Marvel’s Spider-Man and its sort of sequel kind of spin-off, Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales are two of the best superhero games ever made. Everything about them from the swinging, the combat, and the small details is a love letter to the IP and its fans. It even went so far as to tell two original stories utilizing the source material instead of just retelling previous adventures. It makes the experiences feel fresh and has left many fans wanting more.
What exactly are we going to get from the culmination of those desires in the upcoming all-new Spider-Man adventure? Great question. All we have is a single reveal trailer, promising a 2023 release date without any actual gameplay. We did see a teaser that the game will involve Venom in some way, which makes sense considering what the first game teased, but the size of his presence isn’t known yet.
So without much information to go on the best thing we can do is rattle off a wish-list that’ll make us look super smart if, by sheer coincidence, the devs working on Spider-Man 2 happen to already be working on these ideas. Here’s hoping! Let’s speculate!
A Full Story For Both Peter And Miles
Peter and Miles’ adventures both featured depth-y storytelling that left even the most stone-hearted fans sobbing. With the second game on the way, it may be a fair question to ask which of these two major protagonists is going to take the lead in this upcoming game. What we want to know is, why not both? Peter and Miles have each shown in their own games that they are more than capable of taking the lead, and Insomniac is no stranger to mixing multiple dominant character arcs in a single game as we saw in Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart. This town is plenty big enough for two Spider-Men.
Less Stealth
As cool as it was to play as MaryJ and Miles in the previous game, their segments were hampered by stealth gameplay that just didn’t work. Nobody wants to be a superhero and have their superpowers taken away from them. At least not like that. The stealthier aspects of the previous game did work whenever you were playing as Spider-Man himself, but very few people enjoyed having that power taken out of their hands.
More Out Of Suit Sequences
The above gripe doesn’t mean there should be less out of suit moments. If anything there should be more! One of the great things about Marvel’s superheroes is they feel like people who are tasked with being superheroes instead of superheroes choosing to be people. This results in the characters themselves, Peter Parker and Miles Morales, feeling more relatable. This also elevates some of those character moments where Peter or Miles weren’t in their suit. So, in essence, they did the opposite of the stealth sections. They were fun character moments where we got to see Peter and Miles be themselves. It’s great to see the face behind the mask. More please!
New Powers And Gadgets
This one feels like a given but we need new powers and gadgets to play with. Miles’ Venom abilities give him a unique set of skills that Peter doesn’t have. Again we say, more please! Assuming time has moved between his game and this sequel, it would only make sense that Miles would be getting used to his powers and developing new ones. Likewise, Peter showed us plenty of gadgets in the first game that we got to use. He’s a scientist and always tinkering so he should definitely have some new toys to play around with.
Answer Some Of The Questions From The DLC
Those of us who played the DLC for Marvel’s Spider-Man know that it did not end so much as it created more questions that we wanted answers for. Characters made choices that are going to have a lasting impact beyond the DLC, and it definitely felt like it was laying the groundwork for this sequel. If Insomniac’s writers pulled this off right, they may have perfectly choreographed the entire next game to us through nothing but subtle moments in the two main games and the story beats of the DLC, creating the entire plot right under our noses. I could also be massively overthinking this, but when it comes to the sheer amount of moving parts it took to make the MCU work on the big-screen, would it actually be surprising to see Insomniac pull off something similar with Spider-Man?
While it’s hard to believe that we’re already so close to a new Spider-Man game without a clear view of exactly what we’re going to get, it also adds to the excitement. Hopefully, we’ll get a new trailer soon to satiate those of us who are eagerly awaiting an official release date. Preferably the sooner the better.