Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales (PS5)
While Marvel’s Spider-Man on PlayStation 4 was Peter Parker’s story, a good amount of time was spent building up New York teenager Miles Morales as well even though he was no superhero. Not only were there full sections where you played as him, but the game caps off with a teaser that Miles Morales now has spider-powers just like Peter to serve as a hook for the sequel. Rather than jumping right into Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 to explore the ramifications though, a side game was made so that Miles would have time to grow into his role. With Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales, the second Spider-Man gets a chance to take top billing, the game not quite as big as its spectacular predecessor but able to focus in on its fledgling hero without Peter’s shadow hanging over him.
Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales sees Peter Parker having to leave New York City for a few weeks, and after helping teach Miles the ropes for about a year, he leaves the young super-hero in charge of fighting crime. Still quite inexperienced, Miles does start to face some issues as he goes solo, and while some are understandable like trying to find a balance between helping the city and maintaining a separate private life, he also might be too eager to show he’s got what it takes to be Spider-Man. With plenty of criminals talking down to him calling him things like “Spider-Kid” and the anti-Spider-Man sentiments of J. Jonah Jameson’s podcast sometimes piping into his suit as he swings around the city, it’s little wonder this amateur superhero tries to show how he measures up, but time and again he ends up in over his head, especially as he begins to exhibit new powers different from the ones he shares with Peter Parker. Nadji Jeter’s performance as Miles does a great job of rooting him as a dorky teenager often in over his head but still earnest in his desire to help, his motivations tied more to his feelings of inadequacy as he feels he should be a hero already rather than this being some vain glory-seeking. Already unsteady from the issues caused when he overestimates his own ability, Miles further finds the Spider-Man mantle hard to handle as the issues across NYC start to hit closer to home. A rather well-handled web of personal relationships ties this Spider-Man to the foes he’ll be facing, because while the technologically advanced gang known as the Underground and the sketchy corporation Roxxon make up the main forces he’ll have to fight, Miles has deeper emotional connections to major players in the plot to take them both down that complicates things. The game does maybe rush one reveal while taking some time to get a different obvious reveal finally out in the open, but this Spider-Man story does make good use of the interpersonal relationships and takes them in interesting unexpected directions so that taking on Roxxon’s rather one-note corrupt leader has some more compelling personal stakes surrounding it.
During most of the game, Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales allows you to freely travel around the isle of Manhattan around Christmas time, different weather and times of day allowing for moments where you can feel the festive winter mood and others where the dazzling lights of the huge city really get to shine. Traveling around New York is a breeze with the game’s web-swinging controls, the costumed superhero’s momentum-based travel great for building up speed so that you might not even feel like you’ll need to use the game’s instantaneous subway fast travel. Web zips to pull you along quickly horizontally, latch points to yank you to a spot you can then use as a launching point, and a commitment to the web lines needing proper spots to attach to mean you’re able to move fast but still making moment to moment choices on how to get around. The game sometimes uses this movement for things like stopping a car chase or tailing the Underground’s leader the Tinkerer as she tears through the city, but on its own it’s already breezy and yet involved enough that moving about has a nice rhythm to it, some rather relaxed hip-hop even underscoring it lightly at times to make travel smooth and a bit entertaining for its own sake.
Spider-Man can’t stop criminals just by swinging around in the air though, but the battle system uses just as much of his webs while containing a host of different attack options to support it. An athletic fighter to start, you’ll already be easily able to zip around the battlefield to smack enemies around, but since both major adversarial groups in Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales come bearing specialized weaponry, you’ll soon find punches and kicks aren’t going to be enough to get around energized swords and stunning firearms. You can use your webs to throw things around, pull yourself towards an enemy, or bind them up, but Miles has a few powers Peter didn’t bring to the table. Unique mutations from the specific spider that bit Miles allows this Spider-Man to tap into two unique types of tricks. Venom powers involve Spider-Man using biological electricity to enhance his attacks, and while one is just a really strong punch, the electrical effects can chain across foes and he has other more situational yet helpful uses for it. A surge of power can launch a group of enemies into the air for you to whale on, a lightning dash can smash you into an otherwise dodgy foe, and you can come slamming down to hit enemies in an area around you for heavy damage. Venom power builds up as you land hits, but it also can be spent for a quick heal, the game not exactly stingy with the power but there are still times you will have to quickly decide if you want to use an attack and might risk leaving yourself vulnerable after.
Camouflage is Miles Morales’s other unique ability, Spider-Man able to turn invisible for a short time to help him ambush his foes. Many times Spider-Man will hit the scene or be infiltrating a facility when he finds a room filled with enemy combatants, and rather than throwing yourself into the fray and getting ganged up on, you can slink around up high on rafters picking foes off quietly. Camouflage can help you get in close to baddies that aren’t so easily lured into a silent takedown, but the stealthy hunting sections usually allow you to choose if you want to gradually wear down the enemy ranks or go charging in and potentially face stronger opposition for not thinning the ranks first. Many areas that allow for the stealthy approach have multiple floors and strong sight line placements to consider, but you also gradually get some gadgets than can help you out like a remote mine that can be used to short circuit fuse boxes and shock guards without alerting others.
Fist fights, stealthily clearing out rooms, and some web-swinging already make for a good cycle of gameplay types so you don’t get worn down by any one of them, and there are a few puzzles in your path like needing to rearrange train cars off their tracks or manipulate some of Roxxon’s technology to help break down a base from within. The regular combat could have surely grown repetitive without much else to do to take the pressure off it, but the progression to stronger enemies and the varied forms of play between battles usually helps it come out as something that’s still entertaining to engage with, especially when you get such a range of powers that are easy to access midfight that you can start to fight like the kind of surefooted Spider-Man Miles aims to be. Many missions also have a few optional objectives like hitting enemies a certain amount of times with specific powers that change up how you battle, and the rewards are often useful things like experience towards ability upgrades or tokens for buying a range of stylish and helpful costumes as well as mods and visors for small but helpful boosts. A bit unfortunately though, some of the game’s bosses are oddly not that fit to handle your basic battle options, some of the game’s pivotal fights a little easy to tear your way through. Some foes like the massive Rhino do have counters to certain attacks and require specific actions or strategies to beat, so it is a touch odd the most important confrontations fold to raw aggression. There aren’t too many boss encounters overall though so it feels more like some bosses are just regular combat bumped up a touch rather than a set of truly unique encounters.
One idea that really adds extra life to Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales though is the Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man app. Miles’s friend Ganke serves a bit of a mission control role, not only helping by hacking systems or talking Miles through new data and revelations but also the FSNM app he developed gives Spider-Man a range of side quests to tackle around town as the player sees fit. People petition Spider-Man for assistance through the app and you go and investigate their issue, the game putting some of its more involved side activities here. There are other activities you can engage with around the city, you can scour for Underground caches which might involve a little poking around, you can stop small crimes that arise, and there are items around Manhattan that help you better understand your relationship with certain characters that can make up for the game rushing a bit when it comes to tying them to the broader plot before you’re emotionally invested in them. The FNSM app though can have multiple linked side quests like investigating the incursions of an unknown crime boss in Harlem, but other times it can be something that sounds silly like helping a man stuck while washing windows that still turns into a bit of action. The “friendly neighborhood” part of the name does feel appropriate too, a specific focus on Harlem part of the game’s ongoing plot to the point you will even come to recognize some small storeowners and locals over the course of the adventure, the app especially helping to connect Spider-Man to the kind of community help that makes him feel like the people’s hero instead of just a force for taking down supercriminals.
THE VERDICT: Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales tells an appropriately personal story considering Miles has been placed in title, the game able to focus in on his close relationships be it with people on the wrong side of the law or the people of Harlem who come to connect with him as their protector. A good mix of gameplay types keeps the player zipping along this speedy spin-off as well, the side content compelling and concise so you have interesting missions from the FNSM app for meatier optional activities and some quickly grabbed collectibles laying around NYC to do as you swing beautifully to your next task. Your range of attack options can lead to you being a bit overpowered at times and there’s some unevenness in how quickly plot points are presented, but you’ll still be easily hooked by the action and community-focused tale of this up-and-coming Spider-Man.
And so, I give Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales for PlayStation 5…
A GREAT rating. Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales needs to be a bit more if it wants to rub shoulders with its predecessor Marvel’s Spider-Man, but that really is just a comment on the game’s size. The factor that keeps it from being quite as superb is just the game being a shorter spinoff, not able to spend as much time building up some characters and not able to place as many big blowout boss battles to wrap that story around. The game does still do a wonderful job of making Miles’s connection to Harlem feel meaningful and the sense of communal support well-earned, the FNSM app a brilliant way of structuring some quests since they inherently have that personal angle of a local requesting them even though sometimes taking a simple selfie with someone can go rather explosively awry. Much like many of the major characters in the story though, the side content really works to help build up Miles’s relationships and history, the game making up for its main narrative not having the room to address things like his lingering grief over his deceased father in these entertaining and brisk optional objectives. The unique Venom abilities of this Spider-Man perhaps tip things a bit strongly in his favor from time to time, but again, a little more room and you can start roping in foes who counter it more often, it feeling like the direct threats meant to inhibit its use coming a bit late. The range of activities though mean the fighting isn’t the only space where there’s room to grow, and rather than feeling like things are wearing thin, it’s more a sense that you’d like to have seen it keep evolving.
A super-hero’s early days have to be a bit humble though, so Miles Morales needing time to figure out his abilities against foes that aren’t as grandiose as the Sinister Six makes some narrative sense. Intertwining the private life of a hero with their battles against evildoers does still provide a more robust foundation than simply giving this new Spider-Man strong guys to punch as well. While some elements like the breadth of content show this game was certainly designed with its nature as a spin-off in mind, Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales still makes sure its kinetic action and varied play can pull you in while never losing steam.