Spider-Man 2 Is A HUGE Disappointment

3. Combat Has Barely Changed In Five Years

Insomniac Spider-Man's combat is AWESOME. And it was awesome five years ago, then again in 2020.

Thankfully we got a host of new animations with Miles Morales, but the actual reality of which moves you're doing, the timings for them, how to deal with shielded, ranged or brute enemies etc., stayed the same.

Sadly, it's the exact same here.

Even the symbiote brutes at the end come at you in the exact same way the human brutes from 2018's game did. Now you've got access to a parry button, but it's reserved for one type of attack, that glows the exact same way icon-wise as a standard dodge, which is now also easy to confuse with a "Crush" attack, that you MUST dodge, instead of parry.

When everything's kicking off towards the end of the game, it can be an absolute mess of doing the same combos over and over, busting out the occasional special, saving some meter to heal, and always hitting circle to break yourself out of your own momentum to dodge a far-away gunshot.

New suit powers are a welcome addition, but none of them really change how you approach encounters, save for one of Peter's that lets you grab and slam entire rooms of goons at once. Quick-access specials could've encouraged a level of tactically managing which to deploy on what type of enemy, but that mindset barely comes into play.

For the vast, vast majority, you'll be playing Spider-Man 2 the same way you have been its two predecessors, and while that at least means this franchise has consistency, it's a shame enemy variety and takedown methods have barely advanced.