The follow-up to 2018’s Marvel’s Spider-Man arrives with a new lead in Harlem Spider-Man Miles Morales. Taking place a year and a half following the events of the first game, Miles is still struggling to come into his own as The Friendly Neighborhood Spider. Peter is trying to train him while protecting his own backyard in New York City. After dealing with a disastrous encounter with Rhino, Peter entrusts Miles as the sole Spider-Man of New York as he and MJ go out of country on business. Miles must now find his path as Spider-Man without his mentor and a little help from best friend Ganke Lee.

Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales is a 2020 action-adventure game, it is developed by Insomniac and published by Playstation Studios. It is available exclusively on Playstation 4 and Playstation 5.

Editor’s Note: This review contains near complete to complete spoilers for the story of Spider-Man: Miles Morales. Our review of the original Marvel’s Spider-Man and its DLC can be viewed at these links 1, 2, 3.

Playstation’s Spider-Man returns with a new entry that bridges the first game and eventual Spider-Man 2 starring 2011’s Miles Morales.

Two years since the initial launch of universally acclaimed Marvel’s Spider-Man comes Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales. As the name suggests the game picks up where the initial left us with Miles Morales having his own run in with a power giving spider bite. Though Miles and Peter have mostly similar spider based powers, Miles has his own original Spidey flair to help him stand out such as having the ability to create an electromagnetic field to get the jump on multiple enemies, his own unique tech and gear compared to Peter’s, and even the ability to turn invisible for a short period of time.

Miles is (mostly) on his own in Spider-Man: Miles Morales.

THE GOOD: 2018’s Marvel’s Spider-Man was a surprise in such a multitude of ways. For one, it was a video game title taking on the form of a beloved fictional character, it was based on a comic book/superhero, and it was a licensed video game. Granted licensed gaming had made a bit of a quality comeback thanks to titles like the Batman: Arkham series, and even some Transformers titles released by Activision just to name a couple. But there was always room for worry in the back of fans’ minds that some kind of controversy was just around the corner of what looked like “a sure thing, and Square Enix dealing with their own troubles following the release of The Avengers this distant worry will always have an unfortunate place in licensed gaming. However Marvel’s Spider-Man ended up being a fantastic game thanks to the renown track record of developer Insomniac. Having tackled several genre from dozens of IP the studio has shown time and time again that they just know how to build good games. Though that’s the core issue with taking on something like a licensed game for the first time or anything for the first time; there’s always room for error. Thankfully, Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales is not that at least as far as the story. character development, and most of the gameplay is concerned.

Miles Morales grows as a human, man, and hero in Spider-Man: Miles Morales.

Spider-Man: Miles Morales opens up with Peter Parker and Miles preparing to protect a prison cargo hosting those responsible for the final events of the original game. After struggling to defeat Rhino and Peter having been beaten Miles raises his courage to fight him lone unlocking a new power in the process aiding in Rhino’s defeat impressing Roxxon R&D Director Simon Krieger. Peter informs Miles that he and Mary Jane will be overseas away on business for several weeks leaving the safety of New York mostly on him. Lacking confidence Peter tells Miles to believe in himself and if he truly needs him he’s there. As Peter departs Miles contests with a new tech savvy gang known as The Underground which seems to be involved in a power struggle against Roxxon’s military grade forces. Roxxon is in the middle of releasing a brand new energy source known as Nuform, but the concoction is dangerous to humans causing them terminal illness. After an initial run in with The Underground, Miles returns home with whom best friend Ganke is currently residing as his parents go on vacation. Miles’ old childhood friend Phin makes a surprise visit to Harlem. Miles asks about her brother Rick who they both looked up to, but she unexpectedly dodges the question. During a rally for Miles’ mother Rio who’s campaigning for Mayor of Harlem The Underground attacks a Roxxon convoy carrying a literal truckload of Nuform on a bridge. During a fight with members of the gang that leads to a battle with The Underground’s head of command The Tinkerer, Miles accidentally learns that it’s Phin when his electric powers causes her armor to malfunction which was shielding her face. Phin retaliates as Miles’ electric powers go out of control sending him into the truck containing Nuform ensuing an enormous explosion that destroys a large portion of the bridge. Roxxon reinforcements arrive and they threaten Miles after he saves citizens from the bridge shocking bystanders. As they’re about to kill a cooperating Miles he accidentally unlocks a new ability that allows him momentary invisibility giving him an opening to escape.

Tweaked gameplay mechanics and it’s story idea give us a potential glimpse in what’s to come for Marvel’s Spider-Man 2.

While internally battling with what to do in regards to Phin and her connection to The Underground, Miles begins to reconnect with his recently estranged Uncle Aaron who had been emotionally abandoned by the family for unknown reasons. This inadvertently reveals his identity as the Harlem Spider-Man to Aaron and Miles through searching his late father Jefferson’s old police files discovers that Aaron is the Prowler a legendary super enhanced criminal. Revealing the reason behind the family abandoning him, after this discovery Miles has resolve to try to convince Phin to stop what she’s doing with The Underground having earlier learned of Krieger being responsible for the death of her brother Rick who worked with him on Nuform. The energy source making him and his team terminally ill killing the latter, though Rick died trying to protect Phin from an incident at Krieger’s lab. After successfully infiltrating The Underground as himself, Miles learns that Phin plans to blow up Roxxon HQ, but is unaware of the severity of the impact which will destroy New York and much of the surrounding area. Miles reveals his identity to Phin after a pursuit and she reluctantly works with him only for the two to be captured by Krieger. After their escape following a battle with a Roxon tech enhanced Rhino, Phin now consumed with rage sees Miles as her enemy like Krieger and Roxxon & continues forward with her plan threatening his life if he tries to stop her again. Having bonded from a prior Roxxon infiltration, Miles learns that Aaron has returned as the Prowler and is captured by him. The two fight after Aaron fails to convince him to stop worrying about New York and to only focus on himself. Miles beats him and continues his chase of Phin while evacuating the city with Ganke and his mom once he tells them both everything that happened. A war breaks out between The Underground & Roxxon in Harlem, but Miles and a reformed Prowler stops them. Miles finds Phin at the science museum that held their award winning project which she plans to use to aide the explosion plan as an emotional blow to Miles. The two fight as Miles tries to explain the issue surrounding her plan but she refuses to listen. As the explosion begins Phin finally realizes that Miles was right. but he’s injured from some of the impact. Phin helps him absorb the Nuform. but Miles can’t contain it for long which endangers Harlem from the blast release. Phin uses Underground tech to fly Miles into the sky so he can release the blast safely. but at the cost of her own life. Miles’ identity is revealed to the citizens of Harlem, but they shield him from being shown on TV as a news crew shows. He places his and Phin’s award on their favorite church as a tribute. Now brimming with confidence as a hero a returned Peter is proud of all that Miles has accomplished while he was away. Norman Osborn demands that his son Harry be “awoken” despite warnings from Curt Connors in an end credits scene.

Miles Morales has moments where he can be playable as a citizen of Harlem.

If you were one of the lucky few that managed to come into possession of a Playstation 5 and an even luckier few who as of yet have not experienced the 2018 Spider-Man entry, first I commend & envy you, second I highly suggest playing ‘Miles Morales’ after a playthrough of the remaster. The unique perspectives of both titles combined in a single sitting make the $70 price tag more than worth it (not that I’m all too thrilled about a price hike for games). And ya know the 4K, ray tracing, whatever I guess that too. Anyways, Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales is from a basics standpoint a lot like the original. You’ve got the Arkham like combat, the fantastic swinging, and the finishers. Just like in the last game there’s a skill tree which you use to upgrade Miles with skill points. These range from attack, tech, and support skills such as increased invisibility meters and finisher storage counts. Miles’s electric venom powers add solid combo chains for a higher score and opportunity to gain finishers for tougher enemies. Eventually you can unlock an explosive form of the attack which is great for dispersing large groups of enemies. You’ll use tech for support and to get the jump in enemies like before, but Miles has unique tech like electric bombs which can stick to electric panels and if you know how to use them they can act as great distractions that lead to a large deal of damage to several enemies.

The Tinkerer threatens all of New York in her quest to end Roxxon.

Side quests return with most of it being randomized events spread throughout the world map and some minimal story based events. The “defeat enemy base here” side quests return just skinned with The Underground and Roxxon. New to the game are the scavenger hunt and time capsule quests which have you finding mementos left behind by Miles’ late father Jefferson and his friend Phin. Also new are the audio tunes which Miles’ Uncle Aaron tasks him with finding to complete a track he and his father were working on together using the sounds of New York for the song. Some quests will unlock Miles unique skills or costumes in the game to dress the Harlem Spider-Man as you see fit.

Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales continues the growth of two young superheroes sharing the same title.

THE BAD: An unfortunate setback to Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales is that it often times feels a little too close to Spider-Man: Into the Spiderverse story wise. It’s the curse of origin stories, odds are the origin has already been told and there isn’t much you can do to differentiate it from it’s core. There’s a handful of glitches present at least on the PS4 version. One I experienced in particular was during the mission where Miles had to restore power to his apartment complex. A bug prevented me from completing the mission and I was stuck there wondering what the hell was happening for over an hour. So far it’s the only major bug I’ve experienced, though others have reported more.

Like Peter before him Miles struggles with balancing his hero/citizen life in Harlem, New York.

OVERALL THOUGHTS: Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales is a excellent appetizer to the upcoming Marvel’s Spider-Man 2. Keeping what made the original special all while giving itself a way to standout is always the way to go with sequels such as these and ‘Miles Morales’ more than delivers on that end. While shorter than the original game the quality isn’t effected by the bit sized entertainment. I played on the second hardest difficulty of the game Spectacular and was able to clock in about fifteen to twenty hours of play which is slightly more than similar title Uncharted: The Lost Legacy. The sheer jump in a quality gaming experience from the spin-off even with it’s limited time left me craving for more of Insomniac’s Peter Parker and Miles Morales.