A Spectacular Sequel.
*Story Spoilers will be discussed*
Story Review
Spider Man 2 may be the perfect sequel to an already phenomenal original title. The game opens up showing Peter teaching at Brooklyn Visions Academy – the same class as Miles. Suddenly an attack on the city emerges that requires both Spider-Men’s attention. The pair are required to leave class to take down Flint Marko – The Sandman. this opening sequence introduces the player to the theme of the game’s narrative, balance.
The first game had a focus on loss, with the death of Aunt May, Martin Li’s loss of parents, leading to his attacks on New York. This was the continuing theme throughout the first game, showing how loss affects different people, for some it inspires acts of heroism, while for others it inspires acts of vengeance. The natural progression of themes between games provides an interesting character arc for both heroes, a teaching of the different principles required for the difficult role.
As the game continues this theme of balance becomes prevalent throughout the majority of different story arcs. Peter is struggling to balance both his professional aspirations and relationship with MJ with the burden of being Spider Man, as is Miles in relation to his college applications. Mary-Jane is struggling to balance her need to only publish the truth with the Daily Bugle’s desire to only post manipulations of the truth. Every character needs to find some sort of balance in their lives to juggle the different roles and goals of their life.
Enter, Kraven the Hunter. The way insonmiac approached Kraven was very interesting, and provided more depth for what is often a one note character in the comics. Kraven has been diagnosed with cancer – as we learn from the different audio cues after each Hunter Base (Secret Warehouses Kraven has set up throughout the city). Kraven wishes to die by his family mantra, at the hand of a more powerful foe/predator, partaking in the great hunt once more wishing for someone more powerful to kill him rather than his own body.
The discovery of Kraven’s backstory is more distributed throughout the different collectibles of the game. Hunter Bases reveal his diagnoses, Unidentified Objects reveal his family lineage, these intentional spatterings of his back story help to provide for an immersive world building experience within the game.
As the story progresses, asa teased in the previous game, Harry Osborn returns after his illness has been seemingly “cured”. This leads to some fantastic missions involving Peter and Harry revisiting their old high school, remembering their goals to heal the world as children, an aspiration that was seemingly lost due to the responsibilities of being Spider Man. This story arc yet again lends itself to the theme of Balance.
The continuation of this theme throughout the story brings a powerful message to the narrative, no matter how many people Peter saves he will always be more of Spider Man than Peter Parker. He still hasn’t been able to fully process the death of Aunt May as the longer his life progresses the less of Peter Parker remains.
This is the internal promise that the symbiote suit presents to Peter, a promise of balance – yet it is simply a facade, but under the influence of the symbiote, and a desperation to be able to live both lives – Peter believes it. After a mission hunting down Kraven, leading to a fatal stab wound, Peter lays on the floor close to death. In his last moments, the symbiote suit moves from Harry to Peter – choosing him as it’s new host.
This lends itself into the third act of the game. With Peter now empowered thanks to the symbiote suit, he believes that he can finally stop Kraven – catch the lizard (which Kraven set loose as part of the great hunt) and continue living his life as Peter Parker. Yet without the symbiote suit, Harry’s illness returns and he begins slowly dying.
After Peter has become too engrossed by the symbiote and begins losing the values that made him Spider Man, and after an incredible boss fight with Kraven, Miles returns to try and bring sense to Peter – after another boss fight between Miles and Peter, he finally breaks free of the grasp of the symbiote – yet he is presented with a difficult choice, knowing the effects of the suit and how it wishes to purge with its host, does he return the suit to harry, or destroy it as it should be, yet leaving his friend to die.
After being lured to Dr. Connor’s lab by a desperate Harry, the choice becomes lost as the symbiote breaks free of its containment and binds itself to Harry – creating the villain we’ve all come to know and love – venom.
The story of Spider-Man 2 doesn’t have the emotional punch of the original, yet it has interesting attributes of its own right. The consistent theme of balance brings for an interesting insight into the life of a hero. The story has plenty of surprises in store for players, especially in it’s action packed final act, and retains its ability to tell a meaningful story.
Gameplay
As discussed in a previous post, the gameplay of the game is an astonishing advancement of the first game. The web swinging has been radically extended upon, leaving the player to feel more in control of Spider Man. The set pieces are massive, the game’s performance and optimization is without issue (at least for me).
The stand out of the game though were its boss fights. Throughout the game you endure boss fights from, Venom, Kraven, Wraith, Scream, Sandman and more. Every single one of these boss fights feels individual, with every villain having different moves, attack styles, and levels of aggression. Kraven will often hide in the trees and shoot at you with a blow dart, while Scream is hyper aggressive lunging at you or attacking you with her hair.
These individualised boss fights lend the player a neccessity to adapt their play style for the differences in attack patterns – a radical difference from the first game that had an excessive amount of quick time events.
The different collectibles in the game are also extremely fun and satsifying as usual, with the completion of every collectible leading towards some amazing world building, a tease for the third game, or a fun cameo as is Miguel from Across the Spiderverse after the collection of all 42 spider bots.
Overall Consensus
Spider Man 2 delivers and extends upon everything that made the first game great. It’s prevailing narratives themes provide another deep and meaningful story that Insomniac are becoming known for. If you enjoyed the first game, this one is another love letter to Spider Man fans.
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