Revamping Crime: Marvel's Spider-Man 2's Sequel Must Shake Things Up

Highlights

Marvel's Spider-Man 2 excels at making players feel like the titular superhero with gadgets, side quests, and unique move sets, but crimes may need improvement.

The crime-ridden open-world of New York City offers players the option to assist in criminal activities for rewards. However, these tasks can grow tiresome and repetitive over time. Although bonus objectives provide some excitement and diversity to the crimes, the overall repetition can become tedious. It would be refreshing to see a wider range of variations in future installments.

Content

One crucial aspect of any superhero game is the immersive experience it provides to players as they take on the role of the iconic character. To achieve this, developers incorporate various elements such as gadgets, side quests, and unique combat abilities. Marvel's Spider-Man 2, just like its predecessor, successfully incorporates all these elements and enhances some of the original's outstanding features. However, there is one aspect of the side content that requires further refinement.

While Marvel's Spider-Man 2 primarily focuses on battling Kraven and confronting Venom, the open-world setting is brimming with additional activities. Among these activities are the crimes scattered throughout the streets of New York City. As a superhero, Spider-Man is duty-bound to support the city's residents in dealing with these random acts of crime, and it is the player's responsibility to thwart them. Initially enjoyable, this aspect can become monotonous after a while, which is not an ideal outcome.

Crime in Spider-Man 2's New York Feels Too Similar

As players swing through New York City in Marvel's Spider-Man 2, they may come across instances of crime. While it is optional, choosing to intervene can lead to rewarding outcomes such as XP, Tech Parts, and district progression. These tasks not only provide resources but also allow players to immerse themselves in the role of Spidey. However, some players may find the repetition of these crime scenarios to become monotonous after a while.

Although completing these crimes can be enjoyable, Marvel's Spider-Man 2 includes identical variations of these encounters. Players will need to stop numerous hunter patrols, prevent multiple oil tankers from exploding, and put an end to constant assaults or car chases. Every time one of these crime activities appears in Marvel's Spider-Man 2, it follows the same formula as previous encounters. Consequently, players may find themselves engaging in the exact same content multiple times throughout their journey, which could lead to feelings of boredom with the system.

Insomniac Games has added bonus objectives to alleviate the repetitiveness of the game and challenge even experienced players. Each crime will now have a random bonus objective that requires players to use specific moves or mechanics to defeat their enemies. These objectives can range from combo-based tasks to yanking a certain number of enemies or focusing on dodging and avoiding damage. However, since these objectives are optional, players can choose to ignore them and complete the crime in their own preferred way.

Despite the inclusion of bonus objectives, the repetitive nature of the crimes can become monotonous over time. As players can only save so many oil tankers before they become disinterested in the mission type altogether. Although it may be too late to enhance the crimes for Marvel's Spider-Man 2, it is hoped that the studio will introduce more variations in the upcoming sequel. While these variations may not significantly impact the game, it would be refreshing to have a greater sense of uniqueness in the crimes Spider-Man has to stop within this exciting franchise.

Marvel's Spider-Man 2 is available now on PS5