Finally, after a long time, we’ve been blessed with more footage of the upcoming Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 that continues the fantastic world Insomniac Games has created. And we didn’t just get a glimpse of what would happen. With 12 and a half minutes of glimpses, scenes, new characters and gameplay included, it makes us want the game more than we already wanted.
With so much to see and so much new information, it’s time to discuss it.
Ten craven the hunter
Many had already picked up hints about this character during his initial announcement, but now he’s here in all his glory. Not only does Craven have a beautiful, comic-accurate look, but it also shows why he would be a significant threat to Spider-Man.
Considering we already know Venom is coming, it’s hard to say if Kraven will be the first villain or a threat throughout the game. But we find out that he has rogues and even robotic animals to help him. They’re probably our regular enemies, controlling a location similar to the Fortress in the previous game.
9 symbiote suit
Venom was already a sure thing, so all we wanted to see was Peter in a symbiote suit. While the suit looks great, it also offers unique attacks and offensive gameplay where the L1 controls movement with the suit. But will we lose these abilities when Eddie Brock, or perhaps another host, gets the symbiote?
We see him hitting people from afar, rolling towards enemies, and even grabbing and killing multiple people in one move. Judging from the HUD, the symbiote movement probably has a cooldown.
8 Switch between spiders
Spider-Man becomes Spider-Man and you can play as both during the game. The new trailer shows how quickly you can switch between them. Peter has a symbiote as a unique ability that activates in L1, while Miles has a bioelectric ability. So each spider has the same basics, but different special powers.
The spider swap occurred during the mission for plot reasons. This means that there will be missions to exchange between spiders. However, both appear to be able to roam the city when completing side objectives, unless a side mission specifically calls for one or the other.
7 gliding
Traversing New York was already great, but it got even better. Apart from what we already expected, we saw Miles using the flippers to launch himself into the air at slingshot-like speeds, which is great. Yet, both Spider-Man’s have been seen using suit wings in the comics and even the recent movies.
As far as we can see, you can go pretty far without losing altitude and move around the map quickly. Switching between web-slinging and gliding seems like a fun way to get around.
6 stealth mechanics
Stealth is fun, but it wasn’t the strongest suit in Spider-Man’s arsenal. Things got a little better in Miles’ solo adventure thanks to the camouflage and the fact that you can clear the fortress without fighting, but here it goes a few steps further.
Here you can see Miles creating a web line on the wall he aimed at, and creating a web line from another web line. He’s also shown that he can perform Perch his takedowns on two of his enemies at once, so he doesn’t have to wait until the enemies are far from each other.
Five lizard
The story we receive here is that Kraven isn’t Spider-Man, but instead hunts Dr. Kurt Connors, known as the Lizard, while Peter hunts Harry to save him from an illness. The lizard moves pretty fast in appearance, so you can’t get a good look at it, but you can see that in this version he’s bigger and doesn’t seem to have any human features in his appearance, unlike other versions of the character.
It also gets an almost horror vibe in the scene where Miles finds the skin he left behind like a lizard and then attacks Miles from underwater as he escapes with the help of Ganke. Beating him would be quite a challenge.
Four Details of New York City
The first two games take place only in Manhattan, but Manhattan’s borders are a good choice for game maps as they are effective in limiting the area. This time around, we’re going to travel the web a little bit more through New York City.
How much information about New York City is still a mystery, but the gameplay shown takes place in New York City’s largest borough, Queens.
3 chase sequence
Some of these sequences are familiar as I have mastered them in previous games. But now we bring the fight to the water and we chase Craven while he chases lizards in the East River.
This works similarly to the previous car chase, where you have to approach the jet ski and eject the passengers. Then there’s also the aforementioned sequence of Miles “surfing” away from the lizard.
2 peter’s behavior
For those familiar with the suit, the symbiote doesn’t just give Peter a power boost. Throughout gameplay, Peter doesn’t say any of his signature jokes. Rather, they attack their opponents ferociously, intimidate them, and behave in an arrogant and menacing manner. Jameson would certainly have something to say on the matter.
Miles notices this behavior, but doesn’t understand why, so I don’t think it’s a very deep part of the game. There’s even a very fun reaction when Miles sees Peter save a civilian and throws him off to keep fighting.
1 character easter eggs
We don’t know if these characters will make an appearance or if they are just Easter eggs. Still, when one of Craven’s goons suggests a new hunting ground, we see Craven analyze a map of New York containing potential prey, and quite a few characters come into play.
Besides Spider-Man and Lizard, Black Cat, Prowler, Wraith (at least in the comics, who is actually Yuri Watanabe as a vigilante), Tombstone, Doc Ock, Electro, Kingpin, and Taskmaster.