Review: 'Spider-Man & # 39; (PS4), the best superhero game since 'Batman' | Entertainment

Like the games "Arkham", "Spider-Man" bases his fight on the binary rhythm of the offensive and the defense. From a perfect touch, he invites the latter with a spider icon around the page header. As the game continues and the opposition moves from core thugs to organized criminals, and beyond, Spidey's abilities flourish. And Insomniac organizes this opposition to test your mastery of these abilities with firmness, but equitably: a shield-bearer requiring a specific pawn here, a dodging and web-killer there. Rare enemies with weapons require even narrower attack plans. You do not need to master the eight gadgets and the 27 powers of the costume, but get complacent brewing buttons and get rid of city skyline more often than shit.

Spider-Man can also instantly knock out enemies by building a special gauge with each uninterrupted shot. But, in a smart design decision by Insomniac, the gauge can also be used to heal it. So staying healthy can mean becoming aggressive in the face of danger, much like "Bloodborne". Conversely, ending enemies can mean staying close to death. This strategic dilemma creates tension in Spidey's battles that makes them even more exciting. Every correct movement you string to stay afloat – throws thrown at the canvas at the mouths of the sewer – aggravates the sensation.

Spider-Man is less vulnerable by stealthily hiding his enemies in the light of lampposts and exposed beams. Websites can also distract them, and Insomniac encourages this tactic by allowing you to monitor when you are isolated enough not to hit it and alert others. Nevertheless, aside from the snipers whose crossfire can kill him in seconds, the human handbags of "Spider-Man" hardly encourage him to stay hidden. The frantic pace and the more complete challenge of the fight will make you jump into the fray and start beating. The fact that enemies can not see further than 20 feet does not help.

The most enjoyable part of the game's stealth is to maneuver Spider-Man into the grounding position at a superhuman speed. In fact, the seamless satisfaction of swaying in Manhattan may be the most impressive performance of Insomniac in the game. Traversal consists of only four inputs – swing, compress, blow and dodge – but they represent more than just the sum of their simple parts thanks to an irreproachable physics and to the work of camera. Whether it's landing a 1,000-foot drop or turning hairpin in Broadway, Spidey's control lets you gracefully cross the tightrope between intuitive and involved.

His Manhattan can be condensed for reasons of scale, passing for example from 111th to 117th Street. But puddles of water in its torrid alleys to seagulls and planes crisscrossing its autumn sky at sunset, "Spider-Man" really looks like the city of its hero. And as much as we can call New York another character in the story, it comes alive. It's on Fifth Avenue that are the most alive and perceptible pedestrians perching at the top of the Empire State Building, while crawling on the walls of the skyscrapers of the city. Upper East Side that sway in front of them at 100 km / h.

But in "Spider-Man", this real-world architecture shares a space with the Avengers Tower and other Marvel landmarks. And Insomniac will populate this space with a fairly standard range of open world activities that help Spider-Man progress and unlock his costumes and gadgets. One of them is to photograph these landmarks, which is fun to do when it is flying in slow motion. A solid selection of side missions focuses more on Spidey mythology. And random street crimes, surveillance towers that defogger the map and a recurring gag order with his New York police buddy confirm that, yes, the crawling robot is somehow a cop.

Later in the game, a series of missions tests your prowess in combat, stealth and webcasting. They lead to an optional fight against the boss who is testing this feat. But the real prize lies in the punctual missions themselves: the scoring requires the kind of immaculate game that reveals how rewarding the game can be, that it's all about sneaking a dozen of them. " Enemies without scratching or pursuing a zigzag drone for several blocks without Spider -The feet of the man touch the ground. They are just hard enough to take a few tries, but you never doubt to be able to succeed. So when you do it, you're in a hurry.

Another series of missions, however, testifies to the talent of the studio for the hero – and the promise of the sequel to the game installs and saves many bad guys. In Oscorp research stations scattered throughout Manhattan, Spidey performs tasks for his friend Harry that neutralize threats such as smog and data breaches. Many of them introduce new difficult wrinkles into the web-slinging, like a suit with a concealment technology that needs to be activated just a few feet from drones, Harry asks you to get rid of them. Another imitates the flashes of "The Legend of Zelda: Breath of Nature".

But these mechanisms never reappear. The fact that Insomniac can develop such parallel activities and eliminate them after a single use is simply incredible. Of course, these ideas could have been reused for third-party boss fights, which are disappointing in their simplicity. Whatever the case may be, the seemingly simulated ability of the studio to simulate being Spider-Man says that it is in good hands.