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[IbizaPocholo]

How Insomniac stole the heart of Spider-Man

Marvel's Spider-Man is probably the finest licensed game adaptation of the past decade, its lead at once every inch the…

www.eurogamer.net

Marvel's Spider-Man is probably the finest licensed game adaptation of the past decade, its lead at once every inch the lycra-clad tumbler you might recall from comics and movies, and a creature only Insomniac could have created. In a panel at Gameslab today, game director Ryan Smith took attendees through the making of the game's traversal and combat systems, explaining how they contribute to the portrayal as much as its cutscenes and writing.

There are many variations and generations of Spider-Men, of course, from eight-limbed Man-Spiders through Spider Monkeys to the deeply confusing Peter Porker. Insomniac's 2018 refresh is no freshly-bitten Maguire but a crime-fighter in his prime, having defended New York for eight years and amassed a sizeable rogue's gallery. This makes for a bolder beginning - the game literally kicks off mid-swing, as Spider-Man chases down a misbehaving Kingpin - but Insomniac was keen that newcomers not feel out of their depth.

"We knew that there was a chance this could be someone's first game - their first experience not only of Spider-Man, but also of gameplay," Smith recalled. "And we wanted to make sure that everyone had that hero experience we envisioned, but then as you kept with it, we wanted you to find ways to master that gameplay."

The most important element to get right was, of course, the swinging. Insomniac prototyped the mechanic early on - the project began life in late 2014, and entered "full production" in 2017 - but nailing the feel took years of revision.

The studio began by creating a physics-based system, with web lines affixing themselves to buildings in the open world rather than sneakily hooking you to the skybox, as in Spider-games of yore. "We knew that it had to feel like swinging, not flying," Smith said.

Check the link for more.

 

[JimiNutz]

Missed this when it was originally posted but both the traversal and combat systems in this game are amazing and I really enjoyed reading this.

The traversal is just so fun and I only ever used the fast travel feature three times to unlock the trophy because I loved swinging and bouncing across the city. They really perfected the physics and sense of inertia, it just feels so good. They completely nailed the Spider-Man feel and webslinging is the coolest method of transportation period (in my opinion anyway).

The combat is also really fun with lots of moves to unlock and gadgets to play with. They completely nailed the way that Spider-Man moves and it's a joy to watch him fighting big groups of enemies. I'd say the combat in this is far superior to any depiction of Spider-Man fighting that we've seen on screen also. I really hope the MCU takes some inspiration from this for some of Spider-Man's fights in future films.

Both the combat and the traversal systems are easy to pick up and play yet retain enough depth to be rewarding and entertaining throughout. The litmus test for me is my girlfriend who does enjoy games but has very little experience gaming and little tolerance for games with cumbersome controls or mechanics that are tedious. She absolutely loves this game as much as I do. The minute to minute gameplay in this game is some of the best this gen.

Fuck I love this game and can't wait for the sequel.

 

[Panaphonics]

a/k/a Sunset Overdrive spider-man skin.

 

[Spaceman292]

a/k/a Sunset Overdrive spider-man skin.

Except Spiderman isn't rubbish.

 

[Vawn]

a/k/a Sunset Overdrive spider-man skin.

A/K/A a near clone of inFamous.

After recently playing all three, I'd say Sunset Overdrive is closer to inFamous than it is Spiderman.

 

[Spukc]

still didn't play it and still have zero interest in it.

botw ruined me good

 

[Revolutionary]

Marvel's Spider-Man is probably the finest licensed game adaptation of the past decade

Only if you ignore the very games that Spider-Man did its best to emulate.

It's not a bad game by any means (well, the third DLC was kinda bad), but there wasn't an original bone in its body. Hope the sequel tries to shake things up.

 

[Danjin44]

a/k/a Sunset Overdrive spider-man skin.

In what way? do they have same animation? enemy design? graphics? Or are you just saying this because it's developed by same team?

 

[sonomamashine]

still didn't play it and still have zero interest in it.

Agreed .

 

[Chromata]

Insomniac nailed it with the first game which makes me all the more excited for the sequel. We've already seen how much faster traversal can be with the SSD on PS5. The main gripe I had with Spiderman was it's open world tropes. The simplistic side missions and tower synchronizations were a step back relative to other games of its kind.

 

[Imtjnotu]

still didn't play it and still have zero interest in it.

botw ruined me good

 

[stranno]

Web lines have been sticking to buildings since TreyArch's Spider-Man 2. Only in the original Neversoft game and TreyArch's Spider-Man: The Movie the web lines sticked to the skybox.

In every Spider-Man game since Spider-Man 2: no building tall enough = no web-slinging.

 

[Lionel Richie]

a/k/a Sunset Overdrive spider-man skin.

You say that as if it was a bad thing.

 

[Pagusas]

still didn't play it and still have zero interest in it.

botw ruined me good

Huh? The games are nothing alike in any way shape or form.

 

[Doom85]

I need to wrap this one up, got about 2/3 through it but just fell off it and then newer games were clamoring for my attention. But yeah, with this and the Spider-verse movie, 2018 was a damn good year for Spider-man media.

 

[Spukc]

Huh? The games are nothing alike in any way shape or form.

Botw > any open world game

 

[Pagusas]

Botw > any open world game

That’s such a weird thing to hear given all the negatives BOtW has. It’s a great game but not even in my top 3 open word games.

And the open world part of Spider-man isn’t the important piece. They nailed combat, and made you feel like you were in a cinematic action adventure without walls.

 

[Whitesnake]

“It really makes you feel like Spider-Man.”

 

[Danjin44]

Botw > any open world game

I LOVE BotW and I didn't play Spider Man but that game is super hero open world game and its is very different open world game than BotW. Do also want compare to Shadow of the Colossus? that game also technically "open world".

 

[ResilientBanana]

Only if you ignore the very games that Spider-Man did its best to emulate.

It's not a bad game by any means (well, the third DLC was kinda bad), but there wasn't an original bone in its body. Hope the sequel tries to shake things up.

Wut. The game was great and had a lot of charm to it. It was the perfect Spider-Man game.

 

[Spukc]

I LOVE BotW and I didn't play Spider Man but that game is super hero open world game and its is very different open world game than BotW. Do also want compare to Shadow of the Colossus? that game also technically "open world".

def yes i compare all open world games with botw.

so far it ruined horizon and rdr2 for me.

no open world game is really open world

 

[Danjin44]

def yes i compare all open world games with botw.

so far it ruined horizon and rdr2 for me.

no open world game is really open world

But if someone is looking for open world games with super powers you wouldn't exactly recommend BotW.

 

[Spukc]

But if someone is looking for open world games with super powers you wouldn't exactly recommend BotW.

for me spiderman is nothing else then those batman games,

 

[EverydayBeast]

Spider-Man PS4 could have easily been a disaster and it should have shared the GOTY award with God of War.

 

[Danjin44]

for me spiderman is nothing else then those batman games,

I would imagine Batman games don't have that traversal as games like Spider Man, InFAMOUS and Gravity Rush.

 

[DigitalScrap]

They really did do a great job of capturing the essence of Spider-Man especially the traversal mechanics, and so much about the game is well done, but then... the game is just so damn repetitive that it drove me crazy and caused me to dislike it after a bit. Still the best Spider-Man game so far though by far.

 

[Roni]

Game's great, but Arkham Asylum takes the cake for me. I was blown away by that game and hyped to hell...

 

[Neolombax]

still didn't play it and still have zero interest in it.

botw ruined me good

I feel that you are limiting yourself for no good reason but you do you I suppose.

 

[Fake]

Its a fantadtic game. Remind me that little guy on era calling spiderman a niche franchise and become a meme.

Anw,I highly recomend to anyone. Its really that good. I still waiting for some kinda of 'complete edition' with all DLC to buy again.

 

[JSoup]

Personally, I'm finding the game rather boring.
It's Batman Arkham, but without interesting dialog, good voice actors and fun.

 

[quickwhips]

In what way? do they have same animation? enemy design? graphics? Or are you just saying this because it's developed by same team?

Dont feed trolls.

 

[quickwhips]

Personally, I'm finding the game rather boring.
It's Batman Arkham, but without interesting dialog, good voice actors and fun.

Thats bullshit. The voice acting is fine. Thr game is good. Maybe not spectacular though.

 

[MiyazakiHatesKojima]

I really have the urge to hate on this game but it brought joy and love for a lot of gamers. Heck if it softened JimiNutz 's heart (and he's a nutty lad), then I can't hate on this game.

 

[TimFL]

Web lines have been sticking to buildings since TreyArch's Spider-Man 2. Only in the original Neversoft game and TreyArch's Spider-Man: The Movie the web lines sticked to the skybox.

In every Spider-Man game since Spider-Man 2: no building tall enough = no web-slinging.

That‘s wrong. They backtracked on that with Web of Shadow (stuck to buildings most of the time but also near them for more movement freedom).

The Beenox games were abominations in that regard. The first TASM game (movie tie-in) had no physics based swinging at all, webs went straight up to the sky and you were on a fixed arc. They shaked things up with the sequel but that also was more of a deal with the devil: web swinging was made to look physics based but it was just a reskinned TASM1 swinging mechanic that gave the illusion of physics and webs attaching to buildings.

Marvel‘s Spider-Man is one of the first titles since Spidey 2/3 fron Treyarch that has proper swinging again.

 

[Bryank75]

Just finished polishing off the last few tasks for the platinum in this a few days ago, what a game!
I got Horizon platinum today too and it really highlighted for me the importance of a fun traversal system in an open world game. I didn't mind doing any collectables in spider-man etc cause I was having so much fun.
The combat also has a really high skill ceiling and you can be so good it makes the enemies seem helpless but a bad player will be shredded.

 

[Lastyou1]

Don't want to bring up uncalled and unwanted comparisons, but Spider-Man ps4 is exactly what Horizon Zero Dawn was supposed and wanted to achieve, but failed miserably.


I am not a neutral judge as I am a huge Spider-Man, so my mindset is not in the right place, but combat, traversal, story, characters, etc are excellent.

I would say this is the best depiction of Peter Parker outside the 616 (main universe) comics, yes, even better than the ultimate version or the Tom Holland version.

The ending is one of the greatest ever, imo.


Spider-Man was crushed in terms of visibility and mainstream appeal by God of War, Sony really cannibalize its own exclusives by releasing them so close and by promoting them simultaneously.

New York, while a bit small, is so alive and detailed that only GTA 5 has a city that is more lived.
Photo mode is a mini game of its own and is so amazing that it captures the photographer in you. The game is too beautiful to watch.

The only real problems of the game are the excessive repetition of side quests and the quality loss of the DLCs' quests.
In terms of story the Dlc pack is a weak addition to a wonderful ending.

 

[Panajev2001a]

Don't want to bring up uncalled and unwanted comparisons, but Spider-Man ps4 is exactly what Horizon Zero Dawn was supposed and wanted to achieve, but failed miserably.


I am not a neutral judge as I am a huge Spider-Man, so my mindset is not in the right place, but combat, traversal, story, characters, etc are excellent.

I would say this is the best depiction of Peter Parker outside the 616 (main universe) comics, yes, even better than the ultimate version or the Tom Holland version.

The ending is one of the greatest ever, imo.


Spider-Man was crushed in terms of visibility and mainstream appeal by God of War, Sony really cannibalize its own exclusives by releasing them so close and by promoting them simultaneously.

New York, while a bit small, is so alive and detailed that only GTA 5 has a city that is more lived.
Photo mode is a mini game of its own and is so amazing that it captures the photographer in you. The game is too beautiful to watch.

The only real problems of the game are the excessive repetition of side quests and the quality loss of the DLCs' quests.
In terms of story the Dlc pack is a weak addition to a wonderful ending.

I would say that Spider-man has a more lived in and populated NYC than GTA V... GTA V is more massive and open, but feels a lot more sparsely populated.

 

[Damien Crowley]

I am a huge Spider-Man

Could. Not. Resist!

 

[VulcanRaven]

Great game. Arkham Knight is better but this was good too.

 

[Tesseract]

not that impressed for w/e reason, it's a fantastic modern smoke and mirror show tho

 

[Mildudon]

How quickly we forget.

 

[cr0w]

Loved the game, but outside of the graphics and traversal, I found it to be a pretty bog-standard open world game when it came to non-story shit. And the MJ/Miles segments were hot garbage.

 

[iorek21]

I liked the game, although stealth and gadgets were a little lackluster

But I feel like this game is lacking something to be really great, maybe some Metroidvania elements would make it more meaty, more enviromental puzzles as well (I hope they discard those science puzzles in the sequel)

 

[quickwhips]

Liked the game but hater miles and mj parts. The look of the characters is off also. I do like the game though and though it was a good spiderman game and a solid 8/10. I would buy a sequel day one.

 

[Ristifer]

I loved the game. I actually liked the look of the characters for the most part, even if they weren't perfect. The stealth sections were the worst, but they weren't that bad. They were like five minutes a section. People act as if you spend 15 hours as MJ and Miles or something. Yes, they were unnecessary filler, but I've seen far worse padding than that.

Pretty amazing first game with a lot to build on, and room for improvements in certain areas. Makes me pretty excited to see what they do for a sequel if they can improve on what they've already accomplished.

 

[Lastyou1]

How quickly we forget.

Both games have their respective perks.

Batman arkham series created from scratch.
Spider-Man took whatever the Batman series did and improved it, at least in the story and gameplay department.


Ultimately Batman gets more praise because people like dark settings like Lovecraft Ian Arkham Asylum and Gotham City more than bright, shiny, lovely New York City's Manhattan.
And, of course, innovation is all in favor of Rocksteady.


But Spider-Man? C'mon... It has better traversal, better open world, an actual decent ending

Spoiler: Endings

(not that killing Joker right after the Dark Knight craze of 2008 wasn't a ballsy decision, but somewhat killing Aunt May was an even deeper and ballsy decision)

, more ideas for a sequel and a more creative gameplay.

So it's not like people are forgetting about the Arkham series, it is more like that Spider-Man felt like an unofficial sequel of it. Which is both a good and a bad thing imo.

 

[JimiNutz]

I really have the urge to hate on this game but it brought joy and love for a lot of gamers. Heck if it softened JimiNutz 's heart (and he's a nutty lad), then I can't hate on this game.

It's definitely a feel good game.
Insomniac games in general have a nice feel about them and waste little time getting to the fun stuff.

I appreciate that it's maybe not up to the master craftsmanship of Kojima-san but it put a smile on my face and entertained me throughout.

 

[FranXico]

See the familiarities? That's Spiderman 2 on the PS2. The combat looks clunkier (and Spideys quips are horrible), but you can see most of the concepts there.

The one gameplay element that Spider-man PS4 basically copied from the Arkham series was stealth takedowns.

The stealth sneak sections (Miles and MJ) were... meh.

 

[JSoup]

Thats bullshit. The voice acting is fine. Thr game is good. Maybe not spectacular though.

I mean, opinions.
Lots of people like it and that's fine.
I'm just finding it to be Batman Arkham City: Even Less Fun Edition.

 

[prag16]

still didn't play it and still have zero interest in it.

botw ruined me good

The two games have hardly anything in common whatsoever, aside from both being 3rd person and nominall 'open world'.

And for the record, BotW bored A LOT of peopel to tears.