Marvel's Spider-Man 2

• 1. Introduction

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  Marvel's Spider-Man 2 sold more than 2.5 million copies in its first 24 hours, the fastest start of any game from PlayStation Studios. Insomniac Games made the action-adventure for Sony Interactive Entertainment, and it reached the PlayStation 5 on the 20th of October 2023. The sales figure is striking, but the story behind it is stranger than the numbers suggest. This sequel puts two Spider-Men on screen at once. Yet the most dangerous threat in New York is not a monster waiting on a rooftop. It is something a hero chooses to put on himself. Why would a superhero game build its drama around a friendship instead of a fight? How does a studio prepare a villain years before he arrives? And how do two heroes, a hunter and a city full of familiar enemies fit into one coherent story?

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• 2. Two Spider-Men

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  Peter Parker and Miles Morales can trade places at any moment while the player roams New York. Each hero also has missions built around his own traits, in the main story and in side activities. The map grows as well. Brooklyn and Queens now sit beside Manhattan, which was the main setting of the two earlier games.

  Web Wings are the new tool for crossing that larger city. Both heroes' new suits carry them, and gliding speed and distance improve in places such as wind tunnels.

  Parrying becomes essential in combat, because certain enemy types cannot be dodged at all. Each hero's gadget wheel also gains new mods for the web-shooters. The Web Line can be stretched across pillars, giving a player more footing while hanging above enemies in stealth sequences. The Web Grabber pulls several enemies into one isolated spot, where Stealth Takedowns can be performed on two enemies at once.

  Peter has a second mode of play. When he is bonded to the Venom symbiote, he gains tendrils for combat and a set of web-based abilities of his own.

  Progress runs through Skill Points. Each Spider-Man has an individual Skill Tree, and a third tree holds abilities the two of them share. Outside the main story, players complete side missions and gather collectibles scattered across the open world.

  The roster of playable characters reaches beyond the two heroes, since Mary Jane Watson and Venom each take control in certain missions.

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• 3. A Crowded Rogues Gallery

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  Ten months after the events of Spider-Man: Miles Morales from 2020, a mercenary faction called the Hunters arrives in New York. Its leader is Sergei Kravinoff, known as Kraven the Hunter and voiced by Jim Pirri. The Hunters exist to track down super-powered people, and Kraven is searching for an equal. By the time Peter investigates, Kraven has already killed Scorpion, Vulture, Shocker and Electro. Peter then learns the reason behind the hunt. Kraven is dying of inoperable cancer and wants a warrior's death in combat.

  Cletus Kasady, who goes by The Flame, runs a nihilistic cult. His followers want to perform a demonic ritual that would bring about an end-of-the-world event they call the Crimson Hour. Chad Doreck voices him, and Tony Todd lends his voice to Venom.

  Several enemies return from the first game. Martin Li appears as Mister Negative, Mac Gargan as Scorpion, Lonnie Lincoln as Tombstone and Felicia Hardy as Black Cat. Other villains who were only mentioned before now step into the story.

  Flint Marko, a lowly burglar, gained the power to turn into sand through an accident, and he becomes Sandman. Curt Connors, a scientist at Oscorp, has transformed into the giant reptilian Lizard. Dmitri Smerdyakov, a criminal master of disguise, is Chameleon and Kraven's half-brother, and Pirri voices him as well. Quentin Beck, a visual effects artist and reformed criminal, has become head developer of a virtual reality attraction called Mysterium.

  The heroes lean on a wide circle of allies. Mary Jane Watson, voiced by Laura Bailey, is a Daily Bugle reporter and Peter's girlfriend. Ganke Lee is Miles' classmate and a tech guru. Miles' mother Rio sits on the city council. Hailey Cooper is a deaf street artist, and Aaron Davis, Miles' estranged uncle, once operated as the Prowler.

  One cameo carries a story from another film. Delilah, a skilled assassin who tends bar at the Bar with No Name in an alternate universe, appears during the side-quest called The Message. She was originally meant to appear in Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse in 2023, until her scene was cut.

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• 4. Harry and the Symbiote

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  Peter Parker's first day as a physics teacher at Brooklyn Visions Academy ends early, with Miles Morales sitting among his students. A rampaging Sandman interrupts the class, and both Spider-Men must subdue him. Peter is fired for abandoning the room. He heads to his late Aunt May's home in Queens, where he now lives, to meet Mary Jane. There they find their friend Harry Osborn, who has miraculously recovered from a terminal illness. Harry hires Peter at his environmental technology startup, the Emily-May Foundation, to chase Harry's dream of healing the world.

  Harry's illness was a neurological disease inherited from his mother, Emily. His father, Norman Osborn, is a former mayor of New York and the chief executive of Oscorp.

  At Coney Island, the Hunters attack to capture a reformed Tombstone. A super-powered Harry helps Peter rescue civilians, and in the process he learns that Peter is Spider-Man. Harry explains that Curt Connors cured him with a powerful organic exosuit, at his father's insistence. Kraven then kidnaps Connors, forces him into his Lizard form, steals a possible antidote and mortally wounds Peter. Moments before Peter would die, the exosuit moves from Harry to Peter and saves his life.

  The suit will not come off. Connors eventually reveals that it is an alien lifeform, a symbiote that Oscorp took from a meteorite years earlier. He advises Peter to destroy it. Under its corrupting influence, Peter refuses, even after learning that Harry's illness has returned. That strains their friendship. Peter goes on a rampage against the Hunters and nearly kills Mary Jane at one point.

  Meanwhile, Kraven captures Miles and forces him to fight Martin Li. Miles overcomes his anger and helps Li escape, telling him to find Peter. Peter storms Kraven's fortress and nearly kills Kraven, until Miles helps him shake off the symbiote's hold.

  Peter brings the symbiote to Oscorp to be destroyed, but a desperate Harry takes it back and becomes a monstrous creature. He slaughters Oscorp staff who try to remove it, then flees to Times Square. There he defeats several Hunters and kills Kraven, to Kraven's own satisfaction. The symbiote persuades Harry to heal the world by infecting everyone on Earth, beginning with New York. Calling themselves Venom, Harry and the symbiote turn Mary Jane into Scream. Peter breaks her free after fighting and reconciling with her.

  A trace of the symbiote still inside Peter leaves him weakened. Martin Li uses his powers to convert those traces into the Anti-Venom symbiote, which can destroy other symbiotes. Venom recovers the meteorite that first brought the symbiote to Earth and grows stronger, speeding up the infestation. Peter and Miles distract Venom while Mary Jane steals the meteorite and destroys it with the Emily-May Foundation's particle accelerator. The symbiote horde dies with it. At Harry's insistence, Peter destroys the symbiote and frees his friend, but Harry is left comatose.

  In the aftermath, Mary Jane quits the Daily Bugle to run her own podcast and moves in with Peter. Peter takes a break from being Spider-Man to rebuild the foundation, trusting Miles to guard the city. Norman blames the Spider-Men for ruining Harry's recovery. He visits Otto Octavius, locked in the Raft, to demand their secret identities, and Octavius refuses, delighting in Norman's pain. Miles finishes his college essay and meets Rio's new boyfriend, Albert Moon, who introduces his daughter Cindy.

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• 5. Seeds Planted Early

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  At Sony's PlayStation 5 reveal event in June 2020, Insomniac said that a game starring Miles would not change the fact that it had "much of Peter's story left to tell". The studio had been leaving clues for a sequel for some time. Post-credits scenes in the earlier games hinted at Venom, and they gave Norman Osborn and his son Harry larger roles.

  Creative director Bryan Intihar said the studio had discussed offering the Black Suit as an unlockable costume during work on the first game. A meeting with art director Gavin Goulden and with Bill Rosemann and Eric Monacelli of Marvel Games changed that view. They convinced the team that the symbiote needed a more significant place in the story to justify its inclusion.

  Insomniac announced Marvel's Spider-Man 2 alongside Marvel's Wolverine at the PlayStation Showcase in September 2021. Intihar and game director Ryan Smith returned in their earlier roles. Yuri Lowenthal, Nadji Jeter and Laura Bailey came back as the leads, while Jim Pirri and Tony Todd joined as Kraven and Venom.

  Rosemann described the story as "a little darker" and as "the next big chapter". He compared its tone to The Empire Strikes Back from 1980, and he said the first game felt closer to the original Star Wars from 1977.

  The team changed in the following months. In January 2022, Brittney Morris, author of the Miles Morales novel Wings of Fury, joined the writers. In June 2022, freelance artist Davison Carvalho became art director. Carvalho had also worked as a concept artist on several Marvel Cinematic Universe films.

  In November 2022, actor Scott Porter revealed that he had been recast as Harry Osborn after voicing the character in the first game. He said the age gap became an issue because "they decided to go photorealistic". Graham Phillips was announced as the new Harry at San Diego Comic-Con in July 2023.

  Lowenthal drew on "behaviors of addiction" to separate his two performances as Peter. He also compared his symbiote-driven delivery to his work as Sasuke Uchiha in the anime Naruto. He had to "dig a little bit" to find that downbeat angst, after years of playing "plucky young heroes".

  The game does not use Eddie Brock as the symbiote's host, which departs from most Spider-Man stories featuring the character. Intihar wanted an original story that stood apart from both the comics and the films, while still respecting Venom's roots. He pointed to the Advanced Suit from the first game as a model. It kept the classic red and blue colors, but an enlarged white spider emblem made it Insomniac's own.

  The game went gold in late September, a month before it reached players.

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• 6. Selling the Sequel

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  In May 2023, the PlayStation Showcase gave audiences their first look at real gameplay. The mission showed Peter in the symbiote suit and Miles as Spider-Man, stopping Kraven's Hunters from capturing Curt Connors. Connors was mid-transformation into the Lizard, and he crashed into a fish market near the New York City docks.

  A different clip appeared in the film Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse. In one scene, Miles' roommate Ganke Lee plays the game on a PlayStation 5 in their dorm. On screen, Peter uses spider-leg appendages on the back of his new Advanced Suit to start a takedown on a common thug.

  Summer Game Fest 2023 brought concept art of the Spider-Men fighting Kraven and Venom. Intihar appeared as a guest to announce the launch date and box art. The main theme, Greater Together by composer John Paesano, was previewed at The Game Awards 10-Year Concert in June 2023. It reached streaming services soon afterward.

  In July 2023, a Hall H panel at San Diego Comic-Con carried the title Symbiotic Relationships. Intihar, Marvel Games producer Bill Rosemann, Lowenthal, Jeter, Bailey and Todd took part. The panel debuted a story trailer and revealed commemorative PlayStation 5 console bundles and accessories. A State of Play presentation in September 2023 featured a gameplay overview narrated by Intihar. Media preview events in Los Angeles offered longer demos. The launch trailer followed on the 15th of October 2023 at New York Comic Con.

  A prequel comic arrived from Marvel Comics on Free Comic Book Day in May 2023. Christos Gage wrote it and Ig Guara drew it. Peter, Miles and Mary Jane struggle to balance their personal duties against their work as Spider-Men. The villain is the Hood, who is hunting an allegedly ancient tablet inscribed with magic tomes, hoping to revive his dying mother. Writer Jon Paquette said the team wanted the two Spider-Men to face a threat with powers beyond their understanding.

  On the 1st of September 2023, Sony released a themed PlayStation 5 bundle. The custom face plates and DualSense controller show the Venom symbiote wrapping around a red gradient on Peter's Spider-Man emblem. Art director Jacinda Chew described the design as a "constant push and pull for dominance whether it's internal or external and the outcome is not certain." The bundle included a digital voucher for pre-loading the standard edition. Owners of existing consoles could buy the face plates and controller separately.

  The Digital Deluxe Edition added two sets of five suits for Peter and Miles, designed by guest artists from PlayStation Studios and the wider entertainment industry. It also included extra frames, Photo Mode stickers and two extra skill points. The Collector's Edition added a voucher for that deluxe edition, a steel bookcase and a 19-inch statue of the Spider-Men fighting Venom.

  Every pre-order, regardless of edition, carried bonuses: the Arachknight Suit for Peter, the Shadow-Spider Suit for Miles, the Web Grabber gadget and three more skill points.

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• 7. The Critical Verdict

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  Metacritic labeled the critical response "universal acclaim", and 97% of critics on OpenCritic recommended the game. Gene Park of The Washington Post praised the rising tension between Peter and Miles, and the friendship between Peter and Harry Osborn. He said it was pushed as far as possible in a way that was "satisfying to watch."

  Matt Miller of Game Informer admired how the story draws on philosophical ideas about heroism and villainy. He pointed to its questions about "returning from a dark place and having another chance, no matter past mistakes." Miller also found it works alone but is "made better by experiencing its entirety" alongside the earlier games.

  Hayes Madsen of Inverse gave the game a 10/10. He credited the way it blends the ongoing story with its mechanics, using flashback sequences to teach stealth and puzzle-solving. He also noted the balance between quiet character moments, minigames and large action set-pieces.

  Sales kept climbing after the first day. The game passed five million copies within 11 days, and in the United Kingdom it was the best-selling retail game in its week of release. That made it the fourth-biggest physical launch of the year there. In the United States, it was the fourth best-selling game of 2023. By the 4th of February 2024 it had sold ten million copies, and by the 20th of April 2024 more than eleven million. As of the 29th of November 2025, sales on the PlayStation 5 had reached 16 million.

  Year-end lists were generous. Push Square and Eurogamer named it their game of the year. Time, Game Informer and The Guardian placed it third, and GamesRadar+ and Empire placed it fourth. The Ringer and Forbes put it fifth. IGN readers voted it game of the year, and it took PS5 Game of the Year at the PlayStation Blog Awards.

  The game earned nominations at the Golden Joystick Awards, The Game Awards 2023 and the 24th Game Developers Choice Awards. At the 27th Annual D.I.C.E. Awards it won six major awards, including Action Game of the Year. At the 20th British Academy Games Awards, Nadji Jeter won Performer in a Leading Role for Miles Morales. The NAVGTR Awards gave it wins in seven categories. Those included Best Game, Franchise Action, and a lead drama performance award for Yuri Lowenthal.

  A New Game Plus mode arrived on the 7th of March 2024. Nixxes Software then brought the game to Windows on the 30th of January 2025.

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• 8. What Comes Next

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  In September 2023, shortly before release, narrative director Ben Arfmann addressed the question of future games. A month later, senior narrative director Jon Paquette and Insomniac discussed a possible spin-off starring Venom. Senior creative director Bryan Intihar said a third main game would be "pretty epic". He compared the first game and Spider-Man: Miles Morales to the 2008 film Iron Man, and this sequel to Captain America: Civil War from 2016.

  Intihar also confirmed that Marvel's Wolverine is set in the same shared universe. He said he preferred that the Wolverine team keep making a game that stands on its own. He did not rule out a crossover, which the studios had discussed earlier in development.

  Fans had noticed that the law offices of Matt Murdock and Foggy Nelson, from Daredevil, appeared debranded and vacated. Asked about it, Intihar answered, "That's a good question. Stay tuned. Good find though."

  In November 2023, Arfmann and Morris confirmed that Miles Morales would be considered the main Spider-Man in later entries. A multiplayer game titled Spider-Man: The Great Web was planned but canceled.

  In December 2023, the cybercrime group Rhysida launched a ransomware attack on Insomniac Games. It published 1.6 terabytes of sensitive material, including employee data, development assets and pre-production plans. Most of it concerned Marvel's Wolverine. Documents and studio roadmaps in the leak also pointed to several other Marvel games in development. They included a standalone Venom game and Marvel's Spider-Man 3, which the Venom game was expected to set up.

  On the 24th of February 2025, Yuri Lowenthal confirmed that Peter Parker will appear in an upcoming sequel to Marvel's Spider-Man 2.

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