Insomniac Games has explained what it means to expand Marvel’s Spider-Man 2’s open world from the city skyscrapers of New York, to its boroughs in Queens and Brooklyn.
Senior Art Director Jacinda Chew talked about how the bigger world gives them the opportunity to look at both New York’s real life landmarks and the Marvel Universe’s fictional landmarks. So Aunt May’s house, AKA Peter Parker’s house, which has been depicted across three different movie series, numerous animated series, and even more comic book runs, is making its introduction in Insomniac’s franchise.
Interestingly enough, this house has a known address in the Marvel universe, 20 Ingram Street in Forest Hills. Even more interestingly, there is a real life analogue to this house as well! We doubt that Insomniac went snooping around a real life house to make theirs, but it’s still curious to note that Steve Ditko and/or Stan Lee went through such trouble to make Peter a realistic home to live in.
While the panel didn’t get into it, Miles’ home in Brooklyn will definitely be a point of interest as well. Now, some true Marvelites will remember that both Steve Rogers and Bucky Barnes also come from Brooklyn. While this doesn’t necessarily mean we should expect cameos, Insomniac might drop some Easter eggs for fans to look out for.
Now, the old issue of Spider-Man video games reared its ugly head when Insomniac made this choice. Exactly how does Peter and Miles web swing around when there are no tall buildings to swing around from?
Insomniac’s solution is the new game mechanic we know is coming to the game: Web Wings.
Once again, true believers would know that the original Spider-Man design by Steve Ditko had him using web wings around his armpits, with the implication that he could use the wings to glide across the air.
In the new game, both Peter and Miles get web wings, and it’s heavily suggested that they can glide for extended distances using the wings, and maybe have a different form of acceleration. Of course, Insomniac hasn’t explained how this mechanic works in-game, or the apparent logical explanation for it. But, on a game design level, we know that it exists so that players can credibly get around New York’s skyscraper-less boroughs, in a way that serves its gameplay as well.
Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 will be releasing on October 20, 2023, exclusively on PlayStation 5. You can watch the highlights of said SDCC 2023 panel below.
