Spider-Man 2 Laid The Groundwork For Insomniac's Spidey Games
Spider-Man 2 Retro Review
The 10 WORST Spider-Man Video Games
Ever since “Miles Morales” launched on PlayStation 4 and 5, “Spider-Man” has been on my mind quite a bit. In the past month, I’ve finished “Miles Morales” three times leading up to the hardest difficulty, saw “Into the Spider-Verse” for the first time in months, played a little bit of “Spider-Man” on the original PlayStation, and am planning to stream Insomniac’s “Spider-Man” game as soon as we enter 2021. However, my absolute favorite piece of Spidey media has always been the 2004 film “Spider-Man 2”. With fantastic writing, excellent cinematography, and Alfred Molina’s captivating performance as Doc Ock, this sequel would become one of my favorite superhero movies ever as well as one of my favorite films in general. Unfortunately, the “Spider-Man 2” video game had somehow flown under my radar as a kid (well...except the DS version, which was alright). Since “Miles Morales” ignited a sort of spider-fever inside me, I figured now would be an excellent opportunity to experience what many have considered to be one of the best games based on a movie. And after seeing Treyarch’s old logo on the screen, I had a pretty good feeling about this! Greetings, ladies and gentlemen of the internet! My name is Ty with MojoPlays, and this is my “retro” review of “Spider-Man 2” for the PlayStation 2! Licensed games, particularly ones based on movies, typically follow the plot of the source material beat for beat. Several games have failed because of this, and few ever manage to do things right. “Spider-Man 2” dances the line between being an adaptation of the movie and being a totally original game. While it does focus on Peter Parker struggling to juggle his life as a normal dweeb and life as New York’s guardian, it removes a whole other plot line from the movie and substitutes it with something that doesn’t sacrifice gameplay. Instead of going through an entire segment where Pete loses his powers, Black Cat is brought in to help him figure out his problems while beating up baddies in the process. And yes, there are more baddies than just Doc Ock. The plot of “Spider-Man 2” has been stretched out and re-edited to make room for more of Spidey’s catalog of crooks. Players will encounter a handful of other villains such as Rhino and Shocker, and surprisingly, these appearances don’t feel contrived. Of course, not every boss is born equal as I found myself getting annoyed with Mysterio due to how lame his overall story was and how infuriating his missions were. Although, after his boss fight, all was forgiven. “Spider-Man 2” also utilizes the open-world format in a manner that’s different from most open-world games. Part of my problem with “Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla” was how the game wanted you to grind for rewards that were lackluster at best and time-wasting at worst. In other words, nothing was satisfying. As for “Miles Morales”, I took issue with how repetitive most of the open-world side missions were. You were either collecting stuff and fighting random criminals, or collecting other stuff and fighting other criminals. In “Spider-Man 2”, you...huh, look at that - collect stuff and fight criminals. So, what does “Spider-Man 2” do differently than “Miles Morales”? Whereas “Miles Morales” practically tells you where everything is, “Spider-Man 2” forces you to explore the city more. Even though all Hint tokens are marked on your map, you’ll have to do some actual searching for Skyscraper tokens and general Secret tokens. I can appreciate “Miles Morales” for saving me time and just showing me where stuff is, but where’s the fun in being told where to go? Where’s the sense of adventure, the thrill of the hunt? This isn’t to say the open world doesn’t have its shortcomings. Much of New York looks identical to the other blocks you’ll pass by. There’s no sense of place, so much of your time in between story missions will be spent meandering about, waiting for nearby crimes to spawn or constantly referring to the map to keep track of where you’re going. As you complete missions and fight enemies, you’ll accrue Hero Points to spend on combat and navigation upgrades. These will unlock a new combo in your moveset, grant you additional air tricks, or simply improve the way you web-sling around the city. There’s also more to these Hero Points and upgrades as the former is usually required to progress through the story and the latter can aid you in combat and refill your Spider-Sense. Speaking of which, below your health bar is a blue meter that lets you activate “Spider Sense”, allowing Pete to slow time so you can land more hits and dodge more easily. To refill this gauge, you’ll have to either land a few hits on enemies and dodge their attacks, or do some fast web-slinging with an air trick or two. The more upgrades you have, the more tools you’ll have to refill that bar. I liked the concept, but this system was too exploitative for most boss fights. An enemy could shoot at me while I was standing behind an object, and I could dodge without any consequence while reaping the rewards. All sense of challenge had been tossed out the window. Spidey’s controls weren’t all that polished either. I didn’t have much of an issue moving around from foe to foe, but when web-swinging, there was a lot of “George of the Jungle” going on, and this is where I feel the game hasn’t aged well. See, “Spider-Man 2’s” web-swinging is designed in a way that’s fast and loose - you never know where Pete’s gonna shoot his web. Is it going to swing off the building next to him, the building on the opposite side of the road, or the ice cream vendor fifty feet below him? Whichever one is chosen by the powers that be can affect how low Spidey swings to the ground. Insomniac’s “Spider-Man” games designed Pete and Miles to still need structures to swing, but it doesn’t affect your trajectory at the most inopportune times. You’re always in control. In “Spider-Man 2”, you’re kind of at the game’s mercy. God help you if swung past your stop during a timed mission or smacked against too many buildings! Though flawed in its combat and controls, the game can be hilarious in its own archaic ways. For starters, the voice acting and writing is laughably bad. Not even Tobey Maguire or Kirsten Dunst put much effort in their lines. Alfred Molina managed to work what he was given for Doc Ock. As for the rest of the cast? There was a moment where I genuinely wondered if Tommy Wiseau had worked on the game. I know he didn’t, but let’s imagine Tommy has discovered interdimensional travel and used a pseudonym to get hired at Treyarch and write the game. Someone should make a movie of that… Moving on, I couldn’t help noticing how such little effort was put into “Spider-Man 2’s” sound design. Score fit for a superhero was about as rare as a believable line delivery from Tobey Maguire. Dialogue exchange between characters mid-combat was far too frequent, adding nothing but noise to the scene with mindless banter and flat quips. Spidey throws a few good ones, but what the hell - why is Black Cat the lame one!? The sound effects, on the other hand, were comical, and as much as I liked the stock punch and gunfire audio, I lost it every time I had Spidey stop a speeding car. These segments have you simply mash Square to punch the car while throwing in a moment or two to dodge gunfire. However, what makes these bits so funny is how the lack of altered visuals make it seem like Spider-Man is banging on the car in hopes of annoying the bad guys enough that they’ll have to get out. I’m not necessarily criticizing a 2004 game for not being as advanced as most games these days, but damn, its age shows here! So, what’s the verdict here? Do I regret playing this supposed “best Spider-Man game pre-Insomniac”? Were the fans right about the game’s quality? Or do I wish for my copy to be hurled into Otto’s fusion reactor? Despite all my problems with the controls, the thousand-face-palm writing, and a sudden hatred towards Mysterio, I cannot deny it - I enjoyed my time with “Spider-Man 2”. Is it as good as the movie? Not by a mile, but I can certainly appreciate its place in the franchise’s video game portfolio. There were plenty of ideas I noticed that would be implemented in Insomniac’s games, from the open-world format to the narrative design. It was as if I had been playing a prototype for their games from long ago. Do I plan to 100% it? I love Bruce Campbell as the tutorial guide, but not enough to go find all 200 Hint tokens on top of the Secret and Skyscraper tokens. If anything, I’ll just go finish the pizza deliveries. Those were the best! Thanks for watching! Did you agree or disagree with my review? Let me know in the comments below and if there’s another classic game you’d like to see reviewed here on MojoPlays! In the meantime, how about checking out these other videos?
