GAME CLEAR No. 11 -- Marvel's Spider-Man: Miles Morales

Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales (2020, PS4/PS5)

Developer: Insomniac Games
Publisher: Sony Interactive Entertainment
Clear Date: 12/29/2020
Clear Platform: PS5

Marvel’s Spider-Man was one of the first games I played at the start of the pandemic. In fact, I may have started it before lockdown began. In any case, it’s a game I associate with that time for sure.

Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales I strongly associate with Christmas both because it takes place on and around Christmas and because I started it on Christmas day. Swinging around a snowy NYC with Christmas decorations up and my own tree shining in the corner of the living room was quite cozy!

While it felt oddly prescient that SPOILERS a pandemic was a central plot point of the first Spider-Man, it makes a lot of sense for Miles Morales to be Christmas themed, as the PlayStation 5 and a copy of the game likely awaited many children under their trees on Christmas morning. At least those whose parents were persistent enough to snag one despite the holiday shortages.

Those curiosities aside, Miles Morales was a damn fun AAA beat ’em up that plays even better than its already solid predecessor. With Parker out of the country, Miles is on the Spider beat, and the young man must overcome his trepidations and become the hero New York needs. More specifically, he must become the hero Harlem needs. Corporate greed and the marginalization/gentrification of communities of color are major thematic elements at play in this game, and I think they’re handled well for a game that is intended for mass consumption. I’m sure some idiots are filling their diapers over its “SJW agenda” or whatever, but fuck ’em! I enjoyed the plot and am glad to see a major release cover topics like these.

The gameplay is good beat ’em up stuff like the original, and it retains most of its mechanics. Miles, however, gets some cool new powers Peter doesn’t have, and the game is better for them. These are minor spoilers, for what it’s worth. First, he gets electric powers, which allow him to build a meter that will grant him electric punches, dashes, ground pounds, etc. Fun! Second, he gets “camouflage” (read: invisibility), which is the more compelling of the two new mechanics. This effectively allows Miles to reset enemy encounters to stealth mode even if he is spotted. They remain on alert, but they are once again open to stealth takedowns. The stealth mode is a real highlight of these games for me, and I’m glad to see this mechanic introduced. Very pleased with the combat changes overall.

Meanwhile, the story is quite short but quite sweet, as I alluded to above. It covers controversial (somehow) topics of inclusion, corporate overreach, and shows Miles grow into a confident, unique Spider-Man. I was pleased with it, and I frankly welcome more AAA games that don’t overstay their welcomes. I know a lot of people buy these games for the countless hours of gameplay, but a game like this better suits a backlog churner like me.

Side content is the same minimap-icon-AAA-fluff stuff from the first game. A bunch of collectibles that flesh out Miles’s connection to his friends/family a bit, some bad guy bases to bust up, and a handful of charming and amusing side quests. Plus the usual randomly generated minor crimes. None of this stuff is essential, but it’s inoffensive. And I appreciate that peppering the map with little things to collect does spice up the bits of navigation between main story missions. On the plus side, not unlike my comments on Astro Bot before it, the greatly improved read speeds on the PS5’s SSD mean fast traveling between the bits of side content is nearly instantaneous. A boon for sunre.

A concession I’ll make in closing is that Miles Morales is definitely a game I only paid $70 for because it was part of the bundle I had to buy to get a PlayStation 5 at GameStop. I would have definitely waited for a price drop otherwise. But aside from price, Miles Morales was a fun ride that should be on the to-do list of anyone that enjoyed the first game.