For a long time, Spider-Man 2 for the PS2 was my favourite Superhero game. The more realistic web-swinging, the fun side missions, stopping crimes as they pop up. It took 14 years for it to be dethroned by Insomniac’s Spider-Man. With the release of Insomniac’s standalone expansion(?), Spider-Man: Miles Morales, the question stands if Insomniac has one-upped themselves. The answer, in almost every way, is a resounding yes. 

If it Ain’t Broke…

While Spider-Man 2 had the most realistic web-swinging in any wall-crawler game at the time, Insomniac focused on making the swinging, traversal, and combat fun in Spider-Man. They achieved a perfect balance then, and the traversal is mostly the same now, with a few added elements such as venom jump and new animations that suit Miles’ personality. Just like Spidey 2018, I can spend hours just swinging around New York City and will enjoy every second of it.

LOOK AT HOW PRETTY THIS GAME IS!

The core combat is unchanged, but new powers, including Miles’ Bio-electricity and cloaking, adds some extra depth to the combat and stealth gameplay loops. There are some new gadgets as well, but they don’t do much new… that said, the combat was superb, to begin with. As the heading says, if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. 

Be Greater

The story of Miles Morales acts as a bridge between Spider-Man 2018 and its inevitable sequel, but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t stand on its own. While the previous game focused on a Spider-Man who’s been in the suit for a while, this outing offers the charm of Miles as he’s still coming into his own as Spider-Man. The only gripe I had with the story is there is one beat that felt a bit unsurprising, but by the credits rolled it didn’t matter. The amount of heart the stories had and the enjoyment the player feels far outweighs any predictable moments in the game.  

I spent WAY too much time in the photo mode

Another welcome change is the side missions. While Miles Morales does feature more checklist side quests as Spider-Man 2018, something I hope they focus a little less on in the sequel, it does take a quality over quantity approach to its side missions. While there are fewer, they are more impactful. A side quest that starts as something simple like taking a selfie can turn into trying to stop a building from exploding. It makes side missions feel less of a chore and more like additional stories for you to experience. 

Ray Tracing and Wall Crawling

This is something that is going to be mentioned in many reviews for the next few months/years, but the performance of Spider-Man Miles Morales on PS5 is astounding. Miles Morales and Spider-Man Remastered offer two ways to play, Fidelity mode, which offers 4k and ray tracing at 30 FPS and performance, which is 1080p at 60 FPS. The fidelity mode is beautiful; swinging through the streets and seeing the world’s reflection on the widows blew me away. While I didn’t play too much on performance, the switch from 30 FPS to 60 fps is night and day. Watching the movement of Miles during fights and swinging looks far smoother in performance. It makes it hard to choose between the beauty of the city versus the fluidity of movements. 

Spider-Man: Miles Morales Free Fall

While the PS5’s SSD loads most games a bit slower than the Series X, the loading times in Miles Morales will blow you away. You can go from booting the game up to swinging around NYC in roughly 30 seconds, if not sooner. The SSD also makes fast travelling near-instant, so much so that the game has the fast travel scenes turned off by default as it loads so fast. 

For more news and reviews, stay tuned to Next Level Gaming!

—-

Spider-Man Miles Morales takes it’s “Be Greater” tagline to heart and builds on almost everything from its predecessor. It features a story full bursting with personality and has built a world I can’t wait to learn more about. While it’s a little predictable and there are a few too many collectables, it still stands as a fantastic experience. Spider-Man Miles Morales is a must-have, and when bundled with Spider-Man 2018 remastered, it should be the first game you grab for your new console.