Since we will be getting Spider-Man impressions next week, I wanted to get things started with detailed impressions from a Reddit user who has apparently played the demo 8 times.
So I made a
post a few days about the SDCC demo, but I feel I've encountered so many new things that it warrants one final, cumulative post. I played the demo 8 times through, and fought Shocker 4 of those times. That's about 140 minutes for those counting at home. (Apparently there was someone there who did it over 10 times, so if you're here, feel free to add stuff). But these are my thoughts, and the cool things I noticed:
Swinging/Traversal
fukk it's awesome. I said this in my original post, but it's not as "ultra physics realistic" as something like Spider-Man 2, so it's a lot easier to learn and fun even for beginners. The closest I can compare it to is like a mix of Web of Shadows mixed with the good parts of TASM2 swinging, and also with some of that Insomniac fluidity and snappiness. Still physics based, and the webs attach to buildings (I checked, they also connect to poles and trees) but it's a lot easier to pick up than something like Spider-Man 2. It starts out kind of slow, but you really pick up speed when you start web zipping + point launching, and zipping over walls, and it feels sooooo good. I was just thinking earlier about how much I miss the feeling of wallrunning up a wall, pressing X and then zipping over that wall. Ugh. Damn, I miss it.
Before you ask, if you hold onto the web, you start to move backwards, but you drift closer to the wall that the web is attached to, and if you hit it you start running on it. If you manage to completely stop at the bottom of the pendulum Spidey will let go of the web. It's not that exciting, and unfortunately you can't
fukk the sky like some other games.
One thing I didn't initially like was L2+R2 to zip to a perch, because I thought those controls were a little wonky, but then I started holding L2 to search for a point (time slows down when you do that, like in the TASM games Web Rush mode) and then pressing R2 when I found the exact point, which I really liked over just hoping that I'd go to the right one.
Overall, holy shyt the swinging is awesome.
Combat
Damn this shyt's spectacular (and amazing, and ultimate, and superior, etc).
It may look like Arkham combat, but the only thing that's similar is the squiggly lines. It feels a lot like something out of Devil May Cry but a little bit easier. Air combos are really nice, since they actually give you a little bit of space from melee enemies, but you're still vulnerable to guys with guns (you also have an air dodge where you web zip a little). Your Spider-Sense/Squiggly lines appear WAYYY before you need to actually dodge, so it's not so much a "Press this button now" prompt but instead it's a "look for enemies who are attacking" prompt. I'm assuming there will be an upgrade that makes it flash red or something when you need to actually press dodge, since that's what happens when there's an enemy with a gun. You're also not invulnerable during this dodge, so be careful where you move.
Enemies with weapons like stun guns or riot shields were a pain at first, but once you learn out to deal with them (for shield square then circle makes you slide under them, for tasers just air launch them, or you can hold triangle to take their weapon and slam them with it) they're not too bad.
One thing I think is pretty funny is how Insomniac took precautions so that Peter doesn't kill anyone when they fall off a roof (I was able to clearly see the trip mine go off and stick someone to the building), but you're able to have enemies shoot each other multiple times with machine guns. I was able to do that a couple times and I audibly went "Oh shyt he's dead." But I guess if Robin can do it, so can Spider-Man (fukk Batman).
Yeah anyway, combat is fantastic. It's so deep and engaging, and it's like the swinging where it's pretty easy to pick up (I saw a 5 year old doing it) but it can be pretty tough to master.
Random Crimes
So in the demo there were:
- Drug deals (fight in an alley, usually turns into a car chase, doesn't always if you're good enough)
- Car chases with a bomb in a truck (I always took out the car first, then the truck, then took care of the bomb, but I think you can do it all in any order you want)
- Store robberies
- Shootouts in the street
These were all pretty fun, and they didn't get tooo repetitive (I wish that there were more animations during the truck chase, since I saw the same "swinging through the window" animation every single time. It was still cool though. And Spidey had a different quip each time which I liked.
The nice thing about these is that it's not at all like TASM2. In that game, you were punished with loading screens and cutscenes when you wanted to do a crime. But in this, I had a minute left and was going to Shocker when I heard about a drug deal, and I pulled a
Mr. Incredible and just went to quickly stop that and then proceeded to just make it to the Shocker fight before time ran out (for those who don't know, you have 15 minutes to do what ever you want, and if you get into the Shocker boss fight in time, then you have 3 lives to beat him). So that's something I really liked about the crimes, was how you could just hop in, do something, then leave.
Fisk Construction Site where they're not doing much constructing
This was sort of "mandatory" (the game points you pretty heavily in that direction once you beat that first fight in the alley). You can go about it stealthily or guns webs blazing and fight everyone head on. Sometimes it can get pretty tough if you're not paying attention to your health, and I ended up dying once there. The enemy type is pretty varied which is nice. You have some pure punchers, some riot shields, some guns, some tasers, and even a guy with an RPG. I was expecting to get tired of "The place is held down. Actually, webbed down" but I still thought it was cute every time. Hopefully there's not a cutscene like that every time you beat a site in the full game.
Demon Bases
Woooo boy this was hard at first. I tried this my second time, and got my ass kicked. I was able to beat it, but just barely. The waves of enemies get bigger and bigger, and if you're not good at the combat yet, then stealth is your friend! There's some nice banter with MJ while you're doing it, and then some funny Spidey jokes, like: "Oh no! Stock brokers!... Wait, sorry, didn't see the masks" and "Heyyy, more guys! I'm sure you'll do better than the other guys who are just like you who I just wiped the floor with!"
I would have liked to see some more of these bases, since I have a feeling these can get pretty tough (one of the booth guys told me that it was the hardest thing in the demo, which I agree with in terms of combat). Hopefully there's some good variety to the interiors.
Shocker Fight
You all saw that. You know what it was. Let me just say it looks a lot easier than it really is. It's very unforgiving but fair in terms of what hits you and what doesn't, so you have to be really careful about when you dodge and when you hit him with the environmental.
Research Stations
I did two out of three research stations: one where I fixed the water pressure in a building and one where I take smog samples from the air. I chose to not do the chemical one, as that one was done during the Insomniac stream and I wanted to make sure I did all new things.
The water pressure one was kind of nice because it was very small scope. The research station reads that the water pressure in this building is too high, so Spidey goes to turn the knob to fix it. He fukks up though and turns it up too high which causes some water towers to get holes in them, so you have to swing around and web up the holes, and then when you're done with that you follow the pipe to the bay were you see that it's blocked by trash, which you fix by pulling it with your web. I liked this one because there was no super villain, no bad guy, just being your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man. It also ties into a "Just the Facts" clip that I'll talk about later.
The smog one had me swing around into clouds of gross looking fart gas and collect samples of smog (Spidey jokes about how bad that shyt smells and it's pretty funny). Then when you get enough samples, Peter locates the make and model of the cars that created that smog and you have to go take pictures of each car. Pressing up on the D-pad opens up the camera, which you can use while still swinging around. L2 becomes zooming the camera, and L2+R1 becomes taking a picture. I wasn't able to check if this camera was there the whole time or just for the mission. Peter talks about how it reminds him of the old Bugle days and how JJ would barely pay him anything for these.
at the disrespect to Norman's waves.
