They just had a story/tech showreel and discussion meeting over Zoom, and my contact has shared everything the main "Speaker" discussed and what was shown. I made sure they took notes of the important bits. Plenty of story, too. It was about an hour long, so strap in. Here's what they had to say, with other details being added in after a phone call between us.
Cutscenes:
Game begins with fly-by through the city, showcasing winter environment, leading to an apartment. Peter is in his and MJ's apartment, they're video-calling. This scene elaborates on MJ's whereabouts, peace talks in Samkyria are concurrently happening as they speak, so she should be heading home in a few weeks after post-war interviews and headlines.
MJ asks Peter what's been going on in his life in New York, and Peter confesses that he's rejoined The Daily Bugle as a photographer to help pay the bills. MJ says that shouldn't be so bad, especially if they work together, but Peter webs over a newspaper from the kitchen counter. The headline is that JJJ has returned to his previous position in the company due to financial hardships (elaborated on in The City That Never Sleeps DLC). Speaker says that they "enjoyed the podcast take, but want to return to the roots".
MJ reacts negatively to this, telling Peter that she wasn't even informed. Peter apologizes for breaking the bad news. Peter's Spider-Sense goes off, but that's where it gets cut short for the meeting.
Mechanics: Winter Physics
Spider-Man on top of a building: Snow is accumulating on his suit. As you move, some falls off.
Peter walking through New York as himself. Snow is accumulating on his jacket. Footprints in the snow are present, both by the player as well as citizens walking around.
Three different weather types are shown: Light rain, Light snow, heavy snow.
Speaker says there are about 7 dynamic weather types in-game.
From what I have gathered, especially based on what my contact has said, the weather systems will come and go freely. Time passes without transitions, along with the weather, and all will be representative within cutscenes. Story apparently takes place over a longer period of time than the first, therefore there is more room for days to pass within gameplay. Speaker says that they tried to avoid writing in "This happens at night, or this happens during the day-" as much as possible. They did say that they could not get around it entirely, however. So expect to see certain and unexpected time-of-day shifts within the game.
Speaker also says that people are going to be playing in one instance for a long time, and that this was a good segue into the meat of the game.
Dynamic Missions:
Speaker really turned on the charm for this next one, and was pretty proud of what they had in store. Balloon missions is the first. Spider-Man grabs a balloon caught on a flagpole, a balloon flying away in the air, and a balloon that was caught in a helicopter. Yes, a helicopter. The landing gear, specifically. These are definitely a call-back to the Spider-Man 2 Movie-Tie-In game.
Construction workers hanging onto ledges and falling off of buildings, people needing to be brought to the hospital, as well as rescuing people from burning buildings are some examples shown.
Speaker says that "small missions like these help illustrate the "friendly-neighborhood" aspect of Spider-Man, and players will react positively to it, based on feedback". Speaker says there are a few more, but wanted to move on to the side-missions.
Side Missions:
A fight with Mysterio is shown, albiet very briefly, on the statue of liberty. Not sure if this was another reference to Spider-Man 2, but the fight looked very different from that game.
A few still images of a theatre and a clocktower were also shown, with Mysterio at the center of each.
This also confirms that the Statue of Liberty will be a traversable location, and we will probably see more than one appearance of Mysterio throughout the game.
Side missions are going to appear throughout the story and in greater number than the first game.
Some side missions contain major villains, and others help flesh out the world.
A side mission in Hell's Kitchen with a "certain lawyer" was teased. Daredevil will most likely make an appearance, if not at least mentioned.
Another side mission with a certain "Fantastic and Fiery" personality was also teased and will be used for new racing mechanics. If anyone predicted Human Torch races, congratulations.
Cutscenes:
An argument with Eddie Brock and JJJ occurs, with Peter stepping in. This is the first time we've seen JJJ and Eddie in-person, and they look fantastic. My contact described Eddie's design as "Spectacular Spider-Man-esque in nature", the cartoon show, for those who are aware of it. Big, bulky, and brash.
The cutscene ends just as Peter is about to say something.
Doctor Conners is mentioned within the scene.
Cutscenes:
Major one here. In an alleyway, a giant, squirming blob of symbiote lays on the ground as Spider-Man approaches it. This is definitely not Venom, but it is definitely a symbiote. My contact described it as a "Proto-Venom". Some specific dialogue taken from Peter, transcribed poorly by me - I'm sure Yuri knocked it out of the park, though.:
"How could Norman do this to you?"
"Harry- Harry, it's me. It's Peter. I'm here, buddy. I'm here."
"Oh God, Harry... "
"You... Killed those people."
"What the hell?! Get off- Get-"
That last one is crucial to the scene, as the symbiote leaves Harry and bonds with Peter. My contact says that they originally wanted Harry to be Venom, but felt like the introduction of Eddie Brock-Venom would make for a lengthier story and would also satisfy comic fans. They also want to save Harry for something special later down the line.
So from what I have gathered, within the context of the story, Harry is the first host of the Oscorp-created symbiote.
It is not alien in origin, and was used as a cure for Harry's disease.
Harry is ultimately cured by the time the symbiote leaves, so there is room for him in the future of the story, but at this point he is hospitalized after Peter stops his rampage.
Harry breaks free during Act 1 and goes on a manic-filled killing spree, and the scene just described wraps up the events, leading into Act 2.
Mechanics: Black Suit
A few still images of the classic black suit are shown, and everyone on Zoom clapped for it. Suffice to say, they wanted the black suit just as much as fans did, so they're doing something right here.
Speaker says that they wanted to add an extra step towards "tailoring every player's experience".
Spider-Man is on a roof, the weather and sky are clear so that light is reflecting off of the suit more. His classic suit is being worn.
Contact says that this was his favorite part of the showreel, and I'll admit, it's definitely mine too.
The black suit is switched on with a simple button press, then switched off again.
Speaker had this to say: "Taking major inspiration from Web of Shadows, we knew that the symbiote system in this game needed to be as fluid and fun as possible". So for anyone who predicted a Web of Shadows style system, you guessed correctly, and I'm glad you did.
"But that's not all we have to show you-", the speaker said. The suit selection screen is opened once more, and most of the suits are greyed out. However, the advanced suit and the webbed suit (raimi suit) are available.
The advanced suit is selected, and then the black suit is switched on. "Every suit has their own symbiote version-", the speaker said.
The webbed suit is then selected, and my contact said that it took him back to 2007, when Spider-Man 3 was released. It looked beautiful.
Mechanics: Black Suit Combat
My contact has said that they tried not to copy Web of Shadows in its entirety, but they did take inspiration from the combat system switching in that game. Arkham-Knight styled combat, similar to Spider-Man PS4, was shown. Precision, combos and key presses, and dodging are once again the focus when fighting without the symbiote suit.
However, when using the symbiote suit, certain elements are removed for more "fluid" combat. Combat is described as being more powerful, with faster attacks and much less dodging. Players zip from enemy to enemy, and can attack multiple enemies at once by using certain symbiote abilities.
The symbiote suit has its own separate skill tree that is unlocked after obtaining it.
The skill trees are slightly larger than in the previous game, but nothing to write home about. This shouldn't be a problem to players, however, as there are now two different skill trees to explore.
Not much was shown in terms of symbiote combat footage, though, as it's most likely still under development. Combat reworks and additions can take forever, especially with a new system being made.
Cutscenes:
A few cutscenes and clips are shown, stitched-together for the sake of time.
Peter (Under the influence of the symbiote.) and Miles arguing. The black suit then forms around Peter and he jumps off of a roof.
Miles stopping a robbery (His classic suit is shown here). Speaker also said during this that Miles also has equippable suits.
Miles swinging through low building traversal and running on rooftops.
Miles using the new "Web-Chain" mechanics, zipping between rooftops and ledges.
Miles section ends with him fighting a group, just before Peter tags in and the two fight together. You're able to switch between both for certain sections.
Norman Osborn in the lab where Harry escaped, he's tinkering with a few viles of unknown-materials. Presumably, Peter Parker's DNA.
Norman Osborn smashing a bunch of equipment, as well as throwing a table out of a window.
The showreel ended with a fade to black, accompanied by Norman's laughter.
Wrap-Up:
One last thing was shown. Three images for a wave of DLC - Presumably just like how there were 3 DLC's last time.
Morbius, Carnage, and Wraith. Seems like the theme of the DLC's are killers and redemption, depending on who Carnage is. My contact says they are leaning towards Peter Parker-Carnage, and you would play as Miles, but they are in the concept stage and have not fully decided on that yet.
They were originally planning on revealing it over the summer, but now due to the situation we are all facing, they are pushing it to late summer, August most likely, or potentially later, depending on how the situation develops. Release remains Holiday 2021.
That's all I have for you all. Stay safe in quarantine.
