Earlier today, Insomniac Games revealed that it used a new face capture model for Spider-Man: Remastered’s Peter Parker, which resulted in the character getting a new face. However, many fans were quick to criticize Peter’s new look, prompting the Spider-Man game director to release a statement addressing concerns over the change.
Peter’s updated face was first shown in a trailer for Marvel’s Spider-Man: Remastered, which will be included in Spider-Man: Miles Morales Ultimate Edition for the PS5. Many players expected the visual upgrades and changes that usually come with remastered editions, but what they didn’t expect was for Peter to have an entirely different face from the original Spider-Man game that released in 2018 on PS4. The change has divided fans, with some criticizing the new look for making Peter look too young, and others saying they are fine with it.
The mixed reaction led Spider-Man Game Director Bryan Intihar to release a statement on Twitter. In his statement, Intihar explained that Insomniac changed Peter’s face capture model in an effort to find a better facial match for Spider-Man actor Yuri Lowenthal, who is the voice of Peter. He even went so far as calling the change a necessity. “We care as much about this character as your attachment to him, so please know we didn’t make this decision/change lightly,” Intihar continued.
In the original Spider-Man game, Peter’s face model was John Bubniak, who was a great match Peter’s profile of a young, thin white male. Peter’s new face model, Ben Jordan, also fits that profile, but some fans have said that his face capture makes Peter look like he is much younger than he is supposed to be in the game. Others have said that, after logging hours playing the original Spider-Man, they were simply taken by surprise when they saw Peter’s new look.
A recent Playstion Blog post also details the upgrades that were made to the characters in Spider-Man Remastered. The visual upgrades include higher fidelity skin, eyes, and teeth shaders, as well as individually-rendered strands. The post also reasserts Intihar’s statement that the decision to change peter’s face capture model was made to better match Lowenthal’s face capture, though it acknowledged that Insomniac “loved working with John Bubniak.”
It makes some sense that fans would have a mixed reaction to seeing the face of an iconic character changed in the same game, albeit for a remastered version. In some ways, the reaction recalls the negative reception that some fans had to the faces of the characters in Marvel’s Avengers, which several people criticized for being different from the faces that have grown used to portraying the character on the big-screen MCU films.
Spider-Man Remastered will be included with Spider-Man Miles Morales Ultimate Edition, which released November 12 on PS4 and PS5.