Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 offered an in-depth look at gameplay that basically rounds out what scripted story sequences will look like, particularly one with a massive set-piece involving multiple villains. Still, the open-world activities in Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 are likely to be similar to that of Marvel’s Spider-Man and Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales, where players can thwart active crimes they notice while web-swinging and hunting collectibles spread throughout the environment. It will be interesting, then, to see how this is structured between two playable Spider-Men.
The presumed premise here is that some side quests will be exclusive to Peter Parker while others will be exclusive to Miles Morales, some will be available to either Spider-Man, and main story quests will be exclusive to one at the start but swap between them both periodically. How this happens was revealed during Marvel’s Spider-Man 2’s gameplay reveal, where at a certain point the player will be prompted to press an input and swap to the other Spider-Man, wherever he may be. This gives Insomniac a rare opportunity to follow in Naughty Dog’s inspired stride.
The Last of Us Likes to Subvert How Players Interact with Its Mechanics
The Last of Us is incredibly character-driven in the sense that its narrative is progressed through character interaction, and how Naughty Dog marries gameplay mechanics with the story in this way is profound. There are multiple instances where players will be engaging in the same interactions as they normally would, and then they are upended suddenly, and how NPCs are designed to behave based on the context of events occurring in the story make it feel remarkably immersive.
Ellie’s NPC behavior is explicitly different in the spring after having killed David in self-defense, for example, and this leads to one of the most impactful moments of NPC interaction when players lift a ladder for Ellie. Players are conditioned to know that an NPC will be there for Joel to hoist up at this point, but as Joel stands there poised to lift her he notices she’s still sitting on a bench.
This takes what could easily be a repetitive input prompt and makes it dynamic for the player in a way that correlates with the emotional story beats that are resonating between Joel and Ellie. Now, because of Marvel’s Spider-Man 2’s nearly instant character swap feature, it is entirely possible that the same sort of subversion could occur between Peter and Miles.
Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 Could Leave One Spider-Man Unresponsive When Beckoned
Because this was introduced as a mechanic at all in Marvel’s Spider-Man 2, fans can already assume that they will be prompted to switch to-and-from each Spider-Man frequently in scripted sequences. Likewise, there are moments where control is switched to the other Spider-Man without the player being prompted to initiate that swap, such as when Miles rescues civilians on a boat and Peter continues pursuing Kraven.
Because both Spider-Men have comparable UI and some of their abilities are the same, this won’t likely be jarring unless the transition is quick and doesn’t give the player enough time to acknowledge that the switch has been made. Either way, Insomniac should take after Naughty Dog and make it so that at some point in the story Peter or Miles will call on the other with the player being prompted to switch control via an input.
Then, the screen should remain on this Spider-Man with the prompt seemingly not working before they panic and wonder why the other Spider-Man isn’t responding. The most plausible case of this happening would be if Peter is not responding while he is emotionally compromised by the symbiote, leaving Miles alone to handle whatever is going on at the moment.
Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 launches on October 20, exclusively for PlayStation 5.
