A reader Is overcome with déjà vu when playing Spider-Man 2 and wonders if superhero fatigue from the movies applies to games.
It has been strange to see, this month, how Disney’s empire has collapsed just in time for the company’s 100th anniversary. Maybe they’ll recover but I think the problem when it comes to their superhero movies is not that The Marvels was particularly bad but that it was the final straw for most people, were they gave up and admitted they didn’t care about the MCU anymore.
I know I’m in the same boat. I’ve got Disney+ for my kids but I haven’t bothered to watch Ant-Man 3 or Black Panther 2 yet and I doubt I’ll ever bother with that or The Marvels when it’s available. It looks like Aquaman 2 is going to flop too and so everyone is saying it’s not even a Disney thing, it’s that the superhero bubble has burst and people just aren’t interested anymore.
You’d say that wasn’t the case for video games, since Spider-Man 2 on PlayStation 5 has just been a huge success. Although I can’t really understand why, as I found myself bored through most of it.
To give some context, I would say I am a casual fan of superheroes. I know most of the famous one and up until recently watched most of the movies, if not at the cinema then afterwards on streaming. I’ve never read a comic book in my life, but I enjoy the concept in general and my favourite is probably Iron Man.
I like Spider-Man too, although I haven’t really enjoyed the films all that much since the Sam Raimi era. Although the one with Michael Keaton was definitely the best of the modern ones.
I played the original Spider-Man game and Miles Morales, so I know the characters. But I’ve also played various other Spider-Man games through the years, which are all generally set in New York and have the same range of villains.
That’s fine in general because the first game was really well done, and Miles Morales had a lot of new characters that I hadn’t seen before. Spider-Man 2 though… the déjà vu is real. It’s not laziness, I’m not saying that, and Insomniac has done their best to ensure that there’s lots of new features and I especially like the flying and the new moves for Miles.
They really don’t make much difference though. Within just a few hours everything was beginning to feel very (over)familiar, as I web-swing between lots of very samey looking buildings, beating up the same small range of Kraven bad guys, using moves that are a hand-me-down from not just the first two games but the Batman: Arkham games as well.
Whether you agree with me on the game as a whole I think everyone can agree that the combat is very repetitive and really not very interesting. The plot really slows down in the middle too. It all ties up nicely enough, and I like how they handled Venom, but so much of everything feels like I’ve seen it a dozen time before in other games and movies.
Even in the films, Spider-Man has been to plenty of places that aren’t New York City, from Europe to outer space, and I’m sure things are even wackier in the comics. For me there is just no reason to have it set there yet again. I don’t care if they feel they need it for the story, because the story is not the reason you play a video game.
It’s also only a small part of the experience. Fighting, exploring, and doing side quests is what you’re doing the majority of the time and all of that feels very old-fashioned and repetitive.
Or maybe it is just superhero fatigue. Maybe the world has just collectively got bored of people in tights fighting crime and I’m just ahead of the curve when it comes to video games. I don’t know, and clearly I’m in some kind of minority, but I do know that if Spider-Man 3 is set in New York City again I’m not going to buy it.
By reader Donut
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