Synopsis:
Welcome to Insomniacs Spider-Man, the tale of Peter Parkers endless battle to save New York City, while also trying to hold his private life together. Battling against criminals, villains, and everyday life, will Spider-man’s strength and smarts be enough to save the city?

Publisher: Sony Interactive Entertainment
Reviewed on: PC (5800X, 32GB RAM, Nvidia RTX 3070)
Also available for: PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5

Cast: Yuri Lowenthal, Laura Bailey, Tara Platt, Nancy Linari, Stephen Oyoung, Travis Willingham, David B. Mitchell, Mark Rolston, Nadji Jeter, Nichole Elise, Corey Jones, Brian Bloom, Josh Keaton, Fred Tatasciore, Jason Spisak, Dwight Schultz, Scott Porter, Erica Lindbeck

Developer: Insomniac Games
Creative Directors: Marcus Smith, Brian Horton, Bryan Intihar
Game Director: Ryan Smith
Writers: Benjamin Arfmann, Kelsey Beachum
Story Lead: Jon Paquette
Gameplay Directors: Christian Lange, Douglas Sheahan

We are introduced to Peter Parker in his apartment, the camera slowly sweeps from a spider hanging in the window to panning around his modest lounge, and we see photos of Pete’s family and friends. Next, we see more of the apartment, catching a glimpse into Peter’s mind, spider tools, web shooters, and news articles on the villains he stopped and put away; lastly, we see a mess of post-it notes, many of them reminders. We hear Pete’s phone tracking police bands talking about Wilson Fisk. This springs Peter to action, and he is seen quickly organising himself, tossing toast into the toaster, where we peek into his genius as it automatically drops the toast in. Peter dons the all-to-familiar mask before Spidey leaps into action. Letters are slid under the door, final notice, bills are due, but as always, Spider-man’s responsibilities come first, and after striking a pose, we are out the window, web-shooting the toast, which pops at the perfect moment and control is soon transferred to the player.

With some quick prompts on how to swing, we are now Spider-Man swinging through the city on our way to see the crime boss known as Kingpin arrested, and this fast action scene has Spidey following a police helicopter while talking on the phone to Yuri, a new character introduced for the game’s story who is a police detective. This opening scene is tremendous fun, and you’re quickly indoctrinated into the joy of swinging through New York City, but as always, nothing is simple, and the Kingpin has many contingency plans to try and overwhelm the city’s police and Spider-Man.

The player is fast drawn to the streets with accidents, crime and criminals fighting with police creating chaos, and the player is swung into the tutorial. Introducing the player to the combat aspect of the game using a mixture of webs, fists, and swing attacks, the player learns on the fly while beating up the bad guys. The Spidey Sense plays a pivotal role in these early fights allowing Spider-man to dodge and weave to avoid attacks while simultaneously laying the beat down on the criminals. A fresh batch of enemies come crashing onto the scene in a truck, they are fast to attack, but luckily Spidey is faster, webbing up the criminals and swinging back towards Fisk Tower while also making sure to belt out a few quips as we leave. We arrive at Fisk Tower, and the fun continues, the player is introduced to some more skills and chances to beat up bad guys. Working our way up the tower via elevator shafts and vents, we get to show off our smarts as we download Fisk’s database, and soon we bust into his office and face off against the brawler.

Our first boss battle is fantastic fun; with massive destruction and fight scenes, it is a fight to remember. We win, and it’s flourished with some funny quips in typical Spider-man fashion. As always, we are also now late to get to our job at Otto’s Lab, as we arrive and move into the building, smoke begins to bellow out from his latest invention, and we are fast to help but not fast enough to save the project.

This is how the game goes, throughout the adventure, we see the Parker luck bite him at every turn. Part of the reason I love Spider-Man is his willpower; the man never gives up. Being amongst the action the entire way through this game makes me feel at home. The Insomniac Games version of Spider-man’s story may differ from the movies and comics, but the world they’ve developed for this version is fantastic. There were laughs, pains, and even tears from the introduction to the finish, and I loved every moment of it and every consecutive playthrough. Now, having this amazing game come to the PC and allow even more people to experience it is a wonder.

This game is an excellent example of what can be achieved by putting the right people in the right place. The game’s story feels like you are playing through a comic book, with multiple arcs and storylines to mix up the gameplay and allow the player to feel like they are Spider-Man. The side quests are fun, and the combat is swift and flows like water. Throughout the game, we see many twists and turns in the story and Peter’s life, but we also see his genius and willpower shine through. I have long been a fan of Spider-Man, and between this and the two versions released on PlayStation, I am high in the double digits of playthroughs for this title, and it still hits me hard emotionally. While we have Peter as the main protagonist, we also see many side characters, from well-known ones to new characters introduced to this game. All these characters have a well-thought-out back story, and you can relate to many of their plights. The downloadable content explores some of these stories even further, and while not as deep as the main story, they are still fun and exciting mini-arcs to play out. The relationships play into the story in more ways than one, and their continued development of them touches the heart.

The game also features many side quests that aren’t related to beating bad guys. As Peter, we visit Otto Octavius’s Lab, where Peter works, and you are given a chance to play some puzzle games. These puzzles progressively get more challenging and play into the story at later stages; with a small variety of puzzles to solve, there are also unlockable items tied to the resources earned here. Solving these problems for Otto allows the equipment in the Lab to get better in aims to help wounded veterans. Sequencing materials or fixing and creating better circuits for these replacement limbs are all in a day’s work for Peter at the Laboratory.

Moving through the city, there are many other items to find, pictures to take, police scanners to repair, and enemy bases to defeat, and the tasks continue to change with the story. The side missions and tasks allow you to unlock resources and skill points to level up faster and become a better Spider-man while also expanding Spidey’s wardrobe. The suits in the game cover a multitude of classic Spiderman outfits, from comics to movies, and some new ones just for this title. Many of the unlockable suits also have specialised equipment that Peter can use to turn the tides of battle. These suit powers are earned through combat and unleased for cool effects, ranging from the fun web attacks to stealthier options and even holograms. These effects tie in nicely and allow the player to change their battle style on the fly.

The combat mechanics in the game are fun, and the variations on the battle formula continue to improve as you level and skill up. On top of this, you will unlock various gadgets to the web, blast, electrify and stun enemy units, all resulting in a fun mix of battle strategies. The basics are shown early in the game and become a staple throughout. When battling criminals in the streets or forts, there are additional objectives to earn more resources to allow suits and gadgets to be unlocked sooner. I found it incredibly fun to web up a baddy and swing them around into their allies, knocking them down like a bunch of bowling pins. The combat is just fun, and it is hard to overstate this.

This game has been beautifully transferred to PC, and the range and scope are incredible. If you thought it looked amazing on the PlayStation 5, then you will be blown away by the graphics on the PC. The world feels alive with civilians, cars, criminals, and combat throughout the city. It’s easy to get lost in the majesty of it all. With a wide variety of options and DLSS, the game world looks even better while still pulling high frame rates. Many times, I found myself opening the menu and jumping into photo mode to capture Spiderman in all his glory and gaining myself some amazing new wallpapers too. The textures and models in the game may be a few years old at this stage, but the team behind transferring it to PC have stuck the landing. On top of the standard settings, there are many graphical options to have the game run efficiently and look beautiful during your playthrough. The game was running high frame rates on both my main PC and my laptop and still looking perfect.

The game’s audio stands out in many ways; from conversations with friends and family to listening to JJ’s Podcast, the voice work is stunning. While the sounds of combat are precisely what you want, you can hear the punches, kicks, gunshots and even the more subtle whip of a web shooter catching a recently thrown criminal from a building. The audio team should be proud of the musical scores and sounds throughout the game. Music plays a pivotal role throughout the story, the opening music sounding the transfer from Peter’s apartment to the closing act. It’s deep and thoughtful and matches every scene hand in hand.

I have been playing this game since day one, and since launch, there have been a few patches. There were a few errors and glitches in the first few days, but since the most recent patch, I have had no further issues, and although I had two crashes, I have not had any additional problems. One early glitch was a stuttering of audio, another was a saving error that is hard to clear the text off the screen, and the last was a driver issue that crashed to the desktop several times. Other than these, this port has been excellent, and it seems that these issues have been cleared at the time of posting this review.

In conclusion, this game positively connects to the Spider-man universe. I found it hard to write this review, not because of the content but because every time I typed about the game, it made me want to jump in and start playing again. So much so that once I have finished typing this, I will be firing up the game and playing through some more missions. As someone who loves Spider-Man in his many forms, this game has felt like a love letter to fans, and by fans. The immense detail and story and overall thought that has been put into this game is astonishing. I am not ashamed to admit I am at over twenty playthroughs of this game, and I will most likely play through it again before the release of Spider-Man 2. I am glad that this title has been made available to the PC community and that it has been given new life in another space. The mod community has been having a great deal of fun placing their spins on both severe and funny suits, and I cannot wait to see more people enjoying it. In the words of Jeff Winger, the premise alone is priceless. The guy has the powers and strength of a spider.”