Well, it's officially 2019, and we have a whole New Year of games, movies and political scandals to look forward to. One of last year's best games was Spider-Man by Insomniac Studios. You can my read my review here. It's already become one of the PS4's bestselling titles, and a sequel seems like a pretty safe bet. So, I was thinking, what do we want to see in a sequel? Special thanks to my brother from another mother, Gerard Deltour II, who helped me out with this one. Mild spoilers for the game and the DLC to follow.
Game play wise I feel like there isn't much they could improve on. The combat is already tight, and web-swinging is a lot of fun. I think the most likely scenario is that they'll add some new gadgets to Spidey's arsenal. Combat-wise, my only real suggestion would be a way to aim when you're swinging around a webbed up bad guy, that way you can throw him off a roof or web him to the side of a building. Also, less swarming. The mooks have a habit of swarming you, and while that's not too bad in the earlier levels, when all the mooks have chain guns and rocket launchers that you can't dodge, it becomes annoying really quickly. It was the biggest weakness of the DLC. I don't mind a challenge in games; in fact, being a Dark Souls fan, I actually love difficult combat. There's a huge difference, however between using strategy and learning enemy weaknesses, and just being swarmed randomly. For as tough as Soulsborne games are, the deaths usually feel fair in that they can be avoided. You can't avoid swarms of mooks with undodgeable rockets. Other than that, I can't think of anything to make the gameplay better. Which leaves us with the story.
So where does the story go from here? Well it's a safe bet that we'll continue to see Peter training Miles in his Spider-powers, which means more Miles levels, maybe even a few where you web-swing. As for MJ, the last bit of DLC had her headed of for Silver Sable's home country of Symkaria, which is in the middle of a Civil War, to cover it for the Daily Bugle. Whether we'll play as MJ in Symkaria, talk to her over the phone, or simply deal with the aftermath of her coming home I couldn't say. Although if she is in Symkaria, then it seems less likely that we'd play as her, since her levels always tied into the main story.
I'd like to see either MJ or Peter interact with the staff of the Daily Bugle, Robbie in particular. One of the Easter Eggs in the game showed a card signed by the entire staff when Peter left, including Eddie Brock, which seems to indicate that he and Peter are on good terms. That could be interesting. Whether or not Venom appears in the next game, I'd like to see the black suit, as it's my favorite Spider-Man costume. It doesn't even have to be the symbiote version. Peter wore a cloth suit for years in the comics. I'm 50/50 on whether or not Venom appears in the sequel. It was hinted near the end of the first game that Norman Osborn is in control of the symbiote, possibly in some connection with Harry's supposed illness, so that's its own can of worms. Insomniac has their own take on Spider-Man's mythology, and there's plenty of possibilities that they could go with for a sequel.
What do you guys think? I'd love to hear what you want to see in a sequel. Let me know, see you next week.