We were given a rare opportunity with our hands-on demo of Marvel’s Spider-Man. A chance to sample some truly “amazing Spider-Man” moments. Due to a lucky case of FANDOM writers being double-booked, one of us decided to go in playing the game straight (finishing missions, progressing, etc) and the other writer was free to basically “webshoot-em-up” in NYC for three hours.
This article represents the latter experience. You’re about to read the (web) net result of a lovely jaunt through NYC with nothing but spider-maliciousness as the goal. Mission objectives and basic morals were deliberately abandoned. We wanted to push Insomniac’s preview code in the weirdest ways possible to see if it’d push back, or fall over completely…
A Spider-Sense of Perspective
First thing on our bucket list: suicide. And in hindsight it probably should’ve been the last thing. Before going into this session we risked serious eyesore-strain injury by replaying the last great Spidey game – 2004’s Spider-Man 2 (PS2, XB, GC). Treyarch pulled no punches back then by dishing out fall damage to players. And why not? Being bitten by a radioactive spider shouldn’t make you immune to shinsplints.
Aside from graphics that made us never want to trust our memories ever again, the webslinging mechanics have aged incredibly well. The consequence of screwing up by slingshotting yourself into a building – like a bug versus a truck grille – comes with no incident. That said, having very low health and taking a swan dive off the Empire State building will in fact turn you into Splatter-Man (not visually though).
In comparison, Marvel’s Spider-Man on PS4 has a handful of buildings that are taller than the “top o’ the world” that was Spider-Man 2’s Empire State Building. Leaping off a modestly high roof will result in a sneaky slow-down of time and then Peter Parker will magically turn a last-second somersault to land on his feet. You know, like he’s been bit by a radioactive cat instead.
Pinging ourself off of the ludicrously high Stark Tower resulted in a heap of speed blur effect, a whopping 10 seconds worth of free fall time and….you guessed… a super hero landing that created an impact in the pavement. These cracks quickly faded, however, and no damage was taken. Cranking the difficulty right up from Amazing to Spectacular yielded no better (read: worse) results. Sorry, Spider-Masochists.
Watch me Thwip, Watch me Nae Nae
Speaking of timing stuff, we decided to run a race with ourselves by webslinging from the northern most tip of Manhattan island to the southern shore overlooking Liberty Island. According to our custom marker this was a good 5885m worth of travel. We crushed it in almost exactly 5 minutes (standard suit, not the fancy Velocity one either).
What did we learn on the way, aside from the fact that webslinging feels phenomenal and we could do it all day? Quite a few things. First off, the game is always trying to turn your head with XP side-earning opportunities.
Engaging in daredevilry, like near-missing traffic with low swings, earned us a “Skimmer” bonus for a whopping 2500 XP (which represents a whole level up in the early game). Maintaining a breakneck speed for a time netted us similar kickbacks.
You’ll also be lured by side-missions that filter in over your comms as police chatter. In our five minute zip we were offered – and subsequently ignored – seven emergent crimes. We’re talking break-ins, failed carjackings, muggings and narcotics sales.
Sticking it to the Citizenry
Hilariously, when we reached our view of Lady Liberty the game slapped us on the wrist for not being civic-minded. J. Jonah Jameson’s podcast sprang to life in our ear. A concerned citizen complained that Spidey just now saw him almost get hit by a car but promptly whizzed on by. Jonah ripped into us for being a dismissive prick. It wasn’t the fakest of news, to be honest.
While we’re on the topic of haters: our next goal was to irritate the local populace as much as possible. Because why not? They either fawn over you and make entitled requests for selfies and autographs, or outright trash-talk you.
Using L1 + R1 we anchored to a manhole cover and tried to whip it at some douchebag who asked “if our suit was hiding a hideous skin condition.” It sailed right through him and all we got was a stumble back animation. Bah.
Likewise we hucked a mailbox at a lady who called us a “friggin vigilante” and tried to drop a fire escape on the head of some jerk who said we were cosplaying in a cheap-ass suit. Nothing. No justice. No revenge could be taken on the taxi driver who stopped short and honked at us. We L2 targeted his car with our webshooters and absolutely smeared it with spider-ejaculate. He simply drove off like his entire windshield hadn’t just been turned into a Jackson Pollock painting.
The Not-So-World-Wide Web
We rounded off our demo by trying to push the boundaries of this place in a more literal sense. Eyeing Lady Liberty, we set about awkwardly making our way over to her island by hop jumping five metres at a time (Spidey won’t die in water, but he sure as hell can’t swim). We got about 20 metres before the camera forcibly pivoted us back the way we came.
It’s the same deal when you try to take a bridge out of town, and our attempts to subway out were thwarted just as quickly. After going down the first flight of steps the game grabbed us by the scruff of the neck and stated “fast-travel not available.” Out of options, we tried to hitch a ride on a helicopter that was orbiting *just* off the shoreline of Manhattan. Damn thing was too fast to catch let alone tether to.
Ordinarily, we’d be irked by being hemmed in at every turn, but it’s hard to be upset with being locked into an open world this gorgeous, intricately detailed, and chock full of emergent fun.
We did our very best to thwart you, Insomniac, but your code is rock solid. We can’t wait to take another crack come launch day. There’ll be a great Spidey story to sink our fangs into and many more “unfriendly neighbourhood Spider-Man” tests to conduct.
