Marvel's Spider-Man 2 Preview

GamesRadar

Marvel's Spider-Man 2 has somehow managed to surpass our expectations, they've even made traversal more fun. The boss fights are bigger and it look amazing running on PS5 but how does it handle being able to play as both Peter and Miles?

Transcript

00:00I'm with Sam and she's played Marvel's Spider-Man 2 and it looks absolutely amazing.

00:11The symbiote powers in particular look like a lot of fun.

00:14They are really fun and they're quite OP but they are all on timers.

00:18So there's one that's like you kind of turn into like a sea urchin and all these spikes

00:21come out and like you can upgrade that so you get more spikes.

00:24There's another one that uses like octopus-y arms to grab loads of enemies and then like

00:27slam them on the ground and they're all really big so they make like a really nice impact

00:32when you're like you know doing all your combos and kicking and punching and stuff.

00:35They're a really nice way of like there seems to be a lot more enemies this time around

00:39to kind of compensate for the fact that you can take out like 10 enemies at once.

00:43So it's like it's much more chaotic at least with the with the combat that I've experienced

00:47even on a side quest and things like that.

00:49So it's yeah they're dramatic let's say that.

00:52So keeping with the comic accurate storyline as well Peter's got angry.

00:57Poor boy.

00:58Yeah I mean again I'm not sure like how he gets his symbiote powers or what the backstory

01:02was like than the bit I played he already had though so it was kind of like oh what's

01:07what's going on here but it's quite interesting watching his friends react they're like what's

01:12what's what's you know Peter seems a bit odd and like obviously a lot of the game is about

01:17Peter's relationship with his best friend Harry and like at one point like Peter Parker

01:22like uses one of the symbiote powers and he's like damn that feels good.

01:25There are also stealth missions are back but they look way more improved from previous

01:30games.

01:31Yeah I think like it's really lent into the kind of Batman Arkham kind of history in that

01:35like there are some missions where you play as Mars's spider bot again which is really

01:40good like they seem much more kind of in depth and you have much more freedom as to how you

01:45kind of want to use use the various tools that the little spider guy has but then actually

01:50when you're playing as Mars you can use you can make your own web tightropes I guess like

01:56it feels like you are much more of a spider-man in that sense because like you could be watching

02:00down below and see where people are kind of patrolling and be like oh actually I need

02:03to get over there so I can drop down on these people and by the time I finished the whole

02:07roof was covered in these web lines because I was just like well anything over there now

02:11this person's going to be over there.

02:12If any of the enemies looked up they'd go I think spider-man's here.

02:15Yeah I feel like I wasn't that like yeah all they needed to do was look up and be like

02:19what looks amazing is some of the big boss fights again which we've got a lizard boss

02:23fight that you did and it's just it's multi-staged it's huge it's impactful it's complex like

02:29what was that?

02:30It was it was really hard I'm just gonna put it out there if anyone's played the original

02:34two you can use when you see someone glowing red you can use circle to dodge out the way

02:40you can still do that but there's also a new parry mechanic so it kind of flashes yellow

02:43and you have to press L1 to kind of quickly parry it takes a lot of getting used to because

02:48your symbiote powers as peter and your electric base powers as miles are both also mapped

02:53to L1 plus the face buttons because obviously when you're playing as miles as well there's

02:57a lot of electricity flying around and sometimes it's quite easy to miss that parry prompt

03:03and those those attacks really hit you they're like they're the new heavy attacks in the

03:08game so they both basically come from either these boss battles or just heavy enemies that

03:12you find in the world that can like really smash your health if you're not watching.

03:17Yeah this lizard's boss fight kind of made up the climax of our preview event the whole

03:22thing had been leading up to this the doctor who has turned to the lizard has got what

03:28they think is the antidote for what's wrong with harry so they've been tracking him down

03:32obviously this this lizard guy is becoming more lizardy with every passing moment and

03:36it's yeah a three stage battle you had to constantly keep moving and like keep the pace

03:41up and yeah they definitely delved into the drama of these boss battles that the original

03:47games are famed for and there's sort of elements of chase in there as well and yeah it's really

03:53good.

03:54So between the three characters as well how does it work with like say levelling up and

03:57like say gadgets because you've got symbiote powers which are very different to miles's

04:00ones and everybody has different and peter can now fly.

04:04So like because they're kind of bringing all of the the areas of new york and manhattan

04:08together and because of that there's a lot more like open areas of like water or parkland

04:13or like lots of low buildings they had to kind of introduce a mechanic that made traversal

04:18feel much more fun yeah you'll be swinging instead of i'm losing momentum and there's

04:22not a kind of a skyscraper nearby and you can kind of fly and then there's these wind

04:26tunnels that you can kind of use or like you can use to push yourself up into the air as

04:29well so i didn't think they could make moving around a spider man feel better but somehow

04:34they are both spider-men level up as you play as them so i guess you don't need to kind

04:38of use each one equally to get the same skill points but you can use those ability points

04:44to either upgrade or unlock abilities for both of them that they share or you can level

04:50them up separately obviously to like dial into the symbiote powers or the or miles's

04:54like electric but then also there's the gadget which seem to be shared as far as i could

04:58tell um but yes a lot there's a lot going on but it's nice that unlocking you into i

05:03guarantee you that there are going to be story points where you i'm sorry but you're going

05:06to have to play but there's a nice where you're like no i like i'm going to go find

05:09all the objectives as miles and get some xp with that and the side quests and stuff it's

05:13like okay great you're going to find your preferences aren't you about like oh i want

05:16to use this person in this situation or for this side mission it feels like it'll be easier

05:19to have the symbiote powers at least you're not like oh i've used peter way too much so

05:23he's like really overpowered and i haven't used miles much it seems like it's much more

05:27like you're free to kind of switch around and you're not going to be penalized for that

05:31by the sounds of it so it's good um one area that miles is definitely seems to be winning

05:36from the footage that we've got um over peter is clothes and customization because miles

05:41is wearing some amazing looking sneakers um and peter's got some options as well but you

05:46got to see a bunch of other like outfits that they have and there's a lot of customization

05:50going on there as well oh my god yeah i think brian interheart the creative director or

05:54game director said uh there are 65 outputs to unlock but there's also styles now and

06:00there's over 200 of them which kind of change the um the color scheme and like like tweaks

06:05to each of the outfits so there's yeah there's there's a lot as long as they have the cat

06:10backpack oh my god i know i don't care i should have asked them that i didn't even i just

06:14like he's gonna be in there how could it not be spiderman he's he's spiderman i want the

06:19one with the little window the little bubble window so just generally like i haven't actually

06:23asked you this but i get the feeling that people could assume from the way that you're

06:26talking about it so enthusiastically you enjoy playing it it's it's good yeah it's

06:30good and it definitely i mean it looks absolutely stunning as you'd as you'd hope from these

06:35games i just can't wait to kind of like see what the idle animations are because like

06:40yeah like in the overworld you can switch between the two characters i see what they

06:43get up to when you're not playing as them like yeah um what was interesting they did

06:47say that they won't when you switch them they won't be just in like their normal clothes

06:51or like at school they'll always be like ready to ready to swing so that was quite interesting

06:55like so when's it out it's out october 20th exclusively on ps5 um and yeah it is really

07:02fun like if you're a fan of marvel spider-man one or miles morales like it is the bringing

07:06together of all of this stuff and i'm loving the interplay especially like through the

07:10dialogue of their relationship as well they're trying to learn you know learning how to be

07:13best friends as well and but there's also mj and actually you know what is really interesting

07:18is that all of all of their family and friends know that they're spider-man it's quite rare

07:24like especially in you know the movies and other games it's like there's no secret identity

07:30here for for these characters and their family like miles his mom knows that he's spider-man

07:36and like mj and his friends know and aunt may obviously did know and it's just it's

07:43interesting seeing them kind of deal with that fact that their friends and family know

07:49that they are living this double life yeah being able to talk about that feels like a

07:52really interesting dynamic and obviously like the stories in these games are always

07:56really well written and well crafted so i'm as much as excited as that kind of stuff as

08:02i am how good this game feels to play and how good the combat feels even if i am shit

08:07at the parrying but maybe that's just me i'm sure you can get an upgrade that makes it

08:11easier yeah autopilot anyway looking forward to the cat backpack yeah

08:20my final heart

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