Jhon Cando, 11th Grade

Released on October 20th, with great audience reviews, fantastic characters, and a story bringing up new concepts and themes to the franchise, the spider men swing to save New York in Marvel’s Insomniac Spider-Man 2, bringing its players with new mechanics, a whole new story, and much more than what we could ever imagine.

The game franchise began way back in 2018 with the release of Marvel’s Spider-Man created by Insomniac Games Inc., an American video game developer based in Burbank, California that forms a part of PlayStation Studios. An action-adventure single-player game based on Marvel Comics’ iconic web climber hero Spiderman, real identity Peter Parker, a teenager from Queens who got bit by a spider that gave him superpowers that turned him into New York’s beloved hero. In the games, Peter has been Spider-Man for over 8 years. The players must complete a story, alongside other missions to save the city and its citizens.

A commercial success, it was followed by a second game titled “Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales” released in 2020, following a successor to the hero, Miles Morales, who takes on his own origin story of becoming a kid from the streets of Harlem to a friendly neighborhood hero.

This is where the third entry of the game series enters as a sequel to the first game and a follow-up of the Miles Morales game exclusively to the PlayStation 5. In Spider-Man 2 we can now play as either Peter or Miles, setting up a lot of different options for the players along with different storylines that will be developed. In the main story, we see how Peter is struggling to maintain a job to pay off his debts and Miles having issues with his admission to college. Yet, they still have to be the heroes of New York, with all kinds of new challenges coming their way, such as Kraven the Hunter who is in look for a new and final hunt in the city, alongside another iconic villain, Venom, that Peter and Miles will have to face together while balancing their civilian identities.

The game became the fastest-selling video game ever from PlayStation, with more than 2.5 million physical and digital copies sold in its first 24 hours. With the year ending, fans have agreed that this is a Game of the Year contender, standing beside great games such as “The Legend of Zelda: Tears of Kingdom” and “Super Mario Bros. Wonder” to fight for this recognition. But, can Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 win the GOTY this year?

References:

Gerken, B. T. (2023, October 25). Spider-Man 2 fastest-selling game made by PlayStation. BBC News. https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-67214722#