NOTE: There are some spoilers ahead for Marvel’s Spider-Man 2.
The parts of 2018’s Marvel’s Spider-Man that saw players playing as Mary Jane Watson in forced stealth sections weren’t exactly well-received by fans, though Insomniac chose to try its hand at the idea once again with Marvel’s Spider-Man 2. And now that the sequel is out, it’s clear that the results are very different this time. MJ plays as a much more capable and powerful character in the game, being armed with a stun gun this time (which also becomes more powerful as the game progresses)- perhaps to the point where she’s almost a bit too powerful.
That, however, isn’t something that creative director Bryan Intihar sees as a point of concern. In a recent interview with IGN, when speaking about Marvel’s Spider-Man 2’s MJ sections, Intihar talked about how Insomniac chose to improve those sequences rather than removing them from the experience, and concluded that if the byproduct of that is MJ being “a little OP”, that’s not something he cares about too much.
“We had two choices,” Intihar said. “We could say, ‘All right, we’ll make it easy and just not do it.’ And everybody would go, ‘Great. No MJ missions.’ Or we could say, ‘Hey, we’ve talked about showing the world from all different angles. We’re going to make her moments better. We’re going to take on the challenge. We’re going to make people like playing as her.’ We pick and choose our spots. We knew we had to make her more of a proactive, capable person. And if she’s a little OP, I don’t give a s**t. She’s fine. I don’t care.”
It’s easy to see where Intihar is coming from, because it’s undeniable that the MJ sections in Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 are a massive step up from the first game. And yes, admittedly, she is a bit overpowered, though at the end of the day, her sections are a lot of fun to play through, which ultimately counts for more.
During the interview with IGN, Intihar also revealed that Insomniac originally intended to include a “Venomized” version of Sandman in the game. Read more on that through here.
In our review of Marvel’s Spider-Man 2, we awarded it a score of 9/10, saying, “Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 is exactly the sort of sequel you’d want it to be, and though it stumbles here and there, ultimately, it improves on its predecessors in almost every way that matters most.” Read the full review through here.
Sony recently announced that Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 enjoyed the biggest ever release for a PlayStation Studios title, having sold over 2.5 million units worldwide on launch day itself.