Marvel's Spider-Man 2 review – cluttered but no less lovable action

Spider-Man’s always been a busy guy. He’s got classes to attend – or in this slightly older Peter Parker’s case now, teach. He’s got a girlfriend to see, friends to check in on, past-due bills to pay, a job to fail to hold down, and in between it all an apparently limitless sense of duty to do the right thing. A large part of his charm – and Spidey, of all the superheroes, is nothing without charm – is in the fallibility that comes from his quest to balance an impossible schedule.

Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 reviewDeveloper: Insomniac GamesPublisher: Sony Interactive EntertainmentPlatform: Played on PS5Availability: Out 20th October on PS5

It’s also, by far, the deepest well of good material that any Spider-Man writer worth their salt knows to plunge. It’s the source of some of Sam Raimi’s best scenes in the noughties era movies: grumpy landlord Mr. Ditkovich, and his gangly daughter Ursula’s peace offering of chocolate cake; Willem Dafoe’s much-memed “I’m something of a scientist myself” on a campus tour; or in Miles Morales’ college essays or Rio Morales’ cooking; or back to the games, that wonderful golden hour moment where Peter texts MJ while hanging upside down above the city.

In Marvel’s Spider-Man 2, this stuff can get a little squashed. Bringing Peter Parker and Miles Morales together, both Spideys here are relentlessly busy, but these quieter moments, the deep breaths between the action, are occasionally swallowed up by the sheer volume of noise coming from everything else. With double the power comes double the responsibilities, which in Spider-Man 2’s case largely means double the phone calls, double the radio shows, double the side activities, emergent crimes, collectible resources and general interruptions.

There’s a good chance all this noise is actually the point. Spider-Man 2’s story is in many ways about trying and struggling to do it all, with some friends or family members spurned for others who come back into the spiders’ lives. The main culprit here is the ever-cursed Harry Osborne, son of mega-conglomerate Oscorp boss and all-round overbearing father figure Norman. Reappearing into Parker’s life after years away battling a mysterious illness, Harry is all of a sudden full of vim, and somewhat desperate for his old friend’s attention. Pete, offered a dream job at Harry’s utopian research foundation and overwhelmed with Spider-Manning, is all too happy to give it – maybe a little too much of it – and throw in the added Symbiote factor and you can see where our very much by-the-books second act, breaking of the Fellowship low point happens and, without too much effort, how all this might come to a head.