Marvel’s Spider-Man 2: As if I’d never been away
Welcome back to the Big Apple – The city that never sleeps invites you to explore again.The preview of Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 starts with a cutscene in which a Spider-Man in a black costume sneaks around in the woodwork of a church. His spider-sense vibrates – he is being watched, his enemy is here: Kraven, the hunter. The two engage in a brief but intense skirmish on uncertain terrain until the villain crashes into a bell. Spidey collapses, his suit billows and seems to pull apart.
What connoisseurs of the lore have long known, of course, dawns on Kraven as well: the symbiote that Peter’s new suit is made of and that gives him fresh powers is sensitive to sound waves. After the hunter hits the gong once more and almost bursts the spider’s head, Peter grabs the object of his desire – a vial of green liquid on Kraven’s belt – and disappears into the night.
Here, for the first time, I can take control myself and do what probably every gamer of this game would do immediately: swinging around the skyscrapers on spider ropes, salti and pirouettes, performing daredevil swoops only to rise into the air again a few meters above the ground.
This kind of locomotion, which makes a fast travel option as unnecessary as an exterminator in the Parker house, is still unchanged fun and turns the sequel once again into a whimsical exploration tour through New York at any time.
Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 picks up nine months after Spider-Man: Miles Morales: Peter Parker is back in New York, and for the first time, players can alternate between his and Miles’ suits to cleanse the city of bad guys.
During the story, the setting switches from Peter to Miles and back again every now and then, but generally it’s always possible to play the other Spidey. There is also a reunion with many familiar characters from the previous games: Mary-Jane Watson, Ganke Lee, Norman Osborn, Rio Morales and for the first time Peter’s best friend Harry Osborn makes an appearance.
Hunter, lizard, dark creatures…
In addition to the named Kraven, the side of the adversaries includes Dr. Curt Connors aka Lizard, who in this game is not just a lizard man on two legs, but a true, raging monster. Miles also continues to search for Martin Li aka Mr. Negative, who is responsible for the death of his father.
The symbiote, which becomes Peter Parker’s black suit and gives him new abilities, but also slowly changes his nature, is an omnipresent threat. In the trailer we could already briefly see Venom in action, in the playable pre-release he unfortunately did not appear in this form yet. However, Peter’s attacks, which he can perform thanks to the disembodied, black something, seem quite spectacular:
He hasnumerous tentacles whip downon his opponents, hurls up to four of them into the air at the same time or sticks them in a squishy mass on the wall of the house. However, Peter’s friends are also starting to notice that he’s been acting strangely since he started wearing this suit….