Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 Review

Spider-Man 2 had a high bar to clear for me. Not only is it the sequel to what is probably the best superhero game ever, its main antagonists are my favourite Spider-Man villain (Kraven the Hunter) and who I consider to be the best Spider-Man villain (Venom). Please note that I’ll be talking about the plot in a way that could be considered spoilery; in particular who Venom turns out to be, which isn’t really a twist; it’s pretty obvious, but if you want to go in blind, now’s your time to duck out. If you want a quick spoiler-free rundown before you go; it’s really good. Not sure if it’s as good as the original, but it’s a worthy sequel and an excellent Spider-Man story. Anyway, on with the review.

Things are rough for Peter Parker. He loses his teaching job because he ducks out during a Sandman attack to go and do Spider-Man things, he’s struggling to pay the mortgage on Aunt May’s house, and Mary Jane is close to losing her job at the Daily Bugle. What better timing could there be for their best friend Harry Osborn to suddenly walk back into their lives; free from his terminal illness and eager for Pete to join him in an incredible scientific start-up looking to end world hunger and save the bee population, among other things. Things are looking up, but then a catastrophic new threat emerges: the towering, physically-enhanced Kraven the Hunter, here in New York with a kitted-out private army looking for one last glorious hunt to end his life in a blaze of glorious violence. He targets supervillains in the attempt, even ones who’ve gone straight and intend to keep it that way, and poses a city-wide threat. Peter gets the upper hand when the symbiote keeping Harry alive bonds with him, though the frustration at Kraven interfering with his attempts to find Harry a different cure, the threat he poses to the city and the machinations of the very suit giving him the edge turns him into a bloodthirsty, snarling monster; there’s an excellent section where you play as Mary Jane trying to sneak past Hunters while the suit controls a sleeping Peter and rampages around the neighbourhood like something out of a horror game. The suit ends back up on Harry, who filled with rage at Peter putting his life in danger and seemingly abandoning him to his fate, gives himself over to it and becomes Venom; a huge, hulking killing machine out to “Heal the world” just like Harry and Peter wanted, but not in the way they intended. The black suit storyline is iconic, and while I personally prefer the version in Spectacular Spider-Man, this wisely takes a leaf out of that version’s book and makes it deeply personal. Without the suit Harry will die, so Peter’s stubborn refusal to part with what “Makes [him] a better Spider-Man” is like a dagger in the heart, but even as Venom he’s desperate for Peter to join him. It’s clear through dialogue that while he uses Venom’s standard plural pronouns he’s saying what Harry wants to. There’s a moment where Pete attempts to appeal to their shared past, bringing up Harry staying over at May’s house when his mum got sick, and Venom’s response is a sorrowful “We couldn’t see her like that”. Tony Todd does a superb job in the role; deep, intimidating and well-enunciated.

While all this is going on, Miles is struggling with the re-appearance of Martin Li and the resulting desire for murderous revenge welling up within him. His part of the story is less drastic than Peter’s, but the game makes sure to use him and keep him involved in everything that’s going on; it’s his and Peter’s game, even though the latter gets more focus. The story is excellent; Kraven and Venom are both brilliantly realised and feel like a step-up in stakes from The Sinister Six, which goes to show just how dangerous they are. Kraven’s single-minded desire for a good death, consequences be damned is reminiscent of the seminal “Kraven’s Last Hunt” but on a much larger scale, and the aforementioned highly personal nature of this game’s telling of the Black Suit and Venom storylines makes them all the more rich and affecting. It’s remarkable that the original comic version didn’t even have the suit making Peter more aggressive and potentially murderous; that all started in the 90s cartoon. Also, before I move on; Yuri Lowenthal once again smashes it as Spidey. He nails the more hostile, belligerent tone that comes with the Black Suit, and is an emotional wreck while having to fight his best friend. Like the Venom line I mentioned earlier he also has one line in particular I really liked: Dr Connors insists they have to destroy the symbiote and Peter responds: “…destroy us?” letting you know right away that things are about to go downhill fast. Good stuff.

Gameplay wise it’s largely the same as its two predecessors, though there are changes. All upgrades, whether they be to damage, focus or even webswinging speed are obtained manually now; levelling up just gets you a skill point. Suits no longer have special abilities and are purely cosmetic; Miles has his venom powers from his game alongside four new lightning-based ones, and Peter has the Iron Spider arms, which are replaced with more useful and powerful tendrils when he dons the symbiote. There are fewer gadgets and most of the ones that are here aren’t really that useful, you require a full bar of focus to heal, and both characters now have web wings that let them glide along, buoyed by slipstreams and vents around the city, which help cross the water to Queens; the new district. There are fewer side missions, but they’ve taken out a lot of padding from the original game; there are only four bases to clear out, and they no longer have waves of enemies or arbitrarily lock you out of stealth. Each Spider-Man has his own unique questlines, with two of the standouts being Miles helping students around his college campus, and a mission where you play as his deaf love interest Hailey and see things from her perspective; emojis and symbols appearing over people and objects to reflect both how she feels about them and how she’s interpreting their feelings from what information she can glean without them signing at her. Or is it sign to? I googled it and couldn’t find the answer, so delete as appropriate. Anyway the combat, traversal and stealth are all as good as they were in the previous games, although they’ve removed the ability to instantly zip over and knock out an enemy when you dodge at the right time, though they counter that by making air combat more viable and giving you greater options involving webbing people up and flinging them around. Combined with the special moves you always feel like you have the necessary tools to win a fight. Having the upgrades be unlocked manually is an improvement too, combined with the fact that the amount of currencies you need to unlock them have been greatly reduced.

So that’s Spider-Man 2; it takes what made the first game great and builds on it. As I said at the top I don’t know whether I prefer it to that game; that’ll take some time and mulling over, but it is excellent. It’s an excellent Spidey story with fantastic versions of Venom and Kraven, the padding and busywork is reduced and swinging around the city, duking it out with criminals and sneaking around webbing them to things still feel great. A worthy sequel, a great Spider-Man game, and a great game in general.

By James Lambert
@jameslambert18

Mortal Kombat 1 Review

It’s dawned on me recently that Mortal Kombat 11 is one of my favourite fighting games. The combos, the environmental interactions, the aesthetics and customisation; it’s all great, and the story is fun and engaging. It ended on a pretty drastic note, and so we have Mortal Kombat 1: a direct continuation of that story set in a newly created timeline, where Liu Kang is a god and he’s tried his best to stop anyone being a villain.

As the name implies, it’s sort of a new version of the original Mortal Kombat, but also a remake of the PS2 era; in particular Deadly Alliance and Armaggedon, though wisely it leaves most of that era’s absolute dreck of a roster where it belongs. It makes some pretty big changes whilst feeling familiar: the now human Raiden fills the roll Liu Kang had in the old games; champion of Earthrealm in the Mortal Kombat tournament. A non-blind Kenshi is in the Yakuza and desperate to leave and restore his clan’s honour. Bi-Han is once again the head of the Lin Kuei, though this time his brother Kuai Liang is Scorpion. Tarkatans are no longer a race, but people with a deadly disease that turns them into blood thirsty monsters, something Princess and heir to the throne Mileena is infected with. I like the changes a lot; it feels familiar but they’ve had fun shifting things around. Weirdly though, anyone not in the roster or upcoming DLC pack just isn’t here, something that feels really awkward during the part of the story that covers the tournament, where Liu Kang chooses four dudes as champions and whittles them down to one who’ll actually fight. It’s made worse by the appearance of PS2-era characters; Sonya, Cassie, Sheeva, Cyrax and Erron Black couldn’t make it but Nitara and Li Mei were too important to miss? About two thirds of the way through the villain reveals themselves, and while it’s a neat twist that further ties itself into MK11, everything after it feels like it’s in a rush. Liu Kang has to look for other timekeeper versions of the cast and comes up with a bunch of the same few people; he specifically says that in one of the infinite possibilities, Kano could be the keeper of time. That sounds neat, can I see that? No? Okay. Fortunately the climax makes up for it, where you race up the pyramid from Armageddon getting into fights with randomly selected alternate versions of characters, lots of whom are fun combinations of two existing characters. It’s a solid story, and I’m glad they were committed to it being a sequel to MK11 and not just a reboot, but the limited roster and rushed third act are detrimental.

Gameplay wise, I’m sad to say it’s a definite step back from MK11. The game makes a big deal out of its new “Kameo” system, but it’s basically just having an assist character that has three attacks; neutral, forwards and backwards. They can do Fatalities and Brutalities, but that’s just a novelty really, it doesn’t help in the actual fights. There are far fewer combos but characters have some interesting and dynamic normals; Scorpion for instance has swapped his rope spear for a kusarigama, and simple button presses allow him to sweep his opponent’s feet out from under them. Environmental interactions are gone, as are custom variations and move lists, and customisation is now limited to one piece of gear per character and skins. Said customisation is hampered by the usual WB bollocks; the more interesting stuff is only purchasable with premium currency and is locked in a rotating store front. If you want to unlock things with in-game money you’re limited to “Seasonal” content that at the time of writing is still sticking around for over a week, and unlocking random gear and concept art for a grand a pop. Each character has a mastery system that unlocks brutalities, their second fatality, palette swaps and the like but it’s painfully slow to unlock. Unlike MK11 you can’t see what gear each character has in advance, and instead of changing and dedicated towers filled with unlockables you have “Invasions”, a sort of board game where you move along a track getting into fights that offer very few rewards, and thanks to the levelling system you’re basically unkillable by the end and the game’s attempts to make things difficult by giving opponents multiple health bars and armour just waste your time.

Mortal Kombat 1 is a mixed bag. After the mighty behemoth that was Mortal Kombat 11, this feels like a step down; a solid story with issues, less fun and engaging fight mechanics, a smaller roster and far less interesting single player options and character customisation. Sadly, it feels lacking, and for far less money and less hard drive space you can get its vastly superior predecessor with all its DLC.

By James Lambert
@jameslambert18

Lies of P Review

A Pinocchio Soulslike you say? Fine, I’ll bite; stranger things have happened. I wouldn’t have bothered with this but I recently switched from PS Plus back to Gamepass for P5T and Like a Dragon Gaiden, so I gave it a go. I enjoyed the demo well enough, after all.

I haven’t read, or indeed seen Pinocchio (not even the GDT version), but I get the gist, and that’s enough to get by here. Krat is a sort of Belle Epoque, Italian/English/French melting pot city that ran on mechanical puppets doing all the heavy lifting. The “Grand Covenant”, a set of laws coded into every puppet to prevent them from hurting humans fails somehow, and the puppets rise up and brutally murder the majority of Krat’s denizens. The only ones left are a handful of civilians and “Stalkers”; masked killers roaming the streets looking to put down any puppets they find. You are not named Pinocchio but you are a puppet created by Gepetto; a unique one that can physically pass for human, and who is able to lie, which goes against another tenant of the Grand Covenant. I’ll call him P though, because it’s quicker than calling him “Gepetto’s puppet” or “Clever One” like the other characters do. P meets up with the civilian hold outs camping in a once grand hotel and sets out to find and put down the “King of Puppets”, surely the source of the puppet uprising, a quest made more complex and concerning by the appearance of monstrous, zombie-like creatures common outside Krat’s city limits. There’s a petrifying disease going around, but it’s not supposed to do this, and no one knows what’s going on. Obviously given my lack of experience with the source material I don’t know how this fairs as a Pinocchio adaptation, but as a story it’s pretty good. It has a quiet sense of horror and sorrow about it; P’s ability to lie ties into a “Humanity” meter that dictates the ending you get, and increasing it requires you to lie to people and spare them the horrible truth. Everyone gets put through the ringer one way or another, and the usual question of what makes someone human often has a disappointing outcome.

A Soulslike lives or dies on its combat, and they often put their own spin on the formula with varying results. Lies of P has a few: weapons have limited durability but can be repaired at any time with a dedicated item. Attacks can be dodged, but the game encourages you to parry, which wears an enemy down and enables you to stun them and hit them with a follow up special attack, and enough parries will break enemy weapons. Blocking an attack causes you damage, but you can regain it with successful attacks like the rally system in Bloodborne. They’re interesting changes, but personally they didn’t work that well for me. I found the parrying and blocking reminiscent of but inferior to Sekiro’s sublime combat, as a result I dodged and didn’t break any weapons. The ability to stun enemies with a charged attack and then follow up with a special isn’t exclusively tied into blocking though, and I found that useful. Less useful is the ability to mix and match weapon handles and heads, something I only used once. I’m not down on it though; despite the mechanics not clicking for me I enjoyed the combat; my focus on dodging and charge attacks made it feel like Bloodborne, especially the Stalker encounters, which are a lot like fighting hunters. Most bosses give you the ability to summon a dedicated helper with a plentiful item, elemental damage types are reliable and clearly tailored to certain enemy types (again like Bloodborne); combined with the rallying system and different defence options make Lies of P feel more newcomer friendly than some other examples of the genre. While playing it I thought back to when people who are wrong called Mortal Shell “Dark Souls without the baggage” and how that moniker is a far better fit for this game.

Despite the game’s general quality, it didn’t hold me enough to actually beat it. I’ve got right up to the final boss (interestingly, fighting him is optional and the choice to confront him can be reversed) and while I put up a good fight, I haven’t been able to beat him and I just can’t be bothered any more. Compared to say, Sword Saint Isshin or Slave Knight Gael I wasn’t invested enough to persevere and break through the wall.

Lies of P is a good game; it’s inventive, well-crafted, has a well-realised world filled with bloodthirsty animatronics and monsters and has some interesting mechanical changes to the standard Soulslike combat. I say all that, and I enjoyed it, but it’s not going to stick with me. I’ve seen people on Twitter who really love it, and I understand why; it’s good, but it’s not really for me. It certainly won’t trouble the likes of Nioh 2 and The Surge 2 in my ranking of this mini-genre.

By James Lambert
@jameslambert18

Cyberpunk 2077 Review

If you’re somehow unaware of Cyberpunk 2077, it’s a game that received massive hype, was delayed a whole lot and its development team underwent terrible crunch to meet unrealistic deadlines set by the higher ups. It was heralded as the greatest game ever made, here to save us all from our dreary existences, but then it came out in 2020 and was a broken mess. So broken in fact, that people who bought digital copies of the PS4/Xbone version got refunds, which is otherwise impossible if you’ve actually downloaded the game in question, at least on PS4. I played the Xbone version last year, and after several updates and patches it ran fine and I really enjoyed it; it got an honourable mention in my GOTY list, with an error I can’t fix because when I go to edit that page it doesn’t load properly. Anyway CD Projekt Red have given the game one last kick up the arse in the form of paid DLC and a final big update that makes some significant changes and fixes; this is what Cyberpunk 2077 was meant to be, so I thought that rather than just review the DLC I’d take a look at the game as a whole, what’s changed and what goes on in that DLC.

Based on the table top RPG of the same name, Cyberpunk 2077 is set in Night City; a Californian city independent from the US government, ruled by corporations (most prominently the Japanese Arasaka corp) and prowled by mercenaries who can legally murder, steal and kidnap as long as the job is handed down by a middleman “Fixer”. It’s a grimy, neon-lit hellhole and natural result of America’s love of capitalism, so ideal for the genre. You are V; one such mercenary out to become the best in Night City alongside her (gender is player determined) best mate Jackie Welles, and they’ve found just the gig to kickstart their ascent to the big leagues; break into a fancy, heavily fortified hotel and stealing an incredible piece of tech from Yorinobu Arasaka, son of Saburo; head of the corp and basically the ruler of Night City. Yorinobu’s stolen said tech and fled without any security, so now’s the time to steal it. Everything’s going great until Saburo arrives in person, expresses his disappointment in his son and gets strangled to death for his trouble. Things go downhill from there and end with V having to plug the tech into her head and getting shot in the face. The tech brings her back to life but comes with an enormous catch: it contains the personality of rock star Johnny Silverhand (Keanu Reeves), and that personality is going to overwrite hers and take over her body. Johnny is fiercely anti-Arasaka, and after he set off a nuke in Arasaka tower Saburo had him killed and his personality put on the very chip now slotted into V’s head. As a result he can and will appear before you and offer a commentary on what’s happening. V’s got weeks to live and Johnny wants out, so you put your heads together to find someone who can potentially help you out of the hole you’re in. That’s the main story set up, and as it goes on Johnny really ties everything together. Keanu gives a great performance as a man who starts as a selfish, rude arsehole and gradually becomes the story’s heart as he grows to genuinely care about V, something she can reciprocate as their icy, confrontational relationship softens and she values his opinion and cries his name out in fear whenever the chip malfunctions and she thinks she’s going to die. I love Johnny. He’s a sassy bitch, he has a good heart and he HATES capitalism. Elsewhere the supporting cast has some other gems, in particular Judy Alvarez, who works with Braindances; sort of VR films where the user feels the sensations felt by whoever filmed it. She’s adorable and far too good for this city. There’s also Takemura; a stiff, formal Arasaka killer who works with you against Yorinobu and Panam; a rebellious, kind-hearted member of a nomad tribe who roam the desert and V’s best friend after they work together and earn each other’s trust. The story is largely dark and grim; violence, suffering, disappointment and the ever present boot on humanity’s neck that is capitalism, but it’s less of a depressing slide into sorrow than Edgerunners was; it has more hopeful moments, and a plethora of sidequests and gigs that explore the sillier side of a world where technology has massively advanced but humanity has stayed the same. Not all of them though. There’s one where a prisoner wants to be crucified to atone for his sins and he asks you to hammer the nails in.

Phantom Liberty, by contrast, feels like a completely different story. It starts as an Escape From New York homage; the president of the New United States of America crash lands in a sealed off area of Night City called Dogtown, and her own private Netrunner (a hacker, basically) tasks V with rescuing her in exchange for a cure. That’s just the first act though; then you meet up with sleeper agent Idris Elba and it turns into a James Bond film set in the world from Call of Duty Black Ops 3. Dogtown is basically a run-down techno wasteland with a super fancy casino tower in the centre, where the main antagonist holds out; a Colonel Kurtz-esque NUSA colonel who took the area during a failed government assault on Night City and decided to stay there and turn it into his own little fiefdom. The sidequests are all good and feel in line with the main game, but the DLC’s primary questline feels like a dramatic shift and I’m not quite sure how I feel about it. I enjoyed it well enough, but no way near as much as the main game, and there’s no James Bond film I enjoy anywhere near as much as Escape From New York, so in terms of influences it peaked early for me. It does have some strong characters though, in particular Idris (always nice to see him. He doesn’t do as good a job as Keanu but he’s on his typical form), the President’s netrunner Songbird, who ends up becoming the centrepiece of the DLC, and a Fixer from the main game whom you finally meet in person and help with his plans to play kingmaker in the area.

Gameplay wise, it’s primarily a first person shooter. You have access to a variety of “Quickhacks” that let you interfere with technology, damage enemies and even force them to commit suicide once you’re strong enough, but these are really there to augment (no pun intended) the combat. Fortunately that combat is solid: the guns feel meaty and there’s good visual feedback in the form of enemies being torn apart, quickhacks are useful and there’s a nice variety of weapon types. There’s also a robust stealth system, which is made a lot more viable thanks to an incredibly useful unique silenced pistol you’re given during Phantom Liberty’s main story, and you can perform takedowns, hide bodies and instantly knock enemies out from afar with the right quickhack. If you’re looking for something more true to a table top experience with dice rolls and the like, this isn’t it, but it works well as a first person shooter with RPG elements and decent stealth. The update has fixed the police so they now actually pursue you and wander the streets instead of just spawning in behind you when you commit a crime and clothing is now entirely cosmetic as armour is tied directly into the cyberware (cyborg parts implanted by a doctor; they have a corresponding cost to have equipped that’s tied to one of your main stats) you have installed. The biggest change is an entirely reworked difficulty system for the world itself; no longer are quests, areas and the enemies contained within tied to level, now you can effectively go anywhere whenever you like. This does make it easier to just pick a quest you’re interested in and go and do it, but does take away any real difficulty curve the game had. Also CDPR have neglected to make Adam Smasher into anything resembling a real fight. Granted I was at the level cap when I fought him, but unlike the unstoppable god of death he was in Edgerunners, this Adam Smasher is little more than a speedbump on the way to the game’s conclusion. In terms of glitches, I encountered my fair share in this supposed “Fixed” version but nothing major or progress blocking. Performance wise it ran smoothly and compared to the last gen version the PS5 version has an improved level of detail that makes a difference. I remade my V based on my first playthrough and while I got them to look very similar, I realised the reason they weren’t quite the same is because the PS5 version just looks way better.

So that’s Cyberpunk 2077: great open-world action RPG gameplay married to an equally good story, a beautifully-realised setting and well-written, memorable characters, all tied together by Keanu Reeves. I loved it last year on Xbone, I loved it this year on PS5; it’s fantastic and if you’ve been holding out then I fully recommend diving in now.

By James Lambert
@jameslambert18