I’ve put another 10 hours into Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 since that opening, and have been loving my time in it so far. These series were all poured into similar hour-long HBO-shaped containers, but the only thing their contents share is that same baseline level of quality, much like Sony’s games. From decades ago with shows like The Sopranos, The Wire, and Six Feet Under, to modern masterpieces like Chernobyl, Succession, The Leftovers, Game of Thrones, and yes, The Last of Us. Think of the way HBO’s Sunday night time slots would always go to the series that they wanted the most eyes on at a given moment. But I see this less as homogenization, and more of a standard of quality. Yes, they’re all third-person and often rely on cinematic techniques for their major story beats. Some people bemoan that Sony’s marquee games all have a homogenized look and feel to them. And Sucker Punch delivered one of my favorite title card drops in recent memory as I rode through a moonlit field on horseback in Ghost of Tsushima. Naughty Dog has mastered this with the thrill of waking up on a dangling train in Uncharted 2, Sara’s tragic story in The Last of Us Part I, and the heartbreaking rendition of “Future Days” by Joel to Ellie in Part II. God of War has been doing it since the PS2, with 2018’s reboot providing an incredible thesis statement to its new world, new characters, new Kratos, and single unbroken shot aesthetic. Right here we see how the Spider-Men spend so much of their time helping others, that they neglect to carve out the space to help themselves with their very real and grounded problems.Īt a more macro level, the Spider-Man 2 opening is just another in a long line of first-party PlayStation games to really kick things off on the right foot.

Miles is just trying to finish high school, get into a good college, and figure out what the hell he wants to do with his life, while Peter is drowning in debt and trying to pay the bills as a new teacher at Miles’ school. And though I haven’t rolled credits on the story yet, the first mission is an overwhelmingly impressive reintroduction to this version of New York City and its Spider-Men.įrom a pure storytelling level, I love how we’re immediately given the tension that both Peter Parker and Miles Morales struggle with on a daily basis in terms of balancing their personal lives with their extracurricular activities.

The opening hour of Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 is a fantastic and mesmerizing jugging act of spectacle, character, tutorial, and technical wizardry in a way that’s somehow become expected from so many of Sony’s first-party PlayStation games.

Last of us two ellie character model