Marvel’s Spider-Man 2

I’ve finally finished this trilogy. I’ve never been fond of super heroes but, Spider-Man has grown on me. He’s the most tolerable one for me, that’s for sure. Marvel’s Spider-Man 2, is without a doubt the best game in the trilogy. Though it lacks in certain areas in which the others did well, it holds the best set of features from both of the previous games and builds on top of them in an interesting way.

STORY

The story was my favorite part of the game. The writers put a lot of care into the story of this game, and it shows. It’s filed with twists and turns and then turns again. It’s everything you’d want out of a story such as this. I’m not a fan of superhero stories, in general I find them cliche and boring, but honestly, I kinda understand the appeal now. A good superhero story is exactly what this game has, and while it had me suspending my disbelief hella hard… it also pushed me very close to actually shedding a tear! Though that’s not saying much as I’m a big sap and every story gets me weepy at times.

MJ is also a badass in this game.

COMBAT

The Spider-Man games are known for their phenomenal combat. They’re always a lot of fun, for most of the game though it can get tedious at times and I don’t think that’s a fault of the combat so much so as it is a fault of the encounters. The game loves to throw you into arenas and have you mash square without much thought. It’s super tedious and hurts my hands, though, when it’s not button mash RSI simulator, the combat is positively amazing. Especially the:

BOSS FIGHTS

The boss fights are amazing. When an enemy health bar is at the top of your screen—that’s when this combat system REALLY shines. Fighting hoards of enemies is fun but it gets boring real quick.

They tend to come with fun gimmicks attached to them and, while they overstay their welcome sometimes, it’s not too big of an issue I think. They do make heavier use of the new mechanics introduced in this game, revolving around enemy attacks: the parry, and crush attacks.

THE NEW PARRY SYSTEM

It’s… satisfying for sure. But it made barely any difference in my gameplay. I didn’t use it unless I needed to, dodging is just easier—and while I think parrying offers more value, it’s definitely not needed. Which I do like by the way, you can ignore this mechanic and the game is not much harder than if you were to use it. The undodgeable attacks, the ones you can only parry, you’re also able to jump over so you can ignore this mechanic and not nerf yourself considerably.

There’s also another system, the crush attacks which can ONLY be DODGED but there’s so few of them they’re not that important.

SIDE CONTENT

The side content in this game is in some ways better than the previous games but in others it’s worse. There’s… less of it but there’s a good amount of interesting stuff. I’m not gonna write about all of it since most of it is inoffensive and good fun but:

THE SPIDER BOTS

Fucking SUCK! I don’t understand why they wouldn’t be marked on the map?! Horrendous decision that I simply do not understand. They’re not AWFUL to find but they are not FUN to find either. Yes, finding them randomly while you’re swinging around is fun, but the moment you have to actually find them all, it stops being fun and starts being a pain in the ass.

THE SIDE MISSIONS

Are great though there’s only a handful of them. The main one is the flame side mission which is AMAZING, and it complements the story perfectly. The other ones are also great, especially the Howard one.

SYMBIOTE NESTS

They just suck. They suck bad. The idea is awesome but it just doesn’t feel great. I didn’t fail any of them but it was boring doing essentially 10 autoscrollers in a row, because that’s what they are; they’re auto scrollers.

Summary

Story good. Combat good-ish. Side content good and MJ is a badass. I can’t think of anything else to write about so that’s it I guess.