Insomniac is by far one of Sony’s most favoured and best studios, developing games that push past technological boundaries with every new title they release. Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 is their second entry into the PS5 catalogue, following on from the impressive Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart, which is still one of the best games so far to show the true power of the PS5 hardware.
Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart introduced a portal mechanic that allowed players to traverse levels of the game seamlessly without any loading times. It was an amazing feature to experience, seeing levels already preloaded on the opposite side of a portal, something impossible to accomplish on the last gen consoles.
Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 Loses Some of it’s Fast Travel Charm
Marvel’s Spider-Man was released back on PS4 in 2018 and as impressive as it was, loading times couldn’t be avoided due to the older hardware. Insomniac covered this by introducing a fast travel mechanic that would see players witness the neighbourhood Spider-man having to ride the subway to the location selected.
The charming and witty clip was loved by all and was also included in the Miles Morales expansion. From what we have seen from the latest Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 gameplay is that Insomniac has continued to improve on loading times but with the unfortunate loss of the subway clips.
Related: Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 – New Web-Swinging Features Confirmed!
The State of Play footage gave us a first look at Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 loading times while swapping between Miles and Peter by showing a short cinematic of Peter performing sit-ups on the side of a building, taking literally seconds to continue playing.
Fast travel was also shown, this time around players will be able to fast travel almost instantly to any point on the map after unlocking the area by completing certain activities. Once the position is selected, an animation zooms into the map and transitions straight into gameplay with Spider-Man flying with his new wingsuit.
It’s important to note that fast travel is entirely down to the player as the game will never force you to miss out on swinging through the city to reach your destination. Missions and other tasks can appear at random while traversing the streets of Queens and Brooklyn so fast travel may be something to pass on until you’ve cleared the majority of the game. Let’s be fair, who wouldn’t want to use Spidey’s new wingsuit to fly through the map?
Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 releases on the 20th of October 2023 on PS5 only. Insomniac are skipping the PS4 this time around, so you will need to upgrade to the current gen if you want to continue Peter and Miles’ story. There is no word whether Sony will pull a U-turn and release a PS4 version at a later date, but from these insane loading speeds, I wouldn’t hold out for it.
How can Insomniac keep improving loading times, can they even get any better? Are you going to be playing Peter or Miles more? Will you be playing on day one? Get in touch, drop us a comment, and let us know your thoughts.
Follow us for more entertainment coverage on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube.
