the game, suits like the Iron-spider suit from Avengers, or the classic spider-man suit and my personal favorite default suit that insomniac has made specifically for this game from scratch, which looks amazing.
Wrapping this up, the entire game is a full fledged spider-man experience from the beginning till the very end. Insomniac didn’t make an origin story , Thank you for that, this is a story of spider-man in his prime, fighting through a brilliant story involving all his rouges and responsibilities, being that hero that everyone looks up to, being greater. The studio had a lot of pressure getting into this because their prior experiences have always been on their personal IP, there was definitely a challenge taking on an existing IP with so much history behind it the margin for error was very thin and they definitely came out on top as the underdog. This is an incredible game this year and it was well worth the wait, anyone playing this game, for those first time experiencing spider-man or the veteran spider-man fans are both going to enjoy the game alike.
Suit image source: Game Crate
Comments