After the lengthy and explosive gameplay reveal of Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 that capped off last week’s PlayStation Showcase, we were left with some burning questions about Insomniac’s blockbuster sequel. Luckily, we’ve been able to chat briefly with Ryan Smith, the Game Director working on Spider-Man 2, as well as Creative Director, Brian Intihar, recently and put our questions to them.
One of these is something fans are sure to want to know – with the trailer showing off some new locations for the game outside of the original Manhattan area available in the first game, just how big will the game be in comparison? The answer is it’s looking to be nearly double the area of Marvel’s Spider-Man’s map, and it will also be a lot more diverse in the kinds of gameplay areas and opportunities it offers.
Take a look at what the two developers had to say:
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 in 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 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.
You can read the full interview here to find out more about Spider-Man 2’s dual protagonists, expanded game world, new-gen features, exciting new abilities, villains and other exciting bits.
Marvel’s Spider-Man is launching later this year exclusively on PS5.
