Solid 9/10 game. Near perfection. Runs surprisingly well on steam deck so definitely taking it on the go for offline completionist runs.
Cons:
Pacing kinda drags on, a little 1 too many collectables and challenges than the game needed but serves as a fun playground
Stealth sections very janky, sometimes you can just run through it
A little "too much story"; they pack in the entire Sinister Six cast while also doing an introduction of Miles Morales and oh yeah Tombstone, the marketing department, is here too. Just too much character soup but it serves the macronarrative moreso than the micro.
If you love Vulture, Rhino, Shocker, Electro, (and even to a lesser degree/ I will die on this hill) Mr Negative, this game doesn't do too much service for them. Mr Negative gets a shallow background explanation but he's such a disposable villain it kinda left me wanting more from him just talking in general, he doesn't say *That* much in hindsight.
Pros:
Skill based web slinging is so fun and extremely humbling.
Cutscenes and VA performances steal the show; actual cinematography and facial expressions carry so much in this game
Going in blind; the mystery feels like you're getting every piece in the wrong order then at the end it all fits which is done very well
JJJ is the only, and last, true journalist on the air. I actually loved every second he spoke wisdom. His VA commands attention every time he gets on and the range from gleefully happy when everyone hates Spiderman to "oh god, an actual tragedy has struck New York" is so in character.
The City Feels alive and the environment feels flushed out. The sidewalks are packed, the parks are littered, and the detention camps are overt. It actually drips minute attention to detail that does scratch the open world "2 minute stim" itch.
The Stealth sections, with all their flaws, are actually good ways to show the scale of spiderman's impact. When MJ and Peter team up at the train station, it feels like they're working like a sychronized team and that made the stealth section fun! Miles came with his own interesting mechanics, but I was dissapointed he didn't get a team up mission like MJ.
Otto Octavias steals the show; his VA's range was so harrowing. I cheered when he and Peter succeeded and actually cried tears listening to Peter lash him out at the end. I've been a Spiderman fan long enough to know where the story will obviously go, but it was so painful listening to the last seconds of lucidity begging from a man who was beyond Peter's saving. It hurt to leave Otto behind but that was just Doc Oc.
Overall: Snap Buy for the true successor to the PS2 movie tie in Spiderman titles, honestly worth supporting at full retail. The game holds up fantastically on modern hardware and still gets occasional shader updates.
