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Underneath the brisk and agile action-adventure video game “Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales” – essentially a showcase of what the new PlayStation 5 can do – there’s the nagging feeling that innocence will soon be shattered.
The game is set in New York City before 2020, but it includes moments of cultural and societal tensions that many have long experienced but have manifested this year.
Early on, we see a privatized military force turning its guns on the teenage hero of Puerto Rican and African American descent, hands raised as viewers turn on their smartphone cameras. It’s a spooky scene, reminiscent of a number of events that led up to the nationwide Black Lives Matter protests this year. Tragedy, in this case, is only avoided due to Miles’ superhero abilities. Good fortune and good luck save what is interpreted as a misunderstanding.
Later, we watch Morales’ mom, who is currently campaigning politically, talk about the demise of mom-pop stores in Harlem, which is about to be gentrified by corporate interests. At that same political rally, we hear about a disease that may soon be rampant in the city: “No one will care about a few sick people. It’s the cost of doing business.”
Developed by Insomniac Games of Burbank exclusively for the next-gen PlayStation 5 and PS4, “Spider-Man: Miles Morales” captures a city that is racing toward an obsession with American individualism. Morales, voiced with earnestness and an abundance of positive energy by Nadji Jeter, struggles not only against comedic villains and perverse energy corporations, but against existential threats to his community, namely an omnipresent selfishness that drives more and more more to a lack of institutional belief.
Morales is shown at the start of the game, for example, idolizing his late father, a New York City cop, but slowly learns that calling has created divisions in his family. We dwell on Morales’ face for a second, but the full ramifications are not what Morales – or the game – seems ready to face. Where the game excels, however, is in its character-building, Harlem-focused missions who, while not a requirement to complete the main story, work hard to capture the soul of a community, one lost bodega cat at a time.
When you rush to play a game before its release – “Miles Morales” launches today with the PS5 – there is a tendency to avoid detours and instead focus on the core narrative and just finish the game. But in “Miles Morales”, I chose to linger and explore the city instead, partly because crossing New York like an acrobat is a joy, but also because there are stories to be discovered. in the narrative design of the game.
Whether it’s specific tasks, like talking to a fancier or crawling among buildings that capture a changing city – the welcoming brick houses where people hang out on the sidewalks versus the cool, exclusive towers with glass windows where people ignore Spider-Man on fancy rooftops – “Miles Morales” gives us space to think about what kind of community we want to build.
While Insomniac’s 2018 Peter Parker-centric game “Spider-Man” played on the character’s collaboration and connection with members of the NYPD, at times feeling like old-fashioned and now outdated pop culture. where cops are simply heroes, “Miles Morales” walks away from a strong connection with the police. This has already opened the game up to critics for directly addressing the issues of 2020 as well as a key piece of the game that precedes “Mile Morales”. But the omission is itself a kind of statement.
The game’s creative director, Brian Horton, recognizes the lines of the game, but he cites the in-game app that connects Morales to what is happening in Harlem and beyond. By creating a reason for residents to ask Spider-Man directly for help, it allows the game to bypass things like police scanners, and also implicitly involves who the people of New York City actually trust.
“We felt it was important to have a direct connection with the people of the city,” says Horton. “What’s the direct conduit for people to reach out to a hero and say, ‘Hey, I can use your help. “This in turn gives Miles the opportunity to know and meet these people and fall in love. We really believe that this way of reporting to citizens, and that people get involved in their community to help protect, is the everyday hero story we wanted to tell. “
There are clues that not everyone is a fan of Morales’ Spider-Man. In one scene, he’s deflated to have left a mural, and for as many people who want a selfie with him, there are many more New Yorkers who see Morales as the “other” Spider-Man (Parker is present in the game, but on vacation). There are also looks at a bigger struggle, like Black Lives Matter art or a homeless center ignored by government and corporate interests. While the race of Morales was one topic the game couldn’t ignore, there has certainly been some talk about how to present it.
“If you know the history of superhero publishing, there is always the moment when black heroes have to face racism or resolve racism,” says writer Evan Narcisse, a longtime journalist specializing in comics and games. Narcissus, who also wrote for Marvel’s “Black Panther” line, was a narrative consultant on “Miles Morales”.
“It can be a big, broad metaphor, like the Sons of the Serpent in Marvel Comics, or it can be something more gestural or more ambient,” says Narcissus. “There’s a range of approaches here, and we’ve tried to modulate in a way that feels true to the character. Miles is a young man who is learning to navigate his way through the world. He will not have all the answers.
I also don’t have all the answers on where Morales can go in what will certainly be future video game installments. With every step outside of Harlem, Morales not only faces a more mixed and confused world, but he continues to meet people who contradict some of his own ideals and beliefs. The game, at the end of the day, is upbeat, a celebration of a charismatic hero who loves music and who really wants to embrace all that is good in the city he lives in.
It might also be the first superhero game where I felt nervous for the protagonist to mature. “Miles Morales” is ultimately a game about preservation, but it is clear that the more he ventures into this pre-pandemic world, the greater the risk that he will uninvite it.
“There are physical lines of dialogue where the non-player characters respond to Miles. It’s not new to video games, but we’ve tried to make it more specific. There’s a lot of Spanish,” says Narcissus. “There is doubt, there is hope, there is pride and fear, and Miles hears it all as he swings around town.
“Implicit in Miles,” Narcissus continues, “is that he knows he’s different, culturally and racially. And if he’s wrong, he makes a whole bunch of people look bad. responsibility that is baked into Spider-Man and breeds it. “
This story originally appeared in the Los Angeles Times.
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