2018's Spider-Man was a critical and commercial hit, providing players with the best web-slinger experience in well over a decade. A sequel was inevitable, and Marvel's Spider-Man 2 will look to continue the story as Peter Parker fights to keep his city safe, and Miles Morales develops his skills as the second Spider-Man. Promotional material has kept plenty of the story intricacies hidden, and while there are plot points that are raised in the first game that will be explored in the follow-up, the Insomniac-developed project has the opportunity to do something different, refining the edges of the franchise to produce something great.
Spider-Man: Miles Morales was a fantastic step to something special, but a numbered sequel brings heightened expectations. The first game was sublime, but there were a few limitations that can be explored and fixed to make the next title the defining Spider-Man experience. Spider-Man is synonymous with New York City, since so many of his deeds take place in the Manhattan skyline. However, The Big Apple is more than just the sum of one island, and while the franchise up to this point has wonderfully recreated the most familiar of the five distinct boroughs, Marvel's Spider-Man 2 has to bring players more of New York than it has before.
Spider-Man's Over-Reliance on Manhattan
Manhattan's awe-inspiring architecture and fast-paced energy are known to millions. Even those who have never ambled through the East Village, stopped off at the Blockhouse in Central Park, or spent time shopping on Fifth Avenue are somewhat familiar with the vibe of Manhattan, and Insomniac did so well to recreate it in a way that felt accurate, yet fun to traverse. Spider-Man: Miles Morales altered the city's fabric, albeit slightly, dusting it with a layer of snow as Spider-Man: Miles Morales was set during the Christmas period.
Both of Insomniac's Spider-Man titles did so well to recreate the borough, but there always seemed to be the lingering feeling that the city has so much more to offer. Seeing the Brooklyn or Williamsburg Bridge in the distance, knowing they led to an area of New York that couldn't be explored, was annoying. As Marvel's Spider-Man 2 will attempt to outdo what came before, it may be key to make taking the trip to New York's easternmost areas a viable option for exploration, especially as a third entry in the franchise being locked to Manhattan would make the series feel environmentally stagnant.
Brooklyn and Queens Offer Tons of Settings
New York City is more than the sum of its parts, but there is so much that Brooklyn and Queens bring to the city's atmosphere that make them essential to experience when booking a trip to The Big Apple. From the youthful nature of Williamsburg and the pretty streets of Park Slope in the former, or the culturally diverse Astoria and the residential and affluent Forest Hills, Queens, the east of New York City feels very different to its Manhattan counterpart. This would make it a fantastic inclusion in the upcoming Spider-Man project as it would go further to make the sequel even more accurate to real life while adding some much-needed scope.
Miles Morales' 2020 story being set almost entirely in Harlem made the tale feel fresh, and did well to give the narrative a sense of geographical identity. It highlighted an area of Manhattan that not everyone may be familiar with, and while Brooklyn and Queens have neighborhoods that are more well-trodden than others, their inclusion would do so well to bring a new flavor to a city that is so much more than people may initially believe.
New York's Size is a Strength
The best part of Spider-Man was arguably its movement, as web-slinging through the streets, pausing only to stop sporadic crimes, was a thing of beauty and so much fun to do. However, it often felt like the fantastic gameplay was hindered by the size of the map itself. While Spider-Man is by no means small, it's not as large as other Sony first party titles like Ghost of Tsushima and Horizon Zero Dawn. As such, it felt more intimate in design, which served the story well, but after a handful of hours zipping past the same monuments and locations, it can soon get tiring.
Adding more size would give players more reason to enjoy the web-slinging, and as long as it's given the same attention to detail as the Manhattan of the first two games, Marvel's Spider-Man 2 will be all the better for it. Implementing more side activities and main quests that take place in Brooklyn and Queens would bring Insomniac's franchise more in line with the size of other AAA games in Sony's first party. New York City's five boroughs make up one of the biggest cities on Earth, and imitating a fraction of its impressive scope would offer geographical diversity, and place a higher emphasis on traversal, which is where the series shines the most.
Spider-Man is Quintessentially New York
Similar to Batman's intense relationship with Gotham City, Peter Parker is forever narratively and culturally tied to New York. It feels like a fish out of water when he operates anywhere else, and Insomniac's take on the beloved wall-crawler does right by the city he calls home. However, it only truly brings one fifth of the NYC magic, and including Queens and Brooklyn would go a long way to making its open world far more memorable this time around.
There have been two Spider-Man games from Insomniac Games and they both have charm, but take advantage of the same area, save for a few subtle differences. It would be a glaring omission to abandon Manhattan entirely, but spending more time across the East River could do wonders for the sandbox experience that fans came to love in 2018 and 2020, respectively.
Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 is scheduled to launch in 2023 for PS5.