Spider-Man 2 and Game Feel

“Spider-Man 2” makes you feel like Spider-Man in ways you weren’t expecting.

Sony’s foray into adapting the iconic wall crawler proved successful in their initial attempt, so much so that fans wondered where improvements could even be made. Sure, more costumes, more engaging side quests with iconic villains attached, and some life injected into those M.J. and Miles missions all could have helped. However, where I, and many others, didn’t expect such drastic adjustments was the gameplay.

Spider-Man PS4 is hopelessly addictive. I’ve spent hours swinging with nowhere to go and beating up the endless supply of bad guys New York has to offer. The combat and traversal meld to create a spectacular blend of mechanics that interact with the game’s world in purely entertaining ways. The swinging may lack nuance, but I’ll be damned if it isn’t absolutely enthralling to dive between two skyscrapers to launch myself into a bevy of impossible flips against the New York skyline. Sometimes, as Spider-Man PS4 proves, a game just has to be pure fun to be replayable, and in this way, proves the significance of game feel. 

“Game feel” is a tricky topic to discuss because, as the name may have given away, it is incredibly subjective. How a game “feels” can be up to the player's preferences; does a game control well or not? Does the way the game feels add to the gameplay experience? How so? These questions can be left relatively open ended. While I prefer Insomniac’s more weighty, less realistic web swinging, others may favor how Web of Shadows executes its own swinging with its chaotic movements and quicker pace. Game feel is thus crucial to a game’s enjoyment and a player to deliver intrinsic motivation for interacting with the game. I didn’t swing through Midtown for the thousandth time because it was new, I careened through New York streets just because it felt so good. The wind and speed effects, the controller vibrating, the perfect weightiness to Peter’s arc; the mechanics and physics were so fine tuned that I was drawn to swing for hours on end out of pure fun.

Game feel is also critical to providing a sense of impact and meaning to a player’s action. Combat is fast paced fun in Spider-Man, and that success is due not just to the system’s in depth mechanics, but the physics, animations, and other forces of video game development behind designing how it tactically feels to fight as an acrobatic superhero. Insomniac nailed the feeling of Spider-Man, and because of that, players couldn’t wait for the sequel, a sequel with an even stronger use of game feel to not just deliver an entertaining experience, but to amplify the other elements of the game.

Games are interactive, it’s the specific element that differentiates video games from other media, and thus what many players turn to the medium for. I could watch a Spider-Man movie, but then I wouldn’t be piercing through sharp New York winds, flipping without a care in the world. In other words, players come to games, partially, for satisfying game feel. However, that’s not the only draw. While games are focused on interactivity, by no means does that mean narrative is exempt from the medium’s attractiveness. Sure, swinging around the city is good fun, but swinging after The Shocker, or even more basic, just swinging as an iconic superhero instead of an original IP makes the game more enjoyable, specifically for Spidey fans. In other words, it’s the game's narrative context that gives life to the gameplay, and vice versa. In the best games, feeling and narrative are linked in a way other medium’s simply cannot replicate. In Spider-Man PS4, I feel like the wall crawler because of the game’s unique design and mechanics, and this uplifts the impact of the narrative, as I am now truly in the role of the title character. Ideally then, narrative and gameplay have a direct connection that uplifts and amplifies the other to newer heights of immersion and entertainment. Spider-Man 2 is that next level. 

Fans have praised the sequel for its enhanced…everything. From graphics to traversal, combat to technical performance, the consensus is that Spider-Man 2 has, while possibly not surpassing the original, more than met the expectations it set for itself. However, what I found most impressive was not the gameplay or narrative on an individual level, but how the game’s feeling placed me firmly into the position of the main character more than the original ever did. While in Spider-Man PS4 I returned to the gameplay simply because it was enjoyable, in Spider-Man 2 I didn’t just feel like Spider-Man, I felt his temptation, his contempt, his desires, as well as his guilt, the pain, and the thematic question at the heart of this story through gameplay and game feel. In other words, I returned to the gameplay for the entertainment factor, and its relation to the story. Thus, Spider-Man 2’s most impressive feature is how it links narrative and gameplay to have the game express its themes through interactivity. 

This is executed by the spectacular way the gameplay adapts to changes in narrative, specifically, how Spider-Man feels to control and how he acts over the course of the story. When Peter first obtains the black suit, the player notices an immediate difference. Punches hit harder, the symbiote’s tendrils vibrate the controller with immersive impact, and Peter’s abilities are amplified to the tenth degree. In other words, after obtaining the suit, Spider-Man feels drastically different from his initial form. He’s stronger, faster, better, and as the game continues and your skills increase, so too does the suit's damage output. By later boss fights, activating the Symbiote’s rage ability sends enemies to their “unconsciousness” (no way Peter isn’t killing these guys) in a few hits, each one landing with a screen shake and heighted with pained screams of the Spider’s victims. And truly, in some ways, up against this new Peter, the enemies are victims.

The narrative conflict stems from Peter’s inability to control the suit. The longer he stays adhered with it, the more powerful he becomes, as well as less emotional. Caring. Sympathetic. The only reason every hit feels so powerful with the symbiote is because it saps the empathy from Peter as a character. Emotions closed off from the alien’s rule, Spider-Man cares only about strength, performance, and victory. He keeps the suit because he wants to “be a better Spider-Man,” and I, for one, can agree. I mean, the punches feel amazing, the bad guys quite literally go down faster. In gameplay, Peter’s reasoning is manifested; the symbiote does make me a better Spider-Man, I’m proving it through gameplay at every chance encounter with a criminal. The symbiote’s abilities also make combat just more fun, plain and simple. I’m tempted to keep the suit because I tell myself I’m a better Spider-Man, but really, I love the way it feels. I’m efficient, and in some cases, even deadly. And that’s when I got scared. Scared just like Peter. 

I felt like Spider-Man.

I felt torn. Every increase in strength came with a loss of humanity. Peter stopped quipping. His voice developed a pained rasp. Conversations with companions I once listened to with warmth on my morning swings were replaced with awkward silences and subtle insults from the so-called “hero” at the heart of the game. Suddenly, I couldn’t look at Peter the same way, I couldn’t look at myself the same way. I specifically remember one random crime. I chased the get away car only for reinforcements to arrive. Taking them out was an efficient blast: tendrils flung guns back at their holders and punches sent them flying. I was having fun being a better Spider-Man due to game feel, but I also remember physically cringing at Peter’s lack of humanity. His brutal dialogue made me want to rip the suit off and go back to normal. I was missing the normal Peter, but I didn’t want to start missing the power of the suit. I felt Peter’s draw to the suit for how it felt to use, and the concern of Peter’s companions for how he was changing.  And that’s when I realized: the game made me feel its core conceit on a deeply visceral level.

The symbiote storyline has been adapted countless times, all with the same theme of power vs responsibility. Peter, no matter which iteration, will always lose himself in the power the symbiote brings, be forced to reckon with his behavior, and sacrifice the abilities granted with the suit for the sake of being a hero. Spider-Man 2 is no different, and as I hope to have demonstrated here, expresses that story by taking full advantage of its medium. By using game feel to express the narrative, by linking the two major components of the gaming medium, Spider-Man 2 is an example of what all games should strive to be: a truly interactive experience. Spider-Man 2 doesn’t grant gameplay alterations for fun, despite the fact that webbing bad guys and flinging them forty feet with an alien arm is incredibly entertaining. Instead, the game is locked in on its core themes, and uses its gameplay to express those themes within the audience while they navigate the game. As a player, I felt more connected to Peter and this world not because of how narrative and gameplay worked on an individual basis, but because the game did what only games can: blend the two through interactivity.