Summary
There was a lot of pressure onMarvel’s Spider-Man 2’s shoulders before launch. Coming out of the gate swinging withMarvel’s Spider-Manback in 2018, all eyes have been on Insomniac Games ever since, with fans desperate to see what the developer would do with its Marvel universe next. And whileSpider-Man: Miles Moraleswas another excellent entry, it wasn’t quite the full sequel experience that fans had hoped for. Fans really neededMarvel’s Spider-Man 2to go above and beyond, and according to the vast majority of fans, it’s pretty much succeeded in doing just that.
By all accounts,Marvel’s Spider-Man 2is an excellent sequel that takes its predecessors' groundwork, and builds upon it in some major ways. From combat abilities to traversal mechanics to action set pieces to side missions, every single element ofMarvel’s Spider-Man 2seems bigger and better than ever before, and in this way, it seems to have taken the best lessons from another of 2023’s great sequels,Star Wars Jedi: Survivor.
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Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 Is Another Great 2023 Sequel
Back when it launched in 2019,Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Orderwas widely regarded as a surprisingly greatsingle-player Soulslike adventure game. Though it certainly wasn’t perfect, the basic structure and mechanical bones ofFallen Ordershowed a lot of promise, a promise that an eventual sequel might have been able to realize. Flash forward to April of this year whenStar Wars Jedi: Survivorhit store shelves, and while it again wasn’t perfect, the vast majority of fans and critics agreed that it was an ideal sequel, building upon its predecessor in just about every way.
ThoughStar Wars Jedi: Survivor’s storydefinitely had some shortcomings, it felt much more large-scale than its predecessor, with bigger and better action set-pieces and plenty of impactful character moments along the way.Star Wars Jedi: Survivoralso expanded on practically every mechanic found in the original, giving players a ton of new lightsaber stances, new Force powers, a more expansive set of open-world locations, more intuitive exploration, better traversal mechanics, and a plethora of genuinely exciting collectibles.
In many ways,Marvel’s Spider-Man 2followsJedi: Survivor’s model pretty closely, and it’s mostly for the better. Much likeFallen Order, 2018’sSpider-Manwasn’t perfect, but it laid out some impressive groundwork for future titles.Miles Moralesbuilt upon this groundwork a little, but it’sMarvel’s Spider-Man 2that really ups the ante in just about every way. From new traversal mechanics and brand-new powers totwo playable Spider-Menand some excellent quality-of-life improvements like instantaneous fast-travel,Spider-Man 2is a definite improvement on its predecessors, just likeJedi: Survivorwas earlier in the year.
But that’s not the only lessonSpider-Man 2learned fromJedi: Survivor. One of the biggest highlights of startingStar Wars Jedi: Survivorwas learning that players still had access to the vast majority ofCal Kestis’Fallen Orderabilities, right from the get-go. Not only does this make complete sense in-universe, as Cal wouldn’t have just forgotten his past abilities, but it also means that all future unlockable abilities are completely brand new and exciting to unlock.Spider-Man 2follows a similar model, giving players access to most of Peter and Miles' prior game mechanics from the jump. And for any abilities that players need to re-unlock, they’re at least given a bit of a rework or placed early in the trees, ensuring they still feel a bit rewarding.
