ProtoByte
Weeb Underling
With the Spider-Man 2 previews are out, I'm comfortable saying I'm somewhat disappointed - for a few reasons, but as per the title, let's keep it to gameplay.
Free flow combat was nice and all for Batman in 2009, but I don't even think it takes what that character can do to its full potential. It definitely doesn't take Spider-Man to his full potential in 2023. It never does optimally with non-humanoid enemies and usually requires pretty bitch made NPCs that aren't very fast, agile or strong. Enemy variety is inherently restricted to "how can this guy cheapen most attacks/methods and be vulnerable to exactly one? Okay, maybe two?"
There's also that these games have kept traversal and combat almost completely seperate systems that kinda turns off whenever you engage in the other. Yes, I remember the Vulture and Electro dual fight. The fact that the game literally forces you back into the air in physics-breaking manner indicates the issue here. It wasn't as good or systemically seamless as the Vulture fight in Web of Shadows. Aerial combat is a viable option in Insomniac's games, but it's more a way to isolate grounded foes as opposed to another field of combat entirely ala WoS. I'm not saying WoS was perfect, but also, where the hell is my wall combat?
That's the funny thing. I say "next gen" when a lot of this stuff has actually been achieved before 2 gens back. I think the bottlenecked CPUs last gen really had a bad effect on game design.
Larger scale destruction that has both visual and gameplay effects is something a Spider-Man game should eventually have, and it's not here in SM2. Related to physics, it appears they've kept hood of the same system - which was somewhat physics based, but I think the animation systems win out when it comes to how it plays. Momentum is not evenly conserved for a good number of traversal combinations. They've talked about vertical loops and corner turns, but the way they have suggests that the fundamentals of favoring animation are still present. I'm not nostalgic about 2004 Spider-Man 2, but I do think a more physics based web swinging system with more non-canned animation options (again, see WoS) is ideal here. I would've thought they'd have looked at TLOU2's contextual animations systems and begged Naughty Dog for the rundown on that, incorporating it into both combat and traversal. Spider-Man is a gold mine for that.
Finally comes world and level design. Pretty stagnant on this front. Here's the thing; yes, there's a lot more traffic and crowd density. Does it mean anything to the gameplay? Can I interact with crowds in any way? Will cars be something I can use or the enemies can use against me? No. I fully expect entire streets to be depopulated when encounters start as they did in the first game and Miles Morales. Which is a really missed opportunity. If you're not too interested in making player characters vulnerable, the least you could do is make civilian NPCs vulnerable, and allow us to save them. How about stealth? It looks just as bland as last time.
I really hope they get a clue that this isn't going to fly for the 3rd game, and bigger yet, actually make Wolverine something "new" and exciting. Maybe the M-rating let's them stretch a little bit.
Free flow combat was nice and all for Batman in 2009, but I don't even think it takes what that character can do to its full potential. It definitely doesn't take Spider-Man to his full potential in 2023. It never does optimally with non-humanoid enemies and usually requires pretty bitch made NPCs that aren't very fast, agile or strong. Enemy variety is inherently restricted to "how can this guy cheapen most attacks/methods and be vulnerable to exactly one? Okay, maybe two?"
There's also that these games have kept traversal and combat almost completely seperate systems that kinda turns off whenever you engage in the other. Yes, I remember the Vulture and Electro dual fight. The fact that the game literally forces you back into the air in physics-breaking manner indicates the issue here. It wasn't as good or systemically seamless as the Vulture fight in Web of Shadows. Aerial combat is a viable option in Insomniac's games, but it's more a way to isolate grounded foes as opposed to another field of combat entirely ala WoS. I'm not saying WoS was perfect, but also, where the hell is my wall combat?
That's the funny thing. I say "next gen" when a lot of this stuff has actually been achieved before 2 gens back. I think the bottlenecked CPUs last gen really had a bad effect on game design.
Larger scale destruction that has both visual and gameplay effects is something a Spider-Man game should eventually have, and it's not here in SM2. Related to physics, it appears they've kept hood of the same system - which was somewhat physics based, but I think the animation systems win out when it comes to how it plays. Momentum is not evenly conserved for a good number of traversal combinations. They've talked about vertical loops and corner turns, but the way they have suggests that the fundamentals of favoring animation are still present. I'm not nostalgic about 2004 Spider-Man 2, but I do think a more physics based web swinging system with more non-canned animation options (again, see WoS) is ideal here. I would've thought they'd have looked at TLOU2's contextual animations systems and begged Naughty Dog for the rundown on that, incorporating it into both combat and traversal. Spider-Man is a gold mine for that.
Finally comes world and level design. Pretty stagnant on this front. Here's the thing; yes, there's a lot more traffic and crowd density. Does it mean anything to the gameplay? Can I interact with crowds in any way? Will cars be something I can use or the enemies can use against me? No. I fully expect entire streets to be depopulated when encounters start as they did in the first game and Miles Morales. Which is a really missed opportunity. If you're not too interested in making player characters vulnerable, the least you could do is make civilian NPCs vulnerable, and allow us to save them. How about stealth? It looks just as bland as last time.
I really hope they get a clue that this isn't going to fly for the 3rd game, and bigger yet, actually make Wolverine something "new" and exciting. Maybe the M-rating let's them stretch a little bit.
