By Alan Leyva
Marvel’s “Spider-Man 2” is the hottest game out right now on PlayStation.
“Spider-Man 2” takes place in the present day of New York and entails the story of the now two Spider-Men, Peter Parker and Miles Morales.
The last time players saw Morales and Parker, the two Spider-men, was in late 2020 in “Spider-Man: Miles Morales.”
Morales had just become New York’s newest Spider-Man after training with Parker for almost a year leading up to that video game.
“Spider-Man 2” takes place 10 months later, following the events of “Spider-Man: Miles Morales,” where gamers saw Miles lose two important people in his life, his friend Phin and his father Jefferson Davis.
“Spider-Man 2” opens with a cutscene of Harry Osborn, looking at a goo-like substance on the other side of a glass.
He is surrounded by Dr. Curtis Connors and Harry’s father Norman Osborn.
Osborn then gets consumed by the substance that is later called the symbiote.
This is not the first time a symbiote has been introduced in a Marvel game or film.
The symbiote finds a host, grants it powers and enhances extreme showings of aggression, which players experience throughout the remainder of the game.
We see our first look at the Spider-Men at Brooklyn Visions High school, Parker, a teacher and Morales, a student.
Both are interrupted by a barrage of screams and worry in the look of students around the classroom, when they look outside and see pure mayhem.
This leads to an intense fight scene against Flint Marko, also known as Sandman.
Morales and Parker work together to tame Sandman and his army of dune henchmen that appear towards the tail end of the mission.
Following this mission, we see one of the main antagonists, Kraven The Hunter, brutally murdering someone in the woods.
He demands for more competition since he has killed everyone who has been labeled a “killer.”
One of his henchmen approaches him and shows him a tablet with a map of New York City.
We see various heroes and villains located in New York. Kraven’s eyes widen and proceeds to tell the henchmen to get an airship ready, a new Hunter is on the way.
Kraven proceeds to kill and dismantle various villains that the Spider-Men have struggled against in the past.
Some of those include Electro, Vulture, Shocker, Scorpion and there is speculation he defeated Rhino.
Kraven is desperate for more competition. So he kidnaps Dr. Connors who was formerly known as the Lizard.
He injects him with the Lizard serum that Connors injected himself with just a few years before.
During this kidnapping, Osborn emerges as Venom, which is the name the symbiote gave itself.
Parker tries to stop Kraven, but ends up getting stabbed and is on the brink of death.
Osborn sees this and transfers the symbiote over to Peter which ends up saving his life but harms Osborn in the process.
Although it heals him, this changes Parker for the worst.
He becomes an obsessed, aggressive, psycho that has a strong dislike for many of the things he once enjoyed. One of the hings he hates now is reading Mary Jane’s articles.
Parker gets help from Miles later in the story, after a now symbiotic Peter hunts Kraven down and give him a beating.
This causes Kraven and his team to regroup.
Paker returns the symbiote to Oscorp when it is intercepted by Osborn.
Harry becomes Venom once again and proceeds to kill Kraven destroying the Oscorp tower and everyone who worked in it.
Morales, Parker and Jane finish this tale by working together to defeat Harry and Venom and put a stop to the symbiote.
The main plot, while great, was not the only storyline happening in this game.
Various side missions were available to players.
Some of those include Uncle Aaron “Prowler” hideout searches, Genke’s Spiderbots around town, Emily May Foundation studies, Hunter hideouts and Sandman’s dune armies.
The most important side missions however, were “The Flame” missions, which follows Parker and Wraith.
They took down these extreme cultists and when we reach the finale, we are hit with a cutscene that shows a tiny bit of the symbiote and Cletus Cassidy, otherwise known in the comics as Carnage. A great callback to the history of Spider-Man and the symbiote that left many fans happy for the future of the franchise.
Both the first game and its spin-off title includes implicit teases toward future titles, including post-credits scenes. This game was no exception.
In the first post credit scene we see Norman Osborn approaching a cell which is holding Doctor Otto Octavious.
The two exchange dialogue teasing a reunion between them. The second post credit scene shows Miles and his mother Rio preparing for guests arrival.
The first guest is Miles’ girlfriend Hailey.
A second knock appears shortly after and we are introduced to a new spider person, that being Cindy Moon.
This tease for a future project is interesting and exciting for the franchises’ next title.