Marvel's Spider-Man (PS4)

[Alistair]

It's the fastest selling game of the year in the UK and a week in I'd say it's fairly popular; enough to warrant a thread.

 

Now, I do not own a copy - at least not yet - but I have been following a LP of it. The web-swinging looks fun as hell, and combined with a fairly robust combat system and a story with forward momentum that takes some worthwhile risks with the mythos.

 

And if nothing else, it has a killer photo mode.

[indigoasis]

I've heard great things about it. I can say without any real doubt in my mind that it's one of the most definitive Spider-Man experiences anyone can get.

I don't own the game either (and I most likely never will because I don't have a PS4, so rip), but I'm keeping myself spoiler free in case I somehow pick up the game.

There's also gonna be DLC, so that's cool.

[Zapp Branniglenn]

I'm right on the cusp of the platinum trophy (think just one trophy left? I have 100% completion as far as the game defines it). And yeah, it's worth the hype. I've stopped playing Spider Man games after 3, but I feel like I would find little contention if I had said Spider Man 2 is the best game for this character, and now that title has been thoroughly usurped by the new game. They really stuck to their guns on how to write a good Spider Man story and how to make a good Spider Man game by being such a faithful sequel to 2. My gripes with the game are quite minor, I think wall crawling in this game is incredibly clunky, but with free aim web zipping it doesn't matter much in practice, just seems like an odd thing for them to screw up when every spiderman game I can think of has better wall crawling than this. Web Swinging I also feel is a bit too forgiving of the player choosing a bad angle but that's probably just me being brought up by 2 which has extremely realistic physics that the player is expected to master.

The gadget based combat is the highlight. You could get by on punches and dodging if you want to play it like an Arkham game, but the real fun and depth of combat comes from strategically trapping and webbing enemies to the ground, to walls, and just using the architecture and gadgets to your advantage. I feel like the lack of short cuts for key gadgets is an unfortunate omision but the Ratchet & Clank gadget wheel that slows down time is plenty functional and doesn't break up the pace any more than necessary. Also trailers have revealed that the Sinister Six play a role in the story and I have to say that [late game boss fight spoiler]

Spoiler

Vulture deserved his own dedicated boss fight rather than serving as the back up for another villain. I just feel like they did him dirty.

But otherwise, the characters are portrayed expertly and the dialogue and collectibles convey a real sense of Spider'-Man's history doing this stuff since he was in high school. Plus all the side activities are extremely compelling pieces of world building. Except for the randomly generated street crime, grinding out those for several hours is a very dull part of what is otherwise a very quick and painless platinum trophy for an open world game. Finally, the J Jonah Jameson podcast is consistently fun to listen to. Plus if you start a street level crime event and then leave, you will get called out on it. I feel like that's the first time I ever empathized with Spidey getting ganged up on by the press, because the game bit me back for walking away from that crime. The SpiderMan in-game social media feed is also a consistent source of laughs and obscure references.

Marvel's Spider -Man is looking like it's going to compete with God of War and probably RDR2 for the #2 spot on my GOTY list. Nothing will top Smash, that's number 1 before I even played it.

[Emperor_Siegfried]

Been having a blast playing the game myself.  It's great to have another video game that feels like it takes full advantage of what a super hero game can be like on today's technology now that the Arkham series is supposed to be done.

What's impressed me the most was how the combat system manages to differentiate itself even with how I thought it would be just tacking on the FreeFlow combat system. I did originally try to play this game as an "Arkham game" (The Amazing Spider-Man games basically were this) but here it actually feels more like how a modern Spider-Man game could potentially be with stealth mechanics and gadgets.  So far the game hasn't been so stealth driven that I feel like it's going to deter me away from playing further into the story.

I've actually been too focused on getting the collectables before progress far into the story but it's been too much fun to do and it gives me more of a chance to enjoy the combat.  The story itself does have a very "Spider-Man" feel to it so far and I suppose that's the best thing you can hope for when it's something like this.  I also like the references to other Marvel characters scattered around (There's mentions of Daredevil and Iron Fist if you wander around New York enough), hopefully these might be a sign of things to come in sequels, DLC, or if Insomniac feels daring enough, to do another full fledged game for one of these characters.

I guess my only complaint is that the wall-crawling can be a little problematic at times.  Unfortunately I don't think I've ever played a game that actually pulled off this mechanic perfectly so I guess that was probably to be expected.

Now I just need to play more 2018 games and see how this places on my GOTY list (I doubt it will top Xenoblade Chronicles 2: Torna the Golden Country as my #1 but that remains to be seen I guess).

[TheGoodHoms]

I had the chance to sit down and play this game at a friend's house for a little while and I have to say, if I was to get a PS4 Spider-Man would be the first game I would play. The Web Swinging make the simple act of moving from point A to point B so much fun, more than it probably needs too. The combat is fast paced and really keeps you on your toes, and all the different gadgets give you new was to approach every fight keeping thing from getting stale. Additionally, I thought the characters were amazingly done thanks to some great writing and stellar voice over acting, I especially loved the performances Yuri Lowenthal, Tara Platt, and Darin De Paul among many others. Those are my impressions from what I've played, not sure if I'll every get the chance to play through the game proper, but it's definitely worth experiencing if you've got a PS4.