Marvel’s Spider-Man: Remastered is, as the name implies, a remaster of the PlayStation 4 classic Marvel’s Spider-Man. The game will be released on November 19 together with the PlayStation 5. For an extra 20 euros you will receive the remaster together with the new Spider-Man: Miles Morales. The question is of course: should you do that? The answer is predominantly ‘yes’.
First of all: this is not a review, because the undersigned did not replay the entire game, as the gameplay is exactly the same – at least that’s what Insomniac promises. At Gamer.nl we do not review games without playing them, or we must have a good reason for that, which we always state in the text. In this case, a number seemed inappropriate, but it is worth highlighting the game. There are quite a few things worth mentioning.
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Not a crazy sight
What exactly is new about the remaster, for example. First of all, Peter Parker himself: he has been given a new face. In the PlayStation 4 version, developer Insomniac Games used the head of John Bubniak, in the PlayStation 5 version it suddenly became the head of Ben Jordan. There were many concerns online about this remarkable transition, but it is not all that exciting. After a cutscene or two, you’ll get used to it. And yes, he may look a bit more like Tom Holland. Also correct: the new actor looks younger. But Spider-Man’s new face in the storyline is by no means disturbing.
Obviously, in addition to the photo mode from Miles Morales, the remaster also uses the haptic feedback and the adaptive triggers on the DualSense controller. The game does that in exactly the same way as Spider-Man: Miles Morales. During the swing you really feel the resistance in the triggers increase. When a big enemy like Rhino thunders through the screen, you can feel it in your claws. But the functions do not play a leading role as in Astro’s Playroom. They are sometimes of added value – that is immediately noticeable – but it is.
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The biggest difference with the original is the pomp and circumstance. The original already looked beautiful, but goodness, Spider-Man Remastered is really a great game. The remaster has been noticeably polished with new textures, ray tracing and of course a higher resolution. Those terms are well and good, but you really see the difference right away. You also have the choice to trade in the graphic detail and ray tracing for a frame rate of sixty frames per second. That is very worthwhile.
Whatever you choose, Spider-Man Remastered will look beautiful. In principle just as beautiful as Miles Morales, but maybe even more beautiful. We feel the first part is a bit more colorful. It is mostly sunny in the New York of the first game. The HDR therefore really gets the chance to shine, in both a literal and a figurative sense. You can actually see it right away in the first scene of the game, on Peter Parker’s suit when he pops out of his bedroom window.
Spider-Man: Miles Morales, on the other hand, takes place around the holidays. New York is snowed under. The game therefore has a very Christmas-like vibe. The white snow is of course good in HDR, the rain puddles on the ground showcase the ray tracing and the party lighting is almost cozy. But in the end it also looks a bit monotonous. The New York from the first part shows more sides of itself. After fifteen hours with Miles Morales, we had kind of forgotten that.
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If you’ve never played the original Marvel’s: Spider-Man, this is still an absolute no-brainer and you should definitely play this game before playing Miles Morales
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A very good game
What we had also forgotten is how good Spider-Man: Miles Morales’ pacing is. We already wrote it in the review of the sequel, but Miles Morales simply never collapses. The story is almost half shorter than the first part, but also much better spread over the rest of the game. Every moment feels right, where in the first Spider-Man you have to complete little interesting puzzles and missions much more often. This difference is particularly noticeable if you have played Miles Morales first.
To be clear, if you’ve never played the original Marvel’s: Spider-Man, this is still an absolute one no-brainer and you should definitely play this game before playing Miles Morales. Then the narrative moments in Miles Morales come out much better. If you have already played the game, it is possible to take your save file of the old version with you. That option should be available via an update sometime at the end of November. Then three new costumes will also be added.
But it is actually not so much about these kinds of novelties. The point is that for an extra two bucks you have perhaps the best debuting superhero game ever. A game that is also very good if you don’t care about superheroes. Swinging and waving through New York is one of the most fun ways of navigating a game world that we have ever experienced in a game, the story and the characters are very strong and gosh, how beautiful this game is – especially this remaster.
Marvel’s Spider-Man Remastered will be available on PlayStation 5 on October 19 as part of Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales.
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