Insomniac Games did a lot of things right with Marvel's Spider-Man, and chief among them was its immersive open world. The developer's recreation of New York City made swinging around as Spider-Man a delight for the vast majority of gamers, and Insomniac ensured there was no shortage of things to do by littering New York City with various collectibles and side activities. When Marvel's Spider-Man: Miles Morales released just two years later, Insomniac scaled things back to fit the size of the intended experience, and now it will have to find a similar balance with Marvel's Spider-Man 2.

Marvel's Spider-Man 2 has been one of the most anticipated Marvel games of the last five years and for good reason. Insomniac arguably delivered the best superhero game since Rocksteady's Batman: Arkham series with the franchise's first entry, and fans can't wait to see how the sequel will take advantage of the PS5's hardware. Perhaps one of the very few areas of concern for the game, however, is how it will make New York feel exciting to swing through once again. While Insomniac could very well just fill Marvel's Spider-Man 2 with more content, it may want to follow the less is more approach offered by Marvel's Spider-Man: Miles Morales.

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Marvel's Spider-Man 2 Should Avoid Overstuffing Its Map with Collectibles

Marvels Spider-Man 2 Setting

Whether it's the coins in Super Mario Bros. or the feathers in Assassin's Creed 2, collectibles encourage players to explore all that a game has to offer and sink as much time into it as possible. In recent years, though, open-world games have fallen into a trend of going overboard with collectibles, especially ones that don't offer much value.

Ubisoft's open-world games are one of the more prominent culprits, with titles like Assassin's Creed Valhalla containing an overwhelming amount of collectibles that mostly just balloon the time it takes to complete the game. Marvel's Spider-Man offered a reasonable amount of collectibles compared to most other open-world titles, with Peter Parker's many backpacks being one of the more enjoyable to seek out.

When it comes to Marvel's Spider-Man 2, Insomniac has to be careful about how it implements its own collectibles. Simply repeating the same ones from Marvel's Spider-Man would elicit more than a few groans, and taking a quantity-over-quality approach would likely make stepping away from the main story feel less worthwhile. The sequel will have to find some sense of balance, and Marvel's Spider-Man: Miles Morales may be the right point of inspiration.

How Marvel's Spider-Man 2 Can Avoid Open-World Bloat

Web-Swinging in Spider-Man 2018

Marvel's Spider-Man: Miles Morales was a much smaller experience than Marvel's Spider-Man. While it still took place inside the same New York City, it had a shorter story and a smaller list of side activities for players to keep an eye out for. Marvel's Spider-Man 2 will surely be a bigger game than Marvel's Spider-Man: Miles Morales, but its supplemental content would be wise to follow a similar scale.

Instead of filling New York City with collectibles and bases to raid all over again, Insomniac could offer more multi-faceted side missions that flesh out the franchise's lore. This could help the game feel like a worthy sequel instead of a copy-and-paste version of the first. Gamers waiting on any amount of information on Insomniac's upcoming sequel may soon find relief, as Marvel's Spider-Man 2 could make an appearance at May 24's PlayStation Showcase.

While there is no official confirmation of this, Insomniac has recently assured hungry fans that the game is still coming this year. Ideally, any kind of information at the PlayStation Showcase would include gameplay for Marvel's Spider-Man 2, but fans will just have to temper their expectations until the event comes. For now, one can only hope that the sequel offers an open world just as compelling as the last two entries.

Marvel's Spider-Man 2 releases in 2023 for PS5.

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