Marvel's Spider-Man 2: An In-Depth Critique

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I give it three minutes before he mentions Web of Shadows.

"They talk like their employers are watching" is maybe the best description of how these characters talk that I've ever heard

I hope Insomniac sees this video. I had fun playing the game but jesus do I agree with this video on so much. The bland characters, the janky boss fights, the podcasts. Game just felt rushed and incomplete.

YES! White is the only reviewer to mention that depraved politeness that soaks the Insomniac Spider-Man universe. There's no grit, there's little to no seriousness and the stakes just don't feel very real when "corrupted" characters vent frustrations that feel as significant as accidentally kicking a table leg and hurting your toe. If a character in Insomniac Spider-Man games dropped their coffee by accident, they'd say something like "Gosh, darn it! What a fumble!", only for 4 more characters INCLUDING f*cking Spider-Man swooping down with praise and relief like "Are you kidding!? You're such an AMAZING person, everything you say is so effervescent and you're an irreplaceable beacon to this bustling city!" and then the character would invent an app that prevents people from ever dropping coffees by installing nano mechs inside of Earth's core that detects the presence of coffee in the atmosphere and reverses the Earth's gravitational polarity, because everyone in this goddamn world is a more brilliant scientist than Goku's father

This is an incredibly cathartic video, the line “they talk like their employers are listening” is so accurate and better than I could’ve ever worded it.

Unlike the first game, not having comic book writers working on the narrative was very apparent. It was like Arkham Knight’s lack of Paul Dini, all over again.

When you talked about dialogues of characters around miles, i remembered what my friend said "its like one of those company HR videos where they tell you how to be a good person, so sanitised and on the nose that you can't help but feel you are in a school class"

Crazy how Insomniac went from their edgy humour and anti-consumerism messages in their early R&C days to making the most bland, generic, cookie cutter, safe dialogue in their recent games.

Between Insomniac touting this game as their “Empire Strikes Back” years ago, and the creative director confirming a lot of content got cut, I can only assume this game suffered from Marvel/Sony interference. That’s evident in Miles’ evolved suit being a literal ad.

In case you wondering, first mention of web of shadows is6:33

"Sauceless" was an excellent word choice. The lack of bite to Peter's quips so that the jokes feel as safe as possible, even though Spider-Man's whole deal is mocking his enemies. The Symbiote Arc removing all culpability from Peter so that he doesn't need to feel any guilt about anything he said or did in the costume to the point that even Harry forgives him. Miles' desire for revenge never getting past a momentary desire and ultimately being something he never acts on or really causes anyone any problems. The most morally dubious thing that anyone in the story does of their own volition is MJ writing a slam article on Spider-Man, and the story immediately wipes that from everyone's memory so she can have a "You go girl!" moment when she tells off Strawman Jameson. It's like flirting with the idea of character flaws rather than committing to actually having them.

This is pretty much a perfect critique of the game. It's got quite a lot of fair and insightful criticism that Insomniac should 100% be listening to, but doesn't fail to acknowledge the games many strengths. It's honestly quite refreshing to get such a nuanced and well though out take on the game after being subjected to months of people going back and fourth about whether the game is a masterpiece or complete trash.

I am genuinely so happy someone else mentioned how ‘polite’ all the characters are - to an awkward degree. It completely robs every interaction of any sort of drama. Everyone is so goddamn clean with one another, with all positivity, and inclusiveness, and absolutely no abrasion whatsoever. I am absolutely someone who believes in basic human decency, tolerance, and inclusivity of ALL types of people. But when the entire story of the game is a squeaky clean list of talking points where everyone accepts every single flaw in each other and the world at all times, it’s boring. So goddamn boring. And makes the explosive encounters where characters air their feelings so out of place. I’m rambling but i’m just glad i’m not the only one who felt this way about this story

Thank you for putting into words the nagging feeling I had about the symbiote storyline. Venom as a character was neutered and the lack of impact and consequences with the black suit was a huge disappointment.

Genuinely surprised you didn’t talk about the way the black suit adds literally nothing to the gameplay that you couldn’t already do. It doesn’t improve anything, base animations aren’t different, it’s just different L1 attacks that are just as strong as the Spider Arms. The cooldowns aren’t even faster. They genuinely didn’t do anything right with the Symbiote outside of the visuals/feel. Web of Shadows had it figured out almost 20 years ago.

THANK GOD someone finally mentioned the dialogue. I felt like I was losing my mind the entire game. The whole inauthentic, corporate speak every character oozes in each line was driving me insane and I could never properly put it into words. It’s an issue that I think has existed since the 2018 game just to a much lesser degree that has gotten worse with each game. It’s especially egregious here because the Black Suit storyline hinges almost entirely on character conflicts. Dialogue like this makes it absolutely fall flat and each conflict feels insincere and surface level. I’m incredibly worried that the Wolverine game will have the same issues.

mary jane out here taking out dozens of professional hunters in them lemon peppa steppas

Agreed by far the biggest fuck up was making venom completely separated from the wearer so it just becomes the evil monster taking over your body instead of a partner with a ya know SYMBIOTIC RELATIONSHIP

10:55 I was castrated by an entire chat for having this criticism on the swinging. Apparently I was 'clouded by nostalgia' or nitpicky to prefer the swinging in those (now, rather old) games. It was strange no one knew what i meant by 'true loop de loops' and didnt understand that these loops are completely animation not physics based. Thanks for not making me feel crazy