Sacred Symbols+, Episode 345 | Spider-Man 2 Review Discussion and Spoilercast
Added 2023-11-08 17:00:08 +0000 UTCPlayStation 5's meteoric sales year has largely been missing something very specific: A major AAA first party exclusive. Coincidentally, Sony's prolonged silence literally couldn't have happened during a more premiere year for third parties -- so, bullet potentially dodged -- but still, we've been left wanting in this regard. Finally, Insomniac's Spider-Man 2 has swung in to capture our hearts and minds, and capture them it did. A sequel to 2018's Spider-Man on PS4 and 2020's Miles Morales on PS4 and PS5, Spider-Man 2 holds a heavy burden for an under-fire PlayStation Studios family, and it does so very well. Joining the core cast of Sacred Symbols today to discuss the many finer points of Spider-Man 2's story, gameplay, and more is Gene Park of The Washington Post and Punching Up. Together, we delve deep into a New York City with villainy run completely amok. Thankfully, though, there are now two Spider-Men willing to risk it all to protect what they hold dear.
Comments
Honestly Chris’ point about the character being like quakers is what I hated most about this game. Every single interaction is just annoying. They are so infallibly virtuous it’s just not how real people are. It’s like if you never stopped virtue signaling how great of a person you are even when having a one on one conversation with a friend.
Eliott Giberson
2023-12-31 13:52:16 +0000 UTCDisagreed with most points to be honest but an interesting discussion nonetheless.
Chris Crampton
2023-12-22 00:16:22 +0000 UTCThis is really late but I thought the same thing. I would go 7/10 and insomniac is lucky it’s a Spider-Man ip and swinging will never not be fun. I’m really worried for wolverine because the mature tones call for a mature story and characters and I hated every single character and story but they did outside of miles,his family, and friends. Questioning whether they can pull it off or it’s going to be another B.
Caleb Peacock
2023-12-18 21:05:58 +0000 UTCThe game needed to be longer to give the story and characters more time to breathe, and build depth for both. Peter's character was fairly emasculated, too apologetic and deferential to everyone around him, which coincided with a lack of depth in exploring Peter's character changes while wearing the symbiote to even begin to justify that. They should've also included the ability to change the weather in the post-game, outright, and they need to allow you to alternate between having Anti-Venom or symbiote powers, since the Anti-Venom powers don't match up with the black suits. They also should've included the ability to replay JJJ and Danikast episodes, as they did in previous games. They made them cut off and not replay when they're interrupted. They absolutely perfected traversal, and the side missions were largely meaningful, this time around. The story was compelling, despite it's relative shallowness, compared to what it could've been. The combat was effectively perfected, but the abilities may have been too OP. I'd give it a 7.5-8 out of 10. They shouldn't have killed Venom off, and probably shouldn't have made Harry be Venom. I had a good time while playing it, but I was disappointed. Having killed Venom and some other villains off, and signalling that Miles will be the main character, has made me less excited to see more than I thought I'd be.
Max Stahl
2023-12-12 19:29:05 +0000 UTCSpider man is Peter Parker, Miles is Miles, this decision to retire Spider man is so messed up….
Marco Maluf
2023-12-07 11:33:54 +0000 UTCI enjoyed the game overall but I really feel like you can tell why Insomniac can make so many games after playing this. it's an extremely safe sequel. When you break it down, the game really is bereft of innovation (outside of a couple exceptions.) I think it's a "good" game, but a genuine letdown... Maybe an 8/10 personally.
Bryon Edington
2023-11-16 20:04:28 +0000 UTCStart the podcast at 25 minutes or so and you’d have 0 idea any of these guys liked the game.
YaBoyStevieJay
2023-11-13 03:21:56 +0000 UTCDustin didn't speak much at all, lots of people wanted to be on this pod 😅
Bailey Callis
2023-11-12 20:19:58 +0000 UTCI think the "superheroes should kill people" is so played out at this point it's not even worth discussing. Like, for Batman I get it cause he's so brutal. But is it really that hard for Colin to imagine a 17 year old like Miles not wanting to take a life? Especially cause every time a villain dies in comic-books, a family member ends up getting all their gadgets and comes back for vengeance?
Cornelius
2023-11-12 14:24:52 +0000 UTCI had a plenty of fun with this game. However, the writing and acting is pretty bad. I’ve been a long time Spider-man comics reader and fan. Amazing Spider-Man is probably one of the only superhero titles I’m always still down to dabble with, whereas the rest of my enthusiasm for comics has otherwise been in the plethora of other genres outside of superheroes for years now. But this game isn’t even similar or indicative of the writing in typical superhero comics. More contemporary writers on the Spider-Man in the last 20 years like J. Michael Straczynski, Dan Slott, Joe Kelly, Zeb Wells, and others have always had very consistent voices that feel natural and right for all of the characters. You may have gotten a shoddy brief story arc here or there, but they still always understood the way the characters personalities should be and made them believable, relatable and compelling characters. Insomniac’s Spider-Man is like some kind of weird bizarroverse version of Spider-Man where no one sounds like real people or has any chemistry. I could probably blame the MCU for this. That stuff =/= the source medium, which is often just a lot more fun, creative and compelling. Like yeah the games fun and yeah some of those movies have been too, but they usually give a fairly bad representation of Marvel comics.
Stray_Bullets
2023-11-11 06:57:10 +0000 UTCI thought the gameplay was a bit better, but i still got a little bored by the end. The story, characters, and acting, however, was just really bad. I know the guys brought it up, and while they acknowledge it was a problem, for me, it really ruined the game for me. It felt very gradeschool to me.
Ryan Zimm
2023-11-10 21:02:05 +0000 UTCAm i the only person who is tired of the new hero surpasses the older more experienced hero? Miles is presented as a way better spider-man even though Peter has way more experience under his belt. Reminds me of the Rey and Kylo Ren fight.
Jay
2023-11-10 17:43:04 +0000 UTCI totally agree the side content was awesome and I think it has such a variety of content that makes it a more complete package.
Tazmaniandevil
2023-11-10 16:58:34 +0000 UTCDustin is upset that the side content had meaningful rewards at the end so he had to do them? Lol what? Also feel like you boys missed a lot out of this discussion. Was the lizard fight even brought up? Barely touched on the venom finale.
Grant MacNamara
2023-11-10 00:45:34 +0000 UTCSpider-Man 2 is not the game of the year, but this episode was the podcast of the year! Great show, incisive thoughts - thanks y’all!
Jeffrey Rommel
2023-11-09 23:14:58 +0000 UTCChris must’ve just learned the term ‘ludonarrative’. He absolutely abused it in this episode 😂❤️
Adam Barnes
2023-11-09 19:59:54 +0000 UTCSony has their most creative studio making boring ass QTE games in an IP that they didn’t make smh
Pisqueak
2023-11-09 17:21:25 +0000 UTCY’all are crazy! The science mini games are freaking rad!
Tanner Denso
2023-11-09 17:12:20 +0000 UTCI like all the Spidey movies and Garfield is my fave. I’d suggest them to anybody. I feel like Chris not liking the later iterations is due to him growing up on Tobey’s version. Agree with Dustin that Miles had the better story arc. Agree with Col on the gay couple mission. I liked that they did it but to have it be a prom thing was dumb. I didn’t like Mysterio in this at all. Disagree with Gene on the rogues gallery. I’d say Spidey and Bats are tied. Villains they could still do: Beetle, Hobgoblin, Hydro-Man, Morbius, Smythe, Spot, and anybody in the Marvel universe really. Confirming Wolverine is in the same universe could be opening the door for that.
NeO JD
2023-11-09 15:33:23 +0000 UTCThey don’t do write-ins for Spoilercasts anymore.
NeO JD
2023-11-09 15:22:59 +0000 UTCI 100% thought they were setting up Knull for the next game. Was kinda disappointed it seemed to be all cleared up by the end.
Jacob Lesperance
2023-11-09 15:10:32 +0000 UTCHow is spider man 2? Soooo good!
Trapgunner
2023-11-09 14:05:16 +0000 UTCThey’ve used a lot of them but there’s still plenty of villains left. Carnage Chameleon Morbius Morlun - which could be a way to extend this to a Spider-Verse game Spencer Smyth The Jackal Both Goblins
Joshua Brown
2023-11-09 07:56:53 +0000 UTCI’m with you. Spider-Man 2 was my goty and then Alan Wake 2 comes along and just blows me away. Not done yet but I can tell this is gonna be my new goty and one of my favorite games of all time.
Shawn
2023-11-08 21:57:22 +0000 UTCI really liked Spiderman 2, but honestly I'm excited by this because I know we're one step closer to the Allen Wake 2 spoilercast!
James McGivern
2023-11-08 21:45:33 +0000 UTCShit. I totally forgot to write in 🤣
DarthLemon616
2023-11-08 21:39:14 +0000 UTCJust finished the podcast. Great discussion, always love hearing from Gene Maybe I missed it, but I don’t think the Spider Bots side quest was mentioned. The conclusion is interesting, and I wonder if that was a one-off or if we will see another universe crossover in the next game
Zeke the Plumber
2023-11-08 21:00:47 +0000 UTCOoof. Gameplay was solid like the other ones. Everything else was disjointed. Story was just one mcguffin after another. Hope the writers on this stay away from Wolverine.
Lateralus833
2023-11-08 20:37:34 +0000 UTCI'm an hour an 1:56 minutes in and I don't think Lizard was mentioned at all.😄
Russell Robinson
2023-11-08 19:19:44 +0000 UTCI agree with Colin. They did Peter dirty in this one and made him a loser.
Shadi Haddad
2023-11-08 18:48:53 +0000 UTCI’ve been waiting for this patiently! Can’t wait to listen!
king_ryan_james
2023-11-08 18:19:19 +0000 UTCI’m the comic book nerd who jizzed his pants when he saw Scream. Seeing her hand rise from behind the table it all hit me and I realized MJ was wearing Scream’s colors for the entire act of the story leading up to this moment.
MJ SKA BOI
2023-11-08 18:14:34 +0000 UTCi've read 8,200 issues of Marvel and I actively don't give a crap about Scream
towtansua
2023-11-08 18:07:50 +0000 UTCSo excited
A Hind D
2023-11-08 17:33:22 +0000 UTCI really liked the game. For the most part, it lived up to all my expectations. Easy Plat, too. This game is such a joy to play that I actually wouldn’t have minded a difficulty related trophy.
Zeke the Plumber
2023-11-08 17:04:06 +0000 UTCSpiderman 2 really makes you feel like a Bee.
Michael Mashpotato
2023-11-08 17:02:31 +0000 UTC
