As Marvel's Spider-Man 2 release arrives, Insomniac promises “we didn’t f*** up the stuff people liked from the first game”

Marvel's Spider-Man 2 PS5 gameplay screenshot
(Image credit: SIE)

Marvel's Spider-Man 2 aims to level up heaps of what made the original superhero game a banger, but fret not – creative director Bryan Intihar insists "we didn't fuck up the stuff people liked from the first game."

Speaking to NME, Intihar discusses the "darker story" the game wants to tell, touching on themes of addiction through Peter's relation with the symbiote that gifts him Venom's power. Grim stuff, though Intihar says the upcoming game doesn't lose the "heart and humor" of the webhead that everyone adores – especially as it was captured in the the first game. 

Rather, Marvel's Spider-Man 2 aims to expand on previous ideas. Case and point are gameplay features like web-wing gliding, new battle abilities, and parrying, introduced not to replace swinging and combat, but to sit alongside it. 

"We didn't fuck up the stuff people liked from the first game," says Intihar. "We didn't screw up swinging, or combat. We found things that people liked about it and looked for opportunities to lift them up."

Looks like Intihar has been true to his word. We gave the upcoming game a perfect score in our Marvel's Spider-Man 2 review, calling it "quite simply the best superhero game yet."

"Marvel's Spider-Man 2 improves on its predecessor across the board, while saluting the superhero genre over the last 30 years as a whole," we said. "With a captivating narrative and unrivaled spectacle, it's the quintessential superhero game, in story and mechanical terms."

Marvel's Spider-Man 2 is out on October 20 for the PS5.

Here are eight Marvel's Spider-Man 2 tips we wish we knew before playing.

Deputy News Editor

Iain joins the GamesRadar team as Deputy News Editor following stints at PCGamesN and PocketGamer.Biz, with some freelance for Kotaku UK, RockPaperShotgun, and VG24/7 thrown in for good measure. When not helping Ali run the news team, he can be found digging into communities for stories – the sillier the better. When he isn’t pillaging the depths of Final Fantasy 14 for a swanky new hat, you’ll find him amassing an army of Pokemon plushies.