This article originally ran under a different banner/website in November of 2020 and is now being here re-uploaded for purposes of convenience and consolidation. Please enjoy.
HEAR YE!! HEAR YE!!! MY LOYAL FOLLOWERS, you all know me as the steward bastion of video games. I will defend it mercilessly until my dying breath. Whether it’s defending the medium from greed or negative stereotypes, you will always see me on the frontlines ready to defend gaming with my metaphorical sword and shield. Today, I stand in the way of criticism brought before me by the community itself. I am here to defend Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales from the idea that this should have been DLC for the original Marvel’s Spider-Man game. Now, I have played a lot of sequels that felt like DLC surgically removed from the base game, and I am here to say Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales is certainly not one of them. So I have drawn my line in the sand and am ready to defend this game. I am here to say why I believe Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales is worthy to be its own game.
Before I delve too deep into the story, I just want to call out the opening scene of Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales. It involves Miles walking the streets of New York and running into a street artist as he is painting the original Spider-Man onto the side of the building. Miles asks him if he plans on adding the newer Spider-Man onto the building? The artist replies that he hadn’t planned to; he doesn’t hate the new Spider-Man, just prefers the original. At that moment, I felt guilt wash over me, as I kinda share the opinion of the street artist. I had nothing against Miles; I just grew up with Peter Park as Spider-Man. However, to see someone say that Miles made me instantly sympathize with him. We have all experienced what it is like to be the underdog. To be in a position where nobody believes you. Sure Peter has J Johan Jameson constantly calling him out, but everyone in Marvel’s Spider-Man genuinely believed him in. To see people doubt Miles right off the bat instantly had me empathizing with Miles. It was a very smart move by the writers at Insomniac Games.
Our story begins on a cold December day in New York City. After Peter and Miles stop Rhino’s escape plan, Peter informs Miles that MJ has asked him to go overseas to take pictures for an article she is working on. This ultimately leaves Miles as the only Spider-Man in New York for the time being. Initially overwhelmed and scared of the task at hand, Peter expressed faith in Miles giving him the confidence to take on the task. During one of Miles’s patrols, he discovers a gang known as the Underground at war with a tech company known as Roxxon Corp. Miles is forced to go on his own journey of self-discovery as he tries to keep the warring factions from tearing New York apart. Many have said that Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales has a very stereotypical superhero plot, and while I can see their point, I found Miles’s character growth from unsure to confident hero, carried the story through the familiar superhero beats.
Speaking of familiar beats, the combat will feel very familiar if you were a fan of Marvel’s Spider-Man. It is the same acrobatically Arkham-style combat but with a touch of Miles’s own flair. The combat revolves around Miles’s bio-electrical attacks he refers to as Venom attacks; a name that a certain symbiote might not appreciate. However, these attacks are a must use as the Underground and Roxxon troops have some tricks up their sleeves. Many of them have tools and gadgets that make them immune to your attacks and must be broken with venom attacks. You might assume this would arrest the flow of combat, but the enemies in Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales are more aggressive, giving the combat a fast pace. Insomniac Games clearly knew fans of the first game would return for Miles’s story and decided to dial up the difficulty. Not in the usual increase of health, but by presenting enemies better equipped at punishing your mistakes. A design decision that most developers don’t make when designing DLC.
Since your opponents are smart, you can’t rush in web-shooters ablaze. There is definitely a greater focus on stealth in this title. Make sense since Miles is capable of going invisible for a brief amount of time. A tool that you will find useful when you reach wide-open spaces crawling with goons. Much like the previous Spider-Man game, I found myself using the silent takedown to take out most enemies, but the option to sneak up on someone and venom punch them while invisible is there. I found the invisibility power most useful for escaping the enemy if I happened to be spotted during a takedown. Much like the combat, the introduction of Miles’s invisibility shakes up the stealth formula just enough to feel fresh again. Finally, PRAISE INSOMNIAC GAMES FOR NOT INCLUDING ANY MJ STYLED STEALTH SECTIONS IN THIS GAME!!!!
When you are not beating up bad guys in Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales, you will find yourself swinging around the snow-capped buildings of New York City. The web-swinging hasn’t changed from the first game, but I would argue it didn’t need to. The ability to gain so much speed and momentum will always feel so exhilarating to me. Anytime I am web-swinging through New York, my problems just seem to evaporate, and I am not just talking about my in-game problems. The web-swinging in these games has always and continues to feel zen for me.
If you do feel the need to take a break while web-swinging, there is a plethora of side content at your disposal. Through a Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man app, you are able to access a handful of side missions including saving a homeless center from being shut down to rescuing a couple of cats. A lot of the copy-and-pasted side content has been cut down. Base assaults are still present but there are significantly fewer of them. Rather than backpacks, Miles must search for time capsules. The Osborne research centers have been replaced with puzzles involving Miles having to search for sounds that he can incorporate into his music. Much of the puzzles, in general, have been replaced with puzzles involving Miles’s bio-electrical powers such as stringing circuits together with his conductive webbing. I chose to engage with much of the side content because it gave me resources to unlock the many Spider-Man suits available to Miles. My favorite suits included a one with a cat riding in his backpack and the Into the Spiderverse suit which animates Miles at 12 frames a second to mimic the movie.
MY LOYAL FOLLOWERS!!! This year has been rough for everyone including me. I have reviewed so many games, that it feels exhausting at times. So many games fail to walk that razor’s edge between being familiar and bringing something new to the table. To continuously come before all of you to yell this game does not do enough has taken its toll on my mind. I wish all games could be good, but that is not the way the world works. I must always be honest and resolute. So to see people say Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales should be DLC while games like Resident Evil 3 or Amnesia Rebirth can still be full releases, I cannot stay silent. I truly believe Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales walks perfectly between the lines of taking what worked from the original while making it feel fresh again. My only complaint is a few graphical glitches, but I was playing the game on the PS4 while it clearly belongs on the PS5. In the age of remakes and remasters, I am truly thankful the developers took the time to make this game feel original in its own way. I am thankful for Insomniac Games.
