Highlights
- Marvel's Spider-Man 2 is making changes to its boss fights by introducing health bars, which could make for an exciting change to the franchise's formula.
- The boss fights in Marvel's Spider-Man games have been criticized for being less mechanically interesting than regular combat in the open world.
- The boss fights in Marvel's Spider-Man 2 are expected to be more varied and centered around interactive gameplay, with moments of cinematic spectacle in between.
Each new game in a franchise has multiple choices to make in terms of what the direction should be and how much should be iterated upon or added. Much has changed between Marvel’s Spider-Man, Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales, and now Marvel’s Spider-Man 2, for example, and yet Insomniac has also smartly not steered too far from its foundations and felt an obligatory need to fundamentally start from scratch in every entry. However, Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 is already making a change to its boss fights by giving bosses health bars, which could make for an incredibly exciting change to the franchise’s former formula.
One of the most interesting features of any superhero media is what supervillains the protagonist will be going toe-to-toe with, and that’s true too of Insomniac’s Marvel’s Spider-Man franchise. Knowing that players would be going up against a Sinister Six helmed by Doctor Octopus is tantalizing, for instance, especially because of how emotionally charged his final boss fight is on the Oscorp Industries tower. Unfortunately, these boss fights are never as mechanically interesting as regular combat is in the open world.
Marvel’s Spider-Man’s Boss Fights are More Cinematic Than Interactive
Marvel’s Spider-Man has fun boss fights, though it’s arguable that they are largely oriented around simple mechanics and are straightforward as a result. This is most evident when comparing boss fight combat to ordinary enemy combat, where the player’s juggling of enemies and the use of different gadgets create an outstanding flow with a lot of moment-to-moment improvisation. The fights against Rhino and Scorpion and Electro and Vulture, on the other hand, require almost nothing of the player aside from obeying button prompts and dodging out of the way of easily telegraphed attacks.
There’s a bit of diversity in other boss fights Marvel’s Spider-Man features, and Miles Morales was certainly an improvement in this department as well with Rhino, the Prowler, and the Tinkerer’s fights in Miles Morales being remarkable. Now that Peter and Miles both have an impressive suite of abilities and gadgets to rely upon in Marvel’s Spider-Man 2, it only makes sense that Insomniac would work to make boss fights more involved and engaging as well, and that’s why boss health bars are an intriguing inclusion.
Marvel’s Spider-Man 2’s Boss Fights Already Look More Varied
One substantial boss fight has been revealed now nearly in its entirety against Marvel’s Spider-Man 2’s Lizard, and that reveal tells of how boss fights are greatly improved. Not every boss fight can be expected to be as long or dynamic as the Lizard’s, but it’s terrific to see that boss fights might be more centered around interactive gameplay with moments of cinematic spectacle in between, rather than being centered around cinematic spectacle with moments of interactive gameplay in between.
It’s not until the boss fight is in the sewers that it becomes a genuine boss fight, though, complete with an actual health bar. This might only be a visual difference overall, but it lets the player know now when it’s time for open combat rather than a sequence being predominantly cinematic, such as when players are dragged up the side of a skyscraper behind the Lizard.
These actual boss fight sequences will include boss attacks that can be parried, and that alone is a perfect way to incorporate new combat mechanics into boss fights with health bars representing how much damage certain attacks from either Spider-Man will dish out. Therefore, it will be interesting to see what else has been added to make boss fights more interactive and distinct in Marvel’s Spider-Man 2.
Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 is out on October 20, exclusively for PS5.
