{"id":558,"date":"2018-12-12T20:01:25","date_gmt":"2018-12-13T01:01:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.blog.dwgames.net\/?p=558"},"modified":"2018-12-12T20:01:26","modified_gmt":"2018-12-13T01:01:26","slug":"game-ramblings-78-spider-man","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.blog.dwgames.net\/?p=558","title":{"rendered":"Game Ramblings #78 &#8211; Spider-man"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.playstation.com\/en-us\/games\/marvels-spider-man-ps4\/\">More Info from Sony<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li><strong>Genre<\/strong>: Open World Action<\/li><li><strong>Platform<\/strong>: PS4<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>TL;DR<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>Best example of web slinging that we&#8217;ve seen, backed by a gorgeous version of New York City<\/li><li>Good use of stealth segments with other characters to break up the pace of the story sections<\/li><li>Combat that ranged from frustrating to fantastic, depending on where I was in the skill progression<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u00a0The obvious indicator that I really liked the game is that I got a platinum trophy.\u00a0 Granted, this was an easy platinum to get in the grand scheme of things.\u00a0 However, the fact that I wanted to literally do everything to unlock it is a clear sign that the game was pretty damn good.\u00a0 That&#8217;s not to say I didn&#8217;t have my issues with it here and there, but being able to web sling around Manhattan was often more than enough to just keep me playing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><div class=\"twitter-tweet\"><blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-lang=\"en\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">This is effortless. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/F4sVHsdNro\">https:\/\/t.co\/F4sVHsdNro<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/ycKRrnGuYA\">pic.twitter.com\/ycKRrnGuYA<\/a><\/p>&mdash; Dan Weiss (@schenksmill) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/schenksmill\/status\/1069422102279843841?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">December 3, 2018<\/a><\/blockquote><\/div><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I start with a video of swinging because quite frankly that is the draw of the game.\u00a0 Even going back to Spider-man on the PS1 you just wanted to swing around, and this game is as good as it&#8217;s ever been.\u00a0 The base swing is extremely fluid and easy to pull off, but it&#8217;s the additional maneuvers that really flesh out the experience.\u00a0 There&#8217;s little web pulls that give you speed boosts and a bit of extra distance while gliding.\u00a0 There&#8217;s diving to build up speed when dropping down off buildings.\u00a0 There&#8217;s points you can latch onto then leap off of to quickly gain height and scale over the top of buildings.\u00a0 The entire thing is basically all on the shoulder triggers as well, so it&#8217;s incredibly easy to pull off the entire time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">If this was the entire game on its own I would still have played it.\u00a0 The joy of swinging through Manhattan never diminishes as you play the game.\u00a0 Using it in combat is also a lot of fun, and can be used offensively and defensively in fun ways, particularly in boss fights where rapid movement and quick succession of strike and run maneuvers becomes key.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"576\" src=\"https:\/\/www.blog.dwgames.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/spiderman_combat-1024x576.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-560\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.blog.dwgames.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/spiderman_combat-1024x576.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.blog.dwgames.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/spiderman_combat-300x169.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.blog.dwgames.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/spiderman_combat-768x432.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.blog.dwgames.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/spiderman_combat.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 767px) 89vw, (max-width: 1000px) 54vw, (max-width: 1071px) 543px, 580px\" \/><figcaption>Combat is also a big draw, even if it is more inconsistent than swinging.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">However, the rest of combat was at times more inconsistent, but in ways I wasn&#8217;t really expecting.\u00a0 I went through periods in this game where I hated combat, then loved combat, then went back to hating it, and ultimately really enjoyed it at the end.\u00a0 The entire wave here came down entirely to the growth of the skills available to me as I went through the game.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Through about the first quarter of the game, I found combat largely annoying due to its early dependence on dodging.\u00a0 The control scheme has dodge in what I felt was a weird spot on the circle button, placing it furthest away from camera movement.\u00a0 The quick timing necessary for a lot of dodging meant that I generally either missed dodges or couldn&#8217;t really see where I was attacking.\u00a0 However, as I gained some more offensive abilities, such as improved enemy juggling or electric webs, I found myself not really caring about looking around, and more focusing on controlling the larger enemy group and taking out enemies one or two at a time.\u00a0 At this point combat felt really fluid and it clicked in a way that made sense given how much emphasis there was on web slinging capabilities.\u00a0 This continued fine for a while until the introduction of flying enemies and enemies with whips that could pull Spider-Man out of the sky.\u00a0 For a bit, combat was kind of annoying again until I gained some more improved capabilities, such as chained finisher attacks or trip mines that automatically grab and web enemies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Ultimately though combat was a lot of fun, even if I would have preferred a bit of a different power curve given to me.\u00a0 Where it really ended up clicking was in the arenas used for boss fights.\u00a0 Whereas most group combat took place outdoors, boss arenas were generally in enclosed or at least obviously specific arena-style areas.\u00a0 The bosses also generally couldn&#8217;t be directly hit with melee attacks without first doing other things.\u00a0 These really emphasized constant movement with webs and the quick use of thrown projectiles to really lock down a boss, enabling you to then web sling directly to the boss for melee chains.\u00a0 This is where combat really came alive for me, and generally speaking ended up being the best show case for the way the fights really felt the best.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"576\" src=\"https:\/\/www.blog.dwgames.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/spiderman_stealth-1024x576.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-561\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.blog.dwgames.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/spiderman_stealth-1024x576.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.blog.dwgames.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/spiderman_stealth-300x169.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.blog.dwgames.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/spiderman_stealth-768x432.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.blog.dwgames.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/spiderman_stealth.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 767px) 89vw, (max-width: 1000px) 54vw, (max-width: 1071px) 543px, 580px\" \/><figcaption>The game isn&#8217;t all Spider-Man all the time.\u00a0 There&#8217;s a bunch of stealth segments with other well known characters as well.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The game was also paced really well to not always be high action.\u00a0 There&#8217;s a number of segments that rely purely on stealth mechanics.\u00a0 These bring in some well known in-universe characters like MJ or Miles Morales to sneak around.\u00a0 While that may sound a bit fan-servicey, it ends up being a big help in giving these segments a nice change, both to keep the player from always being in high-action stress, as well as to provide a bit of a different voice to the story.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"576\" src=\"https:\/\/www.blog.dwgames.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/spiderman_minigames-1024x576.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-562\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.blog.dwgames.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/spiderman_minigames-1024x576.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.blog.dwgames.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/spiderman_minigames-300x169.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.blog.dwgames.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/spiderman_minigames-768x432.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.blog.dwgames.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/spiderman_minigames.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 767px) 89vw, (max-width: 1000px) 54vw, (max-width: 1071px) 543px, 580px\" \/><figcaption>There&#8217;s also some minigames that pop up here and there to challenge the mind.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In addition, there&#8217;s also a few different style minigames to complete throughout the game.\u00a0 These range from the sort of hacking-style electricity pathing game above to a game that focuses on color spectrum analysis to a game that focuses on intercepting and manipulating radio waves.\u00a0 These all serve an important purpose of giving the player a bit of a breather between combat to keep the game from being all high action all the time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">This game was definitely a pretty special experience though.\u00a0 Zipping around a city as Spider-Man is one of those comic book dreams that people have growing up, and this game is by a long shot the best representation of that.\u00a0 You are 100% Spider-Man in this game, and despite a few hiccups that I think could be improved in combat, this is the way to go to fulfill that dream.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>More Info from Sony Genre: Open World Action Platform: PS4 TL;DR Best example of web slinging that we&#8217;ve seen, backed by a gorgeous version of New York City Good use of stealth segments with other characters to break up the pace of the story sections Combat that ranged from frustrating to fantastic, depending on where &hellip; <\/p>\n<p class=\"link-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.blog.dwgames.net\/?p=558\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Game Ramblings #78 &#8211; Spider-man&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":564,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13,6],"tags":[18,136,29,154],"class_list":["post-558","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-action","category-ps4","tag-action","tag-open-world","tag-ps4","tag-spiderman"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.blog.dwgames.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/558","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.blog.dwgames.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.blog.dwgames.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.blog.dwgames.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.blog.dwgames.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=558"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.blog.dwgames.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/558\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":563,"href":"https:\/\/www.blog.dwgames.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/558\/revisions\/563"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.blog.dwgames.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/564"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.blog.dwgames.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=558"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.blog.dwgames.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=558"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.blog.dwgames.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=558"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}