Day 46: Spider-Man (PS4)
Licensed games, licensed games, licensed games. What's there to say about these types of games that already hasn't been said. They're pretty much the mixed bag of the gaming industry. You've got some good ones and you've got some…not so good ones. Most of the time you'll find the latter, but in some cases you find some real gems. For every Superman 64, E.T, or literally any LJN game, there are games like the Batman Arkham Series, Ultimate Ninja Storm series, South Park Stick of Truth and Fractured But Whole, and Spongebob Battle for Bikini Bottom. But I think my personal favorite licensed game belongs to my personal favorite Marvel hero. So kicking off the Top 5 of this marathon, we have Insomniac's Spider-Man!
Can I just start by saying that 2018 might as well be called the year of Spider-Man? Because on top of an amazing feature in the form of Into the Spider-Verse and Tom Holland doing the web slinger proud once again in Infinity War, we have what I believe to be the best PS4 game I've played so far.
The story is straight from something like the comic books, dare I say it's almost MCU worthy. It's starts out normal enough with Spider-Man, A.K.A Peter Parker, stopping the Kingpin from doing his misdeeds, but this triggers a domino effect that starts with a new band of villains called 'The Demons' to arise, and they're led by Mr. Negative/Martin Li. Their goal is to unleash a deadly virus upon New York, but fortunately Spider-Man stops them. Unfortunately, Peter has also been working on a project with Doctor Otto Octavius involving creating mechanical limbs, and Octavius tries them out on himself, but they make him go coo coo for cocoa puffs, and he releases all of the prisoners on Riker's Island as a result, including Mr. Negative, Vulture, Scorpion, Rhino, and Electro…and then the virus gets released. Now it's up to Spider-Man to find a cure for this coronavirus wannabe, take care of these new threats, along with Silver Sable and her private military because Spider-Man didn't have enough on his plate already, and overall be the hero you were always meant to be.
One interesting aspect about the story is how it doesn't start with Peter getting bit by the spider that turns him into Spider-Man, hell we don't even get to see Uncle Ben die for the billionth time. We start this story long after Peter graduated high school and college, and now he's trying to balance his life as Spider-Man with his personal and work life, and this story can take some dark turns, especially towards the end. Not going to give away what happens, but you will feel for Peter at the end of it all.
On the subject of Peter Parker, Yuri Lowenthal does a great job playing the geeky Peter Parker as well as the wisecracking action hero Spider-Man.
This game is yet another sandbox game, very similar to the likes of the Spider-Man 2 video game. So naturally there's a lot to do here to distract you from the main game. You can collect backpacks to unlock more suits, stop crimes commited by Kingpin's goons, the Demons, Sable's military, or the prisoner's on Riker's, take out enemy based owned by said crime factions, solve puzzles at Octavius lab, do these Task Master Challenges that really test your skills with the game, go to Harry Osborn's research stations, take selfies of landmarks around the city (including Avenger's Tower, Dr. Strange's Sanctum Sanctorum, and the Wakandan Embassy) or just be a friendly neighborhood Spider-Man and help the citizens of New York with whatever problem they have.
To get from mission to mission, you can either do fast travel where we see Spider-Man just hanging out in the subway, or you can get there the fun way and swing from building to building. I swear this game does a fantastic job making you feel like Spider-Man in this regard.
As the game progresses, you have the ability to upgrade your skills and special weapons, the latter of which you can get by purchasing costumes based on other iteration of Spider-Man. And the best part is that you don't need to have a certain costume equipped in order to have a weapon you like. For example, you like the Iron Spider's special ability, 'Iron Arms' but you don't like the actual suit…for some reason. You can keep the Iron Arms, but have a different costume too.
Overall, this is an utter masterpiece of a licensed game and one of the best things to have Spider-Man's name attached to it, and by the looks of the post-credit scene at the end of the game (This is Marvel, I'd be more surprised if they didn't do something like this) there is a lot of potential for an even better sequel. This is an absolutely fantastic game right down to the last puddle.
