Agood Spider-Man story always acknowledges that being a hero comes with a very real price for the one wearing the mask. It’s a detail that’s working wonders for Brand New Day, pushing Tom Holland’s take on Peter Parker to places that are quite dark, without the light of the friends and loved ones he’s relied on in the past to guide him. He’s alone and forgotten, by his own design, and burying himself in his role as the friendly neighborhood Spider-Man.
It’s that balance between the man and the mask that always helps land a good story about the webslinger, but what about when you get to actually live through all the problems that come with such a balance? Or experience what happens when that balance is ever so slightly upset first-hand? There’s a difference between watching a Spider-Man story and actually being the central character in one.
Nearly three years after its release, Insomniac’s take on Peter Parker and Miles Morales continues to be ur favorite version of Spider-Man not just because of its excellent story, but because of how it made the character feel relatable while also being absurdly strong for a guy who was also struggling to pay the rent. Insomniac translated the man and the mask into emotions, and that has made its take on the character memorable.
The Actual Webslinging
Brand New Day had its share of exhilarating swinging sequences but the more of them we saw, the more the itch to play Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 grew in the back of our heads. Swinging in that one wasn’t just about getting from Point A to Point B, but to do it using momentum, elevation, and calculated swings and releases with bounces and launches thrown in to sustain your pace. Webslinging was very involved, and immensely rewarding as a traversal mechanic, and that’s not even counting the fact that getting stylish at it was a great way to farm out small amounts of XP on the go.
It was dynamic and fluid, allowing for quick responses to a dynamic city, your Web Wings complementing swinging instead of relaxing it outright thanks to well-placed Wind Tunnels that helped manage forward momentum very well. The actual art of getting around as Spider-Man allowed us to craft spectacular swinging sequences on the way to our next mission, and perhaps even during a few of them.
Of course, where you swing around on webs matters as much as how well you’re doing it, and once again, Insomniac’s take on New York City was one that rooted itself in Peter and Miles’ histories and current lives giving us excellent insights into their personal backstories, memories, and meaningful insights into their lives that would be wasted screentime in films, but work very well as lore-building snippets in an open world video game.
It’s also more than a passive stage, as you engage with it from the streets, the skies, and the rooftops, consistently engaging with its infrastructure to preserve it all as a part of your in-game routine in a way that ties Spider-Man to its well-being very well. It’s what inspires you to stop and actually be a neighborhood friendly hero, as opportunities for quiet acts of heroism often unfold organically, while you’re on the way to the next big story mission or perhaps chasing down side content.
That you almost always stop to help is a testament to how well Insomniac grounds its world and mechanics in the Spider-Man fantasy, making stopping to help feel almost like a natural part of Peter’s role as a protector, even as his personal life gets stretched even thinner every time he stops to help. You pay a price for being the hero you know he wants to be, remaining anonymous to the countless NPCs who benefit from your actions and even being persecuted for them.
Brand New Day does touch upon those themes of isolation, and the choice of being a hero out of altruism alone, and both the film and game do well to make Spider-Man, and Peter Parker himself, feel approachable. Insomniac inches ahead by making him feel grounded as well, something a cinematic version can’t achieve as effectively as a game where the audience is the hero.
The Man Under The Mask Matters
Another detail that merits exploring is the fact that Peter Parker’s life is an important facet of any Spider-Man story, the strain of a dual-life often being a great reminder of his human side. Tom Holland’s Peter is now isolated and bearing the strain of it without the support system he once relied on so much. He’s a man, and trying to be a hero doesn’t make his everyday woes go away.
Spider-Man 2 understands that, and puts us right in the middle of many of those problems. Peter’s money problems are a constant undercurrent in his inner monologues, while those problems make him worry about holding on to Aunt May’s house, a place that holds a lot of emotional weight and practical value to him. Of course, his heroics interfere with his employment, and MJ’s own struggles do come back to him.
His every obligation as a superhero takes up time he’d otherwise use to attend to important aspects of his personal life. It places a price on every decision he pays when the mask is on, and that both stories look at how giving the mask more power changes the man wearing it is a detail we’re very pleased about. Brand New Day had Peter’s new powers as an interesting narrative thread, his evolution allowing him to confront his own troubles and come out stronger as a result.
Insomniac’s use of the symbiote to give Peter a significant power bump while setting up the scope to explore his darker side was a great way to cement his relationships with MJ, Harry, and Miles at crucial points in the story, but also helped showcase a side of the character that players would otherwise not get to see. He was more violent and forceful, taking a more aggressive approach to the job while letting his personal relationships erode on the altar of arrogance that he would otherwise keep in check.
Spider-Man 2 does well to make Peter’s newfound power intoxicating to use, even as we know the cost of using that power. And that’s a facet of the experience that cannot be found anywhere else. It makes Peter’s corruption something you use and like, making you understand why giving it up isn’t an easy choice, but the right one for the character to make when the situation eventually presents itself.
The Space For The Hero To Grow
It also presents the other side of that equation, making Peter’s relationships become anchors to his humanity and compassion, without diminishing the supporting cast and their roles in the story. MJ has her own aspirations within the game’s world, as does Harry, whose personal issues affect his ability to meaningfully bond with Peter upon his return. Miles needs Peter as a mentor and a partner, while May’s memory continues to shape Peter’s decisions. All of that being in jeopardy when he takes a dark turn becomes a narrative and gameplay beat that continues to have us smiling fondly at how immersive being Spider-Man could be.
That’s especially true when fighting the game’s enemies and bosses, a part of the game that showed off just how improvisational the hero could be thanks to a wide range of moves across his fists, webs, gadgets, and the effective use of the world around him. Peter’s symbiote abilities, and Miles’s electric ones were great differentiators and also effective at breaking up repetition. Where films involving these heroes show them improvising, it’s always great to be the one doing it in a game and Spider-Man 2 is obviously the best one to do it all in.
Of course, Miles’s presence only helps elevate the experience in that one, helping lend variety to the traversal and combat, while bringing an entirely different man to the mask, and a whole other set of problems that come from another life lived with two identities. Where Peter’s isolation makes Brand New Day very effective at examining the price of being Spider-Man, Insomniac’s story sets up the scope for the role becoming a shared responsibility instead of a lonely burden, with interesting twists thrown in for good measure.
Of course, we’d be remiss not to talk about excellent antagonists who don’t just challenge Peter’s skills, but his very identity and motivations. Kraven tests his ability to withstand pressure, while the symbiote brings his darker impulses to the front of his mind, trying to strike at the empathy and compassion that prop up his heroic motivations. The damage they exposed, like in Brand New Day, were bruises that Peter could not shake off as easily as the ones from a tough fight.
All in all, watching a Spider-Man movie just feels different when you have ready access to a game that lets you do everything you see the hero do on screen and then some. In the case of Spider-Man 2, that’s made even better by a story and world that’s framed around bringing out the man and the mask in equal measures, with both aspects of the character being developed well enough to make it a story worth experiencing.
It makes the spectacle of Spider-Man feel earned, and that’s not something you can get anywhere else for now.
Note: The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of, and should not be attributed to, GamingBolt as an organization.
