Following the lengthy and explosive gameplay reveal of Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 that capped off last week’s PlayStation Showcase, we were able to chat to two of the creative leads behind Insomniac Games’ upcoming PlayStation 5 exclusive sequel to dive a little deeper into what we saw and how the studio is pushing the Spider-Man video game fantasy even further than before.
Read on to see what Game Director, Ryan Smith, and Creative Director, Brian Intihar, had to say about Spider-Man 2’s dual protagonists, expanded game world, new-gen features, exciting new abilities, villains and more.
This is Spider Man’s first outing exclusively on PS5, so how are you using that power to push things forward beyond obviously things such as fast-loading.
Ryan Smith (Game Director): Number one thing for us on the gameplay side is the speed of traversal that we’re able to achieve right now. It of course leverages that loading, but it’s a lot more seamless for the player, so that you can go much faster, and then what we could do on our side was build a lot of mechanics, whether it be our core swinging experience that we always have, or the web wings and the wind tunnels that go with them, that allow us to build up that speed, maintain and push that speed for the player.
So it’s a lot of fun just to weave those things together. Also, I think in the gameplay reveal, we showed the super slingshots that are in the world that really propel you very quickly just to start traversal and then you can keep it going from there. So I think that’s the number one sort of Spider-Man-traversal way that the PS5 SSD and loading capabilities come across with flair.
Brian Intihar (Creative Director): One is the the ability to switch between the heroes in the open world. You saw that in the story mission that we created, where in that particular instance, we tell you to switch because Pete’s in Queens and Miles is in Manhattan, but those are kind of main story and predetermined.
In the open world, you’ll have more flexibility to switch between the two heroes. We’ll have content made for Peter, content made for Miles, content that either one can play and with a simple quick button switch you can take control and go around the world. So just that having that flexibility to really capitalise on the idea of having two heroes and then I would just say like, in the gameplay reveal was a good example of just the breadth and scope of how big these action moments can get where it’s not just contained to one arena. It takes place across multiple city blocks, inside/outside, cool, quick transitions. So that gameplay example was a good example of what you can expect across the game.
So obviously there will be story moments where you’re switching between Peter and Miles, but you will have free switching at certain points throughout the game?
Brian Intihar (Creative Director): In the main story mission, we basically are here to tell you who you are. We’ll have some missions that are Peter, some Miles, some that are they are together and then we kind of tell you when based on the story, it’s kind of crafted around what we want to accomplish with the story and the mission. But in the open world, we will basically give you the ability to switch between the characters so that you can do, whether it’s a specific piece of content that one character can interact with, or you may decide this particular activity where you think, how rad to do it with Miles and Peter and vice versa. You have that flexibility and it really changes up the feel of the previous two games by having that flexibility.
Co-op was something that was thrown around a lot before this particular reveal. I can’t remember if maybe something teased it initially or why people got this idea. You came out before the gameplay drop and confirmed it was a single-player experience. Is co-op something that was ever toyed with?
Brian Intihar (Creative Director): Yeah, in the the announce trailer, the blog post said it was a single-player game, but it was always the goal was to have a single-player adventure featuring two playable spider heroes.
We’ve seen at least part of game that takes place in Queens, but I’d love to hear a little bit more about how the game’s map has been expanded upon for the new game, and what the team sat down and thought about in evolving that map beyond the last two games?
Ryan Smith (Game Director): So we’ve added Brooklyn and Queens, so that’s two huge new boroughs that you can explore. I think the map is nearly double the size, so that’s really exciting. A lot of what we did, in terms of adding those spaces, is think about what makes those spaces recognisable, whether it’s residential areas of Queens, like you saw on the gameplay trailer, or views and vistas that you would know from your imagination of what New York and Brooklyn should be like, and make sure that those are representative in-game. It’s very similar to how we crafted the Manhattan Island. And then I think from a gameplay standpoint, traversal feels a bit different. Having the web wings makes that a more interesting experience, because you’ve got an option for when the buildings are lower, you can swing low if you want to, but you’ve got to get this gliding option. And I think crossing the river is one of the coolest things. If you spent a lot of time in Marvel’s Spider Man, or Miles Morales, in Manhattan, and then suddenly you can go across the river, I think it’s really, really fun. It’s really fun way to use the web wings and it sort of just feels like it opens up.
Brian Intihar (Creative Director): If you look at that gameplay reveal, it starts out in a neighbourhood backyard. We didn’t have anything like that in the previous game. That’s very different in terms of how it feels. Obviously, we have a whole section that’s on the river and it’s very different. I would say, yes, we are in New York City, but the benefits of having now Queens and Brooklyn in some other areas, allows us to kind of create missions and spaces that maybe are both different and unexpected throughout the experience.
One thing that we’ve seen other PlayStation titles like God Of War do is make side content matter and almost as important as the core stuff. Has there been any effort to expand what is happening in Spider-Man 2 outside of those core story moments?
Brian Intihar (Creative Director): Yeah, we’re really not getting into what the open world is at this moment and kind of focusing on the gameplay reveal. But yeah, obviously we want to put time and attention to making sure that all of our content hits a certain quality bar and has a strong narrative and is only enhancing the experience of being Peter and Miles.
The other major change that we saw in the reveal trailer is the black Spidey suit. I’d love to hear about how this plays into the overall game and how you ended up bringing that into this world in an Insomniac way.
Ryan Smith (Game Director): From a gameplay side, the symbiote for us really is about that power and that transformation element that we showed in the gameplay reveal. So it’s about adding those symbiote abilities that enable you to target one enemy and like stick it to the wall basically, or lift multiple people up in the air and continue your basic air combat and shift gears from the ground to the air with a really powerful move that has the symbiote tentacles all around it. It’s all about bringing those different ways of expressing a newfound power to the Spider-Man gameplay that we know and building off of that sort of acrobatic improvisation that we have at the core of our combat
Brian Intihar (Creative Director): And then on the narrative side is just really taking advantage of the symbiote, which is such a such a requested thing in terms of Marvel lore and Spider-Man fans, just doing it not only justice as Ryan said on the gameplay side but making sure that how we introduce it and utilise it in the story really is not only what fans are hoping for but also has some elements of surprise. And then you saw some of that tease in the gameplay reveal about how it’s impacting Peter and, you know, how it’s gonna impact the people around him.
And on Miles side, we might have seen one or two new abilities, but I assume he has some new things to work with as well?
Ryan Smith (Game Director): We showed the chain lightning and the thunderbust where the power is a little bit more volatile. We’re not showing more right now, but he has a full skill tree where you can upgrade those powers, and so does Peter, actually. They have their individual skill trees and then a shared skill tree, so that we make sure when you’re playing, you feel comfortable when we switch in a mission or if you switch in the open world, but you still have that flexibility and expressiveness for, like Ryan said, maybe choosing what you want to do in the open world because it best reflects your upgrades that you’ve got.
Brian Intihar (Creative Director): The other thing is there’s a narrative design tie with the symbiote, the same thing with Miles. Yeah, obviously they’re part of a bigger story but they also have both their individual journeys they go on and how they evolve and how they come to be will be part of Miles’ story.
I’d love to hear a little bit about the villains. Coming off No Way Home, which had every Spider-Man villain imaginable, how much time is put into crafting this experience and what is going to be used at which moment knowing there might be more Spider-Man games in the future?
Brian Intihar (Creative Director): Well, we started working on this game after Spider-Man shipped and we’re still working on villains as of today so we’ve spent a lot of time working on them for sure. I think the journey starts with just talking to the team and what characters they’re excited about not only from a gameplay standpoint and a design challenge, but also how’s it gonna play a role in the narrative so absolutely looking at the announce trailer we mentioned and we finally confirmed Kraven is in the game, you saw Lizard, so I think it was about what’s going to allow us to create really awesome big spectacle moments, boss fights with our villains, but also we always talk about the villains also having a great story, and that they’re the heroes of their own story and I think that’s something we try to make sure that we’re not just throwing someone in just for the sake of being a cool character. Are we paying it off narratively, and giving them their story and their own time in the spotlight.
You touched on the Lizard set piece which made up quite a big chunk of the gameplay demo. Is there that goal to make things bigger and better in these big villain boss fights. I mean we’ve seen some cool stuff in the last two games, but this did seem beyond that?
Brian Intihar (Creative Director): Yeah, I think that’s a good kind of microcosm of the scale and scope that we’re going forward with a good amount of these story missions. And even some of our other content in the game, we want to make sure that we’re fulfilling that Marvel fantasy of those big set pieces, while at the same time also delivering that heartfelt, humour-filled narrative. When we say that, it’s telling you the story of the person behind the mask as much as the person in it, we want to make sure we show both sides of the character. I think that’s something we really push ourselves in making to see if we can really push the scale and the spectacle as much as possible. Obviously, making sure that we have all those other elements that make for a fun Spider-Man experience.
Were there certain challenges involved with having two Spider-Mans and then a cast of villains that we were just talking about? At any point did you think hang on, is this too big of a task?
Brian Intihar (Creative Director): Every single day, especially on the story side, it’s extremely challenging because you’re like, okay, well, we have to have a story for the big game, for just the overall world and then we have to also the same time come up with what Peter’s story is, what Miles’ stories are, and how do they intersect? What’s their hero story, what’s their superhero story? What’s their outside of the suit story? How are we juggling that with where you are with the symbiote and Kraven? I haven’t even mentioned how that all ties into the gameplay design, mission design and skill trees and all that stuff. So yeah, it’s pretty tough, but it’s fun when you play it.
Ryan Smith (Game Director): It’s also a big opportunity. The Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales game was really great, and it’s really great to be able to carry that forward, as well as all of our story characters from the original Spider-Man game, so it’s really cool to be able to do that.
For the real hardcore Spider Man fans there any comics that were used as sort of points of reference or inspiration that come to mind for the game?
Brian Intihar (Creative Director): Any story that, for example, when it comes to Kraven, and his Last Hunt, Grim Hunt, and any of those kind of things. Not to recreate them word-for-word, point by point but just understanding the psychology of the character especially someone like Kraven, who is such a psychological kind of threat, and obviously, somewhat different from whatever other villains that we’ve featured so far. And then obviously, with that we started right at the very beginning with the stories of the symbiote and how that all took place, but all the way up recently to Donny Cates and Ryan Stegman and their work on the newer Venom books, definitely stuff that we looked at. So it’s kind of across the board. And obviously just keeping up with what they’re doing with Peter and Miles in the comics or other mediums.
Are you able to talk about how soon after Miles Morales the game takes place?
Brian Intihar (Creative Director): It’s about 10 months after the events of Miles Morales, so Miles has kind of gone through his journey to understand what kind of Spider-Man he wants to be and him and Peter are a great team. And that’s kind of where we kick things off at the beginning of this game.
Not to end on a sombre note, but there was some commentary following the reveal about silly things like the water, with people dubbing it Puddlegate 2.0, but I just wanted to ask if this is something the team read and look into, or kind of just stick to your path?
Brian Intihar (Creative Director): We are always looking at all the feedback and we’re probably our harshest critics, right? I think that we’re always gonna look to improve the game I think when you see comments like that it comes from a place of fans being passionate and they just want the best experience possible. But you know, we’re going to continue to work on the game till our Project Director tells us to stop working on it. So imagine what you see today will only get better. Of course, we wouldn’t be doing our jobs if we weren’t listening to our fans. And we’re gonna do the best job we can to ship the game at the highest quality and the best ability we can just like any other Insomniac game.
Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 is due to launch exclusively on PlayStation 5 later this year.
