After the lengthy and explosive gameplay reveal of Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 that capped off last week’s PlayStation Showcase, one of the big questions around Insomniac’s sequel has been how its dual-protagonist systems work. In the gameplay demo we see control switch between Peter and Miles at set points, with the player prompted to change, but to what extent will we be able to swap which Spider-Man we’re driving during the rest of the game?
Luckily we recently had the opportunity to speak to Ryan Smith, the Game Director working on Spider-Man 2, as well as Creative Director, Brian Intihar, who were able to clarify that looming question for us.
Can You Freely Switch Characters In Marvel’s Spider-Man 2?
As we’d hoped, the studio was able to confirm that yes, players will be able to switch freely between Peter and Miles in the game’s open world. While the gameplay trailer showed us examples of story and mission points where Insomniac wants players to see things from a set perspective, outside of these there will be a lot more freedom to tackle challenges with whichever hero players want to embody or feel is better suited to the task at hand.
“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,” explained Brian Intihar.
“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.”
The Creative Director also revealed that there will be certain content out in the game’s world that is designed specifically for either Peter or Miles, which should give players good incentive to explore the expanded New York map with both characters and see things through both lenses, but it’s good to know that players will have the opportunity to tackle all of that at their own pace.
Later on in our discussion, Ryan Smith also spoke to making switching back and forth between Peter and Miles feel less jarring by giving them a shared skill tree. They’ll each still have a unique tree as well, so that who you choose to play as in certain moments will still have a tangible impact based on what sort of playstyle you’ve built out for them.
“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.”
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.
