This is why these games are held in such a high regard. They live and die by the feeling of power fantasy, and here it's unlike any other mainstream game. You can jump from the highest building, dive all the way to the ground and then quickly open wings or start swinging and cross from Manhattan to Queens in a matter of seconds.
And it all controls exceptionally well. Just as I immediately remembered all the controls as soon as I booted up the sequel, I'll immediately remember all of them again in 5 years when the third one comes out. It's such a tight experience, facilitated just enough that you're seemingly always in full control, yet you won't easily stumble or crash into buildings, no matter how fast you're going. It's engineered to perfection. This is something we take for granted, but they translated the action on screen perfectly to the controller, while utilising Dualsense features to the max.
This was also true for the first game, the second one just added a few things, and made it even more fun to play. The game starts, gives you all the tools from the get go, and let's you go nuts. After the first mission I probably spent 5 hours just swinging around and beating random thugs.
The other important part is the main campaign. I don't remember the 2018 one in great detail, but it can't have been this exhilarating. Plenty of set pieces, chaos everywhere around you, things crashing and falling, and you're still in full control. The last 5 or so hours are just a thrill ride after a thrill ride. The bosses are also much better. The added parry is surprisingly difficult to pull off amidst all the action, which made some of these boss fights that much more fun. Hats off to them thinking their combat system is good enough to carry 3-4 health bars of pretty much identical boss phases, but in my case it absolutely worked. At the end of some fights I was thirsting for more phases. Venom could've had 8 bars and I'd have loved it.
I didn't do a lot of side quests (didn't do any chain of them to completion), but the ones I did were ok, and will probably finish all the flame ones, nests, mech birds and any other interesting ones. There's also some that turn me off on the premise itself, e.g. the May foundation ones and the Mysterio ones, which I probably won't do.
The writing, cutscenes, characters and conversations are all very bland. Really couldn't feel any of the dramatic moments, just kind of stared through them until the next mission. Also really disliked MJ missions. Don't like stealth in games, especially the type used here. She felt really out of place during the last fight(s), and the only thing standing between her and an instant death was a massive plot armor. It's also jarring what they'd done with her face. Not only is she ugly as a sin, but that combined with not that great facial animations, and it was just painful to watch her in conversations, especially the emotional ones with Pete. Plus the two of them have no chemistry whatsoever. It would've worked much better if she was his sister and not a love interest.
Great game.