It may have taken its sweet time, but we finally got a look at Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 during last week’s PlayStation Showcase. It’s not a stretch to say that the gameplay trailer was the best part of the presentation, as it was 10 minutes long and featured all sorts of big reveals. For example, we know of two villains we’re going to fight. We know that Peter Parker will get the symbiote suit and that it has an adverse effect on him, and we know that both Peter and Miles will be playable in key missions. But how exactly is that going to work?
The answer came from creative director Bryan Intihar. He spoke with Eurogamer and noted that while the story missions will have focused moments where you can switch between Peter and Miles, much like in the gameplay trailer, there will also be other times when you can do it freely:
“When you’re playing the main story, we control when you switch between Pete and Miles… it’s done in service to the story when we’re making those switches, for sure,” Intihar said. “So, as you saw on that gameplay reveal, which is a segment of the main story, we are pre-determining those based on what we want to do for how the story plays out.”
That makes sense. In the gameplay trailer, Peter was on one side of New York while the bad guys were on the other trying to capture The Lizard. Miles was closer, and thus it makes sense to swap to him. You can expect more of those moments going forward, no doubt.
However, when it comes to the open-world sections, you’ll be able to switch between the Spider-Men to complete missions designed for them:
“We have content designed around Peter, we have content designed around Miles and we have content where you can play either. You’ll be able to – in the open world – freely switch between them with a simple button press. […] Just being able to pick and choose who I want to play as for a certain activity… it’s been so awesome to have that feature.”
Indeed. Plus, it showcases how much the game has evolved regarding story and gameplay. Before, there was only one Spider-Man to control, and that was the point. But here, Peter and Miles are together as crime-fighting partners. So it makes sense to utilize that in multiple ways.
Fans will hopefully enjoy this when Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 arrives later this year on PS5.