Title: Marvel’s Spider-Man Remastered.
Release Date: 2020.
Console (played on): PlayStation 5.
Mode(s): Single-Player.
Genre(s): Action, Adventure, Comedy.
Developer: Insomniac Games.
Publisher: Sony Interactive Entertainment.
Director(s): Ryan Smith.
Writer(s): Benjamin Arfmann, Kelsey Beachum, Christos N. Gage & Dan Slott.
Music: John Paesano.
Voice Actor(s): Yuri Lowenthal, Tara Platt, Travis Willingham, William Salyers, Darin De Paul, Nancy Linari, Stephen Oyoung, Laura Bailey, and many more!
My Overall Rating:
In their over 20 years of original game development, Insomniac Games (Spyro, Ratchet & Clank, Resistance) picked Spider-Man of all the known Marvel characters to be the protagonist of their first licensed game. Originally released as an exclusive on the PlayStation 4 back in September 7, 2018, the game was received with praise and love from the gaming community, almost making it up to par to the classic Batman: Arkham series. With the release of the PlayStation 5 and the spin-off Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales (2020), a remastered edition of the first game was included in the ultimate edition of the Miles Morales game and offered fans the chance to re-experience the beloved game with the next generation console’s staggering new technology (faster frame rates and loading speed, stunning ray-traced reflections, upgraded lighting, and DualSense haptic feedback).
What is Marvel’s Spider-Man Remastered about? After an exhilarating hunt for Wilson Fisk that inevitably leads to his arrest, Spider-Man learns thanks to Mary Jane that a new group called the “Inner Demons”, led by the mysterious Mister Negative, is terrorizing New York in search for a something called the Demon’s Breath. While he tries to elucidate their plans, he must also juggle his own plethora of worries and challenges as his current employer Otto Octavius goes down a dark adn twisted path upon learning that they might not be getting the funding they need to pursue their advanced prosthetic limbs project. If matters couldn’t get any worse, the ongoing rally for re-election by Mayor Norman Osborn shakes up the political landscape and invites additional players into the chaotic playground. While no one is yet aware of the larger scheme at play, only Spider-Man can do something about it all as he puts his life on the line to save the people he loves but also the city he protects.
Luckily for everyone, the game doesn’t look into offering players the chance to start from scratch and re-experience Spider-Man’s origin story once again (although we do get to witness the introduction of Miles Morales). This time around, Peter Parker is a twenty-three year old research assistant who looks up to his mentor, friend, and boss, the scientist Dr. Otto Octavius. He’s had a couple years of experience as the friendly neighbourhood superhero, made a bunch of enemies along his way, mastered various crime-fighting strategies, works hand-in-hand (sort of) with NYPD Captain Yuri Watanabe, and has been through a rough yet healing relationship with Daily Bugle reporter Mary Jane Watson. Throughout this story, players are given the chance to experience in a third-person perspective both Peter Parker and Spider-Man’s points of view (including two other unique perspective introduced progressively throughout the story) as he goes off to help those in need while stopping bad guys from wreaking havoc in New York City.
Emotionally- and physically-draining, Peter Parker/Spider-Man’s adventure will bring him to make tough decisions that implicates people he loves but also those who he looks up to. Brilliantly-paced, players witness the intimate bond he has established with several characters, as well as the life-changing impact they each have on Peter Parker, especially their role in forging his beliefs, his motives, and his purpose in life. While his great powers might make a lot of his daily battles effortless, they indeed come with great responsibilities that he will not be able to deny anymore. From trying to rebuild his relationship with Mary Jane to reaching deep within the hearts of people in which he believes there’s still good despite the evil they’ve embraced, Insomniac Games beautifully and fundamentally capture the heart and soul of Spider-Man throughout this game.
On top of the fantastic narrative propelling the player deeper into an immersive fictionalized New York City environment, it is the spectacular gameplay mechanics that springs this game to a superior tier, allowing players to embrace lightning-quick traversal skills with jumping and web-slinging features, natural wall-climbing abilities, and cinematic fighting mechanisms that includes dodging, physical combat, web-based attacks, and sophisticated gadgetry action. As players progress through the game, they are introduced with more advanced abilities, gadgets, and suits that allow players to be creative and spontaneous in their combat strategies. The smoothness of the gameplay is what ultimately allows this game to capture the hearts of players but the stunning graphics, elevated by the PlayStation 5’s features, also gives this world a vibrant and familiar feeling that makes it near impossible for players to get tired of swinging around high skyscrappers or reaching the tip of the Avengers Tower to gaze upon the city (let’s also not forget the photo mode that gives players the freedom to immortalize the most stunning moments they encounter throughout the game).
Initially released in three parts, the downloadable content called Spider-Man: The City that Never Sleeps is also included in this remastered edition and benefits greatly of the console’s features but also from the possibility to chain all three short stories into one bigger story without the month wait in-between each of them. While the larger story in itself isn’t mind-boggling, it does have serious repercussions on a key character’s transformation that will inevitably be tackled upon in an eventual sequel. The DLC also puts in evidence the game’s overall primary flaw, that of its repetitive formula found especially in the side-missions and activities, mostly involving collectibles. While entertaining and simple for what they are, not too challenging for the average gamer, whether it’s about defeating waves of enemies, beating time trials sets by Taskmasker, or going around the city to take photos of landmarks, these activities become redundant and stale after a while, turning them into time-consuming tasks rather than exciting detours. Nonetheless, they aren’t annoying enough to ruin what is otherwise a formidable superhero game that later gave way to a spin-off and teases an imminent sequel yet-to-be-announced on the PlayStation 5.
Marvel’s Spider-Man Remastered (2020) is a spectacular action-packed open-world adventure exploring Peter Parker’s struggle to balance his personal, professional, and crime-fighting lives while saving the world from ill-intentioned supervillains.
Marvel’s Spider-Man Remastered (2020) is only playable with the purchase of Spider-Man: Miles Morales Ultimate Edition.
Have you played this game?
Will you? What do you think about it?
Share your thoughts with me!
Roars and Echoes 
Spider-Man – also known as the PS4’s actual good exclusive game (though I heard Ghost of Tsushima and Persona 5 are good too). When you get right down to it, Spider-Man was tailor-made for video games, being powerful enough that he can realistically take on hordes of bad guys, but not powerful enough that he would completely trivialize the challenge like Superman.
The story is good too – it’s quite a bit darker than how I think most people going into the game would expect. One could argue it’s darker than Arkham Asylum, which this game takes obvious cues from.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Hahahah your opinion on PS exclusives always makes me smile. 😀 Unfortunately, I am not on your side there and think there are a lot of amazing exclusives that managed to see the light of day during the PS4 era. 😛 I do agree that Spidy is made for video games, just like Batman was with the Arkham games, and I’m glad that Insomniac already had a “schematic” to work with (Sunset Overdrive) so that this Spidy game could work. I’m really looking forward to seeing how innovative they are going to be for the sequel, especially if it’s tailor-made for next-generation gaming.
LikeLike
Well, it’s not really that I think the PS4 was a bad console; it’s just that in terms of exclusives, it doesn’t really outpace the preceding consoles (and even then, most of the good ones from older generations ended up on other platforms anyway such as Persona 4). I find Nintendo’s consoles usually boast the best exclusives of a given generation, but even then, I think we’re way past the point where exclusives can justify their own existence. They were fine (if costly) back in the 1990s when they encouraged creativity between competing developers, but now that the American AAA industry has grown complacent, exclusives have become a rather anti-consumer practice – all of the downsides, with none of the upsides to make up for it.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Yeh… I’ve been seeing more and more developers talk about the non-profitable practice of exclusives… Which also concords with Sony’s decision to make more of their exclusives accessible on PC (Days Gone, Horizon Zero Dawn, etc.). As a fanboy, I do find it sad that it pretty much waters down the necessity of a console if you can afford a solid PC now. I liked that my purchase of a new-gen PS console would guarantee that I would enjoy games that I couldn’t play anywhere else and that often end up being loved unconditionally. But my more rational side also knows that it’s better for the company to switch their vision to something more multi-platform if they are to be able to produce games and make enough money to continue doing so…
LikeLiked by 1 person
Fab review Lashaan sounds like a good game!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Indeed it is, Nicki! Thank you so much for reading! 😀
LikeLiked by 1 person
Amazing review, Lashaan! I liked Spiderman story in movies. Looks it was great game and you really enjoyed it.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Wish you could experience the games (maybe with youtube playthroughs). They’re just as good! Thanks for reading! 😀
LikeLiked by 1 person
Always great to see you enjoying a game this much. Do you ever find it jarring moving from video game to comic book to tv show to movie? Or do you feel they mostly flow together well?
LikeLiked by 1 person
Not at all. They all bring me different kinds of relief, comfort, and entertainment. I also get a dose of each (book, comics, video games, and movies) every day so that I can smoothly progress through everything at a pace that I’m comfortable with. Of course, some days, I end up only doing one or two, for example. It all depends on how the day goes, what plans I have, and how excited I am to do a bit of all of them. And it goes without saying that I go through one movie in one sitting and I don’t get through a movie PER day (not enough hours in a day for that for now).
LikeLiked by 1 person
Oh WOW! I am not a gamer but you have to admire the realisme here!!! I am honestly awed!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Isn’t it?! Games have come a loooooooong way. 😉
LikeLike
It’s such a cool game! I’m no gamer, but this is one of the few games I actually enjoyed watching my husband play 😀
Great review, as always, Lashaan – it’s clear you love this game a lot 😉
LikeLiked by 1 person
It’s a lot of fun to swing around like Spidey and to enjoy all the Marvel Easter eggs that fans are bound to spot. Hope your husband gets around to playing Miles Morales if he hasn’t already, and then Spidy 2 whenever that finally gets announced/released! 😀 Thanks for reading, Ola!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Man, as much as I loved this game and as great as the remaster looks (although the tweaked look for Peter Parker is a bit odd) I’m not sure if I’d pick this up – I’d obviously need a PS5 first – as there are so many other games I want to play through (okay, I do have the Mass Effect Legacy collection but that was a must given I played those when they came out and it’s a saga worth re-experiencing).
How are you getting on with your PS5 Lashaan? I have to be honest and say I’m leaning towards going Xbox Series X (when you can flaming well get one haha) as I’m put off by the controller drift/controller failure and other hardware issues I’ve heard about with the PS5. I do eventually want a PS5 as well (yeah, greedy haha! But Sony do have the best exclusives) but I may wait until the redesigned version rumoured to be coming out in 2022/2023 if it fixes some of the hardware issues.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Hahahah I totally understand. I had less issue revisiting this remastered version since I wanted something to binge through in between my first and second playthrough of Miles Morales. And it also helped that it’s been almost 3-4 years since I first played the original game on PS4 so I was quite ready for another full playthrough.
Glad to hear that you got your hands on the ME legendary edition (I imagine it’s that edition you’re referring to)! I never really got the chance to follow the hype train for it back in the day but that’s easily explained by the fact that I’m 200% a PlayStation fanboy hahahah I vividly remember the console wars back in high school I’d have with others. But once they ported the games to Windows and PlayStation 3, I did consider visiting the games. How was your experience with Andromeda though? I have seen soooooo much backlash for it that I’m curious to hear a fan’s thoughts on it.
I’m loving the PS5 a lot, my friend (I doubt you’ll ever hear me bad talk Sony though heheh). To quickly cover the matter about controller drifts, I think it was mostly launch-controllers that could have that issue. You might as well get the beautiful black or red controllers to not run into that issue. There was a couple of controller updates that have released since launch too that probably helped there. Some games do have issues that lead the console to freeze or crash but over time, I’m sure these issues will be less and less frequent. I think it’s a wise decision to wait for 2022 or the next model if you’re not too anxious to dive into any of the currently released exclusives on the PS5. I do have to mention that being able to play your PS4 games on the PS5 is a huuuuge plus. The loading time makes alllll the difference. And the fact that some games got patches for an “upgraded edition” of the game for next-gen is a nice bonus, especially for games that you have been hoping to play/replay. The PS collection is also a wonderful free bonus, giving you the chance to play some of the best games to have been released on the PS4 for free on the PS5.
Anyway, I think I could go on forever about the awesomeness of the PS5 so I’ll just say that I hope you drop that insane idea about getting the Xbox Series X and that you get a PS5 soon enough, my friend, at least once there’s stock! 😀
LikeLiked by 1 person
Sorry to break it to you man but I was lucky enough to get my hands on an Xbox Series X this weekend and pretty happy so far…I do love Playstation and will eventually get a PS5 but I was always appreciative of both brands tbh. A bit like loving both Marvel and DC – there’s plenty of room for both and each have their own unique appeals!
Ah, Lashaan, as a man who appreciates fine storytelling you really should check out Mass Effect…the first game is a little dated gameplay wise but the sequels are amazing.
I actually recently picked up a copy of Andromeda very cheap, I’d always held off because of the backlash but have since heard it’s been improved with patches and worth checking out if you’re a fan…so, fingers crossed!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Oh no, I’ve lost a brethren to the Xboxists!!!! 😀 Nah, for real, enjoy your new console, my friend. Hope you make the most of it! 😀
LikeLiked by 1 person
Haha, well it’s not actually my first XBox, I bought (and still have) an XBox 360 before I eventually got a PS3 so there’s a prior “offence” on my record!
A week on an I’m loving it, it’s a great console – I will inevitably join the PS5 crew as well but not for some time (going to take a while to pay this one off haha).
LikeLiked by 1 person
I LOVE this game.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Same! 😃
LikeLike
This game is so cool! I don’t play much… but I love this one
LikeLike