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It seems like the biggest compliment you can
pay the new Spider-Man game on PlayStation
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4, is that it makes you feel like Spider-Man.
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Seriously, there are loads of reviews that
contain that exact same line.
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And what they mean is, if you’ve seen a
Spider-Man film in the cinema, then you’ll
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have an idea of how Peter Parker moves, fights,
and swings about - and playing the game will
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capture that exact sensation.
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But actually, a lot of games work like this.
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Especially big console releases.
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Because games promise us a fantasy, and say,
pop this in your Xbox and you’ll get to
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feel like an assassin.
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Or a World War 2 soldier.
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Or a cowboy.
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Only, the fantasy isn’t promised through
a Hollywood movie, but instead the marketing
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for the game.
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Like the picture on the front of the box.
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Or those flashy CGI trailers they play at
E3.
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For example, this Titanfall 2 video shows us
the fantasy of being a nippy, trickster soldier
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who jumps over enemies, uses gadgets to fool
his foes, and can jump into a big mech to
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wreck shop.
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The gameplay then delivers on that fantasy,
and effectively uses its mechanics to make
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you feel like the bloke on the box.
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But the question I want to ask is: how easily
should that fantasy come true?
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Look at Hitman, for example.
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The CGI trailer shows Agent 47 as a perfect
assassin.
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He kills his targets without ever being spotted
and then escapes into the shadows.
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But boot up the game itself and most first
attempts will see you screwing everything
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up like a big bald idiot.
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It’s only when you learn the level, master
the stealth system, and put in a bit of effort
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that you’ll be able to live out the fantasy
promised by the game’s snazzy marketing
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campaign.
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And maybe that’s the right way to go, because
if you give away that fantasy too easily it
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can ring a bit hollow.
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That’s what happened with the combat in
the Batman: Arkham games.
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This is a really simple fighting system where
you just need to tap the punch button over
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and over again, and Batman will magnetically
snap to enemies, pirouetting all over the
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place like a goth ballerina.
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And if you hit the counter button at any point
during the generous timing window, the Dark
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Knight will deck his enemies with ease.
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Sure, fights look appropriately cinematic
and the game makes you feel like Batman - but
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when you don’t have to exert all that much
effort to get there, doesn’t it feel a bit
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patronising?
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This is not the case in the combat for Spider-Man,
which has a lot in common with the Arkham
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fighting system but is a fair amount more
demanding, and a lot less forgiving.
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Spider-Man has lots more moves and unlockable
skills, and can juggle enemies in the air
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like you’re playing Devil May Cry.
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Plus, Spidey doesn’t snap so magnetically
to enemies when you punch.
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Enemies gang up on you, making dodges and
counters harder to pull off.
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They use guns and rocket launchers to attack
you from afar, or while juggling enemies.
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And they’ll even attack you when you’re
in the middle of cool animations, like swinging
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bits of the scenery around.
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All of this means that, for a while, you probably
won’t feel all that much like Spider-Man.
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You’ll look like a bumbling fool, getting
bonked on the head by street punks, fumbling
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finishing moves, and just sort of punching
thin air.
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It’s only when you get better at the combat
that you’ll actually be able to dance around
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goons like Spidey does in the movies.
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So the combat in this game doesn’t make
you feel like Spider-Man - but it lets you
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feel like Spider-Man, if you’re skilled
enough.
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Getting to live out the fantasy is actually
a reward for being good at the game.
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Web-swinging, however, is quite different.
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It is, to be fair, a pitch perfect recreation
of the swinging you see in Spidey movies.
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Right down to the animations, to the sound
effects, to sense of speed, to the fact that
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the webs actually connect to buildings instead
of, like, the sky.
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It absolutely makes you feel like Spider-Man.
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And it’s just really satisfying to swing
around the city.
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But it also comes very easily.
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Starting a swing in Spider-Man is as simple
as holding down R2 when you’re somewhat
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close to a building.
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Which, in the densely packed metropolis of
New York City, is just about anywhere.
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You will then enter a swing, and and can choose
when to let go: either when you’re just
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coming off the down swing if you want speed,
or when you’re barreling up towards the
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sky if you want height.
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You can also jump out of the swing, with X,
for more speed and height.
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But it doesn’t matter too much when you
exit the swing because you have so much control
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over Spider-Man in the air, that you can easily
set-up the next swing to go anywhere.
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For example, if you whip the camera left,
you can make a sharp turn and start swinging
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down a street to your left.
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There are also some other moves you can use
while traversing.
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The web zip gives you a quick blast of forward
momentum, and is a cheeky safety net if you
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end up in one of the few places without buildings.
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Zip to point lets you snap onto any spot indicated
by a circular symbol, and you can then leap
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off again with a well timed hit of the X button.
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And you can also do air tricks, to build focus
and experience points.
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This whole system makes it almost effortless
to put Spider-Man where you want him, either
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by abusing that ample air control to move
Spidey around like a drone, or by forgoing
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web swinging altogether and just using the
zip to point system.
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And you can certainly read that as a positive.
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Or as the game making life just a bit too
easy.
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It’s very different to, say, Super Mario
Odyssey where getting Mario to the right spot
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means reading the level layout, chaining together
the right actions, and moving with absolute
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precision.
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And because it’s quite tough, it’s immensely
rewarding when you get it right.
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Spider-Man requires far less of the player,
giving you a lot less satisfaction.
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And even if you do screw up, the game is extremely
forgiving.
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There’s no fall damage whatsoever, and no
reward for staying in the air - unlike Insomniac’s
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last open world title, the spicy Sunset Overdrive,
where you’re given style points and safety
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from zombies if you manage to stay above ground.
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There’s also no reward for getting close
to buildings like in the addictive Superflight,
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where your score ticks up as long as you’re
in spitting distance of a wall.
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And if you hit into a skyscraper in Spider-Man,
it’s no big deal.
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You don’t bonk off like in Mario Odyssey:
you just instantly transition into a wall
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run.
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Which might slow you down, but not massively.
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And who really cares when the game so rarely
asks you to swing with speed or with precision?
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You’re either just bumming around in the
open world, or doing main missions that are
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so rarely about swinging: they’re much more
often about beating up goons, or doing rubbish
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stealth bits.
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Okay, okay, there are some good missions about
swinging, like this stage where you’re infected
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by Scorpion and have to stay above ground
at all times because Peter thinks the floor
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is poisonous.
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That’s an awesome mission.
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And in this fight against Electro, you’ll
need to carefully swing around buildings while
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shooting at power transformers.
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I like that one too.
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But more often than not, missions will be
like this one: where there’s no need to
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be fast and catch up to this helicopter quickly
because the game won’t let you latch on
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until it’s made sure that you’ve seen
these cool explosions first.
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Now, it’s not impossible to make a game
where web swinging is a bit more technical,
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requires a tad more thought, and isn’t quite
so forgiving.
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Web swinging, after all, is basically just
a grappling hook: a mechanic we’ve seen
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in lots of games, from Uncharted 4 to Titanfall
2, and so there are plenty of examples of
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games that have played with this mechanic.
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Take Bionic Commando, for example.
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This po-faced shooter is generally pretty
dire but the grapple hook gameplay is surprisingly fun.
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Like Spider-Man, you can hook onto buildings,
and then swing off at the right time - but
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what makes this game more interesting, is
that in this post apocalyptic wasteland, grapple
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points are much more limited.
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Meaning that finding a route across a level
is a tiny puzzle you must solve, and reconnecting
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to grapple points in mid-air is an actual
challenge.
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You’ve got to position yourself near to
a viable point - as indicated by this cursor
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- and at the right angle to keep your momentum
going.
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Plus, toxic goo and bottomless swamps stop
you from touching the ground, and certain
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hazards like enemy snipers force you to move
quickly from point to point.
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Then, there’s Overwatch, where the recently
added character Wrecking Ball - actually a
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hyper intelligent hamster in a robot orb - can
use a grapple hook to latch onto bits of the
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environment and swing around.
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This one’s really interesting.
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You don’t have very much control over the
ball when it’s swinging or in mid-air, because it actually
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acts like a heavy physics object attached
by a rope.
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So you’ve got to be much more precise about
your speed, position and angle of the initial
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hook, to get where you need to go.
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Also, there’s zero automation on the grapple
hook point.
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You’ve literally got to aim and shoot with
a cursor, which makes latching on at speed,
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or in mid-air, a real challenge.
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And finally, as the character’s name implies,
this hero becomes a literal wrecking ball
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when in motion and you can cause great damage
to foes if you swing into them.
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This is very different to Spider-Man, which
often has a distinct divide between swinging
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and combat.
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Though, the boss battle with Scorpion and
Electro finally lets you use both at once.
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I also enjoyed the first-person game A Story
About My Uncle.
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In this one, a goofy magnetic glove pulls
you towards objects, but can let go at any
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time to keep that momentum, and continue flying
forward.
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This is especially fun with moving objects,
that can really propel you like a graviational
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slingshot.
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You also have a limited number of grapples
in mid-air so you have to plan each landing
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carefully, and puzzle out your route before
you take off.
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A subtly different take on this idea crops
up in The Free Ones.
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I’m this game you can latch onto wooden
panels, and drag yourself in, like a hookshot
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from the Zelda series.
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But at any time you can hit jump to detach
your rope and spring yourself forward.
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Chaining together these moves in mid-air makes
for some exhilarating gameplay.
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Though, a little slowdown might be nice, when
trying to click on those panels at top speed.
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Now these ideas might not work for Spider-Man.
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Spidey doesn’t have a finite number of webs
that get replenished when he lands, like in
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A Story About My Uncle.
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The New York City we’ve seen in every Spidey
movie is a tightly packed metropolis, not
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a ruined wasteland like in Bionic Commando.
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And Peter Parker is a lithe, athletic figure
- not a 500 kilogram lump of metal like Wrecking
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Ball in Overwatch.
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And so to go against those facts would, actually,
break the fantasy that Spider-Man is promising.
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But I reckon there’s lots Spider-Man could
have done to make web swinging more challenging,
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while still delivering the fantasy promised
by all those movies.
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And other Spider-Man games have toyed with
more technical web slinging.
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The Amazing Spider-Man 2 had a cool idea,
to have webs come out of Spidey’s left and
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right hands, when you hit the left and right
shoulder buttons.
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It doesn’t really affect much - you have
so much air-control that you can turn left
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even after swinging from the right - but that
could be interesting to explore.
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And in Ultimate Spider-Man, webs draw Spidey
closer to the building he latches onto, so
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you have to swing from side to side with a
bit more rhythm to stay in the middle of the
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street.
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Again, it’s very subtle, but it’s something.
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Plus, Spider-Man could definitely integrate
swinging and combat more closely, like Sunset
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Overdrive, which has a whole combo system
that encourages you to fight zombies while
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bouncing off car bonnets and grinding on power
cables.
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At the end of the day though, it comes down
to how much gamers want to work to fulfil
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their fantasy.
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Spider-Man’s web swinging could absolutely
be as mechanically complex as keeping a combo
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going in Tony Hawk’s, or chaining jumps
and hat throws in Mario Odyssey, or speed-running
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in Mirror’s Edge.
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But it’s clear that Insomniac wanted the
system to be effortless to pick up, and the
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developer specifically chose to avoid things
that would break your flow, saying...
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BRYAN INTIHAR: “One thing we talked about
is we didn’t want to stop players.
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We didn’t want to, like, face-plant.
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We wanted to just keep your momentum and flow
going.
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He’s eight years being Spider-Man, he’s
fine-tuned his traversal, so you slam into
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a building and you just keep running up it”.
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So perhaps Insomniac was right to keep the
more technical side of web swinging to optional
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content, like these bomb diffuser challenges,
where you’re graded on the time it takes
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you to get between different points.
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Or these missions, where you chase a drone
and have to swing through big blue targets.
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Your first go will be abysmal, just like a
first stab at a Hitman mission.
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But learn the route, steer around buildings,
and chain in different moves, and eventually
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you’ll score a gold medal and, yes, feel
like Spider-Man.
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It’s similar to how Super Mario Odyssey works:
you only need simple jumps to finish the game,
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but advanced manoeuvres will score you secret
coin stashes, let you skip bits of the level,
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and help you win later missions like golden
Koopa races.
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Unfortunately, these Spidey sidequests will
uncover how finicky the physics can be, and
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reveal how leapfrogging from building to building
with the point launch is often much faster
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than normal swinging, and it will also show that the skill
ceiling of the web swinging is still pretty
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low compared to other traversal based games.
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But it’s better than nowt.
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And, while I would have loved to see a more
in-depth web-swinging system, similar to the
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stuff in Overwatch and The Free Ones, I guess
if you buy a game called Spider-Man, most
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players just want to feel like Spider-Man
the second they press start.
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What do you think?
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Leave your thoughts in the comments below.
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