Review: With Great Power Comes Great Gaming

Swinging alongside New York City high-rises clad in spandex while fighting crime and frustrating your arch-nemesis with terrible quips is a perfect translation for gaming.

Insomniac Games’ Spider-Man (exclusive to the PlayStation 4) masters just that in a spectacular marriage of fluid combat and environment traversal that has kept a smile on my face since that familiar Marvel logo graced the screen.

Populated with hustling crowds, honking cars and villains ready for a whooping, Spider-Man’s Manhattan is a meticulous recreation all the way from Harlem to Downtown.

The attention to detail of the busy and bustling streets of N.Y.C sets the mood for the player to swiftly make your way from block to block looking to help those in need.

The colorful and crisp graphics look great on the PS4 and PS4Pro and hold a constant 30 fps, which is no small feat for such a complex and populated imagining of Manhattan. Often times character models dip into “uncanny valley” territory, but Spider-Man in his suit is always awesome to see.

The city feels alive and interactive, even allowing the player to enter certain buildings during the many quests the game offers. The controls are so well crafted that even the most mundane side-missions in this game are a joy to encounter and complete.

One of these sets of missions enlists the player to capture a couple of pigeons throughout the Big Apple. Others have you solving public health crisis around the city before they become disastrous.

There was a lot of opportunity to use the wider Marvel universe in sprucing up these quests that goes unused. The player should not be forced to take down nameless thugs so many times when street-level heroes such as Daredevil or Luke Cage could be in need of aid.

No matter how Spidey gets sidetracked, the momentum and rush of swinging around the city is well worth your time. Completing side-quests also awards the player special currency that can be used to unlock skills to further the superhero’s combat and traversal skills.

These skills, like Perfect Dodge or Swing Kick add a lot to the moment-to-moment gameplay and put a nice polish on Spidey’s moves.

The player can also unlock different suits for Spidey to wear while fighting the villains and criminals of Manhattan.

The suits themselves unlock new skills and bring another degree of mechanical and aesthetic customization to the table, though some suit skills make the game much easier even on the hardest difficulty.

Making the suit a gameplay mechanic instead of just the character’s outfit is one of the most special parts of this game. Especially for a superhero with such a long history and in a medium that likes to charge extra for cosmetic touches.

The side activities that make up part of the gameplay tie directly into unlocking these suits, special abilities and perks.

Spider-Man excels most in its fast-paced, web-slinging combat. Facing off against criminals and villains; veterans of character action games like the recent Batman games or Devil May Cry series will feel right at home on the hardest difficulty. Those looking for less of a challenge can still pull off breathtaking combos to channel their inner web-crawler.

The combos and unlockable skills available to the friendly neighborhood hero will have the player constantly trying out new ways to use Spidey’s superhuman reflexes and web-shooters to get the job done.

Though the combat and web-slinging has a bit of a learning curve on all difficulties, Peter Parker’s spidey-sense will have you swinging around in no time, even in the midst of a chaotic shootout.

Finding a couple bad guys on top of a roof means it is time to try out how good the player is at swinging around the edges of a skyscraper to avoid gunfire.

The varied approaches to combat make fighting even random thugs off the street a world-class trapeze act.

However, at times the game will force the player into stealth-based encounters, and unfortunately the fluidity of the combat cannot save how routine this specific mission type will begin to feel.

Spider-Man also excels in the story department, though players unfamiliar with the web-slinger may find themselves a little lost.

Moreover, the game also has trouble incorporating the side-missions into its narrative.

At times this disconnect can make the story pacing seem odd and even characterize Spider-Man as somewhat of a Boy-Scout instead of the sarcastic and burdened hero the player comes to know in the main story.

The relationships between Peter Parker and his peers, rivals and enemies are already established, letting Insomniac play around with Spider-Man’s rich roster of villains and side heroes to tell a high-stakes and, at times, emotional story.

Cinematic storytelling often has a bad rep of breaking up the gameplay in action-oriented games, but the phenomenal voice acting carries any major problems I have with these scenes.

Long-time fans of Spidey and all things Marvel will feel nostalgic at encountering references to the comics and the movies, such as Avenger’s Tower or Dr. Strange’s Sanctum Sanctorum.

All of these systems culminate in a fantastic accomplishment by the folks over at Insomniac, and the player will step away with a greater appreciation for the Spider-Man universe.

And of course, a nagging desire to continue swinging around New York City.