 Some people in the community have turned against Spider-Man PS4. I remember when the game first came out, I didn't see a single negative comment from anyone in the community. People ate up Insomniac's take on Spider-Man. In the four years since the release, I've only been recently made aware of the subsection of fans that hate this game. Now, I don't hate the game. Let's make this clear. I will tell you that when I agree or disagree with complaints made about Spider-Man PS4, in my honest opinion, Spider-Man PS4 is a really good game. The combat is pretty fun even if other Spider-Man games have done better, and despite the swinging being almost automated, it's pretty fun to watch Peter fly around. I think the suits, for the most part, are a pretty mixed bag. I think if you made a suit tier list for this game, each tier would be pretty filled out. There are just as many amazing suits in this game as there are ones that are an absolute dumpster fire. I think the new main Spider-Man design in this game is pretty overrated due to its wacky color choices and subpar color balancing. I thought the story for the most part was pretty engaging, even if it didn't feel like it was completely new and fresh. It just sort of feels like the game doesn't do anything too new with the characters. I don't know, I just feel like I've seen some of this stuff before. I do like Otto Octavius being a scientific father figure to Peter Parker. That's a good idea. For me, it all started on Twitter, with someone I follow for their strong opinions on Spider-Man adaptations. As far as I know, the owner of this account is a Spider-Man comics connoisseur and knows a good Spider-Man adaptation when they see one, and has been Spider-Man PS4's number one detractor since day one. This is Nevermind, or Nirvana Mind, on Twitter, and I've seen them criticize the game for writing Peter similarly to how Dan Slott writes Peter, but that's not much of a surprise to me since Dan Slott has been on the writing team for Spider-Man PS4. So I naturally got into contact with my first exposure to Spider-Man PS4 criticism, and I asked him a few questions. What are some of your core issues with Insomniac's Peter? What traits do you wish he borrowed from 616 Peter? The biggest issue that comes to mind for me is Peter's demeanor. He doesn't have much of his trademark attitude. There are hints of it in the DLC, where he mentions he used to be more of a loner but that's about it. I much prefer how the comics handled him mellowing out. It wasn't a complete character change, he could still slip into those behaviors and would have to check himself. He's a bit too awkward and overly friendly to feel like he was ever the assertive wise-cracking character of the comics to me. Speaking of I'm also not super fond of how they portray his quips. I'm not sure if it's the writing or just Yuri's performance but they come off as purposely bad, for example a lot of them will end with him kinda giving up on the joke, like even he didn't think it was funny. I can't fully fault them since the modern books will have that happen too, but I much prefer when his quips are insults. The villains find him annoying because he's making fun of them, not because his jokes are bad. I also really dislike how he'll make jokes at inappropriate times, though I appreciate that they have MJ cull him out on this. I think a lot of these issues are exasperated in the DLC, Peter wanting Sable to like him and the fist bump scene are notably cringey. Do you dislike Yuri Lowenthal as Spider-Man? Not necessarily, I more dislike the direction he's given his performance. The early behind-the-scenes footage is good. Are there any adaptations you think come close to the source material in terms of faithfulness? My top picks are definitely the 90s animated series, the never-soft games, Edge of Time, and as in Spider-Man 1 and 2 on console. Spectacular Spider-Man is also an honorable mention. I love the show but didn't include it on the main list because it changes a lot more with the lore than most of the others. Also the episodes of the 60s show that are direct adaptations of the comics are also pretty good, though I wouldn't recommend them if you aren't willing to look past its dated nature. But that's as far as it went for me. Seeing occasional hate for Spider-Man PS4 on Twitter was the only criticism I'd hear. That was until SK, someone I hadn't admittedly pretty good faith Twitter argument with the other day, released a video detailing all the faults of the writing in Spider-Man PS4. Now this video is two hours long so I'm essentially going to faithfully explain most of the points made in this video and either agree and add more to what SK is saying or disagree and give my reasons why. I'm not going to show clips from the video so that you're more encouraged to watch it yourself and also because this video is two hours long and I'm not gonna download a two hour long video. I encourage you to watch this video despite its length as it can definitely use some more views and likes. You probably would have gotten a little bit more of those views if you let me make the thumbnail. Like, uh, look at this beauty from last week. So one of the first things SK does in this video is point out how Spider-Man PS4 does things that the other movies get criticized for but somehow this game gets off scot-free. He says For those willing to criticize Batman for going against the no killing rule in the DCEU, I don't want to hear excuses for insomniac Spider-Man willing to commit to acts that will get people killed. Throughout this video he notes several times where Peter does things that risk innocent people's lives. For example, him insisting on saving MJ during the grand central hostage situation. That is a completely valid criticism to make. That would be like if in Spider-Man 1, Peter saved MJ when Goblin dropped her but then fished the kids out of the water below after getting her to safety. He also claims that Peter is straight up killing people in this game, like when he throws enemies out of speeding trucks. I disagree with this second part. I think that sometimes you have to believe that people are still alive after this because most living things within the insomniac universe survive some pretty crazy shit. For example, Spider-Man. Not the man, the cat. This cat is able to sit in Spider-Man's backpack while resisting several Gs of force, yet is completely fine after. This is an action that would kill a normal cat, just like how throwing a normal human out of a speeding car would be fatal. But I think if normal physics and biology were applied, you wouldn't have the best original design insomniacs ever made in Miles Morales Spider-Man, or the opening fight with Kingpin, or any of the finishers. But just in case that wasn't enough, here's another example. Falling can be pretty fatal for Spider-Man. There are several instances where Peter has almost fallen to his death. Falling from the sky and surviving the impact isn't really a normal thing Spider-Man can do. Now before I start this next part, I would like to say that I am not attacking SK. But there are some instances in this video where I just feel like he's nitpicking for little reason. For example, Spider-Man arrives at the scene of this shootout between cops and fisk thugs. You're able to swing towards the scene until you maybe get about 200 meters away. And a cutscene plays where police are outgunned by fisk thugs. The fisk thugs are almost able to kill the cops until Spider-Man swoops in to save them. SK claims that Spider-Man sat there and watched the scene unfold until the very last minute. He then thoroughly criticizes the cops for putting themselves in stupid positions where fisk thugs could kill them and the fisk thugs for not immediately killing the cops. Now while I do agree that Spider-Man does take a comically long time to show up in this cutscene, I don't think it's because Insomniac wanted you to think that Peter sat there and waited. I think it's because Insomniac made this cutscene way too long. I think the point of this cutscene is to give Spider-Man a dramatic entrance and live off the hype of the opening of this game and to make these cops look helpless so that Spider-Man looks more heroic. I just think that making the cops look helpless part was stretched out far too long. This cutscene is one of the examples of times I think SK spends way too much time focusing on unimportant issues like the incompetence of police in this scene. I think I've made it very clear so far that a lot of the points people made against this game are valid, but if that's the case, why have I spent the last section defending the game? That's because while I think SK makes a lot of good points about the characters and some plot points, I think a lot of his criticisms are misplaced. I think more of his criticisms should focus on bad character writing, like how he rightly critiques the game for MJ not being made out to be in the wrong for sneaking into dangerous areas several times in the game. I think it'd be better if he focused more on those issues instead of complaining about how the collectible backpacks in the game exposed Peter's identity. Plus, it's a video game collectible. I love those. They give you cool items from all over Peter's past. That's pretty cool. And I think SK focuses too much on the invisible negative plot implications instead of being able to enjoy things like Spider-Plushy. I think the reason I disagree with a lot of SK's points is because he made his video strictly about the story without including how the gameplay intertwines with the story. If the backpacks appeared in the same way they do in a Spider-Man movie, I definitely wouldn't be able to excuse it because it's in a movie. But if the backpacks are in a video game, they're a fun collectible. And I can excuse that because it's more fun to collect little Easter eggs than to dismiss them because it's stupid from a story standpoint that Peter would do that. In a movie, all you can focus on is the plot. But in a game, with a story, there's more than just the story. I liked SK's video covering the game. And I agree with some of his points. I think too much of the video is spent focusing on things that don't really deserve the run time. Now, do I think that all this hate for Spider-Man PS4 is warranted? Kinda. I think people like Neverminder are right for criticizing its version of Peter. I think SK is right to point out how Peter's mischaracterization has massive, implicative consequences. And I don't think it's a game worth hating completely. There's still a game in there that has love for the character, even if I hate a few of the Insomniac's suits. There are a few that I love. There are several fun little Spider-Man Easter eggs within the backpacks of the game. And even some Peter Parker-based Easter eggs too. I don't think this is the best Spider-Man game ever, the best Spider-Man story. I think the bells and whistles that come with this game shouldn't be turned down just because you hate things about the story. But I guess I'm finally going to get to the point of all this. You're wrong about Spider-Man PS4 because you're probably either in one or two camps. You either think the game is perfect, or you think the game is dog shit. And I don't necessarily believe that either of those are true. You're wrong about Spider-Man PS4 because the game isn't perfect, but it's not that bad either.