Some aspects of the game are masterly crafted. However, it eventually started to feel like a chore.
Marvel's Spider-Man is a game so inspired by games such as the recent Batman series, Shadow of Mordor, and Mad Max that I was very surprised to learn that it was not published by Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment. On one hand, I was turned off by the lack of innovation because of this, which I feel is also apparent with the slew of recent superhero films, but on the other hand I enjoyed this type of gameplay, and as a result welcomed it. Near the beginning of the game it was done so well that I was willing to call it a masterpiece. However, it eventually started to feel like a chore.
Surprisingly, the best part of the game is simply traversing throughout the game world. I find that open world games has recently become the standard, but the world and the method of travelling fails to make the world engaging. At that point, fast travel becomes the norm as you just want to get from point a to b faster. I never had this problem here. The way Spider-Man swings and runs on buildings is something that I never got tired of. In fact, I never even used the fast-travel.
The combat is another aspect that I really admired. If you enjoy the combat of the games listed in the first paragraph, then this is something you will also enjoy. It actually more in-depth as you can utilize webs, gadgets, or air attacks from swinging. Fighting is a huge portion of the game in both the main story and the side quests, but I was always having fun doing it. I also enjoyed the fact that there are even moments where you play other characters, and stealth sequences that although can be shallow, are always welcoming to me.
It is also in-depth in terms of Spider-Man himself. On top of the standard RPG tropes such as a leveling system with skills to choose from, you can also unlock and upgrade gadgets. There is also the suit itself. You have many suits to choose from with each of them having their own power. The best part is that you can interchange the powers with the suits, meaning that the suit is purely for aesthetic reasons as opposed to choosing one because it has the best power-ups. My favourite suit was the noir one. On top of this, you can choose 3 more power-ups. This includes decreasing damage, or my favourite one, slowing down time after performing a perfect dodge.
However, there is a flaw with all the skills, gadgets, and suit power-ups. I find that the normal difficulty had just the right amount of challenge. However, I was on edge quite often during combat. Especially during the 2nd half of the game. I find myself never utilizing them, especially the power-ups, as I wanted to just keep myself alive. This also has to do with focus. With focus you can either do a finisher on an enemy, or use it to heal yourself. I always used it for the latter, and kept saving it up in case I needed it.
There are tons of side quests and collectables to do as well, and for the most part it was a success. They give plenty of motivation for the collectables by giving you both xp and tokens which are needed to unlock or upgrade things. I can't really fault the game for doing this, as it was my play style, but I found myself doing all the side quests and collectables as I unlocked them. This ended up making the game feel like a chore. However, you could blame the game for this as well due to the motivation it gives you to complete them. I felt compelled to collect them all as they were unlocked. I found the ones that seem the most boring to be the most fun, such as collecting pigeons, as it improved your world-traversing skills, or the bases which had pure combat. The research stations however were quite underwhelming even if they had variety. The side quests range from very fun to underwhelming. I especially enjoyed the one about an internet streamer.
I know I will get a lot of flak for saying this, but I also did not enjoy the story whatsoever. However, I am somewhat of a snob and loathe the recent superhero films, so take this with a grain of salt. It has the standard tropes, and aiming for sympathy and making Spider-Man relatable, which I find to be shallow as I prefer to see different perspectives on people and their motivations, rather than liking someone because they think like me or go through the same things. The twists can be obvious, with the good guys not actually being good. Their reasoning are also given to you like a pill. Spider-Man's banter was also annoying to me. I especially hated the scenes with Mary Jane and the rocky "relationship". It felt cringey, but not in a good way. However, I really enjoyed Just the Facts with J. Jonah Jameson. It was incredibly entertaining hearing his banter and the interviews.
This is a game that I can easily see why people would love it. In fact, I can recommend this to people that enjoyed the recent Batman games, or love superheroes. It is just something that I grew tired of eventually.
