In the first game, we saw Miles Morales gain spider powers and begin training from Peter during side missions. Marvel's Spider-Man: Miles Morales takes us about a year later, when Peter Parker and Miles Morales were slowly networking together. Accompanying the convoy that took some of the prisoners who escaped from Raft back to the prison in the previous game in New York amid New Year's decorations and snow, the duo take a quick New York tour with Rhino, who escaped due to Miles' mistake. In this episode, we learn about the controls, recall them and discover some of Miles' new powers.
After Rhino's escape and our first meeting with Roxxon Energy company, Peter Parker leaves the city for a few weeks for his photography business and the whole city is entrusted to us. In addition to the moving rush of Miles, who moved from Brooklyn to Harlem, we also see the excitement of his mother's election efforts and meeting with his old friend, whom he has not seen for a long time. The rest of the story is about how we fight Underground and its new leader, Tinkerer, who declared war on Roxxon Energy, and help the people of New York, especially Harlem. On the one hand, we help our novice hero to get through his first solo mission smoothly, on the other hand, we see his efforts to balance heroism and private life.
First of all, I have to say that the introduction is great. As someone who has watched a lot of Spider-Man on TV, it was very nice to open with an enemy I have always known like Rhino. Traveling New York on Rhino during the Christmas period is a completely different experience. I loved the moments like the joint struggle of the two Spider-Man, the conversations of Peter and Rhino, who suddenly flew past us while Miles was dealing with other prisoners. In this respect, I can say that I enjoyed the Kingpin fight more than the original game.
The rest of the story is good. We have a game one third of the length of the original game, it is possible to complete the main story within 10 hours. This has both good and bad sides. The fact that the story is short caused some events to be handled at the level of "done and done". The best part is that we almost never do unnecessary work. There are no tasks that seem to be set just to make the game longer. Even the side missions look more full. The story length was generally satisfactory. We encounter 4 bosses in the game, one of which is optional. The optional fight is very light compared to the Taskmaster in the original game. Few bosses do not suit a series that has no trouble with powerful enemies. I did not find the new version of Tinkerer, which we saw even in the movie Homecoming, not bad. I have some complaints that will be spoilers, but I pass by saying that they were able to fit this into the part of the game that is devoted to the story.
The story of the game is short, we agreed on that, now let's move on to the gameplay part. If you've played Spider-Man, which was released in 2008 before, it won't be long before you get used to Marvel's Spider-Man: Miles Morales. All the features of the previous game remain here. In fact, Miles can directly use some of the abilities you need to unlock in the main game. Peter's teaching worked well. The main striking features are the special abilities Miles has.
In addition to the abilities that Peter Parker has, Miles Morales has some special powers of his own. The ability to stun and weaken enemies with bioelectric attacks called Venom, and the invisibility ability that allows Miles to survive difficult situations. Thanks to the features we acquire as the story progresses, the gameplay that starts exactly the same as Spider-Man, makes the fights become more different with the new tactics we can apply.
Venom abilities are initially used to take down defending enemies. As our character grows stronger, Venom abilities become that we can use to smash enemy shields, perform area attacks, and leap higher and forward while networking through the city. It's a nice add-on and we use it a lot in fights. The invisibility ability, on the other hand, is a skill that makes privacy parts a little easier. You can suddenly disappear during the fight, wait for the enemies to spare you, and you can easily do bonus missions. It didn't do much for me as I found the privacy parts of the game boring. But in the last episodes I used it when fleeing from crowded enemy groups. After counting Miles' new features, new things about the game come to an end. Everything I can count from now on is the same as the Spider-Man game released in 2018.
If Miles' short story is not enough (which shouldn't be), there are a lot of side quests we can do. Thanks to the application established by our friend, citizens can send a request for help and we rush to help. Side missions are pretty cool. We follow the cats, chase Howard's pigeons, try to fix the broken pier of a man who cleans the windows of the building. While these and similar tasks seem to be the most appropriate jobs for a novice superhero to do, they also feed us little by little about the reason for these events happening in the background and the bigger things going on.
In addition to side missions, there are also activities that we can complete in the city. We collect the sound samples necessary for the music that our father prepared with his brother, follow the capsules when we hide them all over the city with our best friend Phin and print the places that the Undrground gang uses as bases. The awards we earn from here can be used to unlock devices and costumes that we can use in the game.
There are 19 different costumes for Miles Morales, and you can unlock all but one costume during your first play. Each of the costumes taken from the comics and animated series comes with separate features. These features are different things like making us take less damage, collect more Venom energy, or get the Spider-Man (not Peter Parker) out of the bag to beat our enemies. I liked the way the costume in the movie Into the Spider-Verse dropped the character down to 15 fps, allowing us to move just like in the movie, and add attack effects in the movie. When you open the feature of a costume, you also have the chance to use it with different costumes.
Side missions and events have a meaning in themselves and good stories to tell. It would be sad if they left the other activities empty in a game with such a short main story. The game has done a great job with side missions. The game is very successful both visually and audibly. Released in 2018, Spider-Man was already one of the most visually successful games. Insomniac Games, together with Miles Morales, has managed to take this one step further. The attention to small details has increased, the lighting has been specially worked on and everything looks beautiful. Although most of New York City remained the same, it was snow covered due to the season. As the game focuses on the Harlem region, we see the biggest change in the streets in these areas. Street artist murals, New Year decorations, Roxxon's new buildings are the main things that attract attention.
Spider-Man: Miles Morales, working with 30 fps at dynamic resolution on Playstation 4 consoles, presented two different options as performance and cinematic on the Playstation 5 console. Playstation 5 console owners can play with 60 fps more smoothly, or experience 30 fps by turning on Ray Tracing technology, which truly handles all reflections and provides detailed light show attacks of Underground and Miles. Playstation 5 version natively supports 4K. Frankly, although I tried ray tracing and 30 FPS in the first place while playing, I preferred to play most of the game as 60 FPS. In my opinion, high FPS, ie performance modes, will constitute a more important place for games. Especially in fast games like Spider-Man or Demon's Souls, I have to mention that there are 60 more FPS events.
The loading times for the Playstation 4 version of the game are acceptable, only taking a little longer at first launch. In the Playstation 5 version, we see that the game opens very quickly with the return of SSD technology. Even when you travel quickly from one end of the map to the other, you do not encounter any loading time. Sometimes it is a bit late to load skins on the PS4 version. It was a situation that didn't get my attention until I went on a mission with Miles, who consisted of just head and shoulders. There is no such problem in the PS5 version. However, it is possible to see strange bugs and errors in both versions of the game. For example, I also saw a squirrel running through the air on a mission. But since I only saw the last one once, I can take it as a mission-specific occasion or a Squirrel Girl reference. Likewise, you may encounter errors such as Miles' netting in the streets without costume.
By the way, let's talk about haptic feedback and adaptive trigger features. Thanks to Dualsense in the PS5 version, these two technologies are used at certain points of the game. First of all, when you throw a net, you encounter a vibration according to the part you throw. In addition, the trigger keys become harder and react to the net throwing incident. Even when you climb on the subway in the vibration section, you can clearly feel its movement on the rails. With such small nuances, Dualsense features are also used.
The music of the game was made by John Paesano, who also made the music of Spider-Man. The soundtracks, which have similar timbre with the main game, have become more suitable for Miles Morales' style. The music that started when we took a stroll in the city with Miles, who is also a music player, combines the orchestral music of the first play with its unique hip-hop beats. Jaden Smith, who previously prepared a song for the movie Into The Spider-Verse, also took part in the soundtrack of this game. On My Own and I’m Ready, which we have seen in the trailer before, and I’m Ready prepared for this game fit the game very well. As someone who is not a big fan of the genre of music, I loved all the soundtracks of the game.
Marvel's Spider-Man: Miles Morales, who successfully makes us feel that we are playing a completely different character and shows how different the same city can look from the eyes of two people, can leave players in a dilemma with the short game time and the few innovations it brings. As it stands, it could get much better comments if it was announced as an additional package and priced accordingly, rather than a stand-alone game. If you liked the first Spider-Man game, I think you will love this game too.
