After the incredible reboot of the Spiderman game franchise, we are all too excited to get our hands on the next chapter of the adventure. Spiderman: Miles Morales picks up where we left off in the previous game. Miles has been bitten by a mutant spider and has found himself with all of Spidermans, no longer unique abilities!
Spiderman: Miles Morales is not a full release. It is essentially a standalone DLC, much like we got with Uncharted: The Lost Legacy. It is set in the same city, controls, combat and all other game mechanics are the same. All that has changed is the story, which is significantly shorter than the previous game. This is by no means a negative, but it is worth knowing before you get stuck in.
If you have played Marvel’s Spiderman, you will know exactly what you are in for. The same snappy, high paced combat is still present, with some new additional moves and powers. All of the same web-slinging is there too. You can zip from one end of the city to the other using a series of fluid moves that allow you to run along the walls and swing from your web as you dodge various structures and obstacles across the cityscape.
The story gets off to a strong start but it quickly loses momentum. It never gets boring, but it fails to live up to the intense and dramatic plot we had in the previous game. There is an obvious attempt to avoid using the same characters and villains but with a new Spiderman. This is an adventure for a new person and deserves new characters. None of these new characters really live up to those in Peter Parker’s life.
Miles is still quite young and is thrust into a situation he is not quite ready for. Throughout the story, you see his struggle but it is hard to relate to. There is no connection to normality since “normal” in this reality is so strange and unusual. It is admirable to see how he still puts others before himself. It shows that Spiderman has taught him well. It may be a new character, but all of the positive traits that Peter possesses have carried over.
For a new character, the story in Miles Morales is one that you will enjoy but It lacks the substance we saw in the previous game. You won’t get the large roster of well-known villains to go up against. There aren’t many boss fights at all. The overall story fails to capture any of the thrills we got from the last game.
When you are not kicking ass, there are plenty of stealth elements and puzzles to deal with. The puzzles get a little stale after a while. You will find that pretty much every puzzle contains some kind of gear that you must pull and then quickly hit with your web in order to stop it moving. It gets a little dull when you start to recognize the same puzzles from previous missions, just in a different location.
The biggest problem with Spiderman: Miles Morales is that its predecessor was so damn good. The bar has been set so high that a small, side adventure like this will fail to excite you in the way the main game did. This is by no means a bad game, it is fantastic! It just doesn’t feel as good as it did the last time.
THE VERDICT
- Incredibly strong visuals. New York looks and feels amazing and is brimming with detail.
- The combat is responsive and high paced. Chaining combos and web slinging results in some over the top, awesome action.
- Miles has some pretty big shoes to fill. He has a charming way about him that you will find endearing from the very start.
- Some repetitive puzzles
- The story doesn't live up to the powerful quake that the previous game did.
