Turns Out Spider-Man is Pretty Good

Who knew?

Insomniac‘s hotly anticipated open-world sling-em-up Spider-Man is just as good as demos and trailers suggested. Listeners of the show know how important Spider-Man is to me, and that this game had high expectations from me. I have to report being rather pleased. That web swinging turns out to be a mighty good time.

It was tough to gauge from gameplay footage just how fun it would be traveling as the webhead. It’s an utter delight. I didn’t even get to the demo’s boss on my first try; I was far too busy enjoying myself. There’s so much you can do, and it’s all kept simple. R2 is more-or-less the ‘GO!’ button. Press it on the ground, you’ll sprint. Press it in the air (with a buiding nearby, of course), and you’ll swing. Crawling on a wall too slow for you? R2 makes Spidey sprint alongside or directly up the building.

Another button gives you a quick webzip to keep yourself airborne, and combing L2+R2 sets Spider-Man up to perch. But press the jump button at the right time, and he launches from the perch right away. It’s the momentum that feels so good here. You feel it as Spider-Man gains more and more speed, and it makes you feel pretty impressive for it. There are little tricks you can do as well, such as squeezing in-between a building’s wall and its fire escape. Boy, does that one look especially cool.

Looking cool is effortless here. The animations in Spider-Man are absolutely breathtaking. When I had downtime at E3, I would sometimes watch a couple minutes of someone else playing. It’s that good to look at. Insomniac has never been slouches in animation (look no further than the recent Ratchet & Clank for proof), and this game is no exception. I could go on and on about the little details, but I think it’s when Spidey does a little spin on his web when taking a corner that stands out the most.

I had hoped this game could resist Marvel’s siren call and focus mostly on Spider-Man’s own mythos. And deep it does go. In my short time with the game, numerous things caught my fanboy eyes. I found Crusher Hogan’s wrestling ad, helped Harry Osborn out with some science projects, and assisted Yuri Watanabe (possibly the future Wraith?) quite a bit. It’s these things that stood out to me most. Insomniac is clearly loaded with fans of the character.

Combat was also featured prominently in the demo. The basics will be familiar to any superhero video game fan, but the game differentiates itself in the best way. You’re Spider-Man, after all. The combat here is faster and looser than you might expect, and that’s a good thing. Peter has always been pretty improvisational in the suit. You can punch, close the distance with webs, dodge with style, or use environmental object to help you. It’s a visual buffet of action, and doesn’t seem like something that would get old even in the course of a meaty open-world game.

There’s some stealth, but it seemed more like a way to take out a few guys before the real fighting begins. Even when I did manage to clear out an entire warehouse of enemies quietly, the next wave had the guards aware of me and ready to engage. It was hard to mind too much, though, considering the fun I had in combat.

The demo’s true finale is a big ol’ boss battle against Shocker. Shocker is my favorite Spider-Man villain, so this was a pretty gleeful discovery for me. Herman Schultz was doing his typical lowlife bank robberies in one dope high-tech suit (worry not, the classic quilt patterning remains). After an engaging back-and-forth, the enemies squared off.

What followed was an explosive encounter full of close calls. Shocker did little to hold back on Spider-Man, and he was one tough bad guy. There was clearly history between the two here, which I loved. Peter eventually turns Shocker’s own destructive gauntlets against him, and leaves him for the authorities. I hope we get to see more of him in the final game.

In case it wasn’t obvious, this was my favorite game at E3. It’s the only demo I played multiple times. Irresponsible of my time as it may have been, I couldn’t help myself. Trust me, true believers, Spider-Man is a game every Playstation owner will want to play.

You can hear more of thoughts on this game during almost any E3 podcast episode, but the big chat can be found on our E3 Day 1 Recap episode starting at the 11:42 mark.