On Sept. 7, the friendly neighborhood Spider-Man will be getting his first solo video game release since the poorly received tie-in game to “The Amazing Spider-Man 2” in 2014.
Announced back at E3 2016, this new game, simply titled “Marvel’s Spider-Man” is being developed exclusively for the PlayStation 4 by Insomniac Games. The studio is known for their library of critically acclaimed games, including the original “Spyro the Dragon” trilogy for PlayStation 1, and the multiple installments of the “Ratchet and Clank” series.
The game is a joint effort between Sony and Marvel and isn’t connected to any comic book, film or previous Spider-Man game. It is a standalone story about an older and more experienced wall crawler dealing with a new threat to his city.
In this game, Peter Parker is 23 and is about to graduate college, and has been a superhero for eight years. After defeating Wilson Fisk (AKA The Kingpin), a new gang of criminals called the Inner Demons take over his territory.
They’re led by Mister Negative, a villain new to this incarnation of Spider-Man. Later on in the story, Parker learns that Negative’s alter ego is prominent New York philanthropist Martin Li.
He runs several F.E.A.S.T. food shelters located across the city, which complicates things for Parker, as his Aunt May works at one of the shelters. This represents the constant struggle Peter has between keeping his identity secret and honoring his responsibility as New York’s protector.
The developers decided to make a conscious effort to make that dynamic a focus of the story.
Art director Jacinda Chew goes more in depth about the balance between the hero and the alter ego:
“One of the most compelling things about Spider-Man is just when Peter Parker and Spider-Man’s world collide and we’ve tried really hard to weave the two stories together to create a story that is not necessarily a superhero story but a human story as well.”
While it hasn’t been confirmed, it has been speculated that Parker and his longtime companion Mary Jane Watson will be playable in certain sections of the game. During one of the trailers, the camera focuses on Watson in an angle similar to how it focuses on Spider-Man during gameplay.
Also, several characters across the Spider-verse will appear in the game, with heroes and villains confirmed so far including: Miles Morales, the newest character to don the mask in the Ultimate comics line, Norman Osborn, who is running a re-election campaign to be mayor of the city, Shocker, the Taskmaster and Black Cat.
The game is an open world adventure where you traverse by swinging around buildings and crawling walls at your leisure, much like previous beloved web-slinger titles like “Spider-Man 2” and “Ultimate Spider-Man.”
The web slinging takes inspiration from these games, as you must swing from buildings to travel the city, but can also make small zipline webs that can quickly change your course to get through tight spaces.
Also, unlike previous games where you’ll come to a dead stop if you run into a building, in this one you run on top or along the building depending on the angle you hit it at, in an effort from Insomniac to keep the player’s momentum going.
The combat takes some inspiration from Rocksteady’s successful “Batman: Arkham” series. In the gameplay trailer, Spidey is shown throwing bad guys off buildings and hanging them from them in cocoons of webbing, similar to the gargoyle system in the Batman games.
The close quarters combat is similar to the Arkham games as well, with Spider-Man countering enemy attacks and striking back in rhythmic fashion. The only difference is that he moves much more agile and athletic than the Caped Crusader.
Another mechanic from the early open world Spidey games implemented in this is random crimes. They appear as a red blimp on the player’s mini map, and can be ignored with no consequence.
In an effort to include the longevity of the game, the Insomniac team created the “City Never Sleeps Initiative,” a series of DLC including new villians, suits and story missions.
However, creative director Bryan Intihar replied “hell no” to the possibility of microtransactions for in-game items, in response to the controversy surrounding EA’s “Star Wars Battlefront II.”
The development of the game started in 2014 when Marvel Games reached out to Sony Interactive Entertainment (SIE). They wanted them to publish a marvel game and treat it like a first party title.
“Marvel’s Spider-Man” starts a new strategy for Marvel Games to work with top tier game companies who are passionate about their characters.
Henry Wolski
Executive Editor