Yuri Watanabe is hot

I surely don't like this game as much as most people do and it's kinda surprising to me that, as I write this one, the game has 96% positive reviews.

Maybe it's me, but while the story is on point and delivers exactly what I would expect from a Spider-Man tale I don't dig the gameplay enough to carry me through dozens of hours per week. I finished the base game at release (even pre-purchased it, actually) and was not that impressed. More than three years later, I came back to play the DLCs and, again, mainly for the story (I swear I cannot stand another wave based mission against the same enemies I've been fighting since the first minute of the game).

It is clearly not a "bad" game, so I will not give a negative review, but I'm not planing on playing the other two games any time soon (if ever). I still have to play the Arkham games, but if the gameplay loop is just the same thing I had here (or in Shadow of Mordor, another game I did not like) I may not care to finished all of them either. If I'm to fight a thousand mobs with ocasional boss fights in between, I would rather play Dynasty Warriors or some other musou.

I would recommend buying it on a sale and not carrying too much about the side content: if an activity is not marked as main mission or side mission, the quality level is on par with Skyrim's radiant missions (a bunch of repetitive things that you be invited to do a thousand times). A shame that grinding all the suits will require one to engage with those activities tho...

Important - I’ll try to keep spoilers to a minimum, but this review does contain spoilers. The game has been out on PC for years, but it still deserves to be experienced fresh if you can. [/i]

Marvel’s Spider-Man Remastered is a very good game. I played it with genuine pleasure and enjoyed almost every moment of it. It’s not perfect, there are a few things that really bothered me, some of them are actually pretty big issues, but overall, it was a super enjoyable experience.

The game is a PC port of the original PS4 release and puts you in the shoes of an already-experienced Peter Parker. It delivers an epic story that focuses on how Peter balances his life as a superhero, fighting iconic criminals, with his personal struggles as a regular human dealing with money problems and relationship issues. All of this takes place in Manhattan, New York: a city full of tall buildings that perfectly supports what I consider to be the best movement system in any game.
I should mention that I’ve been a Spider-Man fan since I was a kid, so there might be a bit of bias here :)

Manhattan is a playground built specifically for Spider-Man. The city is dense, alive, and full of massive buildings that let you build momentum while swinging. You constantly hear urban white noise like honking cars, people reacting to you swinging past them, cheering or criticizing you. When you climb skyscrapers, the sunlight reflecting off the windows and the endless skyline really sell that classic Marvel blockbuster feeling.
The world perfectly blends epic superhero vibes with modern urban realism, and it never stops being fun just to move around in it.

The story is one of the best interpretations of Peter Parker as a character. It’s not an origin story, and that’s a huge plus. You don’t see the spider bite or Uncle Ben’s death for the thousandth time. The game throws you straight into a more mature stage of Peter’s life: he’s already an experienced Spider-Man, but his personal life is in constant chaos.

Peter Parker is portrayed as an empathetic, intelligent, but broke guy, stuck between the responsibilities of being a superhero and the harsh reality of adult life: rent, failed relationships, jobs. He works alongside Dr. Octavius on an invention that could genuinely change lives, and the relationship between the two is one of the best written parts of the game. I won’t go into details, but their emotional dynamic is extremely important for everything that follows.

The game starts strong with the capture of Kingpin, who is exactly how he should be, straight out of the comics: brutal, massive, and intimidating. From that point on, a domino effect kicks in, slowly turning the city into total chaos. Without getting into major spoilers, every event feels like it has real consequences, and New York constantly reacts to your actions.

What I loved the most is that the story makes you want to keep going not just for the gameplay, but out of pure curiosity. It has extremely well directed key moments, memorable plot points, and a very clear setup for the next game, I mean, it’s pretty obvious. The tone shifts really well between epic Marvel blockbuster moments and personal drama, and Peter always remains at the center of the story as a human being, not just a superhero.

Overall, the story is well written, coherent, and emotionally grounded. It never feels forced, and instead delivers an authentic, mature take on the character that genuinely sticks with you.

The strongest point of the game is, without question, traversal. The swinging system is incredibly polished and is the core reason why simply moving around the city feels fun. It’s intuitive, fast, and extremely fluid. Funny enough, right after I started playing, YouTube decided to recommend me comparison videos between other Spider-Man games and this one, and damn… Insomniac is miles ahead. Everything flows naturally, animations blend perfectly, and nothing feels stiff or awkward like in older titles where swings were clearly cut or limited.
The game is built around constant movement and exploration. You’re always swinging from point A to point B, chasing icons on the map, and yes, for some people this might feel like that classic Ubisoft-style open-world fatigue. I usually hate that too. But Spider-Man somehow makes it fun. Traversal alone carries a huge part of the experience, and I never got tired of just moving through the city.
There are also Harry’s research stations, which act as a twist on traditional collectibles. They offer small gameplay challenges and subtle narrative teasers that tie back into the story, which I appreciated.

Combat is clearly inspired by the Batman Arkham series, but it’s much more agile. You rely heavily on environmental interactions, reflexes, and gadgets. The combat feels satisfying and well-designed overall, but it can also feel a bit too easy, even on the highest difficulty. Insomniac clearly wanted the game to be accessible to a wider audience, I personally would’ve liked a higher skill ceiling.
Another thing worth mentioning is input. The game feels much better on a controller, which makes sense given that it was designed around console play.

The dynamic music system fits the game perfectly. The soundtrack builds up alongside your movement and the intensity of the moment. As you swing faster and higher, the music ramps up until you suddenly realize how cinematic everything feels. Every web shot has weight, every “thwip” feels tactile and satisfying.

Achievements are where the Ubisoft-style grind really shows up. You’ll spend a lot of time clearing icons, collecting things, and cleaning the map like a vacuum cleaner. There’s a lot to do.

The biggest issue is the "Power and Responsibility" achievement, which requires you to finish the game on Ultimate difficulty. The catch is that Ultimate only unlocks after completing the game once, meaning you’re forced into at least two full playthroughs for 100% completion. This ties with "One More Time" which requires finishing New Game+. You can technically do both in one run, but it doesn’t change the fact that it adds another 10–15 hours that don’t feel meaningfully different from your first playthrough.
Then there are the Taskmaster and Screwball challenges. They’re fun at first, but they become repetitive quickly. To fully complete them, you need Spectacular or Ultimate ratings on all challenges.
Overall, achievements here are a patience test more than anything else.

The MJ gameplay sections. They make sense narratively, she’s just a journalist, but gameplay-wise they're boring. Slow stealth segments and detective style sections felt like filler. They often break the pacing and kill momentum.
In the DLCs specifically, some enemies feel more annoying than challenging. They’re not difficult in a fun way, just frustrating at times.