Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 did not just have a ‘two’ in its name, it also gave players two Spider-Man’s to play with. That’s just one example of how much thought and effort the makers at Insomniac Studios put into making the game. And it did pay off. It turned out to be a critical and financial success when it launched in October 2023.
Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 gave players the opportunity to web through Manhattan, Brooklyn, and Queens while making the two Spider-men Peter Parker and Miles Morale perform some aerobatics above New York’s skyscrapers. Besides, it brought in new suits and styles along with a range of accessibility options. It was splendid in every way, just as the makers envisioned it.
Makers wanted the opening scene of Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 to be grand
In Marvel’s Spider-Man, the first installment, players got to play around with Peter Parker’s moves in a showdown with Kingpin. In the spin-off, Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales, players got a new Spider-Man in Miles Morales who handled a rampaging Rhino. For Marvel’s Spider-Man 2, Insomniac had to go bigger.
Although Venom is the main antagonist in the game, the opening scene of the game has another Marvel villain, Sandman, storming through New York. In an interview with PlayStation, the game’s Senior Creative Director Bryan Intihar revealed that he always wanted Sandman in the opening scene. He elaborated,
“Sandman was one of the first things we decided upon, like really early on. This was a meeting where I was like: ‘I want to open with Sandman’. We knew very early on [Marvel’s Spider-Man 2] was going to be on the PS5 console. We knew enough about the console, its capabilities and how we wanted to push it. And we obviously knew it was going to be two Spider-Men. So, you say: new console. Big sequel. Two heroes. What is deserving of an opening for that? I think Sandman was our thing.”
He went on to say that the team worked on that mission for a long time. “A long, long, long time,” he reiterates. Intihar said Sandman was a big character to have in the opening, but it had its own challenges. He said,
“But technically it’s a challenge, whether it’s moving in and out of buildings and seamlessly switching heroes, just the amount of tech and art that goes into making Sandman look good. We wanted to go big. We wanted people to understand right away”
Intihar explains how within the first 20 to 30 minutes they wanted to tell the audience out loud that everything had been leveled up.
It was also about teaching players
Just like any other game, the beginning usually has tutorials along the play telling players how the game is played. Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 was no exception. Apart from just making a point, they also had to teach players how they would go about through the rest of the game.
Intihar said,
“Having this big spectacle opening that would knock people’s socks off, but then also trying to teach people ‘here’s how you play the game’. So, there’s the challenge between creating this unbelievable spectacle, but at the same time, teaching players like here’s how you web-swing, here’s how you punch, here’s how you dodge, here’s how you use your first slotted ability. Here’s how you dodge in midair, here’s how you use the Web Wings… we throw a lot at you. And that just comes through iteration, testing, and more iteration.”
The creative director also elaborated on the second mission of the game which the team internally referred to as ‘The Aftermath.’ They call it so since they wanted to show the cause and effect of these big things, unlike the previous games. Hence the second mission still shows the visual devastation in the destruction of the city, caused by the big Sandman event.
