Insomniac’s 2023 game feels bigger and better, but somehow more empty
BY: JACOB POLITTE
Managing Editor
There’s a lot to like about SpiderMan 2, the 2023 follow-up to Insomniac’s previous two games set in their own fictionalized version of New York City. The game builds upon its lore and doubles the size of its map.
And while a more open, expanded world should be a positive upgrade and while it does provide some new backdrops for players to explore, much of it feels emptier than it should, despite some colorful and fun non-playable characters to interact with. It’s not quite lifeless, but not nearly as big of a deal as it should feel like, especially when the conflicts in each borough feels repetitive after a while. The game’s combo/fighting system is never boring, to be fair, but largely feels like you’re fighting the same bad guys with little variety.
Another smaller issue in the game once again revolves around Mary Jane Watson. A female video game character having an incredible amount of agency is not a bad thing. But the issue is that once again, MJ is a little too overpowered, even more so than the superheroes that the game is named after. It’s not quite as egregious as it was in the first installment in 2018, but it is noticeable and a bit too much to swallow. If MJ can dispatch enemies like Kraven’s minions in a suburban neighborhood more swiftly and quietly than the Spider-Men, then perhaps she should have a game installment of her own; arguably, it’d be a different kind of game for Insomniac to make in this universe and it’s very possible that they could pull it off and make that special. Shoehorning her into these conflicts does not do her character any good, though. All it does is make the game’s other main characters look like chumps.
Despite some of the downsides, the game does have a great story throughout. It utilizes the series’ lore and flashback scenes to great effect. And the series is clearly building to a final endgame of sorts, and is not trying to drag things out. But the issue with a sequel may lie in the game’s probable lack of expansion. Aside from just expanding the game’s map into an entirely different city (New Jersey, anyone?) there’s very little that can be done to make the next main installment of the game feel radically different to this one, aside from taking certain characters off the board entirely.
With that said, SpiderMan 2 is far from a bad game. It’s quite an enjoyable play-through, and the fact that not every mission in it is high-stakes helps the game feel as grounded in reality as a superhero game (with actual, literal magic in it) can be.
