Marvel's Spider-Man 2

Not too long ago, by which I mean almost five years ago, I purchased a PS4 when the United States government gave everyone in the country $1,200 to stimulate the economy at the start of COVID. I did so because I both wanted to be a good citizen who supported businesses by spending money on stupid shit, and because I wanted to play its plethora of platform exclusives. However, over the past four-plus years, that purchase has become increasingly pointless. Almost all of Playstation’s system sellers have slowly but surely made their way to Steam. Uncharted, The Last of Us, God of War, Days Gone, most of Quantic Dream’s lineup and even Spider-Man and Spider-Man: Miles Morales have all become playable with a mouse and keyboard over the past half-decade. And now that Spider-Man 2 is as well, I can finally enjoy web-slinging while the console it launched on collects spiderwebs in my closet. Which is both bitter, because its port leaves a lot to be desired, and sweet, because Spider-Man 2 is sweet (in the ‘90s slang definition, not the literal one).

Taking place after the aforementioned two Spider-Man games, Spider-Man 2 puts you into the sticky suit of both the franchise’s long-running protagonist and his teenage protégé Miles. If you haven’t played either one of those titles, though, it doesn’t really matter as long as you know of those characters. That’s because, simply put, its narrative is about as traditionally superhero as it gets. When one of the franchise’s villains destroys part of New York City, and a rogue’s gallery descends on the economic capital of the world, Spidey and his student are forced to put on their cartoonish get-ups to save it. 

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Doing that involves almost everything you’d expect from a video game adaption of a comic book franchise, for better and worse. When it comes to its story, Spider-Man 2 doesn’t take a lot of risks. That’s not a bad thing; the game’s narrative is solid, well-written, and makes good use of themes that the franchise is known for. Peter Parker is older than he was in the previous mainline Spider-Man game, and has to confront the realities of becoming an adult whose side-job dominates his life. Miles Morales, on the other web-slinger, is still young and trying to come to terms with having the great responsibility that accompanies having great power. Their foes, the most notable of which is Kraven the Hunter, are typical PG-13 villains whose good intentions pave their road to Hell. However, all of that can be said for almost every entry into the Spider-verse. Characters’ dialogue is witty, the 15-hour-long story has just enough heart-felt moments to force you to remember there are actual people (or NPCs, technically) behind their goofy masks, and if nothing else, cutscenes are enjoyable to watch. Again, though, that’s true for almost all Spider-Man titles, for better and rarely worse.

That final bit is also true for Spider-Man 2’s gameplay, at least as it relates to the video game adaptations of 6-year-old me’s favourite person. But unlike its narrative, there’s genuinely nothing wrong with the title being innovative. The previous two games in the franchise were, and still are, a couple of the most unabashedly fun superhero games ever created. Swinging around New York City, beating up baddies with combat heavily inspired by the Batman: Arkham series, and occasionally engaging in mini-games in Spider-Man 2 is just as entertaining as it was in Spider-Man: Miles Morales or 2018’s title. The only real way it’s been improved upon is the ability to swap between Peter Parker and Miles Morales when you’re exploring the world or when you need to complete character-specific missions, each one of whom has a couple of unique abilities. That doesn’t actually change much, though, because both can defeat enemies with ease using a variety of gadgets and their fists.

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Outside of that one glorified gimmick, however, the core gameplay of Spider-Man 2 remains more-or-less identical to its prequels. Traversing the game’s giant map is one of the most satisfying things to do on your computer, beating its bosses is enjoyable, and completing side objectives while working your way through its skill tree never feels like a chore. Although Spider-Man 2 doesn’t reinvent, or really even change, what the series is known for, it still makes you feel like two of the least flawed characters in the Marvel universe. That may not help it win any awards for innovation, but it’s hard to improve on near-perfection.

And the emphasis was on the “near” in that last sentence, because when it comes to its PC port, Spider-Man 2 is, well, not great. Although it isn’t as terrible as, say, Cyberpunk 2077, it’s still filled with the now-standard set of technical problems that seem to accompany most releases these days. None of these outright break the title, however its problems still do in fact exist. Poor performance is the biggest one, as to get the game to run at a solid 60FPS, you’ll probably have to drop all of your settings as low as they can go. There’s also plenty of visual oddities, annoying bugs, long loading screens, and the title will occasionally crash for no reason.

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That’s pretty much par for the course when it comes to video games in 2025, though. And if you’re reading this review a couple of months after we published it, it probably won’t be a problem thanks to patches, either. Even if it is, however, it’s still worth playing Spider-Man 2. It isn’t a perfect sequel, as it does little to change or improve upon what made its predecessors so great. Those games were in fact great, though, and so consequently Spider-Man 2 is, too. Its gameplay is nothing short of spectacular, and offers the most enjoyable movement mechanics of any video game in recent memory. Its narrative, too, may follow a predictable plot structure, but there’s a reason why its general plot structure has existed since the ‘60s. So, all told, the title is an experience that won’t wow you, but is exactly what a superhero game should be. And the fact that you can enjoy it on PC, instead of wiping the webs off your obsolete console, is a serious bonus.