Marvel's Spider-Man 2🕷

[mfnick]

Least he’s perching and not sitting. Much healthier. 

[DANGERMAN]

The one I think I'm going to have to look up is the route to fly from one end to the other 

 

I'm also missing some of the combat ones, which is tedious 

[Nag]

Quick question for the folks playing this... did anyone else think that the suit Miles rocks up in for the finale is one of the ugliest things they ever seen, it's awful.

[mfnick]

Isn’t that the one Adidas helped design? I thought it was ok. Apart from the fact it has his hair/top of his head showing, seems a bit of an oversight if he’s trying to keep his identity secret. 

[Nag]

That's the one...🤮

[DANGERMAN]

Ok, so I have now Platinumed this. It's a great game, one of the best of the year and one of the best Sony have ever put out. Misgivings about the characters and the dialogue aside, there's some really good performances. The biggest thing though is how much of an improvement it is over the previous 2 games. 

 

My memory is that Miles Morales is a much better playing game than the original, but I went back to it yesterday, toying with just platinuming that too (nope), and there's all sorts of stuff missing from it. Things like having a UI for the powers, having a dedicated button combination for using the gadgets rather than pre-selecting them. 

[Nag]

It's a shame devs can't retroactively update controls on older games when they settle on a far superior set-up in a sequel. 

[Maf]

Finished this last night and got the platinum and thought it was great. I missed some of the older gadgets like the web bomb and the web mine, but the R1+X gadget is similar enough. I also loved Miles' abilities but thought Peter's were Ok. I've never liked the Iron Spider style metal arms. 

 

But overall the gameplay is better in every way. Web wings, side quests, counter move, enemy types, graphics, etc. 

 

The story was great as well. Especially the ending, it hit really hard and loved it. However overall I think I prefer the story from the first game. The symbiote suit has been done to death and even though there were cool new additions from the recent venom comics and the Kraven stuff was great, it still follows the same beats I expected it to go. The first game felt more original and and used much less common parts of Spider-Man to tell a great story. Kind of think the dialogue was funnier and sharper in the first game as well. 

 

SM2 was brilliant, though. Better gameplay but a bit more of a known quantity from a story perspective. Even if still done really well 

[DisturbedSwan]

Can’t read many posts as there’s a lot of spoilers in them but I started this I guess about a week ago and am having a lot of fun with it. I’m probably not enjoying it as much as I did Miles Morales at the moment but the activities are definitely more fun and less annoying in general. It’s like eating a good pie really, I sometimes feel stuffed at times but keep coming back for more.

 

It does feel like I’m kind of playing the same game again at times, there isn’t a lot of stuff that’s wholly new about it but it just feels more refined than the first game, like they’ve trimmed the fat of stuff that was a bit boring and it’s just all good stuff now.

 

I get the feeling it won’t be overly long either, I’m up to 46% completion with only 18 hours put into it which isn’t bad at all.

 

Graphically I found the beginning quite jarring after AW2, the facial animations weren’t great and the voices weren’t syncing but as it’s gone on I’ve either got used to it or it’s got better. What was up with those

Spoiler

Sandman

 visuals at the beginning as well? Didn’t look very current gen. Since then again though the world in general looks excellent and the reflections in buildings, puddles etc. are superb.

 

Spoiler

 

 

 

[mfnick]

12 minutes ago, DisturbedSwan said:

Graphically I found the beginning quite jarring after AW2, the facial animations weren’t great and the voices weren’t syncing but as it’s gone on I’ve either got used to it or it’s got better. What was up with those

  Reveal hidden contents

Sandman

 visuals at the beginning as well? Didn’t look very current ge

Seriously? Wow i felt the complete opposite in every way to what you’re saying here - along with the fact I thought this was amazing throughout whereas you’re a bit more lukewarm. But that’s more subjective. Visually though there’s no way AW2 facial animations are better. That’s actually been one of my disappointments with AW2 is how shitty the character faces can look. They look spot on in this. The sandman opening not looking next gen either? Man, I just don’t get it. 

[Nag]

Yeah... pretty much a 180 from what I felt... I thought there'd be tits blown off with this game.

 

I do have to ask whether your playing on that portable thing or not too?

[DisturbedSwan]

It does seem I’m a bit more down on it than you guys, which is unusual lol but yeah at this time I’m at more of an 8 with it. I do have probably just over half the game to go though. I will stress I am enjoying it but it hasn’t gone beyond that really at this stage.

 

I’ve played every moment on the TV as I’m unemployed until February 5th, so the PSP is collecting dust for the time being lol. Graphically, I did enable 120hz to get the extra 10fps in fidelity mode which might have had something to do with it? I’ve no idea otherwise but as it’s gone on the game has looked better and better, it’s just that opening segment that was jarring really.

[AndyKurosaki]

While I enjoyed this game, certainly enough to Platinum it, it did basically feel like more of the same. That’s no bad thing especially, as the original game was so good. But I dunno, this kind of felt like that, but with slightly better graphics. 
 

There was a bit about the story that was annoying, but I’ll have to spoiler tag it to discuss it. Here goes:

 

Spoiler

I didn’t like how Kraven killed several of the villains roster offscreen, and we got to see none of it, apart from finding their kit as trophies in one level.

 

i believe he killed Vulture, Electro, and Shocker? But we only got to see their gear, and I think I missed out on finding one of those.

 

Felt a bit lazy. It showed us Scorpion’s death. So we knew he was gone. But the rest basically got a Poochy “Died while going back to his planet” write off.

 

[DANGERMAN]

Let's say that someone reported 5 posts in here for spoilers, and of that 5 arguably 1 was actually a spoiler and that was without context. I'd be asking that person to maybe think before they reported things, because people have to be able to talk about the game, and saying that there's a mask where you can see a character's hair isn't a spoiler 

 

I know everyone has different tolerances for this sort of stuff, but this might be worse than when someone complained that a Mario game was spoilt because it was mentioned that Bowser was the bad guy 

 

Fwiw I think people are pretty good about spoilers. I know we've had to pull people up in the past but it's been a while 

[DisturbedSwan]

I don’t think there was anything as egregious as Bowser is the villain in Mario. I read one thing that inferred a side character died, another thing that revealed which character you play is in the finale and the suit he wears and other bits of pieces I didn’t want to know. 
 

In my view whenever talking about the ending of a game, whether obvious or not, whatever it may be, put it in spoiler tags, years ago I had something small ruined from TLOUP2 that the person didn’t even think anyone would probably pick up on. I pick up on small things and my imagination then goes ‘if he’s there then this must mean…’ and so on. 
 

It doesn’t matter anyway, I have had a few detailed ruined I would’ve rather not had ruined but it’s not the end of the world and hasn’t ruined the game overall for me in the end. 

[one-armed dwarf]

Tbf tho, you ate the head off me once for saying that Odin was Thor's dad. 

 

Or it was someone else who said that, I don't remember. But it was funny at least

[Maf]

I’m kind of bored and been reading Spider-Man comics today so thought I’d show some of the more surprising references/characters/things in the game and where they come from
 

Mega spoilers obviously 

 

Spoiler

So firstly is the multiple stages of Venom. The first surprise is when Harry turns in to Agent Venom. 
 

 

I didn’t see this coming at all. But in the comics Agent Venom was Flash Thompson, Peter’s high school bully, who after having he’s legs blown off in a Middle Eastern war was selected for a secret government test project where they captured the Venom symbiote and were trying it out on different people until it ‘stuck’ 

 

 

The next surprise was Anti Venom

 

Even though Peter becomes Anti Venom in the game, Eddie Brock was Anti Venom in the comics, but the story and usage is quite similar. In the game Peter becomes Anti Venom because Martin Li uses he’s power to try cure him of the symbiote, which instead changed him in to Anti Venom, then Peter uses he’s new powers to try cure New York of the Symbiote infection.
 

In the comics there was a story called Spider-Island where everyone in New York gets Spider powers. During the story Martin Li uses he’s powers to cure Eddie Brock of Cancer, and I forget how, but that makes Brock Anti Venom. And instead of curing symbiotes, Brock was curing people of Spider Powers before they turn in to actual spiders. They were also leaning into Brock’s Christian faith in a big way so he sort of treats it like a crusade or a gift from god

Speaking of god, the biggest surprise for me in the game is when they showed the meteorite that the symbiote came from. 

 

This was super crazy because this is the Knull symbol, also known as The King in Black. Knull was only created about 3-4 years ago and is a big retcon for symbiotes and Venom (and Thor, technically). Because Knull was a being from before there was light in the universe, he’s aim is to bring everything back to darkness. Mainly by covering everything with a symbiote and controlling it, but then also killing everything he feels wronged by (Celestials, mainly). In the game when Venom talks about healing the world and they show cutscenes where the earth is covered in Symbiotes, that a big part of The King in Black event where the same thing happened and the planet gets covered in symbiote goop. Thankfully none of that comes in to play in the game, which is good because I don’t think it would fit. But seeing the symbol was like “No way, are we going there?”

 

One of the big side quests in the game was Cletus Kassady.


Obviously Kletus later becomes Carnage, and seems like he might in some DLC/next game, as the game ends with him in possession of a symbiote. Although I think this is strange because at the end of the game when the meteorite is destroyed it seems like all symbiotes are meant to die with it. But whatever. In the game Kletus is obsessed with fire and leads the arsonist cult. This is a reference to Kletus’ origins as a serial killer where he burned down the orphanage he was raised in, years before he becomes Carnage. The cult part is because Carnage has regularly ended up the leader of a group/family. From he’s small band of villains in Maximum Carnage, up until cults worshipping and resurrecting him 

 

In a really short lived section of the game MJ gets infected and becomes Scream

 

This is not a character I know too much about. But I recognised her from one of Venom’s more famous, early solo stories Separation Anxiety. I’m not sure what her identity was in the comics, but it wasn’t MJ.

 

One of the most hold you breath moments in the game is when Miles’ mum and friend get captured by symbiotes on a subway. Everything turns out fine, but in the Ultimate Comics Miles’ mum was killed by a Venom incident. Not Venom directly, but close enough it seems like a reference in the game 

 

The big tease they end the game on is Cindy Moon

 

 

I wouldn’t be surprised if a lot of people finished the game, got to this scene, and was like “err…ok?” Firstly because they never call her by her whole name, just Cindy. Also because there’s only 1 famous “Spider-Girl” right now, and it isn’t this one.
 

Cindy Moon becomes the superhero Silk, and in one of my most disliked Spider-Man things ever, she was bitten by the same radioactive spider that bit Peter when he was 15. In the comics it was a retcon that Cindy was at the same science fair as Peter, and the spider bit her first, she got very similar but not identical powers to Peter, never acted on them, was approached by a guy called Ezikel who put her in a bunker for X years to hide her away from a villain called Morlun (Morlun is like a vampire that eats animals/insect people. As the Spiders are connected to the Web of Life and Destiny - Spider-Verse stuff, he especially wants to eat Peter and Silk) 
 

Clearly in the game the origin will be different, but I wonder if now there’s 3 Spider-People in NY if Morlun isn’t on the way for Spider-Man 3

 

Morlun

 

 

 

[Nag]

I had to Google the whole Cindy thing... hopefully they'll follow that up in dlc/a sequel. 

[Maf]

The roller coaster set piece from the game is the best action sequence in any Spider-Man game or movie imo

 

This game was a decent 8/10 for me. Mainly because it’s well made and really fun, but was more of the same and I’ve seen the story too many times before

 

But when the game shines it’s really good

 

Spoilers obvs