Marvel’s Spider-Man

Going under the mask with Insomniac’s long-in-the-making webslinger

PS4

The promise of inhabiting Spider-Man’s body – a long-limbed figure imbued with unlikely grace, tracing arabesques through the Manhattan skyline – is an easy sell. Filling the more earthbound shoes of Peter Parker, though, a man who is constantly behind on his rent and late to social occasions? That’s not so much amazing fantasy as it is lived experience.

But Insomniac Games is insistent about pushing Spidey’s all-too-human alter ego into the spotlight. This becomes apparent in the very first moments of the game, as Peter wakes up in his apartment and we pan across an assortment of characterful domestic items: abandoned takeaway cartons, Nerf darts, a homemade smart toaster and – of course – an empty savings jar.

Creative director Bryan Intihar believes that showing both sides of the character is vital to his appeal. “The best Spider-Man stories are where Peter’s world and SpiderMan’s world collide,” he says, pointing to nearly six decades of comics stories and three separate sets of movies starring Marvel’s webslinger. But how does that translate into something interactive?

Insomniac’s answer is to focus on Parker’s scientific abilities. And, this being videogames, science equals Pipemania. We walk Peter around the lab, triggering an assortment of simple puzzle minigames as he fiddles with his inventions. In the couple of hours we spend with the game, it doesn’t do much to convince that this is a better way of spending our time than doing whatever a spider can, but the real narrative payoff of the contrast between mundane and heroic is likely to be a slower burn.

Ultimately, though, Spider-Man is the one with his name on the box, and the majority of game time will be spent in the red and blue tights. This time breaks up into two broad sections: fighting your way through tightly controlled story missions, and swinging freely around the open world.

Let’s start with the former, which practically demands comparisons to Rocksteady’s Arkham games. Combat has a similar rhythm, as you are surrounded by faceless goons in a variety of flavours – shield, melee weapon, brute – and challenged to dodge incoming attacks while pinging between foes, delivering bootprint-shaped justice.

As well as fists and feet – all on a single button – you also have web attacks at your disposal, used to either close the distance, slow enemies down, or even pin them to walls. A line of gossamer can be shot out to grab items and bring them crashing down on opponents’ heads. The whole time, a combo meter ticks up in the screen corner, gradually filling a Focus meter that can be spent on special finishing moves or a quick heal.

Insomniac is trying to create room for player experimentation – something that seems dependent on unlocking advanced abilities, as you begin with a relatively limited palette – to convey a sense of Spidey as a “master of improvisation”, according to Intihar. The violent kind, not the ‘yes, and…’ kind, although the character is, as ever, prone to workshopping his open-mic-night comedy stylings as he doles out beatings.

The idea, in spite of that locked-off moveset, is that you’re playing an experienced Spider-Man, rather than the fledgling hero of the Marvel movies. This isn’t an origin story – “That’s been done to death,” Intihar says – but rather “his next coming-of-age story”.

“We wanted to tell a story in another influential time in Peter’s life,” Intihar says. “Graduating high school is another of those, which we’ve seen a lot, and him being married with kids is not the right time. So what’s another important moment in his life? Graduating university and entering the workforce – that’s a very iconic and memorable time in people’s lives, which I think shapes who we are.”

So we pick up eight years on from that inciting spider bite with Peter in his early twenties, balancing superheroics with that all-important career in Pipemania. The very first mission sees him bringing down longtime nemesis Wilson ‘Kingpin’ Fisk, via a slightly disappointing boss fight that does little to indicate why this has taken him the best part of a decade to achieve.

Nevertheless, it does feel like the conclusion of one chapter in Parker’s life, leaving the rest of the game to take us into the next. It’s a feeling that’s reinforced by the fact that, once the Kingpin mission is done, New York City opens out into a free-roaming playground. And it becomes immediately obvious that this – not Peter in the lab, not the missions in enclosed levels – is the real heart of the game.

Spider-Man’s trademark web-swinging has been captured perfectly by Insomniac. Each squeeze of the right trigger sends out a new line of webbing to the nearest landmark, while holding it down sends Spider-Man forward, whether that’s swinging in a web-anchored parabola, sprinting vertically along the side of a building, or parkouring across rooftops.

To make sure this isn’t just a way of getting from one story mission marker to the next, there are numerous distractions scattered through the city. Bubbles of petty crime emerge in the world, giving you the chance to swoop in and save the day. Whether a mugging or break-in, though, most of the incidents we encounter – with the single exception of a car chase – add up to the same thing: a small group of baddies to beat up.

More promising are the backpacks. These are standard collectibles, providing tokens for crafting gadgets and unlocking costumes, but because they’re webbed in hard-to-reach spots, each presents its own miniature challenge that encourages you to test the limits of the traversal system. Think Crackdown’s Agility Orbs – just about the highest compliment we can bestow.

An early peek at a map cluttered with icons raises concerns – especially when we realise Insomniac is going for the full open-worldcliché bingo, with towers that reveal chunks of said map and nearby activities. Fortunately, it’s all actually handled with elegance.

The screen isn’t choked with markers by default, but clicking the left stick scans for nearby side-missions and collectibles. This brings up the notifications and throws a colour-coded beacon of light into the sky from each spot, but only for a few seconds. Coupled with the fact this scan can be done while you’re in motion, it’s a much more fluid solution that means you can focus on what’s important, and keep swinging.

The only problem is, with the game delivering on the fantasy of Spider-Man’s balletic rooftop traversal, how hard will it be to coax us back to earth for the more closedoff story missions? And – narrative importance of showing both aspects of the character aside – what could possibly motivate us to shed those spectacular powers in favour of the flannel shirt of Peter Parker? It’s a question that this session leaves unanswered.

Spider-Man’s trademark web swinging has been captured perfectly by Insomniac