we tested the game, real sequel or simple DLC?

It was last week, Sony Interactive Entertainment organized two events around Marvel’s Spider-Man 2, one in the United States for the American and Japanese press, the other in London for the European media. A gaming session of around 3 hours to carry out full-scale tests on a highly anticipated sequel. It is still developed by the Insomniac Games studio and it is the true sequel to the 2018 game, the Miles Morales episode from 2020 being, it must be admitted, only a simple DLC in disguise. A big expansion with another character of course, but a DLC nonetheless. We might as well tell you that we were waiting for this Spider-Man 2 with a certain impatience, especially since the start of its announcement, Venom has been teased as being the main antagonist of the game. The gameplay session offered by Sony had several objectives: to allow you to test different sequences of the game, in particular Peter Parker’s new powers and his new costume, infected by the Venom symbiote. We were also able to play with Miles Morales, who was also upgraded in his abilities, and were able to discover other villains such as Kraven the Hunter, but also Lizardman, whom we were able to face in a boss battle at the start. disproportionate and cinematic scene.

But let’s start at the beginning, and precisely with this cutscene which placed us in the darker atmosphere of this sequel. This was, it seems to us, the first real meeting between Parker and Kraven, taking place within the confines of a church. A scene which did not fail to echo the sequence from the 2007 film Spider-Man 3 when Tobey Maguire got rid of the symbiote using this same bell. If in the gameplay video (proposed alongside this written preview), the voices are in VO and therefore in English, know that we played the game with French voices. An opportunity given by one of the PlayStation demoists on site who kindly offered us to switch the game to VF so that we could benefit from Donald Reignoux’s work. And as for the first, the quality of the dubbing was there, and we feel that Donald Reignoux had fun. But we’ll talk about that again when we do the full test. Anyway, after the Parker and Kraven confrontation, we also cut to a sequence where we could discover Peter’s new powers, thanks to his infection with the Venom symbiote. We don’t know how he got affected, but one thing’s for sure, once we get a taste of Peter’s new abilities, it’s going to be hard to go back.

As indicated at the bottom left of the screen, it is possible to call upon 4 new powers for Spider-Man. By holding L1 and assigning another button on the controller, Cross, Circle, Square or Triangle, it is therefore possible to trigger a super attack to get rid of enemies more easily. The symbiote blast is by far the most spectacular, since Peter bursts out of his body and his costume with tentacles to form a sort of lethal sea urchin. It’s both super impressive visually, but also fun to use. By doing L1 + Square, Peter Parker can deploy a spray of tentacles from his right arm, which has the immediate effect of striking down the enemy, but also of sticking him to an element of the scenery and thus immobilizing him. L1 + Cross allows our hero to deploy four tentacles which will grab as many enemies to smash their heads against the ground. That’s also super fun. Peter can also use the symbiote to tear away his opponents’ weapons. And finally, the last attack that we were able to discover is the L1 + Triangle combo which allows Peter to transform into a crawling symbiote, which will bog down his enemy(s) and then hit them upwards.

Another new feature linked to the symbiote is a Rage mode that can be triggered under certain conditions. When the power gauge is at its peak, the one seen under the canvas bar, you can ask Peter Parker to switch to this devastating mode by pressing L3 + R3. They call it the Symbiote Surge and it allows you to eliminate several enemies one after the other in an epic sequence, all staged in a cinematic way. Here again, Peter uses his new powers and it’s very pleasant to discover. But that’s not all, among the new features introduced in Marvel’s Spider-Man 2, there is a parry system which has been put in place by the developers. Basically, some enemies have attacks that are impossible to dodge, and so all that remains is for Peter to parry them. Except that you have to respect a timing, which can be visualized via these visual color alerts. Basically, when the enemy displays a red dot, it means that his attack is unmatchable and that it must be parried to prevent Peter from taking a hit. This gives more depth to the combat system.

So the question arises as to whether after all these new features linked to the symbiote, Miles Morales will still be interesting to play? A priori yes, the latter has also gained in possibilities and I remind you that it still has just as much electrical capacity. As you can see in these images, the game has kept its fluidity in its combat and despite all the actions that our Spider-Men are capable of doing, everything remains clear and above all, super accessible in handling. In any case, the basics were already there and the formula is still as effective as ever, just like the obvious pleasure of walking around New York. It was already a real pleasure to swing from web to web among the buildings of the city, it’s even more so in this sequel, especially since the developers have implemented a system that allows two spiders to fly wingsuit style , called here “web wing”. We even tested an entire sequence where we had to chase a drone in the city and we actually flew, as long as we stayed in the path of the device. In terms of movement, Peter and Miles will not be able to fly constantly and they will have to juggle with the web, but this additional element brings a lot of fluidity to movement. On the other hand, we still have the impression that the game has retained its faults from the first episode, notably the moments of infiltration. We remember that it was Mary-Jane who was the character who played it discreet in some less memorable sequences, this time, it’s with the spider-bot that we’re going to play Sam Fischer. And quite frankly, there too, it lacked conviction. The camera very close to the objects distorted the graphics, it also highlighted the fact that the platform phases are poorly managed in the game and that the AI ​​of the enemies is a real disaster. In short, there’s really no point in putting stealth in the game, it doesn’t add anything.

So of course, a lot of people are asking this question. Isn’t this an improved version and not a real sequel? Difficult to be categorical having played barely 2/3 hours, but it’s true that the new features are not obvious. The surprise effect is no longer there, that’s obvious, but I think the game has gained momentum as a whole, with a more in-depth combat system, an even more spectacular setting and above all a more interesting story. With Venom, Kraven and Lizard, there is enough to be amazed from start to finish, especially since we feel that Venom will only appear towards the end of the game, that seems obvious to me. Kraven will be the villain who will lead the story, Lizardman will be relegated to the rank of simple boss, moreover, we were able to face him during our demo and Venom will be the big surprise at the end. See you now on October 20 on PS5 for the final opinion.