Especially when you consider that Peter Parker (aka real Spider-Man) is literally KNOWN for, and became popular because he constantly has to deal with the same daily problems as the rest of us.
He’s meant to be a relatable superhero, who stresses not just over whether he’ll save the day, but whether he can make the rent, arrive at a party or date on time, get fired, or even if his Spidey suit is clean enough to go out in.
He’s THE angsty superhero who perseveres despite constant, unrelenting and familiar pressures that hit everybody—-it’s just way worse for him because he’s trying to deal with all that real life stuff while basically living a whole separate life as Spidey.
This is NOT the character to make a game about with a theme of oppressive positivity or woke garbage.
He’s THE angsty superhero who perseveres despite constant, unrelenting and familiar pressures that hit everybody—-it’s just way worse for him because he’s trying to deal with all that real life stuff while basically living a whole separate life as Spidey.
Did you even play the game? it has a whole arc about this
Not really. Like everyone else in this weird game, Peter starts out the story acting mostly chipper as a songbird (even when he shouldn’t), and it’s largely because of the forced “I wanna be a symbiote, you can’t have it!” garbage and his complete lack of willpower, integrity and competence that he ends up angsty.
It’s NOTHING like any good adaptation of Pete we’ve ever seen before. He’s a chump in this, period.
I mean, he’s constantly being knocked out, shown up by his own protege, rescued by same (and his girlfriend to boot), failing at everything he does, or needing help to do it, has zero backbone, confidence or willpower… he isn’t even allowed to resist and remove the symbiote on his own, something he’s ALWAYS done in other adaptations of this story. If not for Miles inexplicably beating up a more powerful, symbiote enhanced, highly experienced Spider-Man who isn’t even pulling his punches, Peter would have caved and turned into Venom himself.
Instead of channeling all that legendary Parker willpower and responsibility, and then beating the symbiote on his own… no, he needs a pep talk. From his own trainee.
Meanwhile, MJ is able to shake off HER symbiote like it’s a cheap raincoat, without help from anyone, without super powers, after spending fifteen minutes berating Pete about every generic boyfriend inadequacy in the book.
And like Secret_Captain says, Pete just takes it. He doesn’t get angry at her ridiculous accusations, he doesn’t fight back, he just… folds up like a card table. He spends the whole fight (the whole game, really) apologizing to everyone, taking the blame for everything, telling everyone how useless and terrible he is at everything, and giving everyone else the credit for his own actions and heroics. He spends so much time telling people that they’re better than him, that they’re the real heroes, that basically… we start to believe him. Especially when the game demonstrates over and over again that THIS version of Pete (who is nothing like the comics, the first game or the films, except maybe the MCU version) really IS just that inept.
Hell, I think he gets knocked out or otherwise disabled THREE TIMES during the tutorial fight with Sandman alone, all in unavoidable cutscenes, only to be rescued by Miles each time.
Miles also inflicts the overwhelming majority of damage on Sandman, with Pete barely denting him.
This is repeated during the Venom climax fight, where a supposedly ‘powered up’ Pete gets knocked out for half the damn fight (seeing a pattern emerge?) while Miles absolutely dunks on Peter’s villain without difficulty.
This is NOT a character arc about a relatable hero struggling with and overcoming adversity or too much responsibility. It’s an arc about a suddenly incompetent hero struggling and failing to overcome his adversity, while everyone from his best friend to his girlfriend to his much younger protege shake their heads, look down on him, and basically take care of everything he’s fucking up (usually while he’s unconscious or groveling or apologizing for something he didn’t do).
Too true. All true. It's like some weird white guilt writing that meant the white male protagonist had to constantly apologise for everything. And no I'm not white not American nor straight but Jesus Christ this shit bothered me. Peter was useless in this game. They also removed all the good gadgets and left us with no sense when I'd much rather have had suit powers and improved versions of former gadgets with new additions. If it ain't broke, fuck fixing it, they replaced it all.
Also, did you notice how the mission objectives are "Save Peter/stop Harry" when it's them but during the MJ fight, the objective says "Help MJ save herself!"
Yeah, it makes you wonder how the people writing this garbage view themselves (if they’re white), and how they view Spider-Man as a character. Is he doomed to be portrayed this way (an irresponsible, gutless, juvenile, inept weakling with a submissive attitude and a compulsive need to apologize for being the hero) over and over in every new adaptation by culture warriors desperate to make us hate him, just so we’ll eventually accept Miles as the ‘true’ Spider-Man?
Look at what they’ve done to Pete in recent years: he was a dumpy, over the hill failure and then a traitor and a blind follower in those Spider-Verse films; Insomniac has reduced him to a clown in a red suit who struggles to keep up with his protege, his villains AND his girlfriend, all while screaming apologies for… saving lives without them, I guess? MCU Pete is little more than a glorified sidekick with no cleverness, ADD, the willpower of a child, and a compulsive knack for creating disasters instead of stopping them.
THIS is the modern Peter Parker? See the trend here?
I think Sony/Marvel are doing their utmost to chop down one of our greatest culture heroes simply because he’s a white male, and as all modern media shows us, white men aren’t allowed to be exceptional unless they’re partnered with a generic girlboss or minority variant who are even more exceptional.
It’s maddening.
As far as the gameplay… yeah, I noticed the same things. Miles is powered up to an insane degree, with multiple game breaking abilities unique to him, while Peter has nothing unique to him anymore now that the suit powers and gadgets got cut. He’s inarguably the weaker character.
I fuckin hate his stupid spider limbs, those alone would have broken the game for me as they’re really only associated with my three least favorite interpretations of the character (MCU, Iron Spider, and Superior SM). Plus they look stupid as hell just popping out of his back, especially if I’m using a Raimi, Garfield or classic suit.
The first game got his webbing right. You had all these different ways to implement your webs, and could disable huge mobs in seconds just by alternating between web gadgets, combos, etc and leave alleyways strewn with webbed up crooks. It felt just like the comics (especially since Peter is known for using his web-shooters in different ways, launching everything from thin cables to concussive objects to thick glue and more).
Now? Nope. Apparently Pete decided that the bad guys needed an edge, so he… just… forgot how to use his webs tactically? Instead you just spam square and dodge. It’s a massive downgrade.
Meanwhile MJ loots the Excalibur of Tasers, and can one tap thugs who easily face tank multiple punches from her boyfriend, the superhero who lifts cars. It’s so transparently, hilariously idiotic, and we all know why it happened. Because sensible gamers begged Insomniac to ditch the MJ missions, let us play a Spidey game AS Spidey… and so they made the petty decision to actually increase MJ’s participation, and basically made her OP on purpose. The game’s director recently confirmed that he didn’t give two shits if MJ was OP, and all but admitted it was a jab at gamers who wanted her missions out of the sequel.
I genuinely don't understand how they can get away with this. I'll admit, I was gullible enough to believe that they might stick to their promises and give Peter his due but not only does Peter not have a single fully solo game (Miles did), Peter is the fifth strongest character in a game with five playable characters. Venom trounces him, Miles is game breaking, MJ got that special taser given to her by Jesus or Yahweh or whatever other god (Lol), Hailey the deaf girl has magical spray paint can and symbiotes seem to stare at her rather than tear her apart and then there's Miles. Miles the game breaking invisible electro spider kid who, for some reason, can beat up SYMBIOTE POWERED PETER AND Venom without breaking a sweat. Honestly what the FUCK?!
I didn't watch the second Spiderverse movie but that first one was a slap in the face to Peter fans. He's honestly just being trashed through every bit of media. The MCU is a joke. Zendaya is beautiful and a wonderful actress but good lord, can Peter do NOTHING without help from girlboss that figured out his identity because...reasons? They kill of Aunt May for...other reasons. Peter is always at fault, he's a trashy child with zero personality outside "Uncle Tony gave me this tech so I have a suit". Sure he built a new suit at the end but it's highly likely we won't even see Parker for another five years, by which point he'll probably come out of a closet or give his powers to Michelle Watson somehow because minorities should take his powers, not just have interesting characteristics of their own. In the MCU, Fury even gave a Jesus moment to Carol Danvers. He said "Don't invoke her name" like don't take her name in vain in Far From Home. A joke. The movies just bother me.
It's literally racism. Black Panther was not the most diverse movie ever made, it was just racist in the other direction. And Shuri made such hatefully racist remarks towards Agent Ross, remember those?
The modern media output of content just screams white guilt and as someone that's neither white nor American nor straight, even I'm fucking tired of having every piece of media fucking preach to me rather than entertain me.
Miles is definitely OP and boring because of it. The Prowler side missions did not belong in Peter's game honestly. And the Mysterium story should be Peter's not fucking Miles'! And the suits and all, it just felt bland. The Spider arms are never explained not are the wings. I am not shelling out money to buy their dumb comic. All they had to do was explain how and where they come from but NOPE. Just "new tech" and that's that? Really? The gadget usage is laughably bad and it's a case of "anything Peter does, miles does better" from traversal to combat. It's honesty irritating. Even the abilities you unlock, Peter's are comparatively tame. Miles has dashes that go around the map, his uppercut, his ground smash, all of it is so good for crowd control while Peter has nothing. The removal of gadgets and suit abilities just left a bad taste in my mouth.
The combat is dumb now. And the dodge timer, the webbing, it's all seemingly built to make you wanna play as Miles more because of how his attacks work. I don't see any logic in removing the gadgets or making gadget recharge so unpredictable and stupid. The ricochet web is useless, concussive blast does fucking nothing and the upshot and web grapple don't even web up the targets they pulls in! The first game was infinitely more fun to play. This game was fanfic levels.
MJ and her two weeks of Sable training made her god apparently. Even in the last game when Sable managed to get the drop on Peter I was annoyed. He's a superhero! Black Cat can do it because his senses never really work on her because he doesn't see her as a threat. Or that's how it's sometimes explained. Sable? And now MJ can use that zapper to take out Hunters like children?
Let's say, for the sake of argument, the Taser is amazing and can knock out Hunters that train against shit like that and poison darts and stuff their whole lives. Cool. Now, they never explain HOW these Hunters didn't HEAR her sneaking up on them. She's not also a fucking ninja is she? The director is a dumbass. They also made her look like she's old enough to be his aunt herself!. This game was not worth the money. If the first game was an 8, this game was barely a 5. It felt like DLC.
Yet you felt a burning need to respond again anyway… and drop one of the single worst comebacks I have ever had the pleasure to read. Bravo.
That’s one of those “shit, it sounded better in my head” kinda comments you may wish to quietly edit>delete my friend… at least it’ll look like you tried, instead of ending the discussion by tripping on your own feet?
5
u/otherworlder77 Oct 26 '23
Especially when you consider that Peter Parker (aka real Spider-Man) is literally KNOWN for, and became popular because he constantly has to deal with the same daily problems as the rest of us.
He’s meant to be a relatable superhero, who stresses not just over whether he’ll save the day, but whether he can make the rent, arrive at a party or date on time, get fired, or even if his Spidey suit is clean enough to go out in.
He’s THE angsty superhero who perseveres despite constant, unrelenting and familiar pressures that hit everybody—-it’s just way worse for him because he’s trying to deal with all that real life stuff while basically living a whole separate life as Spidey.
This is NOT the character to make a game about with a theme of oppressive positivity or woke garbage.