E3 2016: 9 Things To Expect From Spider-Man On PS4

With E3 on the horizon it was only natural that the rumour mill and hype-train would start to come into play. Though some may deride the glitz and glamour of the gaming industry's preeminent entertainment expo, it's hard not to get caught up in the excitement of the whole event. As players eagerly anticipate footage of new IPs, sequels and spin-offs, one title in particular seems to have caught everyone's eye.

Spider-Man - the eponymous wall-crawler of Stan Lee and Steve Ditko's wonderful tales in Amazing Fantasy - hasn't always fared well when it's come to videogames. Discounting wonderful releases such as Spider-Man 2, Ultimate Spidey, and Enter Electro of course, the character has been left stranded in the medium's wilderness in recent years, falling victim to the annualised releases Activision so lovingly coveted after the gargantuan success of Call of Duty. Beenox's titles were fun, yes, but it would be immensely foolish to try and suggest that they had tapped Spidey's full potential. That said, could the prospect of a truly triple-A Spider-Man game come to fruition shortly?

Unless you've been stranded in a far-flung destination for the past month, you should know that SuckerPunch - the studio behind the critically acclaimed inFamous series - are purportedly working on a PlayStation exclusive featuring the friendly neighbourhood superhero. Questions regarding the validity of such rumours aside, what could we expect to see from a Spidey title on the current-gen? It's an intriguing question to approach, especially considering the monumental impact the success of Rocksteady's Arkham games has had on licensed titles everywhere. Indeed, as Marvel's premier character has been lost in limbo for some time now, a return to the medium could be just the thing for fans desperate for some more web-slinging action.

Though Rocksteady may not have written the book on adapting superheroes to the videogame medium, they most certainly perfected it. Indeed, any comic book inspired title released today that doesn't take lessons from the studio's seminal Batman games are bound to fail. Its impact is just that instrumental.

Old Spider-Man releases perfected the web-slinging aspect of the character a long time ago, but, for some reason or another, studios really don't seem to be able to get his combat and wall-crawling down. It makes sense, because Peter Parker has never been a one-dimensional character when it comes to tackling his enemies; he has his webs, agility, super-strength and a Spidey-sense to top it all off. Incorporating all of these traits is tricky yet wholly essential to the character's portrayal in-game, so merely focusing on one aspect just isn't going to cut it, and while Batman's powerless fighting style may seem like an odd place to draw inspiration from, it could end up making or breaking the next inevitable Spider-Man adaptation.

Ethical questions of 'lifting' the freeflow system aside, we've already seen Arkham's combat replicated in the wildly successful Shadow of Mordor, which barely anyone expected to resonate so spectacularly with critics. It unashamedly lifted the freeflow system from Arkham, (albeit in much gorier manner) but still managed to exist in its own right as the finest Lord of the Rings game fans had seen yet. If any future Spidey game can at least look at Arkham's combat, we can at least hope that a fast and fluid title could be on the horizon.