Highlights

  • The Last of Us Part 2 Remastered's No Return roguelike benefits from its selection of locations and characters, as well as its intense gameplay mechanics.
  • Marvel's Spider-Man 2 could potentially adapt a roguelike mode inspired by The Last of Us, with modifications and challenges to make encounters more difficult and boss fights with iconic villains.

Roguelikes have been implemented into two of the most popular first-party PlayStation titles lately, and with that trend picking up it isn’t absurd to assume it could continue onto other franchises. However, it’s also possible that roguelikes have been designed for games thus far that have no plans to dive into live-service multiplayer endeavors, as God of War hasn’t announced anything and The Last of Us recently shelved its own online game. God of War and The Last of Us’ roguelikes couldn’t be more different from one another, but Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 could easily adapt one inspired by the latter.

The Last of Us Part 2 Remastered’s No Return roguelike has the benefit of being able to cherry-pick locations and characters and the game’s tense and thrilling mechanics take care of the rest. Procedural run routes can be incredibly hectic, confronting players with invisible enemies or pitting them against horrible, unprecedented circumstances, but masterful expertise with The Last of Us Part 2 ensures that whatever players have to work with can be used to their advantage. The same could definitely be argued for Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 and a roguelike for the sequel could have the exact same formula.

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Insomniac’s Plate is Full Following Marvel’s Spider-Man 2

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Marvel’s Spider-Man Had an Online Game Canceled

First, while it’s distressing how the information had come about via a ransomware hack targeting Insomniac, it’s interesting now to learn that the Marvel’s Spider-Man franchise previously had a multiplayer title in development. Because Insomniac is now probably redirecting all of its attention toward single-player games like Naughty Dog is, it would only make sense for Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 to receive a similar extracurricular game mode, too.

Of course, Insomniac missed a perfect opportunity to do so with Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 ’s upcoming New Game Plus update —and technically it’s still on the table since Insomniac hasn’t detailed everything coming in this update yet—but the studio obviously has a lot on its plate with Marvel’s Wolverine , let alone anything else it’s already working on.

It’s still surprising that Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 didn’t have any explicit references to Wolverine in-game aside from a Miles Morales costume, and yet it’s likely that Insomniac has its head down for now. Truly anything is possible with a team as efficient as Insomniac.

How Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 Could Adapt Its Gameplay in a Roguelike Mode

Stealth was highly simplified in Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 and hardly posed any challenge beyond expansive encounters in the hunters’ cloaked, multilayered hideouts. Marvel’s Spider-Man 2’s web lines arguably gave players too much dominance over an enemy encounter, allowing them to perch anywhere suspended above enemies so long as a drone wasn’t in players’ eyelines.

Enemies scarcely look up as it is, but perhaps a Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 roguelike could make these encounters far more difficult with mods and challenges comparable to those in The Last of Us Part 2 Remastered’s No Return; maybe Peter Parker can only use one particular gadget in one mod, for example, or Miles’ optic camouflage is disabled. The only drawback a Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 roguelike would have is a lack of playable characters since only Peter and Miles would be viable.

Therefore, maybe withholding a roguelike mode for now is the best move Insomniac could make so that there is at least a third playable Spider-Person, Cindy Moon’s Silk, in Marvel’s Spider-Man 3. That said, where this roguelike would excel beyond that of No Return is in boss fights, where any number of iconic villains could appear. It isn’t fundamental that Marvel’s Spider-Man gets a roguelike mode at some point, but between ordinary stealth and combat encounters there’s certainly as much value in that premise as there was with The Last of Us Part 2 Remastered.