1 00:00:00,799 --> 00:00:05,800 It seems like the biggest compliment you can pay the new Spider-Man game on PlayStation 2 00:00:05,800 --> 00:00:08,820 4, is that it makes you feel like Spider-Man. 3 00:00:08,820 --> 00:00:13,340 Seriously, there are loads of reviews that contain that exact same line. 4 00:00:13,350 --> 00:00:17,509 And what they mean is, if you’ve seen a Spider-Man film in the cinema, then you’ll 5 00:00:17,509 --> 00:00:22,669 have an idea of how Peter Parker moves, fights, and swings about - and playing the game will 6 00:00:22,669 --> 00:00:25,039 capture that exact sensation. 7 00:00:25,039 --> 00:00:27,490 But actually, a lot of games work like this. 8 00:00:27,490 --> 00:00:29,359 Especially big console releases. 9 00:00:29,359 --> 00:00:34,020 Because games promise us a fantasy, and say, pop this in your Xbox and you’ll get to 10 00:00:34,020 --> 00:00:35,440 feel like an assassin. 11 00:00:35,440 --> 00:00:36,700 Or a World War 2 soldier. 12 00:00:36,740 --> 00:00:37,900 Or a cowboy. 13 00:00:37,900 --> 00:00:42,340 Only, the fantasy isn’t promised through a Hollywood movie, but instead the marketing 14 00:00:42,350 --> 00:00:43,350 for the game. 15 00:00:43,350 --> 00:00:44,680 Like the picture on the front of the box. 16 00:00:44,680 --> 00:00:48,100 Or those flashy CGI trailers they play at E3. 17 00:00:48,100 --> 00:00:53,460 For example, this Titanfall 2 video shows us the fantasy of being a nippy, trickster soldier 18 00:00:53,460 --> 00:00:57,710 who jumps over enemies, uses gadgets to fool his foes, and can jump into a big mech to 19 00:00:57,710 --> 00:00:58,780 wreck shop. 20 00:00:58,780 --> 00:01:02,850 The gameplay then delivers on that fantasy, and effectively uses its mechanics to make 21 00:01:02,850 --> 00:01:05,150 you feel like the bloke on the box. 22 00:01:05,150 --> 00:01:10,410 But the question I want to ask is: how easily should that fantasy come true? 23 00:01:10,410 --> 00:01:12,050 Look at Hitman, for example. 24 00:01:12,050 --> 00:01:15,890 The CGI trailer shows Agent 47 as a perfect assassin. 25 00:01:15,890 --> 00:01:19,760 He kills his targets without ever being spotted and then escapes into the shadows. 26 00:01:19,760 --> 00:01:24,160 But boot up the game itself and most first attempts will see you screwing everything 27 00:01:24,160 --> 00:01:26,050 up like a big bald idiot. 28 00:01:26,050 --> 00:01:31,030 It’s only when you learn the level, master the stealth system, and put in a bit of effort 29 00:01:31,030 --> 00:01:34,650 that you’ll be able to live out the fantasy promised by the game’s snazzy marketing 30 00:01:34,650 --> 00:01:35,780 campaign. 31 00:01:35,780 --> 00:01:40,300 And maybe that’s the right way to go, because if you give away that fantasy too easily it 32 00:01:40,300 --> 00:01:41,570 can ring a bit hollow. 33 00:01:41,570 --> 00:01:45,810 That’s what happened with the combat in the Batman: Arkham games. 34 00:01:45,810 --> 00:01:50,070 This is a really simple fighting system where you just need to tap the punch button over 35 00:01:50,070 --> 00:01:54,340 and over again, and Batman will magnetically snap to enemies, pirouetting all over the 36 00:01:54,340 --> 00:01:56,470 place like a goth ballerina. 37 00:01:56,470 --> 00:02:00,530 And if you hit the counter button at any point during the generous timing window, the Dark 38 00:02:00,530 --> 00:02:03,960 Knight will deck his enemies with ease. 39 00:02:03,960 --> 00:02:09,860 Sure, fights look appropriately cinematic and the game makes you feel like Batman - but 40 00:02:09,860 --> 00:02:13,780 when you don’t have to exert all that much effort to get there, doesn’t it feel a bit 41 00:02:13,780 --> 00:02:17,000 patronising? 42 00:02:17,000 --> 00:02:21,390 This is not the case in the combat for Spider-Man, which has a lot in common with the Arkham 43 00:02:21,390 --> 00:02:26,090 fighting system but is a fair amount more demanding, and a lot less forgiving. 44 00:02:26,090 --> 00:02:30,540 Spider-Man has lots more moves and unlockable skills, and can juggle enemies in the air 45 00:02:30,540 --> 00:02:32,000 like you’re playing Devil May Cry. 46 00:02:32,000 --> 00:02:35,780 Plus, Spidey doesn’t snap so magnetically to enemies when you punch. 47 00:02:35,780 --> 00:02:38,700 Enemies gang up on you, making dodges and counters harder to pull off. 48 00:02:38,700 --> 00:02:42,940 They use guns and rocket launchers to attack you from afar, or while juggling enemies. 49 00:02:42,940 --> 00:02:46,220 And they’ll even attack you when you’re in the middle of cool animations, like swinging 50 00:02:46,220 --> 00:02:47,960 bits of the scenery around. 51 00:02:47,960 --> 00:02:52,640 All of this means that, for a while, you probably won’t feel all that much like Spider-Man. 52 00:02:52,640 --> 00:02:56,630 You’ll look like a bumbling fool, getting bonked on the head by street punks, fumbling 53 00:02:56,630 --> 00:02:59,420 finishing moves, and just sort of punching thin air. 54 00:02:59,420 --> 00:03:03,880 It’s only when you get better at the combat that you’ll actually be able to dance around 55 00:03:03,880 --> 00:03:06,080 goons like Spidey does in the movies. 56 00:03:06,080 --> 00:03:11,280 So the combat in this game doesn’t make you feel like Spider-Man - but it lets you 57 00:03:11,280 --> 00:03:14,490 feel like Spider-Man, if you’re skilled enough. 58 00:03:14,490 --> 00:03:19,060 Getting to live out the fantasy is actually a reward for being good at the game. 59 00:03:19,060 --> 00:03:23,019 Web-swinging, however, is quite different. 60 00:03:23,019 --> 00:03:29,100 It is, to be fair, a pitch perfect recreation of the swinging you see in Spidey movies. 61 00:03:29,100 --> 00:03:33,590 Right down to the animations, to the sound effects, to sense of speed, to the fact that 62 00:03:33,590 --> 00:03:37,690 the webs actually connect to buildings instead of, like, the sky. 63 00:03:37,690 --> 00:03:40,280 It absolutely makes you feel like Spider-Man. 64 00:03:40,280 --> 00:03:43,570 And it’s just really satisfying to swing around the city. 65 00:03:43,570 --> 00:03:45,970 But it also comes very easily. 66 00:03:45,970 --> 00:03:50,190 Starting a swing in Spider-Man is as simple as holding down R2 when you’re somewhat 67 00:03:50,190 --> 00:03:51,280 close to a building. 68 00:03:51,280 --> 00:03:56,210 Which, in the densely packed metropolis of New York City, is just about anywhere. 69 00:03:56,210 --> 00:04:00,260 You will then enter a swing, and and can choose when to let go: either when you’re just 70 00:04:00,260 --> 00:04:03,790 coming off the down swing if you want speed, or when you’re barreling up towards the 71 00:04:03,790 --> 00:04:05,700 sky if you want height. 72 00:04:05,700 --> 00:04:10,000 You can also jump out of the swing, with X, for more speed and height. 73 00:04:10,000 --> 00:04:13,770 But it doesn’t matter too much when you exit the swing because you have so much control 74 00:04:13,770 --> 00:04:18,030 over Spider-Man in the air, that you can easily set-up the next swing to go anywhere. 75 00:04:18,030 --> 00:04:22,039 For example, if you whip the camera left, you can make a sharp turn and start swinging 76 00:04:22,039 --> 00:04:23,770 down a street to your left. 77 00:04:23,770 --> 00:04:26,770 There are also some other moves you can use while traversing. 78 00:04:26,770 --> 00:04:30,800 The web zip gives you a quick blast of forward momentum, and is a cheeky safety net if you 79 00:04:30,800 --> 00:04:33,629 end up in one of the few places without buildings. 80 00:04:33,629 --> 00:04:37,979 Zip to point lets you snap onto any spot indicated by a circular symbol, and you can then leap 81 00:04:37,979 --> 00:04:41,110 off again with a well timed hit of the X button. 82 00:04:41,110 --> 00:04:44,930 And you can also do air tricks, to build focus and experience points. 83 00:04:44,930 --> 00:04:49,729 This whole system makes it almost effortless to put Spider-Man where you want him, either 84 00:04:49,729 --> 00:04:54,330 by abusing that ample air control to move Spidey around like a drone, or by forgoing 85 00:04:54,330 --> 00:04:58,009 web swinging altogether and just using the zip to point system. 86 00:04:58,009 --> 00:05:00,550 And you can certainly read that as a positive. 87 00:05:00,550 --> 00:05:03,520 Or as the game making life just a bit too easy. 88 00:05:03,520 --> 00:05:07,979 It’s very different to, say, Super Mario Odyssey where getting Mario to the right spot 89 00:05:07,979 --> 00:05:12,689 means reading the level layout, chaining together the right actions, and moving with absolute 90 00:05:12,689 --> 00:05:13,870 precision. 91 00:05:13,870 --> 00:05:19,539 And because it’s quite tough, it’s immensely rewarding when you get it right. 92 00:05:19,539 --> 00:05:24,530 Spider-Man requires far less of the player, giving you a lot less satisfaction. 93 00:05:24,530 --> 00:05:27,500 And even if you do screw up, the game is extremely forgiving. 94 00:05:27,500 --> 00:05:32,800 There’s no fall damage whatsoever, and no reward for staying in the air - unlike Insomniac’s 95 00:05:32,800 --> 00:05:38,150 last open world title, the spicy Sunset Overdrive, where you’re given style points and safety 96 00:05:38,150 --> 00:05:40,559 from zombies if you manage to stay above ground. 97 00:05:40,559 --> 00:05:44,510 There’s also no reward for getting close to buildings like in the addictive Superflight, 98 00:05:44,510 --> 00:05:48,770 where your score ticks up as long as you’re in spitting distance of a wall. 99 00:05:48,770 --> 00:05:52,689 And if you hit into a skyscraper in Spider-Man, it’s no big deal. 100 00:05:52,689 --> 00:05:57,280 You don’t bonk off like in Mario Odyssey: you just instantly transition into a wall 101 00:05:57,280 --> 00:05:58,280 run. 102 00:05:58,280 --> 00:06:00,900 Which might slow you down, but not massively. 103 00:06:00,900 --> 00:06:06,479 And who really cares when the game so rarely asks you to swing with speed or with precision? 104 00:06:06,479 --> 00:06:10,969 You’re either just bumming around in the open world, or doing main missions that are 105 00:06:10,969 --> 00:06:15,789 so rarely about swinging: they’re much more often about beating up goons, or doing rubbish 106 00:06:15,789 --> 00:06:16,789 stealth bits. 107 00:06:16,789 --> 00:06:21,550 Okay, okay, there are some good missions about swinging, like this stage where you’re infected 108 00:06:21,550 --> 00:06:25,869 by Scorpion and have to stay above ground at all times because Peter thinks the floor 109 00:06:25,869 --> 00:06:27,080 is poisonous. 110 00:06:27,080 --> 00:06:28,680 That’s an awesome mission. 111 00:06:28,680 --> 00:06:32,569 And in this fight against Electro, you’ll need to carefully swing around buildings while 112 00:06:32,569 --> 00:06:34,139 shooting at power transformers. 113 00:06:34,139 --> 00:06:36,059 I like that one too. 114 00:06:36,059 --> 00:06:40,139 But more often than not, missions will be like this one: where there’s no need to 115 00:06:40,139 --> 00:06:44,600 be fast and catch up to this helicopter quickly because the game won’t let you latch on 116 00:06:44,600 --> 00:06:49,140 until it’s made sure that you’ve seen these cool explosions first. 117 00:06:49,140 --> 00:06:53,020 Now, it’s not impossible to make a game where web swinging is a bit more technical, 118 00:06:53,029 --> 00:06:55,860 requires a tad more thought, and isn’t quite so forgiving. 119 00:06:55,860 --> 00:07:00,330 Web swinging, after all, is basically just a grappling hook: a mechanic we’ve seen 120 00:07:00,330 --> 00:07:05,119 in lots of games, from Uncharted 4 to Titanfall 2, and so there are plenty of examples of 121 00:07:05,119 --> 00:07:08,499 games that have played with this mechanic. 122 00:07:08,499 --> 00:07:10,479 Take Bionic Commando, for example. 123 00:07:10,480 --> 00:07:16,560 This po-faced shooter is generally pretty dire but the grapple hook gameplay is surprisingly fun. 124 00:07:16,560 --> 00:07:20,680 Like Spider-Man, you can hook onto buildings, and then swing off at the right time - but 125 00:07:20,680 --> 00:07:25,140 what makes this game more interesting, is that in this post apocalyptic wasteland, grapple 126 00:07:25,140 --> 00:07:27,159 points are much more limited. 127 00:07:27,159 --> 00:07:31,720 Meaning that finding a route across a level is a tiny puzzle you must solve, and reconnecting 128 00:07:31,720 --> 00:07:34,430 to grapple points in mid-air is an actual challenge. 129 00:07:34,430 --> 00:07:39,020 You’ve got to position yourself near to a viable point - as indicated by this cursor 130 00:07:39,020 --> 00:07:42,279 - and at the right angle to keep your momentum going. 131 00:07:42,279 --> 00:07:46,250 Plus, toxic goo and bottomless swamps stop you from touching the ground, and certain 132 00:07:46,250 --> 00:07:50,099 hazards like enemy snipers force you to move quickly from point to point. 133 00:07:50,099 --> 00:07:55,569 Then, there’s Overwatch, where the recently added character Wrecking Ball - actually a 134 00:07:55,569 --> 00:07:59,819 hyper intelligent hamster in a robot orb - can use a grapple hook to latch onto bits of the 135 00:07:59,819 --> 00:08:01,879 environment and swing around. 136 00:08:01,879 --> 00:08:03,669 This one’s really interesting. 137 00:08:03,669 --> 00:08:08,349 You don’t have very much control over the ball when it’s swinging or in mid-air, because it actually 138 00:08:08,349 --> 00:08:11,399 acts like a heavy physics object attached by a rope. 139 00:08:11,399 --> 00:08:16,050 So you’ve got to be much more precise about your speed, position and angle of the initial 140 00:08:16,050 --> 00:08:17,930 hook, to get where you need to go. 141 00:08:17,930 --> 00:08:22,050 Also, there’s zero automation on the grapple hook point. 142 00:08:22,050 --> 00:08:26,179 You’ve literally got to aim and shoot with a cursor, which makes latching on at speed, 143 00:08:26,179 --> 00:08:28,629 or in mid-air, a real challenge. 144 00:08:28,629 --> 00:08:32,849 And finally, as the character’s name implies, this hero becomes a literal wrecking ball 145 00:08:32,849 --> 00:08:37,240 when in motion and you can cause great damage to foes if you swing into them. 146 00:08:37,240 --> 00:08:41,740 This is very different to Spider-Man, which often has a distinct divide between swinging 147 00:08:41,740 --> 00:08:42,740 and combat. 148 00:08:42,740 --> 00:08:49,140 Though, the boss battle with Scorpion and Electro finally lets you use both at once. 149 00:08:49,140 --> 00:08:53,170 I also enjoyed the first-person game A Story About My Uncle. 150 00:08:53,170 --> 00:08:57,610 In this one, a goofy magnetic glove pulls you towards objects, but can let go at any 151 00:08:57,610 --> 00:09:01,420 time to keep that momentum, and continue flying forward. 152 00:09:01,420 --> 00:09:06,550 This is especially fun with moving objects, that can really propel you like a graviational 153 00:09:06,550 --> 00:09:07,550 slingshot. 154 00:09:07,550 --> 00:09:11,910 You also have a limited number of grapples in mid-air so you have to plan each landing 155 00:09:11,910 --> 00:09:15,370 carefully, and puzzle out your route before you take off. 156 00:09:15,370 --> 00:09:19,560 A subtly different take on this idea crops up in The Free Ones. 157 00:09:19,560 --> 00:09:23,769 I’m this game you can latch onto wooden panels, and drag yourself in, like a hookshot 158 00:09:23,769 --> 00:09:25,160 from the Zelda series. 159 00:09:25,160 --> 00:09:29,360 But at any time you can hit jump to detach your rope and spring yourself forward. 160 00:09:29,360 --> 00:09:33,220 Chaining together these moves in mid-air makes for some exhilarating gameplay. 161 00:09:33,220 --> 00:09:38,000 Though, a little slowdown might be nice, when trying to click on those panels at top speed. 162 00:09:38,000 --> 00:09:41,550 Now these ideas might not work for Spider-Man. 163 00:09:41,550 --> 00:09:45,630 Spidey doesn’t have a finite number of webs that get replenished when he lands, like in 164 00:09:45,630 --> 00:09:47,350 A Story About My Uncle. 165 00:09:47,350 --> 00:09:51,360 The New York City we’ve seen in every Spidey movie is a tightly packed metropolis, not 166 00:09:51,360 --> 00:09:54,319 a ruined wasteland like in Bionic Commando. 167 00:09:54,319 --> 00:09:59,880 And Peter Parker is a lithe, athletic figure - not a 500 kilogram lump of metal like Wrecking 168 00:09:59,880 --> 00:10:01,550 Ball in Overwatch. 169 00:10:01,550 --> 00:10:06,980 And so to go against those facts would, actually, break the fantasy that Spider-Man is promising. 170 00:10:06,980 --> 00:10:10,990 But I reckon there’s lots Spider-Man could have done to make web swinging more challenging, 171 00:10:10,990 --> 00:10:14,399 while still delivering the fantasy promised by all those movies. 172 00:10:14,399 --> 00:10:18,569 And other Spider-Man games have toyed with more technical web slinging. 173 00:10:18,569 --> 00:10:22,509 The Amazing Spider-Man 2 had a cool idea, to have webs come out of Spidey’s left and 174 00:10:22,509 --> 00:10:25,420 right hands, when you hit the left and right shoulder buttons. 175 00:10:25,420 --> 00:10:29,529 It doesn’t really affect much - you have so much air-control that you can turn left 176 00:10:29,529 --> 00:10:33,149 even after swinging from the right - but that could be interesting to explore. 177 00:10:33,149 --> 00:10:37,329 And in Ultimate Spider-Man, webs draw Spidey closer to the building he latches onto, so 178 00:10:37,329 --> 00:10:41,009 you have to swing from side to side with a bit more rhythm to stay in the middle of the 179 00:10:41,009 --> 00:10:42,009 street. 180 00:10:42,009 --> 00:10:44,430 Again, it’s very subtle, but it’s something. 181 00:10:44,430 --> 00:10:48,820 Plus, Spider-Man could definitely integrate swinging and combat more closely, like Sunset 182 00:10:48,820 --> 00:10:53,029 Overdrive, which has a whole combo system that encourages you to fight zombies while 183 00:10:53,029 --> 00:10:56,889 bouncing off car bonnets and grinding on power cables. 184 00:10:56,889 --> 00:11:01,440 At the end of the day though, it comes down to how much gamers want to work to fulfil 185 00:11:01,440 --> 00:11:02,550 their fantasy. 186 00:11:02,550 --> 00:11:07,060 Spider-Man’s web swinging could absolutely be as mechanically complex as keeping a combo 187 00:11:07,060 --> 00:11:11,959 going in Tony Hawk’s, or chaining jumps and hat throws in Mario Odyssey, or speed-running 188 00:11:11,959 --> 00:11:13,170 in Mirror’s Edge. 189 00:11:13,170 --> 00:11:17,221 But it’s clear that Insomniac wanted the system to be effortless to pick up, and the 190 00:11:17,221 --> 00:11:20,910 developer specifically chose to avoid things that would break your flow, saying... 191 00:11:20,910 --> 00:11:23,680 BRYAN INTIHAR: “One thing we talked about is we didn’t want to stop players. 192 00:11:23,680 --> 00:11:24,940 We didn’t want to, like, face-plant. 193 00:11:24,940 --> 00:11:27,629 We wanted to just keep your momentum and flow going. 194 00:11:27,629 --> 00:11:32,580 He’s eight years being Spider-Man, he’s fine-tuned his traversal, so you slam into 195 00:11:32,580 --> 00:11:34,769 a building and you just keep running up it”. 196 00:11:34,769 --> 00:11:39,829 So perhaps Insomniac was right to keep the more technical side of web swinging to optional 197 00:11:39,829 --> 00:11:43,370 content, like these bomb diffuser challenges, where you’re graded on the time it takes 198 00:11:43,370 --> 00:11:45,459 you to get between different points. 199 00:11:45,459 --> 00:11:49,649 Or these missions, where you chase a drone and have to swing through big blue targets. 200 00:11:49,649 --> 00:11:53,730 Your first go will be abysmal, just like a first stab at a Hitman mission. 201 00:11:53,730 --> 00:11:57,660 But learn the route, steer around buildings, and chain in different moves, and eventually 202 00:11:57,660 --> 00:12:01,449 you’ll score a gold medal and, yes, feel like Spider-Man. 203 00:12:01,449 --> 00:12:06,449 It’s similar to how Super Mario Odyssey works: you only need simple jumps to finish the game, 204 00:12:06,449 --> 00:12:11,139 but advanced manoeuvres will score you secret coin stashes, let you skip bits of the level, 205 00:12:11,139 --> 00:12:14,430 and help you win later missions like golden Koopa races. 206 00:12:14,430 --> 00:12:19,000 Unfortunately, these Spidey sidequests will uncover how finicky the physics can be, and 207 00:12:19,000 --> 00:12:22,980 reveal how leapfrogging from building to building with the point launch is often much faster 208 00:12:22,980 --> 00:12:28,230 than normal swinging, and it will also show that the skill ceiling of the web swinging is still pretty 209 00:12:28,230 --> 00:12:31,259 low compared to other traversal based games. 210 00:12:31,259 --> 00:12:32,740 But it’s better than nowt. 211 00:12:32,740 --> 00:12:38,279 And, while I would have loved to see a more in-depth web-swinging system, similar to the 212 00:12:38,279 --> 00:12:43,529 stuff in Overwatch and The Free Ones, I guess if you buy a game called Spider-Man, most 213 00:12:43,529 --> 00:12:48,129 players just want to feel like Spider-Man the second they press start. 214 00:12:48,129 --> 00:12:49,129 What do you think? 215 00:12:49,129 --> 00:12:51,780 Leave your thoughts in the comments below. 216 00:12:53,960 --> 00:12:58,700 Game Maker’s Toolkit is funded by viewers like you who pitch in on Patreon and receive 217 00:12:58,709 --> 00:13:03,959 cool goodies like bonus content, early videos, editing tutorials, and more.