Now officially the six-billionth piece of entertainment with the title “Spider-Man 2,” Insomniac Games’ Nixxes Software’s Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 blends a number of modern interpretations of the neighborhood web-slinger into one. Following on from the events of Marvel’s Spider-Man and Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales, members of The Sinister Six are terrorizing the city, and that thing from the Spider-Man film that people say is real, but there was never a film with the Black Webbed Suit. You can hardly call that a spoiler; it is in the featured promo images across Steam and otherwise, and (for some reason), you just can’t get away from Venom.

Playing as both Spider-Men across the city, thankfully writers Jon Paquette, Walt Williams, and Benjamin Arfmann don’t just end the main plot at the end of Act 2. I’m still waiting for Beyond the Spider-Verse, Sony! Swinging into action as you’d expect from a Spider-Man game, Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 adds a little more to what we saw in both Marvel’s Spider-Man and Spider-Man: Miles Morales. From their initial duel-battling Flint Marko (Sandman) to random crimes leading to encounters from across the spider-cannon (doesn’t work, does it?) to showcase certain characters and tag-teaming abilities. However, spoiler-based plotlines later, there is also a divergence.

Despite being a complete story, I find it hard to say it is a good one. Hands up, I don’t like the Venom stories we often see, and this is no different. “Well, it’s from X or Y comic,” but why were those stories great? I’d argue that Spider-Man is often at its best when it is small-scale stories. Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 is very Marvel, which is to say it is big, bombastic, full of big set pieces and action, and generally the least interesting parts of the Spider-Man mythos. Gameplay? Some of the best we’ve had in a depressing over 20 years.

While I’ve just derided most of the story, I think Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 has a few good moments and actually some of the best bits of Spider-Man, too. Not only do you have Miles just being Miles, but you also have the supporting cast that surrounds him specifically. His shy relationship with Hailey is easily the most adorable and heartwarming relationship of all the Spider-Man love interests. Right up there with Kirsten Dunst’s MJ and the MJ for Into the Spider-Verse.

Is Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 a bad game? No, far from it. Off the bat it is a solid action game with maybe a few too many button combos or intricacies for anyone sane to remember entirely, with a slow-to-begin plot that ramps up to super evil alien tries to take over the world. If you think that’s a spoiler, you’ve never heard of the dull symbiote called Venom. The biggest problem with Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 is the fact that the PC performance since launch hasn’t been necessarily great. With everything whacked up to ultra (including ray tracing), I saw a significant crash claiming my GPU was overheating.

My GPU was fine, it hardly crossed 45°C (113°F), and in fact that was the only crash to the desktop. The only other significant issue I experienced over 30 hours was a freeze when coming out of the photo mode, which I might have spent 15 of those 30 hours in. The port-report section is kind of boring here. On a 40-series RTX card with 32GB of RAM and an i7, I get 60 FPS out of Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 at 1080P. It might not be a constant 60 everywhere, and some of those major fights might be difficult to keep up with, but generally, a bit of tweaking can sort out most of that.

For me, it was a case of slightly lowering shadows (quite literally) one setting down from its highest setting. There might have been an odd frame drop, but nothing that would make you violently sick when flying through the city on the end of your gloopy, white solidifying liquid. This actually brings me to the accessibility of Marvel’s Spider-Man 2, which is (unsurprisingly) one of the most accessible games I’ve ever seen. From text-to-audio settings, subtitles, color-coding enemies for visual impairment, toggles for actions, and more.

What impressed me the most (because I used it in some cases) were the shortcuts and game speed options. I believe the game speed options are supposed to be for motion sickness, which makes sense, as turning off those web-swinging assists means you will go fast, but I used it for more hectic combat scenes and those drone chase scenes. If you’ve missed something, not only are you contending with the Venom symbiote but also Kraven and his hunters, as well as the pyromaniacs which are part of Yuriko Watanabe’s story from “The City That Never Sleeps” DLC. Fights are visually cluttered.

The shortcuts on the left and right direction buttons, which can be mapped to several different things, are incredibly useful. For me, it was left to slow the game speed by 50% and right to open photo mode. The other reason I used this slowed game speed is to make those drone chases (which I don’t love) a lot easier. We’ll get onto the wing-suit in a second, but there are parts of Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 that felt more like a chore than a fun side-activity.

Returning to Hailey and how she ties into the story, I also think the way the adaptability works is so well done. It is entirely optional, but there is a setting for narrated ASL. This might seem like nothing, but not everyone is going to understand ASL or want to read a set of subtitles distracting them from the visual experience. On the accessibility front, I think Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 is very in tune with the character of Spider-Man itself; it is supposed to be for everyone.

That said, the Wing Suit addition feels somewhat like a cop-out. If you want to use it, sure, but the entire point of Spider-Man is that he uses the thing spiders uniquely have: webs. Iron Man’s superpower is money, Hulk’s is strength, Doctor Strange’s is old stuff we shouldn’t be digging up, and the Spider-verse’s abilities are flying through the city on liquid coming from their wrists. There are times when the wingsuit is useful, with the addition of Brooklyn and Queens to the map of the original game there are some less-swingable locations.

Making whole modes dependent on it smacks of “We’ve added something new, and we need to force it into the gameplay somehow.” Again, I don’t hate it as a way to get across certain low rooftops or through certain areas while swinging through the city, but the actual missions where the wing-suiting is dependent are tiresome. They are more exhausting than the stealth this time around. With three MJ stealth-based missions, she’s been overpowered, and I’m not complaining about that.

Speaking about that means I should probably talk about the story. The Spider-Men are at work and school when The Chordettes start singing about Flint Marko. He has been sent back to The Raft, Mr Negative is being moved from The Raft, and suddenly, Kraven shows up looking to hunt Mr Negative. It is all initially very focused on who, but a rather directionless mystery of why, outside of Miles’ hatred for Martin Li. Meanwhile, as teased in Marvel’s Spider-Man (1), Harry is “back” from Europe, just with one of those illegal aliens I hear so much about.

It is only when Venom (or at least the symbiote) is introduced that the story really picks up. Even then, I’m hard-pressed to say I’m excited by the Venom story. As always, it makes the person with the symbiote a bit moody, a bit of a My Chemical Romance fan, and doesn’t make them likable in general, which I think is my problem with it as a plotline. I get that it is supposed to be an antihero character, but my issue is that it isn’t a very good one. Without trying to spoil it (even if it is two years since the PS5 release), even to the places it goes, it isn’t very exciting or interesting.

To continue to try and avoid spoilers, it emphasizes relationships while not doing the work to show the problems; it more or less tells you the problems before distracting you with something else. It isn’t a terrible story, it is just there. I don’t think anyone is going to be saying in 20 years, “Wow, that was an amazing story told in Marvel’s Spider-Man 2!” Mostly because no one will know if you’re talking about the Tom Holland ones or the games. It justifies the reason for the world it is set in for existing than the world it is in justifying the story.

Where I think the best writing happens is in the side missions, as they fit more of the friendly neighborhood Spider-Man archetype that we’re used to for the characters. I’ve already mentioned the Hailey mission, a graffiti-based set piece that uses the PS5 controller’s gimmick qualities of the motion controls. However, it is the use of muted or lack of sounds that makes it interesting: Investigating something with sound cues or typical points to call your attention unique. It also helps that she, Rio, and Genke are good people and don’t have stealth missions attached to them.

As a Spider-Man game, Insomniac Games’ Nixxes Software’s Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 has great gameplay elements with numerous accessibility options to make it as playable as possible. I have my gripes with the story, not only for being grand in scale but also my personal dislike of the Venom story. It isn’t terrible, but I’m not always excited to go play a main mission rather than just swing around the city and play with the photo mode and suits. The many, many suits and brilliant photo mode.

Not only can you switch out the costumes on the fly in the mode, but you can also correct the lighting for every scene. From natural lighting to more specific lighting that is targeted. I’d like something more than filters to fill out saturation, but that would be me nitpicking at a game that allows you to create the pointing meme with a green screen. It probably doesn’t help that I am a slut for a photo mode and lots of locations or interesting points to take pictures, something Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 has in bunches.

Ultimately, Marvel’s Spider-Man 2, despite slight PC performance problems and a story that isn’t too exciting, is a fantastic action game that almost gets within touching distance of “The GOAT” Spider-Man 2 (2004) for the PS2/GameCube. Fluid web-swinging and simple combat that is expanded on with tech-trees keeps the open-world action exciting and fun, though there might be a bit too much force given to the wing-suit aspect in some areas. It has fun, excellent gameplay that keeps me running back to it to take more pictures or go swinging on days that don’t start with “Thurs.”

A PC review copy of Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 was provided by PlayStation Publishing LLC for this review.

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Marvel's Spider-Man 2

$59.99

8.5

Score

8.5/10

Pros

• Great, fun gameplay.
• Miles' side-plots/relationships.
• Great photo mode.
• Fantastic accessibility.

Cons

• The main plot is so-so.
• The Venom suit isn't great looking up close.
• PC performance problems.