After years of hype and numerous teasers, Spider-Man 2 is finally here. For PS5 players looking to hop into the latest superhero open-world action game from Insomniac, we have some useful tips that should make saving NYC as either Miles Morales or Peter Parker just a bit easier.
And don’t worry, there aren’t any spoilers in here beyond what’s already been shown in trailers. So feel free to peruse our spoiler-free tips before playing Spider-Man 2 without fear of learning about some exciting plot twist or late-game reveal.
Pre-order Marvel’s Spider-Man 2: Amazon | Best Buy | GameStop
Spider-Man 2 starts with an optional video recapping the events of the first game and the Miles Morales-led spin-off. And it’s…fine! But I’d recommend reading our more detailed recap of what happened before Spider-Man 2, especially if you didn’t play any of the first game’s DLC episodes.
Once you finish up the intro and are free to explore NYC, you can also start upgrading your suit. And you should do that! We recommended improving your max health and damage output first. Fights in Spider-Man 2 tend to be bigger and last longer than in the first game and being able to take extra hits and punch goons harder will come in handy.
Swinging around New York is a blast, I get it, so why would you ever think about using your wings to glide? Well, because using the wings is also very fun! But more importantly, you can cover a lot of ground while gliding, especially if you take advantage of the various wind tunnels spread across the city. The wingsuit comes in especially handy as you’re crossing the East River or exploring the lower-rise areas of Brooklyn and Queens.
Spider-Man 2 has a lot of visual options to tinker with, including ray-tracing and various modes. Normally for console games, your choices are 60fps or 30fps. But if you own a 120hz TV, Insomniac has included a 40fps mode that delivers a smoother presentation than 30fps, but retains all the fancy visual details and graphical settings. I played a few hours in this mode and enjoyed it.
And if you are curious as to why 40fps works so well, but only on a 120hz display, check out this Digital Foundry write-up about Ratchet and Clank’s 40fps mode for all the details.
Look, it’s fun to swing (and glide!) around NYC. I get it. And you might be tempted to start knocking out all the side stuff or taking down random criminals across the city right from the start. Instead, we suggest focusing on the main campaign for a bit to unlock more abilities, side content, and collectibles.
Lots of repeating icons throughout the map—like Sandman’s crystals and the Forgotten Flame cult break-ins—slowly build toward a narrative conclusion as you complete them. These are far more satisfying if you haven’t already completed the main story.
Catching Kraven’s drones and completing all of his hideouts are especially worth completing mid-game because they help build out his character’s backstory and motivations in more interesting ways.
The Slingshot Launch is an exhilarating new way to get some momentum quickly and cover large distances. Hold L2+X anywhere to start the slingshot move and then release to go flying into the sky. While you can do this practically anywhere, we recommend slingin’ off the top of a tall building for maximum effectiveness.
It’s very simple. ABC: always be cobwebbing. Your web shooters can slow enemies down, temporarily disarm them, or stick them to walls. Don’t forget to keep spamming the R1 button in-between punching and web-swinging to get the most out of your web shooters.
The Web Grabber is one of the best tools in the game. It ensnares groups of enemies and pulls them into a big pile, which is incredibly handy for crowd control and setting up combos. It can be upgraded to grab objects and big baddies, too, clearing whole waves of enemies in a cinch.
Dotted across the Big Apple are blue and yellow boxes that contain resources you’ll need to upgrade gadgets, suit tech and craft new costumes. Why are these boxes here? The game explains that. But regardless, if you compulsively collected every orb in Crackdown, this will feel very similar in a good way. To help locate these crates, listen for pinging and keep an eye out for bright blue or yellow lights on top of buildings or in alleyways.
While you can usually switch between the two heroes whenever you want, there are portions of the game where this isn’t possible. Likewise, most missions and sidequests require you to use a specific Spider-Man.
So don’t lump all your points into one. Try to upgrade both of them, as well as the shared skills, so neither Spidey is lacking. This becomes very important later on in the game when you’ll be forced to rely on one Spider-Man for large chunks of time.
It might seem sacrilegious in an open-world Spider-Man game to fast travel, but this time around it’s so snappy and useful that you should save yourself some time and zip across the city. You will need to unlock fast travel in each area of the map before you can use it in that neighborhood, but once you do, take advantage of the power of the PS5 and instantly teleport anywhere you want.
In Spider-Man: Miles Morales, players meet Miles’ uncle—who is also the supervillain known as the Prowler. By the end of that game, Uncle Aaron has realized the error of his ways (after his nephew beat his ass) and turns himself in to the authorities.
If you want to see what happens next, you need to complete all the Prowler Stash puzzles in NYC. Plus, you get some nice rare tech resources to upgrade your suit and gadgets.
In downtown Brooklyn, near Coney Island, is a large baseball stadium. Zip over there and run the bases as either Miles or Peter for some fun dialogue and an easy-to-grab trophy.
A new feature in Spider-Man 2 is the ability to parry attacks. Sure, you can ignore this mechanic at first, as early on the game throws enemies at you who don’t hit too hard and can be taken out quickly. But later on, you’ll need to parry to survive intense boss fights and bigger combat encounters.
So instead of fumbling in the later parts as you try to master parrying, practice right away on weaker enemies and get the timing down.
The game can start to get unbalanced as you begin unlocking more powers and accumulating upgrades, especially in the second half. If you’re clearing out most of the side missions before finishing the game, it’s not a bad idea to push the difficulty up to the hardest setting to keep things interesting. It’ll help to keep you from button-mashing your way to the end.
Spider-Man 2’s accessibility options in the gameplay settings let you auto-refill your health when it hits zero and completely bypass certain puzzles in the game if they just aren’t clicking for you. If you get stuck, use them. The game’s more fun that way.
Some boss fights can feature multiple stages and take quite a long time to finish. One trick that can help is if you purposely die after reaching a checkpoint in a fight. This will fill your health without using Focus bars and reset traps in the boss fight arena, which is very useful when fighting certain tougher enemies.
With the new wingsuit, you can jump off New York’s tallest skyscrapers and glide for miles. Once you’ve unlocked fast travel for various parts of the city, you can immediately hop over to them, climb up, and take off to cover lots of ground quickly while looking for collectibles like Spider-Bots.
Oscorp Tower on the Upper West Side, the Avengers Tower in Midtown, and Freedom Tower in the Financial District are the best ones.
Pre-order Marvel’s Spider-Man 2: Amazon | Best Buy | GameStop
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