Marvel's Spider-Man has changed the way I look at superhero games. Insomniac has managed to inject story into Peter Parker's journey, but more than that, they created a series of narrative sequences that really motivated me to want to come back time after time to unravel more of Peter's tangled web of relationships.
Sure there were predictable back-stabs and double-crosses from (mild spoiler alert) the likes of Dr Octavius and co. But because aspects of Peter's relationships with other characters were so strong, I found myself not caring. I found myself waiting out the inevitable, while enjoying the unexpected angles on his well-worn story.
And that's before we even mention the fun of swinging my way around New York at the end of a spider web, skimming the traffic, frightening pedestrians and performing acrobatic maneuvers of skill and daring. I haven't had this much fun navigating an open world map since Assassin's Creed Black Flag. In fact, the sheer joy and sense of freedom gained from swinging building-to-building saw me often foregoing the "fast-travel" option in favour of the longer (but far more interesting) route.
The level progression was well conceived, although as is the trend with RPGs these days, I found I'd managed to exhaust the skill tree by the end of the game. It's one of the game's few flaws. Rather than choosing one skill path and optimizing it, I was able to basically select every option, minimizing my desire to replay the game with a different skill-set.
The combat was fun and inventive, though not always intuitive, and I didn't see too much of a difference in difficulty between the standard and hard-core modes, though this could be due to my generally defensive style of play (I don't enjoy getting shot, no matter the diffuculty setting).
It's been a while since I posted about a game, mainly because I only do so when I play something truly great. This game came close to that. I give it eight out of ten snarky spidey-quips. Good job Insomniac. Really good job.
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