Marvel's Spider-Man: Miles Morales

• 1. Introduction

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  Marvel's Spider-Man: Miles Morales is a 2020 superhero game set in a Manhattan buried under Christmas snow. Its hero is a young Spider-Man who still doubts that he can wear the mask as well as the man who trained him. Around him, his new neighborhood of Harlem is sliding into a war between a powerful corporation and a high-tech criminal army. That army answers to a mysterious figure called the Tinkerer. Who hides behind that name, and what do they want? What does it cost a young hero to defend his home when his mentor is far away? And how did a spin-off released alongside a new console turn into a hit with millions of players?

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• 2. Alone in Harlem

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  A year after the first game ended, Miles Morales has moved from Brooklyn to Harlem. Peter Parker has trained him, and Miles has settled into the role of Spider-Man. Even so, he doubts he can live up to Peter's legacy. His mother, Rio Morales, is running for City Council, and the campaign keeps her in the public eye.

  Then Peter announces that he is leaving for Symkaria for several weeks. His girlfriend, Mary Jane Watson, is writing about the country's civil war, and Peter will join her as photographer. He trusts Miles to protect New York as its only Spider-Man.

  The handover follows a disaster of Miles's own making. While escorting a police transport of prisoners to the rebuilt Raft, he accidentally frees several inmates, including the supervillain Rhino. Rhino's rampage through the city knocks Peter unconscious. Miles steps in to protect him and defeats Rhino with a new bio-electric ability, later called Venom. Rhino is then left in the custody of the energy corporation Roxxon, headed by Simon Krieger.

  Roxxon is one side of the conflict in Harlem. The other is the Underground. Miles investigates a break-in at Roxxon Plaza and stops the Underground from stealing Nuform, Roxxon's new experimental power source. At home, his best friend and classmate Ganke Lee, who knows his secret identity, is already building a Spider-Man app so that citizens can call Miles for help directly.

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• 3. Phin and the Tinkerer

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  Phin Mason is Miles's childhood best friend, and Rio invites her to Christmas even though Miles has not spoken to her in months. He does not yet know that Phin is the Tinkerer, the figurehead of the Underground. The Underground attacks one of Rio's campaign rallies in front of Roxxon Plaza. It then hits a Roxxon transport carrying Nuform on the Braithwaite Bridge. Miles tries to stop the theft and discovers who Phin is, but his Venom Power makes most of the Nuform explode. The bridge is destroyed and his public image is damaged. Ganke reminds him that, for now, he is New York's only Spider-Man.

  Phin's motive lies with her brother Rick, Miles's other friend. Rick created Nuform while working for Roxxon, and he grew sick because its properties were unstable. The siblings wanted to warn the public about the danger. While Rick was trying to shut down a Nuform reactor, Krieger killed him and then took credit for inventing Nuform.

  Phin built the Underground's advanced weaponry from programmable matter, in exchange for the group's help in taking revenge on Krieger. Her plan was to sabotage the reactor at Roxxon Plaza, destroying it and exposing Nuform's dangerous side effects.

  Miles uses their old friendship to get inside the Underground, but he must reveal that he is Spider-Man to save his own life. That sours the friendship. Roxxon later captures both of them with help from Rhino, whose exosuit has been enhanced with Roxxon technology. They escape, and Miles learns that Krieger has modified the reactor to destroy Harlem if Phin's plan succeeds. After Rhino is defeated, he taunts Phin about Rick's death. She attacks him viciously, and Miles stops her from killing him. Furious, she knocks Miles out and escapes.

  At Roxxon Plaza, Miles fights and overpowers Phin. He then tries to absorb the Nuform from the reactor to cancel the blast, but the energy is too much for him. Realizing her errors, Phin flies Miles to a safe distance above the city so that he can release it, and she dies in the process. Miles falls to the ground, where citizens he once helped learn his identity. They promise to keep his secret and hail him as a hero.

  In a post-credits scene, Miles leaves an award he won with Phin atop Trinity Church in her memory.

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• 4. Uncle Aaron's Secret

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  Aaron Davis, Miles's estranged and overprotective uncle, is the first person to use Ganke's new app. He uses it to reveal that he knows his nephew is Spider-Man. Aaron leads a double life as the armored mercenary called the Prowler. As the Prowler, he helps Miles infiltrate a Roxxon lab to retrieve Phin's phone, which holds evidence of Krieger's crimes. The phone is destroyed during Miles's escape. Aaron then advises Miles to use his friendship with Phin to get inside the Underground.

  Later, Miles learns that Aaron has been spying on him for Roxxon. After an injured Miles is brought home by Ganke, Rio discovers her son's identity. She continues to support him. Miles heads out to stop Phin, but Aaron captures him and imprisons him underground. He wants to keep Miles from being killed the way Miles's father, Jefferson Davis, was. Aaron never reconciled with his brother before the officer's death, and that guilt drives his overprotectiveness. Jefferson appears in the game only as a voice, performed by Russell Richardson.

  Miles escapes and defeats Aaron, explaining that he cannot turn his back on people when they need him. Inspired by his nephew's words, Aaron helps Rio evacuate Harlem as the Underground and Roxxon fight in the streets. That frees Miles to head for Roxxon Plaza.

  Four weeks later, Roxxon faces numerous lawsuits. Aaron turns himself in and testifies against Krieger, who is arrested. Peter returns from Symkaria, praises Miles for his growth and heroism, and the two go off to fight crime together as the Spider-Men.

  A mid-credits scene looks elsewhere. Norman Osborn orders a reluctant Dr. Curt Connors to release Norman's terminally ill son Harry from stasis, despite Harry's unstable condition.

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• 5. Venom and Web

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  Venom Blast is the first of three new powers Miles unlocks as the story progresses. It lets the player incapacitate enemies with bio-electricity, and it can also charge or drain electronics. Camouflage gives Miles temporary invisibility. Mega Venom Blast releases a massive burst of bio-electricity that damages every enemy nearby.

  The game is played from a third-person perspective, with the focus on traversal and combat. It uses the same open world as its predecessor, a fictionalized version of modern-day Manhattan. Miles controls much like Peter Parker but with new animations. Combat is about chaining attacks and using the environment, webs and Venom attacks to take down many foes while avoiding damage.

  Remote Mines are one of the new gadgets, and they can attach to enemies or electrical panels. Another gadget summons holographic fighters to help in combat. Gravity Wells trap several enemies at once and make them easier to hit. Abilities and gadgets can be upgraded as the player levels up through a skill tree.

  Miles also has a spider sense, which warns of incoming attacks so the player can dodge and retaliate. His web-shooters fire lines of web for both traversal and combat. He can jump great distances, stick to surfaces, and fast travel on the New York City Subway.

  There are several unlockable suits. Some are based on existing versions of the character in other media, and others were created for this game. Many of them improve his abilities, letting him take more damage, stay invisible for longer, or regenerate Venom Power faster.

  The Spider-Man app gives Miles feedback on crimes happening in the city and where they are. It also tells the player which side missions are available, which helps with leveling up. In certain sections of the game, the player controls Miles as a civilian and cannot use any of his abilities or gadgets.

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• 6. Building a Smaller Game

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  Simon Rutter, a Sony vice president, told The Telegraph that the game was "an expansion and an enhancement to the previous game". Insomniac later described it as a standalone game and "the next adventure in the Marvel's Spider-Man universe". It is smaller in size and scope than Spider-Man. It has been compared to Uncharted: The Lost Legacy, a standalone expansion that was smaller than a mainline Uncharted title.

  Insomniac Games developed it and Sony Interactive Entertainment published it for the PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5. The game promised "a new story, with new set-pieces, fresh villains, and unique quests". On the PlayStation 5, it takes advantage of the console's ray-tracing hardware, solid-state drive and Tempest Engine. The DualSense controller supports advanced haptic feedback, and the console adds 3D spatial audio and reduced loading times. The version supports high dynamic range and an optional performance mode that runs at 4K resolution and 60 frames per second.

  John Paesano returned to compose the score after writing the music for the 2018 game. The first game's music was more orchestral. For Miles Morales, he mixed orchestral themes with hip hop. Three original songs were made for the soundtrack. Jaden Smith performs "I'm Ready", and Lecrae performs "Where We Come From" and "This Is My Time".

  Nadji Jeter voices Miles, and Yuri Lowenthal returns as Peter. Newcomers include Jasmin Savoy Brown as Phin, Ike Amadi as Aaron and Troy Baker as Krieger. Ashly Burch plays the podcaster and Spider-Man supporter Danika Hart.

  The game had "gone gold" in October 2020. That meant physical copies were ready to be produced, and any further work would arrive as software updates.

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• 7. Launch Week

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  In June 2020, the game was announced at the PlayStation 5 reveal event as a launch title. It was released worldwide on the 12th of November 2020 for the PlayStation 4. The PlayStation 5 version came out the same day in North America, Australia and New Zealand, and reached the rest of the world a week later.

  The standard edition holds the base game and is sold for both consoles. Its PlayStation 4 version supports a free upgrade to the PlayStation 5 version. The Ultimate Edition, for the PlayStation 5, bundles the base game with Marvel's Spider-Man Remastered. Launch variants in North America came with instant access to the T.R.A.C.K. suit, Miles's suit from the 2018 animated film Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, three extra skill points and a Gravity Well gadget. International retailers delivered the same items as a redeemable code. Everyone else could earn them during the game.

  The game carries a dedication to Chadwick Boseman, the original Marvel Cinematic Universe actor who played Black Panther. He died of colon cancer two months before the release.

  Tie-in books followed. Brittney Morris wrote a prequel novel, Marvel's Spider-Man: Miles Morales - Wings of Fury, published on the 10th of November 2020. In it, Miles questions everything after Vulture and an accomplice called Starling release experimental tech onto New York. Matt Ralphs wrote The Art of the Game, released on the 16th of February 2021. It collects concept art, in-game renderings and insights from the artists and Insomniac.

  In March 2021, Funko Pop! Vinyl figures of the Classic and T.R.A.C.K. suits were released. The T.R.A.C.K. figure had a limited chase variant with Miles unmasked. More suit figures arrived the next month, including Bodega Cat, S.T.R.I.K.E, Advanced Tech, Purple Rein, Crimson Cowl, Winter and Programmable Matter. The last two had exclusive variants at Hot Topic and GameStop.

  A Windows version arrived on the 18th of November 2022 through Steam and the Epic Games Store, three months after Spider-Man Remastered. It offers more graphical options, unlocked framerates, ultrawide monitor support, and technologies such as Nvidia's DLSS 3 and Reflex, AMD's FidelityFX Super Resolution 2.1 and Intel's XeSS. The PlayStation studio Nixxes Software developed the port.

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• 8. Reception and Sales

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  Metacritic, the review aggregator, rates the game as having "generally favorable reviews". Jonathon Dornbush of IGN enjoyed the PlayStation 5 enhancements and the more compelling side missions. Chris Carter of Destructoid praised the story and Miles's new abilities. Andrew Reiner of Game Informer liked the improved combat and the area of Harlem. Critics also praised the game's technical improvements on the PlayStation 5, while some criticized its short length.

  In Japan, the PlayStation 4 version sold 22,882 physical units in its first week, making it the eighth best-selling retail game that week. The PlayStation 5 version sold 18,640 physical units and ranked tenth. By March 2023-92,846 units had sold in Japan. It was also the best-selling physical PlayStation 5 launch game in the United Kingdom. In Germany, it sold over 100,000 units in its launch month and 200,000 by the end of December 2020.

  In April 2021, Jeff Grubb of VentureBeat reported that the game had outsold both The Last of Us Part II and Ghost of Tsushima in the United States. It was the twelfth best-selling game of 2020 there, and the sixth best-selling of 2021. By December 2020, it had sold 663,000 digital units across both consoles, and by July 2021 it had passed 6.5 million units overall.

  In December 2023, a ransomware attack on Insomniac Games led to a leak. It showed that in June 2020 the game was projected to sell over 10.2 million units and earn $260 million in revenue. As of June 2023, it had sold 14.4 million units worldwide. That brought a profit of nearly $270 million, a 242% return on investment.

  The game appears in award listings that begin with The Game Awards on the 10th of December 2020. They continue through the British Academy Games Awards on the 25th of March 2021 and the D.I.C.E. Awards on the 22nd of April 2021. The Steam Awards listed it on the 3rd of January 2023 for Outstanding Visual Style, and the remastered version for Outstanding Story-Rich Game.

  Marvel's Spider-Man 2, released on the 20th of October 2023, is a direct continuation of Miles Morales and a sequel to the first game.

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