I've played every Spider-Man game - and Marvel's Spider-Man 2 is the best yet

Insomniac delivers another hit

Not all superhero games have been hits, but Insomniac has shown that it knows what it's doing. From the first Marvel's Spider-Man, the team showed players how they can fill Peter Parker's shoes. And now, with Marvel's Spider-Man 2, they have delivered an even better experience.

A worthy sequel

Marvel's Spider-Man 2 is an improvement in almost every way that matters. While the original had slick combat, fast-paced traversal, and a heartfelt story, the side missions held it back. But the sequel does an excellent job of playing with your expectations, changing the formulas, and making the side stories more personal to the lives of Miles Morales and Peter Parker, thus making the main story's stakes even higher.

Play as both Spider-Men

In this game, you can play as both Miles Morales and Peter Parker, and switch between the two when exploring the city. There are missions where you are forced to play as a specific character, which feed into the main story and answer some of the bigger questions. While there is no co-op gameplay, the single-player story is stronger for it.

Improved gameplay and freedom

Mary Jane is also more capable than ever, and stealth missions have seen a much-needed upgrade. Overall, there is more freedom in how you approach each mission. New York is highlighted by the delightful web-slinging, which is as amazing as it always has been. Web wings add to the fun of traversal, giving you even more ways to fly through the city. The combat also contains all the tricks we loved from the original, but now you can use the environment more to help out in battle. There are also new parry attacks, giving you even more options when it comes to each fight.

Weak boss fights

One weak point remains, and that's the boss fights. There aren't any gimmicks here, but this has left some of them feeling forgettable. They feel more like a larger enemy with multiple health bars, rather than a special battle. However, the Symbiote suit gives you a number of new weapons, and once you master its range of abilities, you feel unstoppable.

Venom's presence

While Venom was featured heavily in the trailers, he's not as heavily featured in the game as you might think. This means he doesn't outstay his welcome, but the scenes he's in are also some of the best parts of the game.

Marvel's Spider-Man 2: Polished and slick

Marvel's Spider-Man 2 doesn't reinvent the wheel, but that doesn't matter when a game plays, looks, and sounds as good as this. It's an improvement over the first game and proves how polished and slick a sequel can be when the developer is free to revisit and refine on top of solid foundations.