Marvel's Spider-Man: Analysis

Swinging

Since traversing the map to fight crime is basically the whole game, the mechanic for traversing needs to be simple yet entertaining. And that’s exactly how swinging from building to building feels like in this game.

Combat

The combat is extremely fluid and diverse keeping the player focused and satisfied when we completely destroy the enemies using our speed and combos. The combat feels similar to the Batman Arkham games but with better animation snaps and continuity.

Moreover, the cinematic combat scenes during car takedowns, or final takedowns on enemies are very satisfying to watch after a long button smashing session to lower the health of the enemy.

Characters

Even though the game is about Spider-Man, we get to play as different characters (MJ, Miles, Peter Parker as a scientist) which not only expands on game mechanics but helps tell their side of the story.

Collectibles as a Game Mechanic

Acquiring different suits encourage the player to explore the world and new suit mechanics. Each suit comes with different powerup. Choosing which suit to use during missions is a critical choice the player has to make when facing harder enemies.

Similar Mechanics, Different Characters

MJ can throw tools and has the distraction device given by Spider-Man, while Miles can hack nearby electronics to distract enemies. Using similar game mechanics with a different perspective keeps things fresh for the player and also help distinguish each character. When MJ’s character arc unfolds, we get to use a taser as well. This helps establish each character and their personalities.

Villains

With villains like the Shocker, Tombstone, Taskmaster, Black Cat, Electro, Hammerhead (DLC), Screwball, Mysterio, Vulture, Mr. Negative, Scorpion, Otto, Rhino and other common enemies like thugs provides a wide range of interesting enemy types each with their own power and weaknesses. Just when we think we have seen all different enemy types we are later introduced with thugs with jet packs which are harder to defeat and require more skills

Puzzles

Having the puzzle may be useful to change up game play but it does slow down the action. Yet, solving puzzle to fix a device in the lab or matching signals to unlock areas of the map is better than not having any game play or just climbing the top of a tower like in the Assassin Creed franchise.