On September 7, 2018, Insomniac Games’ Marvel’s Spider-Man was released exclusively for PlayStation 4.  After Insomniac announced the game at E3 2016 – a convention for video games – eager fans of Spider-Man and PlayStation alike have been anticipating the arrival of the game.  Though there have been many versions of Spider-Man in the gaming industry in the past, this is a new take on the Marvel Comics character.

In Insomniac’s edition of the game, Peter Parker – a.k.a. your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man – has been saving civilians and busting crimes in New York City for eight years while trying to balance his personal life, job, and alter ego.  The developers wanted to give players a more experienced Spider-Man to play with rather than making another origin story with a younger character. That choice was made mainly because the Marvel Cinematic Universe introduced British actor Tom Holland as a teenage version of the character in Captain America: Civil War in May 2016, shortly before the first announcement of the game in June 2016.  Now, Spider-Man is able to carry out advanced acrobatics and utilize his unique, swift fighting style without having to play through an extensive learning process that would be inevitable in crafting an origin story.

So far, Marvel’s Spider-Man has received overwhelmingly positive reviews, some even calling it one of the best superhero games ever made.  Leon Hurley at GamesRadar+ rated the game at 4.5/5 stars, Giuseppe Nelva from Dualshockers gave the game a 10/10, calling it a “masterpiece”.  In addition, Spider-Man, the fastest-selling video game of the year according to Eurogamer, was nominated for “Best Action Game” and won the award of “Best Console Game for Sony PlayStation 4” at Gamescom 2018, a video game awards event.

The impressive video game is also popular among CHC students.  Preferring to play video games on Microsoft’s Xbox One, Kiara Baxter (‘20) doesn’t own a PlayStation 4 and cannot play Sony’s exclusive video game.  Kiara has always been a Marvel fan, so she was still interested in the game and watched several trailers. After seeing the astonishing “lifelike graphics,” she appreciates that Spider-Man looks like a movie while still having “the feel of a video game” and thinks that “it would be a great game to play.”  Brandon Midgette (‘20) agrees that the game seems like the developers “really took their time” to perfect every detail of the sprawling New York City open world.  He added that Spider-Man isn’t like “LEGO games or something cartoonish” and that it appeals to older players.  Wyatt Cake (‘20) has already purchased the game for his PlayStation and all of the available bonus Downloadable Content (DLC); he expressed that it is “quite the fun game.”  Contrary to Brandon and Kiara, he thinks the graphics “could be better” for a game coming out in 2018 with the amount of technology available for game developers. As a Spider-Man fan, Wyatt enjoys swinging around New York City as the web-slinger because it’s “a lot of fun,” and he likes noticing the numerous references to other Marvel superheroes, villains, and comic book events scattered throughout the game.

Marvel’s Spider-Man is rated T for Teen by the ESRB and is now available for PlayStation 4 at PlayStation Store, GameStop, Amazon, and other retailers.  To find photos, videos, and news for the game, visit Insomniac Games’ official website.