Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 celebrated its first anniversary on October 20th, 2024. I am reviewing it to celebrate this milestone (as well as the game coming to PC). Spider-Man 2 has received much praise, with a review rating of 4.8 out of 5 as found on the official PlayStation website. IGN (Imagine Games Network) rated the game an 8 out of ten. Simon Cardy (An IGN reviewer) said, “Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 delivers Insomniac’s best tale yet, and despite its open world falling short, it is a reliably fun superhero power trip.” His full report for the game can be found here. Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 is the third single-player experience in the Marvel’s Spider-Man series. The first game in the series,
Marvel´s Spider-Man, introduces us to the main character, Peter Parker(Spider-Man in both Marvel comics and movies and the game). In this game, he fights some of his most iconic villains, such as Electro, Scorpion, Vulture, and Doctor Octopus(all villains from the comics). The second installment in the series, Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales, follows Spider-Man’s sidekick, Miles Morales(known through the Marvel comics), as he faces his first real villain, the Tinkerer. The most recent installment in the series, Marvel’s Spider-Man 2, puts the two Spidermen against their biggest threat yet, Venom(A villain from the Marvel comics.) Spider-Man 2 is the biggest game yet of the three both map and story-wise. The map has almost doubled since the first game. In the first game, the map only displayed the city of Manhattan.
However, in the second game, the map shows both Queens and Brooklyn (All real-life locations). The first two installments feature 28 suits for Peter and 19 suits for Miles. The 3rd game is a huge step up from that featuring a total of 40 for Peter and 40 suits for Miles. The swinging is also a step up from the other games, where before, there was a maximum speed of swinging. This cap has been removed due to the processing capabilities of the PlayStation 5. This makes the players feel like they are zipping past the map in no time. The Senior Creative Director, Bryan Intihar, stated, “We wanted to create new traversal opportunities because of how we’ve built the environment and also complement the web-swinging. It’s really fun and a big difference-maker.” 
The enemies that Peter and Miles battle are smarter as well. They have been more thought out and powerful. Bryan Intihar said, “Boss fights were a big focus for us. They change and evolve with each phase, and battles can start inside or below ground, moving seamlessly above or outside. There’s another level of spectacle that we haven’t done in previous titles.” Before, you could only play Spider-Man for the 1st game and only Miles for the second game. This changes in Spider-Man 2, where you can play as either of them whenever you want. It greatly affects the story. Ryan Smith, the game director for Spider-Man 2, explained, “We wanted players to express their own play style and have the freedom of choice. So if you feel Miles or Peter’s own abilities will be more effective in certain places, you can decide which one you want to play as.” Overall, Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 is a big step up from its predecessor. Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 is selling for $69.99 on the PlayStation Website.
