Everything You Need to Know About Spider Man: Miles Morales
From the story to the visuals to the reviews, here's what you should know before playing the latest installment in Miles Morales' story
Into the Spider-Verse may be one of the most popular Spider-Man movies ever released. This 2018 animated iteration of Spider-man left viewers and gamers calling for more of latest Webslinger Miles Morales. While a video game centered around Peter Parker (Marvel's Spider-Man) was released in September of 2018, Spider-Man enthusiasts were clamoring for the story to be continued. And fans of Morales didn't have to wait long for a new game to be released centered around the "Kid Arachnid." At the beginning of the PlayStation 5 reveal event, Spider-Man: Miles Morales was announced as a launch title for the PS5. The comments for the game early on after its announcement were positive; the trailer looked promising and had great music that accentuated some impressive fight mechanics. Five months later, Spider-Man: Miles Morales was released along with the PS5- and has definitely lived up to gamers' expectations.
Since Spider-Man was made exclusively to show off the power of the PS5, lots of hours went into making the game look as next-gen as possible. Spider-Man was made with "raytracing," which greatly improves the quality of games visually. Miles Morales looks just as good as Marvel's Spider-Man and the raytracing just adds to the visual effect of the game. Many reviews of the game start off with the pure impressiveness of the graphics and the stunning visuals. Attention to detail in Spider-Man: Miles Morales never wavers, and the animators focus on showing off Miles' relatively new fighting style in his various suits. The suit from Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse is made carefully and accurately in the style of the film. It’s animated purposefully so that he appears to skip some frames and looks to be out of sync with the rest of the world, matching artistic themes from the movie. Another part of flexing the PS5 was decreasing the loading screens in games. Many reviews mention the relatively fast loading screens throughout the game in comparison to previous titles.
So from a technical standpoint this game is highly detailed, but what about from a gameplay and story standpoint?
Without going too in-depth concerning the story, the game begins with the option to watch a short recap of the first game (Marvel's Spider-Man) to bring you up to speed on Miles' origins. At this point onward the game feels like a sequel, building off of the first game. The game's main conflict centers around Miles' attempts to gain support for New York by fulfilling requests from random New Yorkers on a smartphone app, as well as his mission to halt the escalating conflict between Roxxon Energy Corporation and a gang called the Underground. The Roxxon corporation is buying up bits of Harlem to make room for reactors that will run on a brand-new energy source. The Underground is a gang that uses advanced weapons to destroy the Roxxon and their reactors and are led by the main villain of the game, “The Tinkerer.” After the tutorial, the game throws you directly into the action, picking up where Marvel's Spider-Man left off. It instantly feels like you're back to playing the 2018 game when you immediately have to capture an enemy named Rhino after he breaks from a police convoy. But from visuals to fight mechanics, it's clear that the game has progressed. Now this is where we look into the gameplay of Spider-Man: Miles Morales; as stated earlier, it feels similar to Marvel's Spider-Man, but has some big differences.
Like in Marvel's Spider-Man, there are lots of suit skills that can change how you play the game. However, there are some brand-new additions to the game’s combat. For instance, Miles’ bioelectricity, after charging a meter in combat, can unleash temporarily paralyzing bursts of electricity. "Venom Attacks" (no relation to the popular character Venom) focus on one enemy, while other attacks focus on crowd control, allowing you to get an air combo while warding off enemies. Mixing these special abilities in with basics attacks adds style and variety to fights. There is also a "cloak" ability that grants the player invisibility for a short period, which can help you in losing situations or when making stealth attacks.
With what we’ve seen from Spider-Man: Miles Morales, how have people received it and should you get it?
On Metacritic, Spider-Man: Miles Morales earned a metascore of 84 and a user score of 7.5, which signifies a fairy positive reception. Many reviewers focused on the game's effectiveness in building off of the foundation of Marvel's Spider-Man. However, there were also some negative reviews, with many focusing on the relatively meager length of the game (about 6-10 hours). Overall, the game’s visual fidelity and performance matched and even surpassed the previous Spider-Man title. The game brought in new ideas while also keeping true to the award-winning Marvel's Spider-Man, leaving gamers satisfied. Find Spider-Man: Miles Morales on the PlayStation Store for $50.
This is Spartacus’ first year on The Edge staff. He spends most of his time playing baseball in Palm Bay and listening to music. This year in journalism, he hopes to have fun while writing stories in class.