With Marvel’s Spider-Man 2, Sony wants to pass a technical milestone and confirm that it is still the master of AAA single-player experiences on the video game market. Ambitious and aimed at the widest possible audience, the title should once again be sold in pallets. Release date, new gameplay, storyline, here’s everything you need to know about the next big PS5 game.
After the success of Marvel’s Spider-Man and Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales, Sony Interactive Entertainment is launching a new opus to complete the license with a sequel, Marvel’s Spider-Man 2. This third game takes up the formula of its predecessors, between enjoyable exploration and dynamic combat, while bringing some welcome new gameplay features. One of the main attractions of this title is to allow the player to switch between two characters in the Spider-Man costume: Peter Parker and Miles Morales.
When is Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 coming out?
The title will be available on October 20, 2023, a month full of releases since Assassin’s Creed Mirage, Alan Wake 2, the next Forza Motorsport, Cities: Skylines II, Just Dance 2024 Edition and Alone in the Dark are also planned. Not to mention that Starfield, the new Mortal Kombat, Payday 3 and Cyberpunk 2077’s Phantom Liberty expansion will have us busy in September already.
Is Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 a PS5 exclusive?
For the momentSony has only announced Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 for PlayStation 5. The publisher is ignoring the PS4 to fully embrace the latest generation of consoles, which in addition to delivering much higher computing power, has the advantage of being equipped with an SSD. We imagine that this will be very useful for letting the player change characters on the fly and in the middle of the action, one of the game’s key promises. We can only trust the teams in charge of the project since Insomniac Games has already proven that it can perfectly exploit the capacities of the SSD of the PS5 in Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart, still considered a technical showcase of the console.
How much does Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 cost?
Sony applies the high price of its AAA exclusive games for Spider-Man 2, sold at the price of €79.99 in its basic version. A digital Deluxe edition at 89.99 euros is also offered. It contains :
- Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 Full Game
- Five unique outfits for Peter.
- Five unique outfits for Miles.
- Bonus items for Photo mode.
- 2 skill points.
By pre-ordering the Digital Deluxe Edition, you also get a pre-order bonus, which consists of two new outfits, a web-grabbing gadget and three extra skill points.
Spider-Man 2 finally comes in a Collector’s edition sold for 249.99 euros and including:
- All Digital Deluxe Edition Content
- The SteelBook case
- The 48 cm statue representing Spider-Man Peter Parker, Spider-Man Miles Morales and Venom
Sony being far from adopting the same policy as Microsoft with its Xbox Game Pass for PlayStation Plus Extra and Premium, we should not expect to see Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 day one land on the service.
What is the story behind Marvel’s Spider-Man 2?
Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 is the direct sequel to the first Spider-Man and its Miles Morales spin-off. The two superheroes will have to join forces to face new threats. One of the main antagonists is Kraven the hunter, who is bored with his troop of mercenaries and has decided to invest New York to find new challenges and adversaries to his size. He harasses our two Spider-Mans, who will have to work as a team to get rid of him. We should also expect to see Venom (in a new version of the symbiote) and Lizard land at some point in the adventure, while other villains not yet announced should also join the party.
According to the trailers shared by Sony, Peter Parker is equipped with his black symbiote costume. This is only suggested and our interpretation may be wrong, but it looks like our hero might just lose control of himself and sway to the dark side of the force (how is that not the right license?) in this episode, at least for a time. What to consider a fight against Miles Morales?
Our playground remains the city of New York, of which we will be able to explore a greater part in this opus. In addition to the iconic neighborhood of Manhattan, players will have to go to Brooklyn, Coney Island or Queens. The map size is twice that available in the first Spider-Man.
What’s new in Spider-Man 2 gameplay?
We have already mentioned it, the great new gameplay of this Spider-Man 2 is to be able to control Peter Parker and Miles Morales, and to have to change regularly between the two. When free exploring the open world, between main story missions, you will be able to play with either one of your choice, changing avatar at the push of a button. When you go into the scripted phase, it’s no longer up to you to decide who you play, the title will impose a character on you and the timing of the changes between the two heroes. Bryan Intihar, the creative director of Spider-Man 2, explains that the moments when you switch between the two are predetermined, in service of the story being told.
Three distinct skill trees are planned to advance his characters: one dedicated to Peter Parker, another to Miles Morales and a last common to both. According to director Ryan Smith, this compromise creates a feeling of familiarity between the characters, while giving them unique abilities that will vary the gameplay and the habits of the players. Peter Parker will for example return an impression of power and brutality extreme through new skills coming from the symbiote, like a punch hitting a single target, which is then stuck to walls, or an attack that knocks multiple enemies into the air.
Miles Morales goes into a little more detail, but is no less interesting. Faster, he finds in particular the bioelectric actions that we already know him, and enjoys new powers linked to this mechanism, making him even more effective in fighting against many enemies simultaneously. Stealth, gadgets and reflexes from the spider’s senses complete the combat panoply.
One of the strengths of the Spider-Man games is the enjoyment of wandering from building to building and from roof to roof weaving spider webs. This method of locomotion is sometimes a little slow when a large distance needs to be traveled, which could be a problem as the size of the map has doubled. The developers have added to the combinations of our two Spider-Man a wingsuit functionality, which allows you to hover in the air to move faster. To exploit it, you must first gain height and then jump into the void. Then it’s about controlling his character to go through types of air currents, which give him momentum, speed, and height.
Can we play Spider-Man 2 in co-op?
The Insomniac Games studio was clear about this: no co-op mode is planned for the game, which is a purely single-player adventure. A small cold shower for a fringe of players who felt that playing Peter Parker and Miles Morales in turn was sufficient reason to provide two-player gameplay, but the developers did not hear it that way.
