Marvel's Spider-Man Remastered is a visually and technically improved version of the adventure adventure Marvel's Spider-Man, where the player in the role of Spider-Man found himself in the huge open world of New York full of adventures. The updated version is available for PlayStation 5 and Windows, includes the original game and all add-ons, as well as the ability to transfer save files, saving the progress made on PS4.
During development, Insomniac took inspiration from Marvel comics, but the game is not part of the cinematic universe, but constitutes its own. Events pass the period of Peter Parker's formation as Spider-Man, and begin when the hero gained experience as a superhero, met and even broke up with Mary Jane. And his alter ego is famous and popular in New York. A series of high-profile crimes forces the city's mayor, Norman Osborn, to accuse Spidey of organizing the riots and order the mercenaries, led by Silver Sable, to begin pursuit. Now the hero must defeat the villains and regain his good name.
Background of the game world
Manhattan is the basis of the game world of Marvel's Spider-Man. It is filled not only with many high-rise buildings and skyscrapers, but also with landmarks - Central Park, the Wakanda Embassy, the Avengers Tower, bridges and more. Neighborhoods available for exploration include Harlem, the Upper West Side and East Side, Hell's Kitchen, Midtown, Greenwich, Chinatown and the Financial District. Each has towers that provide access to new tasks, events and places, just like in Far Cry.
Everything is thought out so that Spidey has a place to turn around with his jumps between skyscrapers at height and parkour. You can climb all the buildings and look inside some of them; there is also a subway on which the hero moves quickly. However, the Remastered version does not add new areas of New York, new locations or spaces inside buildings.
Using the full power of the PlayStation 5, the remaster offered significantly improved graphics compared to the original version for PlayStation 4, and not only:
- the drawing distance of objects has increased, as well as the quality of backgrounds;
- increased smoothness of the game, faster loading of the world and scenes;
- textures have been updated everywhere, improved anisotropic filtering has appeared;
- support for 4K resolution at 60 frames per second out of the box, or support for 4K and ray tracing at 30 frames;
- dynamic play of light and shadow due to an improved lighting system, soft shadows, rich colors and more realistic reflections;
- added new special effects and animations for flights, web throws, explosions, impacts, etc.;
- Full support for DualSense features such as adaptive triggers and haptic feedback;
- support for advanced sound capabilities of the 3D Audio console.
In August 2022, a port of Spider-Man Remastered was released on PC and received several of its improvements relative to consoles:
- many sliders appeared in the graphics settings, allowing to select every visual aspect of the game, optimize performance and quality images in accordance with the hardware;
- added full support for DLSS and FSR — technologies that help improve performance and image quality;
- support for true 4K resolution on any compatible hardware and ultra-wide monitors with a 21:9 aspect ratio;
- unlimited frame rate with almost instant load times when the game is installed on an SSD.
Additionally, the remaster changed Peter Parker's face model to better match the facial parameters of the motion capture actor.
In Marvel's Spider-Man, there are several main characters. Peter Parker is an ordinary student who got a part-time job at a scientific institute. A spider bit Parker when he was 15, and at the time of the game's events, he is 23, and in this guise, the player will experience all the problems characteristic of this age: debts, starting a career, lack of time and money.
Things are going much better for his alter ego (Spider-Man). He is not a novice but an experienced superhero who has saved New York many times, a celebrity with whom people want to take selfies. The developers also allowed players to play as Mary Jane, Spider-Man's girlfriend. As a support for the main character, Miles Morales, the first black Spider-Man, appears.
As for the villains, Spider-Man faces many notorious scoundrels — Mister Negative, Kingpin, Scorpion, Shocker, Rhino, and others. With the release of the Remastered version, the number of villains has increased, as three separate chapters have been added:
- The Heist: Felicia Hardy, known as Black Cat, returns to New York, and the mini-plot touches on her relationship with Peter Parker. Felicia Hardy is presented as a human, not Black Cat.
- Turf Wars: Spider-Man and his partner Yuri Watanabe do not allow Hammerhead to take control of the Maggia family and New York's criminal underworld. This leads to a series of notable brawls involving other characters.
- Silver Lining: Silver Sable returns to claim what is rightfully hers. This chapter serves as an epilogue to the events of Marvel's Spider-Man.
All three additional chapters begin after the main events of the game. Each chapter adds new missions, characters, and storylines that expand the Spider-Man story but do not change its core.
Marvel's Spider-Man offers a completely original plot that covers the life of Peter Parker, Spider-Man, and his girlfriend Mary Jane. The plot is simple — Norman Osborn is re-elected as mayor of New York, with Martin Li also running. To disrupt Osborn's campaign, Mister Negative opens the city to bandits and madmen, who begin tearing New York apart.
To maintain law and order, Osborn hires the Silver Sable organization and declares Spider-Man an outlaw. Caught between two fires, Spider-Man needs to carefully untangle a web of various events, piece together the facts, and expose everyone. Along the way, the authors show the personal lives of Peter and May. Six months before the events of the game, they broke up, but circumstances bring them together again.
To give the main plot fullness and realism, the authors came up with many additional quests in the open world, both large and small. Преступления — существенная группа случайных заданий, получаемых просто при перемещении по городу. Используя способности можно остановить ограбление, угон авто, продажу наркотиков и так далее, а если времени не хватит, то начнется преследование убегающих преступников.
Геймплей Remastered-версии остался в основном неизменным по сравнению с оригинальной игрой. Однако в ремастере нет уникальных способностей и технологий, что появились в игре про Майлза Моралеса. Большая часть игрового процесса связана с боевой системой. Человек-Паук использует множество умений, чтобы остановить бандитов, и нет ограничений на порядок их применения. Паучок прыгает между нерасторопных врагов, стреляет паутиной, использует гаджеты и элементы окружения, чтоб оглушить и связать всех противников.
Вместо длинных комбо с прожимом нужных кнопок — быстрые и очень динамичные бои. Вместо рукопашной — комбинации между ударами и способностями, такими как полет на паутине, прыжки и паркур, прилипание к стенам, удары в воздухе, паучье чутье и многое другое.
Можно, например, вытягивать врагов по одному в воздух, избивая их по ходу движения и подвешивая уже оглушенных. А при заполненной шкале адреналина герой проводит зрелищный завершающий удар. Геймплейная фишка Marvel's Spider-Man — это гаджеты, вроде бомбы, разбрызгивающей паутину на ближайших врагов, а также дрона, летающего над врагами и стреляющего паутиной.
Отдыхает от работы Человека-Паука Питер в своей лаборатории или дома, где придется конструировать новые гаджеты, решать очередную головоломку или общаться с сюжетными персонажами.
Среди прочих новшеств ремастера:
- все выпущенные для основной игры костюмы Паучка, включая те, что были в фильмах, и модели, созданные художниками Insomniac (костюм Arachnid Rider и бронированный продвинутый костюм).
- дополнительные трофеи;
- обновления фоторежима.
- Игровой мир живет своей жизнью, в чем можно убедиться, просто погуляв между улицами.
- Перемещение в пространстве ощущается очень круто за счет в меру реалистичной физической модели.
- Более 30 костюмов главного героя, взятых из комиксов, фильмов и мультсериалов. Каждый костюм предоставляет те или иные бонусы.
- Ремастер стал доступен для покупки как самостоятельная игра или как платное обновление для владельцев оригинальной игры 4 мая 2023 года.
- Spider-Man Remastered и Marvel's Spider-Man: Miles Morales — это две отдельные игры с разными сюжетами и геймплеем, но имеющие общую вселенную, персонажей и пересекающийся таймлайн.