With over 60 years of comic books, TV shows, animations, and movies to draw inspiration from,Marvel’s Spider-Man 2is pretty set in the supervillain department. When it comes tosuperhero rogues' galleries, few can rival Spider-Man’s, with characters like Venom, Doc Ock, Green Goblin, Electro, Rhino, Scorpion, and Carnage all having their own unique motivations and identities. And that’s just scratching the surface. However, it could be good to adjust the pace at which players encounter significant foes.
Insomniac’s own Spider-Man universe picks up about eight years after Peter Parker first dons the webbed mask, and in that time he’s come up against a whole slew of villains, from all possible tiers of the rogue’s gallery. But while players do get to face off against some of the hero’s most memorable adversaries, there are still plenty of villains that didn’t make the cut the first time around, paving the way for some fun appearances inMarvel’s Spider-Man 2. And though Insomniac’s first outing laid the foundations of how supervillains should appear in the series,Marvel’s Spider-Man 2would benefit from making one big change to that formula.
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Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 Shouldn’t Relegate Its Supervillains to Just the Final Act
During the course ofMarvel’s Spider-Man’s 20-hour story, players will encounter a surprisingly vast number of iconic Spidey villains. Insomniac’s first Spidey game kicks things off with a bang, letting players take down Wilson Fisk in the very first mission, perfectly indicating that this version of Spider-Man is an extremely experienced one that is capable of taking down the Kingpin of Crime in just one morning. Soon after, the game’s first big villain, Mr. Negative, appears, along with his gang of Inner Demons.
But then that’s basically the player’s lot until the final act of the game. Aside from a few brief appearances of C-lister Shocker,Marvel’s Spider-Manspends the vast majority of its runtime focused on Mr. Negative and the havoc he causes across New York City. It’s only in the final act of the game thatMarvel’s Spider-Manfinally unleashes its proverbial can of villainous worms. Following a sudden mass prison escape at the Raft,Spidey is cornered by the Sinister Six, this time made up of Rhino, Vulture, Electro, Scorpion, Mr. Negative, and Doc Ock. After an emotional cutscene, Spider-Man takes to New York’s streets to hunt down each member of the Six.
Coming right atthe end ofMarvel’s Spider-Man, this mission to locate and defeat the Sinister Six feels just as desperate and intense to the player as it does to Spidey himself, giving the final act of the game an unrelenting pace, which in itself perfectly captures the typical Spider-Man experience, encouraging the player to push through the onslaught to save the day just like Spidey would. But while this final act is near-perfect, it does have a retroactive negative effect on the first two acts that came before it, as during subsequent playthroughs these first 10 hours can feel a little dull by comparison.
Instead of saving so many villains for a big third-act gauntlet,Marvel’s Spider-Man 2should space out its encounters a little more evenly. From what fans have seen fromSpider-Man 2so far, it seems as though it could already be doing this. It seems as though Kraven the Hunter will act as one of the primary villains of the game, appearing right from the start and probably remaining a threat until the very end. Venom is also set to appear, and the most likely time for him to show up is the halfway mark, though this is pure speculation at this point. But on top of those two primary villains,Marvel’s Spider-Man 2should be peppering in supervillains throughout the game, including side quests based around members of the Sinister Six,Yuri Watanabe’s new Wraith persona, or challenges based on someone like Taskmaster again.
Marvel’s Spider-Man 2launches October 20, exclusively for PlayStation 5.
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