Highlights
- Marvel's Spider-Man 2 lacks challenging content that keeps players engaged post-game, but introducing challenge maps like the Batman: Arkham games had can solve this problem.
- Challenge maps would allow players to showcase their skills and compete with high scores, providing a way to continue playing after completing the main story. They could also revisit memorable story locations not seen in the open-world, like Kraven's manor, the EMF interior, and the Raft's ships.
- A wave-based survival mode, similar to Arkham Knight's Endless Knight, would add an exciting gameplay option that doesn't have to make sense narratively and could include a mix of different enemies and bosses.
Like its predecessor Spider-Man: Miles Morales, Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 is an excellent open world experience without a single ounce of fat. Every activity is worth doing, from the Prowler Stash puzzles to the Flame quest line that is on par with the main story. Random crimes and Hunter Bases highlight the game’s exceptional combat and stealth, while the Unidentified Drones make good use of the new Web Wings. Unfortunately, because every activity in Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 is carefully designed to be worth doing, many fans are flying through all the content quickly. As such, the need for something like Batman: Arkham’s challenge maps is certainly felt.
Currently, Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 lacks places that will challenge those who have mastered the game's pair of wall-crawlers. While there are some difficult fights early in the game, once Peter and Miles acquire their new abilities, most of the game’s battles can be cleared in seconds - giving them little reason to keep playing once they have hit 100% on a playthrough. There are various solutions to this problem, like a new game plus mode for Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 that ups the difficulty greatly or replayable activities like Hunter Bases to give players unlimited access to the title’s harder fights. However, it is Arkham’s Challenge Maps that feel like a perfect way to keep fans engaged.
Marvel's Spider-Man 2 Can Fill The New Game Plus Void With One Simple Update
While Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 will eventually get mission replay and new game plus, Insomniac could make one change soon to make its fans keep playing.
Why Batman Arkham’s Challenge Maps Would Be a Good Fit For Marvel’s Spider-Man 2
Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 Challenge Maps Can Highlight All Types of Gameplay
The Batman Arkham series and Marvel’s Spider-Man have been compared before, and they will surely continue to be compared for years to come. A true successor to Rocksteady’s iconic superhero series, Insomniac’s Spidey franchise offers top-notch combat and solid stealth, both of which are clearly influenced by the best Batman games. Unfortunately, unlike those games, there are no challenge maps to let players showcase the mastery of their skills and compete with others for high scores or better times.
With Taskmaster strangely missing from Marvel’s Spider-Man 2, there is a massive void left by his absence, as his challenge missions in the original game offered experiences like the challenge maps from the Batman Arkham series. The lack of these is a genuine shame, as going all-in on challenge maps would have given fans more to do after they rolled credits on Marvel’s Spider-Man 2’s story, while also letting them see how good they really are. There could be various categories of challenges to access from the main menu, and the types of categories could resemble Batman Arkham’s. Combat challenges beyond the Mysteriums could exist, while stealth challenges are desperately needed, as there is nowhere to use stealth in the open-world once the bases are cleared. While there may not be a batmobile, the webswinging in Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 is perfect, and races across the city would be welcome.
Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 Could Use Arkham Knight’s Endless Knight Mode Most of All
However, even better than some traditional challenge maps that take players to memorable areas from the story that cannot be access in the open world (like Kraven’s manor, the EMF, or the Raft ships) would be a take on Endless Knight. Like its name suggests, this was a wave-based mode where players could keep fighting to their hearts’ content, building massive combos and needing to use every bit of Batman’s arsenal to take down a wide range of enemies. With Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 having a combo meter and plenty of foes to fight, it is easy to think about how a survival mode could benefit the game.
Endless Knight was part of the Community Challenge Pack, which saw fans voting on the types of challenges featured as well as the achievements to earn within them. With the mode being part of a bundle built by fans, it is clear that endless, wave-based survival modes are popular with gamers.
A survival mode in Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 would not have to worry about making sense narratively, a concept that required the main game’s Bases to only have Kraven's Hunters and Symbiote Nests to only feature the alien parasites. This non-canon mode could bring those two enemies together in addition to the Sandman copies, Mysterio’s skull-headed demons, random thugs, and so on. Bosses like Wraith could even be mixed in here and there to keep players on their toes if they survive for a long time. If gamers could set their difficulty, they could give themselves an easy arena that they blitz through with Peter’s Symbiote Surge, or a tough arena where they need to use Miles’ parries to their fullest. If challenge maps and a wave-based mode were present, any complaints about Marvel’s Spider-Man 2’s lack of replayability would surely fade away.
Marvel's Spider-Man 2
The sequel to 2018's Spider-Man and its Miles Morales spin-off, Marvel's Spider-Man 2 is a PS5 console exclusive. Insomniac's open-world game features Peter Parker and Miles Morales as dual protagonists, with the two heroes going up against the likes of Kraven, Venom, and Lizard.
