What is the game about?

Play as Peter Parker (post the break-up with MJ) as you try to take down the new villain of New York City behind the crazy, superpowered terrorist attacks. Only playable on Play Station 4, this Marvel game by Insomniac received positive reviews across the board and it’s not hard to see why. Fantastic visuals, superb graphics and an engaging storyline all contribute to the great response from players and critics alike.

Spoiler alert: you’ll even be introduced to a certain young man whose name rhymes with Tiles Torales.

What I enjoyed about Marvel’s Spider-Man

Web-slinging

Who would have thought that swinging from building to building would be this exhilarating and easy? What I like about this is that it’s a unique way to see the city without actually being there. I swear, I could spend hours (possibly already have) just swinging my way around the city – doing parkour and climbing to the peak of every skyscraper I come across. If like me, you’re the Adventurer type, this will definitely appeal to you.

Fisk hideouts, finding backpacks and other side activities

Gosh! I really enjoyed kicking a bunch of Fisk’s men off the roofs of skyscrapers and making construction scaffolding fall on them. (I think that says something about me, but we won’t delve into that here.) Being surrounded by Fisk’s men armed with a variety of weapons is quite exciting. Dodging attacks from all around and responding with effective counter-attacks really puts your reaction skills to the test.

The game also offers other activities to do whenever you feel like it, testing your skills in combat, stealth or traversing the city. From preventing an avian-related flu outbreak to finding all of Howard’s pigeons, the challenges are all unique and bizarre in their own way. One activity that really piqued my interest is finding all of the Secret Photo-Op locations. There are 50 in total and quite challenging to find as you won’t know if a location is a Secret Photo-Op until you take your camera out and aim.

It’s not all about Pete

The storyline isn’t all about Peter, which I like. Insomniac offer interesting breaks from being the friendly neighbourhood superhero by letting us play as the talented reporter Mary Jane, and Miles Morales. Both MJ’s and Miles’ stages feature basic stealth abilities which truly makes you feel how high the stakes are. Unlike Spider-Man, you can’t do stealth takedowns or web anyone to the walls (regardless of how annoying the Sable guys are), it’s all about making use of what is around you. This aspect will definitely appeal to the Adventurer types as it acts as a type of break from the singular-aspect, linear gameplay.

My only difficulty…

Trying to respond to crime alerts. As someone who doesn’t know anything about the layout of NYC, telling me that there is a terrorist attack or petty theft in a certain part of the city isn’t 100% helpful. Especially if I’m currently on the move and have already swung past the area that allowed me to hear the alert.

Every game has its flaws

As brilliant as Spider-Man PS4 is, no game is perfect. One thing that caught my eye was the state of the opponents’ bodies once they were down for the count.

[Image of broken humans in the game]

If you have the game, I urge you to take a minute to look at the bodies of your unconscious enemies. Most, if not all of them, will have at least one limb pointing in a weird and unnatural angle. Now, maybe it’s just the result of Peter’s battle prowess, but I’m sure it’s not meant to happen once they’ve already been knocked out.

Now, don’t get me wrong, it doesn’t upset me. In actuality, it amuses me more than it probably should, and I like to think that the developers have left that bug in there on purpose. However, if that isn’t the case, they should probably sort that out.

Overall opinion of Spider-Man PS4

Brilliant. Marvel’s Spider-Man by Insomniac definitely deserves the ratings and reviews it got. I’m really glad I made the investment in the game and would recommend it to anyone thinking about playing.

Signed,

Xinterra

P.S. I’m just kidding. Definitely consider visiting The Big Apple, it’s an awesome city!