Marvel’s Spider-Man: Remastered

Marvel's Spider-Man is a 2018 action-adventure game developed by Insomniac Games and published by Sony Interactive Entertainment. Based on the Marvel Comics character Spider-Man, it tells an original narrative that is inspired by the long-running comic book mythology, while also drawing from various adaptations in other media. In the main story, the super-human crime lord Mister Negative orchestrates a plot to seize control of New York City's criminal underworld. When Mister Negative threatens to release a deadly virus, Spider-Man must confront him and protect the city while dealing with the personal problems of his civilian persona, Peter Parker.

Gameplay is presented from the third-person perspective with a primary focus on Spider-Man's traversal and combat abilities. Spider-Man can freely move around New York City, interacting with characters, undertaking missions, and unlocking new gadgets and suits by progressing through the main story or completing tasks. Outside the story, the player is able to complete side missions to unlock additional content and collectible items. Combat focuses on chaining attacks together and using the environment and webs to incapacitate numerous foes while avoiding damage.

Development of Marvel's Spider-Man, the first licensed game by Insomniac in its then-22-year history, began in 2014 and took approximately four years. Insomniac was given the choice of using any character from Marvel's catalog to work on; Spider-Man was chosen both for his appeal to the employees and the similarities in traversal gameplay to their previous game Sunset Overdrive (2014). The game design took inspiration from the history of Spider-Man across all media but Marvel Comics and Insomniac wanted to tell an original story that was not linked to an existing property, creating a unique universe (known as Earth-1048) that has since appeared in novels, merchandise, and comics.

Marvel's Spider-Man was released for the PlayStation 4 on September 7, 2018, being praised for its narrative, characterization, combat, and web-swinging traversal mechanics. It received a number of accolades including being named as one of the best superhero games ever made. It became one of the fastest-selling games of the year and the best-selling PlayStation 4 game of all time. The game's success launched a new franchise for Insomniac and Sony which has since been accompanied by other games and tie-ins in other media. The game was followed by an expansion, The City That Never Sleeps, in late 2018. In November 2020, a remastered version of Marvel's Spider-Man was released for the PlayStation 5 in November 2020 alongside Marvel's Spider-Man: Miles Morales, a spin-off and continuation focused on Spider-Man's protégé Miles Morales. A sequel, Marvel's Spider-Man 2, was released in October 2023 for the PlayStation 5.

Gameplay

Marvel's Spider-Man is an open-world action-adventure game set in the borough of Manhattan in a fictionalized version of modern-day New York City. It is presented from a third-person perspective showing the playable character and allowing the camera to be rotated freely around them. The primary playable character is the superhero Spider-Man, who can navigate the world by jumping, using his web shooters to fire webs that allow him to swing between buildings, running along walls and automatically vaulting over obstacles. The player can precisely aim webs to pull himself towards specific points. Physical objects are required to attach webs to for swinging, and momentum and speed of the swing can be controlled by releasing the web at specific points to gain height or move more quickly. The game features an optional fast travel system that uses the New York City Subway system.

Combat is enacted using three buttons; one for dodging, one for physical strikes, and one for web-based attacks. Webbing can be used to incapacitate enemies and stick them to nearby objects, immediately removing them from battle. Enemies who are knocked from great heights are automatically stuck to a nearby surface in a web-cocoon, preventing death. Spider-Man can also use the environment to fight, jumping off walls and throwing objects like manhole covers, grenades and webbing-restrained enemies.

Successful and consecutive attacks build "Focus", which can be partially used to heal Spider-Man, while full Focus allows special finishing attacks to take down an enemy instantly. Spider-Man possesses "spider-sense", which is shown as a white icon around the character's head, indicating an incoming attack that can be dodged. A precise dodge performed just before the attack hits allows Spider-Man to retaliate with webbing against the enemy. Some enemies must be overcome using different approaches. Melee-weapon-wielding enemies must be knocked into the air and shielded enemies must be attacked from behind. Enemies armed with whips will drag Spider-Man out of the air and require a counterattack to fight effectively. Other types of enemy include heavily armored agents who can take more damage, brutes, and jetpack-wearing enemies who remain airborne.

Spider-Man has access to a variety of gadgets that can be deployed in combat; these include electric webbing, concussive blasts, and impact webbing that launches enemies backwards and can stick them to a nearby surface. Gadgets are unlocked by progressing through the game and can be accessed from a radial menu. Spider-Man has several unlockable suits that are based on existing versions of the character in media; there are also original suits created for the game. Many of these offer special abilities that can aid in combat, such as increasing Focus gain, reducing gravity, enhancing stealth, making the player invulnerable, and unleashing an electromagnetic pulse to disable enemy weapons. Once unlocked, suits and powers can be freely combined. Stealth combat involves Spider-Man moving around raised locations using gadgets or webbing to neutralize isolated enemies. Leveling up allows the player to unlock skills from three different specialties, focusing on ground combat, aerial combat, and traversal.

Suits, suit mods, gadgets, and their associated upgrades are purchased with resources called Tokens, which are awarded for completion of specific tasks. Each unlockable item requires different quantities of each Token type: Challenge Tokens for completing Taskmaster's time-and-skill based combat, stealth, and traversal missions; Backpack Tokens for locating Spider-Man's old backpacks containing mementos from his past; Research Tokens for completing research station missions, science minigames, and the collection of pigeons; Crime Tokens for stopping ambient crimes; Base Tokens for clearing out enemy bases; and Landmark Tokens for taking pictures of specific locations around the city. There are also minigames that are rewarded with experience points and research tokens including Circuit Puzzles that require the arrangement of an electric grid and Pattern Puzzles that require the recreation of a specific pattern using composite parts. Radio towers in different areas can be unscrambled, highlighting collectable objects, missions, and active crimes.

Some sections of the game are played as Spider-Man's alter-ego Peter Parker, his friend Mary Jane Watson, and ally Miles Morales. Peter's sections often involve puzzle-solving, while Mary Jane's and Miles' segments focus on the use of stealth to avoid enemies. The game originally featured three difficulty levels; Friendly (easy), Amazing (normal), and Spectacular (hard). A post-release update added a fourth "Ultimate" difficulty that increases enemy damage and health while decreasing Spider-Man's, and a "New Game Plus" option that allows the player to start a new game using all of the suits, powers, gadgets, and suit mods unlocked in a previous playthrough. The game includes accessibility options, enabling players to skip the puzzle minigames, enable larger subtitles, automatically complete quick time events, and replace button tapping with holding. A photo mode allows the player to take pictures of Spider-Man using a variety of image filters, frames, and stickers for customization. The camera can be used to take selfies and can be freely moved around Spider-Man to capture him in action.

Synopsis

Characters and setting

Marvel's Spider-Man features a large ensemble cast of characters drawn from the history of Spider-Man comics. Peter Parker (voiced by Yuri Lowenthal) is a 23-year-old research assistant, who gains superhuman abilities after being bitten by a genetically modified spider. Assuming a secret identity as the superhero Spider-Man, Peter uses these abilities to protect the residents of New York City. Eight years into his superhero career, Peter has become an experienced crime fighter but struggles to balance his superhero and personal lives. Peter is assisted by Daily Bugle reporter Mary Jane Watson (Laura Bailey), his ex-girlfriend, and NYPD captain Yuri Watanabe (Tara Platt). In his civilian life, Peter is supported by his Aunt May (Nancy Linari) who volunteers at the F.E.A.S.T. homeless shelter run by philanthropist Martin Li (Stephen Oyoung). Peter is employed by his friend and mentor, the respected scientist Dr. Otto Octavius (William Salyers).

Spider-Man's adventure brings him into contact with other characters, including Miles Morales (Nadji Jeter) and his parents, NYPD officer Jefferson Davis (Russell Richardson) and Rio Morales (Jacqueline Pinol), Oscorp CEO and New York mayor Norman Osborn (Mark Rolston), and Silver Sablinova (Nichole Elise), leader of the private military company Sable International. Spider-Man's mission brings him into conflict with several supervillains, beginning with his longtime foe and Kingpin of crime in New York Wilson Fisk (Travis Willingham), and a supernaturally powered gang called the Inner Demons who begin dividing the city for Mister Negative, who can corrupt people through his touch. Spider-Man must also confront Electro (Josh Keaton), Rhino (Fred Tatasciore), Scorpion (Jason Spisak), Vulture (Dwight Schultz), Shocker (Dave B. Mitchell), Taskmaster (Brian Bloom), Screwball (Stephanie Lemelin), and Tombstone (Corey Jones).

Several other characters—including Peter and Mary Jane's childhood friend Harry Osborn (Scott Porter), who is supposed to be vacationing in Europe, and anti-Spider-Man podcast host J. Jonah Jameson (Darin De Paul)—have voice roles in the main game. Spider-Man co-creator Stan Lee appears in a cameo role as a short-order cook. The game's downloadable content features appearances by master-thief Black Cat (Erica Lindbeck), Maggia mobster Hammerhead (Keith Silverstein), and Felicia's father Walter Hardy (Daniel Riordan).

Marvel's Spider-Man depicts fictional locations and entities from the Marvel Comics universe, including Avengers Tower, the Wakandan Embassy, the Symkarian Embassy, the Sanctum Sanctorum, the law offices of Nelson and Murdock, Alias Investigations, Rand Enterprises, the superhero cleanup company Damage Control, the Roxxon Energy Corporation, and Empire State University. It also features real-world locations including the Empire State Building, One World Trade Center, Madison Square Garden, and the Chrysler Building.

Plot

Following the capture of Wilson Fisk by Spider-Man, a masked gang known as the Inner Demons begins seizing Fisk's illicit assets. Mary Jane and Spider-Man learn that the Demons are seeking something called Devil's Breath. With the aid of Officer Jefferson Davis, Spider-Man thwarts a Demon attack. Davis is lauded for his heroism at a re-election event for Mayor Norman Osborn. The Demons attack the event, killing Davis and many other attendees. Peter witnesses Martin Li transforming into their leader, Mister Negative, but is knocked unconscious before he can intervene. Following the attack, Osborn hires Silver Sablinova and Sable International to supplant the police. Peter befriends Davis' son, Miles Morales, and persuades him to volunteer at F.E.A.S.T.

Peter and Otto Octavius continue their research into advanced prosthetic limbs, but Osborn withdraws their funding in an attempt to force Octavius to work for his mega-corporation Oscorp. While searching for Li, Spider-Man discovers that Devil's Breath is a lethal, virulent bioweapon inadvertently created by Oscorp while developing a cure for genetic diseases. Li locates and steals the only sample of Devil's Breath and threatens to release it unless Osborn surrenders to him. Mary Jane and Spider-Man foil Li, who is subsequently incarcerated at a nearby maximum-security prison called the Raft, while the Devil's Breath is secured.

Meanwhile, Octavius obsesses over creating enhanced limbs that exceed the human body's limitations, creating four mechanical tentacles operated from his back and mentally controlled via a neural interface. He reveals to Peter that he is suffering from a neuromuscular disease that will inevitably immobilize him and that enhanced limbs will allow him to continue his work when his body fails. Peter warns Octavius that the interface could impact his mind and personality. Octavius continues its use in secret, overcome with anger at Osborn. While investigating a breakout at the Raft, Spider-Man learns that some of his greatest enemies—Li, Electro, Vulture, Rhino, and Scorpion—have escaped. They subdue Spider-Man and present him to Octavius, now "Doctor Octopus", who warns the beaten Spider-Man not to interfere before retaking the Devil's Breath and releasing it in Times Square, causing a mass outbreak that infects numerous people, including Aunt May. New York descends into chaos while Octavius' team attacks the city. Osborn declares martial law and blames Spider-Man for the incident, branding him a fugitive.

Spider-Man gradually takes back the city, defeating Electro, Vulture, Rhino, and Scorpion. Mary Jane infiltrates Osborn's penthouse and learns that Oscorp developed Devil's Breath to cure Osborn's terminally ill son Harry. As a child, Li was a test subject for the cure, gaining his abilities in an explosion of energy that also killed his parents and caused his hatred for Osborn. She also learns that an antidote for Devil's Breath exists and that Li has stolen it. Spider-Man tracks down and defeats Li, but Octavius arrives, brutalizes Spider-Man, and escapes with the antidote and Osborn. While Spider-Man recovers, Miles is bitten by an Oscorp genetically modified spider that Mary Jane unknowingly carried from Osborn's penthouse.

Wounded, Peter builds himself an armored suit and confronts Octavius atop Oscorp Tower, rescuing Osborn. Octavius reveals that he knows Peter's secret identity and a battle ensues. Spider-Man retrieves the antidote and defeats Octavius, leaving him to be arrested. Peter is forced to choose between using the limited cure to save May from her imminent death or synthesizing a vaccine for the infected masses; he decides to save everyone. Before she dies, May reveals that she knows he is Spider-Man and is proud of him.

Three months later, New York has returned to normal, and Peter and Mary Jane rekindle their relationship. Miles reveals to Peter that he has gained spider-like powers, prompting Peter to reveal his own. Having resigned as mayor in disgrace, Osborn enters a secret laboratory where Harry is kept in stasis with a black, web-like substance. As Osborn places his hand on the tank, the substance reacts and copies him.

Development

Marvel's Spider-Man came about after Sony Interactive Entertainment's Vice President of Product Development Connie Booth visited Insomniac Games to speak with CEO Ted Price. Insomniac had recently released its Xbox One-exclusive game Sunset Overdrive; without a formal agreement in place, discussions about the potential new project were held off the record. Booth mooted the idea of Insomniac working on a game based on a Marvel Comics property. Price recalled having a "fairly neutral" response, as Insomniac had only developed original properties, but his developers were enthusiastic about the project.

The project marked a change in Marvel's video games strategy; Jay Ong, Senior Vice President of Marvel Games, said Marvel had previously released software based on or tied to the release of films based on their properties, but this meant game developers did not have time to create impressive products. Publisher Activision had been responsible for Spider-Man games since 2000; Ong said this would no longer be the case and future Spider-Man games were in the hands of Sony and Insomniac. Marvel did not want the game to be based on an existing film or comic book story, and allowed Insomniac to choose a character with which to tell an original story; the team chose Spider-Man, saying they related to the dynamic between the heroic Spider-Man and his everyman alter-ego Peter Parker.

Creative director Bryan Intihar said: "I feel like he's the most relatable of the heroes. As much as I love Tony Stark, it's harder to identify with a billionaire. As much as I love Thor, it's hard to identify with a god. Peter makes mistakes, he has ups and downs in his career, his relationships, his family. I think we can all relate to that". Price also commented that Spider-Man "is so human, and he's so relatable. He's also the most popular Marvel character in the world, I think". Price also considered the technical benefits; Sunset Overdrive has a dynamic traversal system that could be built upon for Spider-Man. Marvel's Spider-Man became the first licensed property developed by Insomniac in its 22-year existence.

While initially excited, team members found the project daunting because of Spider-Man's popularity and the wealth of existing stories and versions of the character. Art director Jacinda Chew saw opportunity in the character's extensive history, and consulted online references and Marvel staff with extensive knowledge of the character.

Marvel's Spider-Man uses Insomniac's proprietary engine that was previously used in Sunset Overdrive and modified to support 4K resolutions and HDR for their 2016 game Ratchet & Clank. The game was announced in June 2016 at Sony's Electronic Entertainment Expo press conference. After approximately four years in development, Marvel's Spider-Man was finalized in July 2018, when it was released to manufacturing. Insomniac has refused to confirm a sequel to Marvel's Spider-Man but Intihar said the developers wanted the audience debating what they might do. He said they wanted to keep players engaged, starting with the Marvel's Spider-Man: The City That Never Sleeps downloadable content (DLC), whose story continues after the conclusion of the main game.

Writing and characters

Intihar worked with a team of writers, under lead writer Jon Paquette to create an original version of Spider-Man that remained true to the original. Alongside Paquette, the story was written by Ben Arfman and Kelsey Beachum. Christos Gage co-wrote the script and Dan Slott provided additional story contributions. Insomniac researched iterations of the character to understand the elements that make a compelling Spider-Man story, after which Paquette wanted to avoid drawing too much influence from any single version. The team learned that whenever Spider-Man wins, Peter Parker loses, and vice versa. Intihar said that from conception, the game was designed to be as much Peter's story as Spider-Man's. The team avoided retelling Spider-Man's origin story, reasoning that it was common knowledge.

Yuri Lowenthal provides the voice of Spider-Man / Peter Parker. Working with voice director Kris Zimmerman, Lowenthal tried to differentiate his voices for Peter—where he is gentler—and as Spider-Man, where he is more confident, but thought the voices should not be completely different and spent a large amount of time practicing his performances to achieve a balance. Paquette persuaded the studio to cast him in the role because he trusted Lowenthal's acting ability and would not have brought him up otherwise. Multiple versions of the same conversation were recorded for Spider-Man's open-world dialogue for his at-rest state and that of exertion; for instance in combat or web-swinging. The recordings can switch mid-conversation if Spider-Man switches from resting to being in combat. Lowenthal worked with two stunt coordinators during the game's development.

Peter's relationship with Otto Octavius came from a desire to give him a job that embraced his intelligence. The writers considered ways to make that job interesting; they thought of having him work for Otto and be partly responsible for creating one of his greatest nemeses. Paquette emphasized the pair's relationship, aiming to make Otto a tragic figure, optimist, and mentor to Peter instead of the more traditional megalomaniac. Paquette said that he wanted to detail their friendship to give Otto's transformation into Doctor Octopus more meaning. Chew researched Otto's historical comic-book depiction and design, noting his bowl cut hairstyle and green glasses, but chose to modernize his appearance to make him balding and nerdy. Intihar described Otto and Peter as parallels of each other in many ways, particularly their intelligence and compassion.

When depicting Peter's relationship with Mary Jane Watson, the writers wanted to demonstrate that she has her own skills that allow her to be a hero in her own right, requiring Peter to learn not to be overprotective of her and to rely on other people. Arfaman said Mary Jane was his favorite character to write for; her new job as a reporter allowed her more agency and to be an active partner to Spider-Man. Miles Morales was added as a younger character with whom younger audiences could identify when it was decided to use an older Peter Parker. The death of Aunt May at the end of the game was considered vital to Peter's growth and a challenge because May has a large role in historical Spider-Man stories; Paquette said the moment had to be earned. Marvel initially vetoed her death but its opinion changed as the development of the game progressed.

Early in the story, May advises Peter that he is only human; Paquette said the message she gives is to not take on too much himself and learn to rely on other people. By the game's third act, Peter learns to rely on Mary Jane and Miles, though by this point it is too late to save everyone and Peter is given an "impossible choice". Paquette described this as the heroic sacrifice that reveals something deep about the character and what he really cares about. May's death was described as an echo of Peter's Uncle Ben's, who dies because Peter makes a selfish decision; May dies because he makes a completely selfless one. As a result, Peter will feel mixed guilt. A bittersweet but happier scene between Peter and Mary Jane was inserted to end the game on a more positive note. His ally police chief captain Yuri Watanabe was written as a kindred spirit who shares with Spider-Man a sense of responsibility to protect the city and its inhabitants regardless of the personal cost.

Paquette described Mister Negative as the hero of his own story; his origin is designed to give purpose to both Norman Osborn—who is doing bad things with the goal of saving his son—and Otto. Mister Negative's alter ego Martin Li was given connections to both Aunt May and Peter to add more stress to Peter's life. Many of J. Jonah Jameson's podcast rants were written by Gage, who said he related to being a grouchy, middle-aged man. Gage considered that despite repeatedly blaming Spider-Man for events, the podcasts give the player insight to city residents' thoughts about Spider-Man and current affairs. Silver Sable was added because Gage felt that a force to increase the stakes as events in the city turn dire was needed. The in-game social media posts were written by members of Insomniac staff and Sony's QA department.

Design

To present the vast New York City game area, the map was divided into 800 square sections, each representing approximately 128 m² (1,380 sq ft). As the playable character moves through it, out-of-view tiles are unloaded from memory and are replaced with tiles in view. Chief architect and core director Mike Fitzgerald said that when moving at Spider-Man's top speed, a new tile is loaded every second. For swinging, the team wanted to create a fun experience without making the physics too realistic. They combined camera movements, character animations, and field of view to make movement feel more heroic. To swing on webs, each web strand must be able to connect to a physical object. All architecture in the game world contains numerous anchor points; the ideal point is selected to maintain current momentum and direction. Each character has a high-quality model for closeups, cutscenes, and scripted sequences, possessing approximately 60,000 vertices. The game's final boss is rendered with a million polygons, the most Insomniac had used to render a character at that time.

Insomniac wanted to modernize Spider-Man's costume while paying homage to the original design by Steve Ditko. The new design features a large, white spider symbol that stretches across the torso, gauntlet-like gloves, and a sneaker-style design based on athletic-wear rather than knee-high boots. Chew said the design goal was to create clothing a "23-year-old, would-be superhero" would wear in 2018 New York City. White was added to the traditional, red-and-blue color scheme. Chew compared the outfit to compression wear and said each color represents a different material; blue is the most flexible and is where Spider-Man requires the most flexibility, such as his limbs. The red material is flexible but is thicker for protection from minor scuffs and scrapes, and the white, which is similar to carbon fiber and offers the most protection, is positioned on the chest, hands and feet. Each costume features custom web-shooters unique to the suit for which they were designed. Unlike previous incarnations as a model or nightclub owner, this version of Mary Jane is an aspiring reporter who wears a smart, sensible, and stylish outfit to reflect her modeling history. Chew said they aimed to use many body types for female characters. Mister Negative was initially designed as a young rebel wearing a leather jacket and sunglasses; the progression of the story influenced the character and the decision was made to better reflect his true nature, giving him a black-and-white suit showing his human and transformed negative-photo-effect persona.

The game's third act following the Raft escape was originally much bigger and included separate battles with the Vulture and Electro. Intihar said the game in this form was not working and they had to cut things, which they found difficult because it deviated from their intended vision. An unknown person had the idea of merging the Vulture and Electro fights, assembling a short demo to show it working as an aerial battle, which is how it appears in the finished game.

Music

The game's music was composed by John Paesano. He worked on the project for over two years, beginning during the writing phase. The aim of the score was to make it its own character and to create a cinematic ambiance rather than being simply present in the background. The main theme took approximately two months to finish; this was then split off for other segments of the score for other characters. While Paesano was influenced by Spider-Man music from other media, he focused on the slightly older age of the game's Spider-Man, adding more gravitas to the score. He scored it more from the perspective of Peter Parker than Spider-Man to emphasize the character's humanity over his role as a superhero. Paesano aimed to keep the score simple and recognizable; he retained the same Spider-Man/Peter Parker theme throughout but modified it by using different instruments and arrangements. He wanted to avoid problems he perceived in films belonging to the Marvel Cinematic Universe, in which the many different character scores could get lost in each other. The central theme is even interwoven with villain scores—a technique Paesano compared to composer John Williams' work on Star Wars—to remind the audience that everything is part of Peter's story.

Legacy

Sequels

An additional game centered on Miles Morales, titled Marvel's Spider-Man: Miles Morales was released for PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5 worldwide on November 12, 2020 and for Windows on November 18, 2022. The story takes place roughly a year after the first game's conclusion, with players controlling Miles, as New York City's only Spider-Man while Peter has travelled to Symkaria as a photographer to cover an ongoing civil war.

Marvel's Spider-Man 2 was released on October 20, 2023 for PlayStation 5. Intihar and Smith return as creative director and game director, respectively. Lowenthal and Jeter reprise their roles as Peter Parker and Miles Morales, with Tony Todd voicing the character Venom. Kraven the Hunter is played by Jim Pirri.

Related Marvel games

Sony Interactive Entertainment published Marvel's Iron Man VR in July 2020, developed by Camouflaj for the PlayStation VR headset and based on the Marvel Comics character. Game director Ryan Payton suggested that while the intent was to tell a self-contained story, there were "opportunities to link the worlds" and he expressed hope that future Spider-Man games from Insomniac could connect the two titles.

Alongside Marvel's Spider-Man 2, Insomniac Games also announced a standalone game titled Marvel's Wolverine, based on the Marvel Comics character of the same name which is also in development for PlayStation 5. It is intended to share continuity with the Spider-Man games, with the game being co-directed by Brian Horton and Cameron Christian, the creative director and game director of Marvel's Spider-Man: Miles Morales, respectively.