Spider-Man 2 on PS5 was my biggest Christmas disappointment – Reader’s Feature

Spider-Man 2 – not as good as Astro’s Playroom? (Picture: Insomniac Games)

A reader gets a PS5 for Christmas and explains why he was more impressed by Astro’s Playroom than he was Spider-Man 2.

So, I got a PlayStation 5 for Christmas, just like I was planning, and at first it all went great. I love Astro’s Playroom, especially all the songs and references, and was very impressed by how it showed off the DualSense, which I had never used up until that point. Astro’s Playroom is free, so it’s not very long, and I was soon into the main game I had bought alongside the console: Spider-Man 2.

Having enjoyed the original I knew what I was getting into and, by and large, it was pretty much what I expected. However, I found myself strangely dissatisfied by the experience and I’m not entirely sure why. So, I thought I’d try and write a Reader’s Feature and explore my feelings about it all.

There are some obvious top-level problems, like how it’s still the same basic setting and gameplay as the original game. They obviously added gliding in to try and mix things up but it’s so useful that I found myself rarely ever web-swinging, which kind of defeats the purpose of a Spider-Man game.

The combat has lots of different moves, for both characters, but it and the stealth is still basically the same as the Batman: Arkham series, except a lot more button-mashing friendly. I felt that, from a gameplay perspective, it didn’t really move things on and as a result, because it’s based on such an old game, it felt kind of old-fashioned.

I think that’s my core problem with the game, that despite all the amazing graphics – and they really are the best I’ve ever seen – it all feels strangely old hat. I think to some degree that’s the point, that this is meant to be the ultimate incarnation of the PlayStation style third person action game. It’s also obvious it’s chasing Uncharted’s tail a lot, which is, of course, also a fairly old franchise at this point.

It’s not that Spider-Man 2 feels ancient or anything but as the first proper game I played on my brand new console it has been a disappointment.

There are other problems though, more intrinsic to the game, such as the predictable story and bland dialogue. I also have no idea of the powers of most of the bad guys, especially Kraven and Mister Negative. All of Kraven’s goons get quite repetitive too, even though the game’s short length is the other obvious issue.

The odd thing is, after playing Spider-Man 2 I began to see why Sony has (or had) been convinced about the move into live service games. I’m not sure if that’s a good idea but I definitely do think they need to move away from making all these very similar looking games, which are all beginning to feel quite ‘last gen’.

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I’m now quite wary of playing Horizon Forbidden West and God Of War Ragnarök, for fear of running into the same problem, so I think my next game will actually be Returnal which got as good, if not better, reviews and at least seems to be something different.

I know until recently most PlayStation 5 games were cross-gen, but Spider-Man 2 really doesn’t feel any different. Yes, the graphics are better but everything else feels worryingly familiar. We currently have no idea what Sony is doing next, but I hope it’s something that definitively could not be done on the PlayStation 4 because while Astro’s Playroom is one such game, Spider-Man 2 is not.

By reader Clamont

The reader’s features do not necessarily represent the views of GameCentral or Metro.

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A reader gets a PS5 for Christmas and explains why he was more impressed by Astro’s Playroom than he was Spider-Man 2.