Marvel's Spider-Man: Miles Morales review - is it worth playing?

Spider-Man: Miles Morales is a direct sequel to Marvel's Spider-Man 2018 and one of the three big Sony games in the PlayStation 5 launch line. Yes, it is big: despite the fact that it seems to be an addition/offshoot on the same engine and with the same basic gameplay, the content in the new action is hardly less than in the original. Nevertheless, there is no" deuce " in the title, and the reason for this is the rather modest scale of the plot events.The new Spider-Man is dedicated to the adventures of Miles Morales, a guy from Harlem who is still in the original — it just so happens! - acquired "spider" superpowers. Peter Parker teaches him to be a superhero, but at the beginning of Miles Morales, the latter leaves New York for a while, and Miles is left to defend the city alone.

Of course, it is at this moment that a mysterious Underground group appears there, whose members first only sabotage the work of the city's infrastructure, and then begin to do things that threaten people's lives. The problem is also that the Underground group is quite technological, in battle it uses very dangerous energy guns and shields and with their help, without any problems, "counter" the abilities of the new Spider.

Pretty soon, the ubiquitous Roxxon company will appear in this story, then there will be a couple of unexpected turns (in fact, not too unexpected), but the finale of Spider-Man: Miles Morales will play out in Harlem — and in general, the plot will rarely be chosen outside of Miles ' home district. In addition, among the villains-mostly characters from the second roles, and the danger this time threatens not even the whole of New York. In short, the story by the standards of the original is chamber, the heroes and villains are secondary, and the young Spider-Man is just learning to be a superhero, so the threat for him was picked up accordingly. Hence all these claims about the fact that Spider-Man: Miles Morales is supposedly only a DLC for six hours, and is worth as a whole game. First, the duration of the story campaign, without taking into account side tasks and activities in the open world — is about 8-10 hours at a normal level of difficulty. And the story of the original takes about 12-14 hours, which is a little more. Secondly, those very side tasks and activities in the open world — after all, no one selected them. On the contrary, even a lot of new ones were invented to replace the old ones — and with them, the total duration is just reduced to 20-25 hours, depending on the level of complexity.

The sides in Spider-Man: Miles Morales are appropriate. Miles helps restore the water supply at the volunteer center, searches for a kidnapped red cat named Spider-Man, saves the skytrain from downtime, chases away bandits and helps out the residents of Harlem (not only them, however). Nothing that would compare with the main plot, among these sides there is no-except that the quest about the cat is funny, but otherwise — a passer. The previous game had the same problem, so it makes no sense to criticize Insomniac for this approach a second time.

Activities in the open world are of the same order. Find so many "time capsules" that Miles and his girlfriend once buried all over New York, go through the training invented by Peter, destroy a lot of Roxxon labs and break up Underground camps, and so on. Types of activities — familiar and tied to the search for something or in battles with opponents. As a reward for completing them - as before, points for pumping everything and everything. Miles 'abilities," spider " gadgets, new costumes and passive skills-all need different kinds of tokens, which can be collected in the open world.It's cool that there are a lot of different types of activities, just like in the previous game. It's not cool that within the same type, they again do not differ from each other. In other words, to clear the entire map and 100% pass the game again will only be those who itch from the flickering colorful icons on the radar. The rest, as before, can be scored — the game does not put grindwalls.

Nevertheless, it is worth going through the activity-to pump Miles ' skills and thereby make the combat system more diverse. Don't get me wrong: fighting in Spider-Man: Miles Morales is just as great from the start as it was in the original, especially since the new Spider-Man has particularly powerful bioelectric abilities that beautifully — and very painfully — bash opponents. It's just that as you level up, Mile learns more and more active and passive skills, and this only benefits the combat system.

Although the basic set of the hero is the same, and blows with the use of bioelectricity should most often be used on mini-bosses and bosses — they also spend energy working on the principle of "focus" (accumulated for each blow you strike). This energy is not enough, just enough to deal with rare really dangerous opponents.I use the phrase "as in the original" in almost every paragraph for a reason. Spider-Man: Miles Morales, after all, is really not far away from the game of 2018. But this fact in itself can hardly be a disadvantage — the new" Spider " has a familiar gameplay, a new story and even more activities in the open world. And it sounds like a great option for those who didn't have enough of the original.

A separate point, which Miles Morales captivates, is that the events of the game take place in snow-covered New York — and the best setting for November-December simply can not come up. I understand that this is a banality, but it works!Even if you do not take into account the fact that Spider-Man: Miles Morales is just a great action game about Spider-Man, there is at least one more reason to look at the game-the graphics: this is an insanely beautiful adventure that will not give you any reason to doubt the purchase of the PlayStation 5. It is better to play the new Spider-Man, of course, on the new console — there are both reflections and 60 FPS if desired.

And the capabilities of the DualSense controller, again — are detailed recoil and barely noticeable trigger resistance during flights on the web. Here's another reason, if you need it.