Spider-Man 2 Is A HUGE Disappointment
1. Insomniac Feel Stretched To Breaking Point
Spider-Man 2 is the buggiest first-party PlayStation game since Days Gone. A title that runs immaculately... until it doesn't; until your character model gets replaced by a tiny white cube, someone's face doesn't fully animate in a cutscene, it crashes, or you fall through the floor.
The thing is, Insomniac are one of the best video game studios on the planet. Their output is second to none, and that used to come with a bar of quality that given the turnaround, was unmatched.
Cumulatively - and now they've had to announce Spidey 2's photo mode features and New Game+ is a 2024 update, rather than a followup before Christmas - it makes you wonder if such a relentless cycle of game development is pushing them to breaking point. This is also alongside a bizarre mixup where the wrong Cuban flag was placed in Miles' apartment at launch.
Run down how many projects they've released in the last five years alone, and think about how many parts of Spider-Man 2 feel rushed, incomplete or otherwise sliced up to get the game over the finish line. We've got:
- Marvel's Spider-Man (2018)
- Marvel's Spider-Man: Miles Morales (2020)
- Marvel's Spider-Man Remastered (2020)
- Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart (2021)
- Marvel's Spider-Man 2 (2023)
All of these are full price, AAA games, complete with a leap between console generations in the middle, AND the fact that Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart existed as an SSD tech-showcase for the PS5. They even found time to update 2016's Ratchet & Clank for PS5 in 2021.
Insomniac are a studio Sony already acquired at a bargain price compared to the $69 billion acquisition cost of Microsoft buying Activision (they were sold for $229 million). They're arguably THE crown jewel in the PlayStation crown alongside Naughty Dog, with over twice the output of the latter.
With Wolverine likely dropping in 2024 (or at least getting a gameplay trailer) and Spider-Man 2's updates and DLC announcements imminent, we're seeing a studio - for the first time since their acquisition - hit their limit.
Here's to the developers and creatives who put Spider-Man 2 together. It's still easily one of the best PS5 games of 2023, but something needs to be said about that high bar of overall quality just barely being hit.