E3 2018: 8 Ups & 5 Downs From Sony's Conference

2. The Overly-Scripted Spider-Man Gameplay Demo

Sony closed their show with new gameplay footage from Insomniac's Spider-Man game, and while the demo certainly conveyed the game's agreeably light tone and impressive visuals, it also furthered concerns that it's going to end up too scripted for its own good.

The sequence shows Spidey arriving at The Raft, the maximum security prison housing the world's most dangerous supervillains, and before long, the baddies start staging a chaotic prison break.

As Spidey desperately battles to keep the likes of Electro, Rhino, Scorpion and Vulture at bay, the set-piece is heavily reliant on simple contextual button prompts, sacrificing player agency for a focus on over-the-top acrobatic manoeuvring.

That's not to say that the game won't be fun, but considering the already significant fan anxiety that it will feature too many QTEs, this flashy gameplay segment was a poor choice. A demo that greater exemplified player freedom would've been far smarter and more interesting.

Insomniac claims these intensely scripted moments will be fairly infrequent, though the footage they're showing off seems to suggest otherwise. Fingers are crossed, but at least we don't have too long to wait to find out, as Spider-Man releases on September 7.