Summary
- Marvel's Spider-Man 2 successfully explores darker themes with the introduction of more sinister characters, maintaining a T-rating while delivering impactful sequences.
- Venom's gameplay segments in Spider-Man 2 showcase violent and visceral moments, pushing the game's T-rating to its limits and offering a stark contrast to Peter Parker's nature.
- Insomniac Games' ability to handle T-rated violence in Spider-Man 2 bodes well for its upcoming Wolverine project, which could potentially explore mature themes and feature gory sequences.
Major Spoilers Ahead for Marvel's Spider-Man 2 The recently released Marvel's Spider-Man 2 did a great job at matching the expectations set by its 2018 predecessor. By broadening the narrative scope of the first game, the newer release was able to explore much darker themes with the introduction of more sinister characters.
Marvel's Spider-Man 2 was able to maintain a T-rating while crafting some real visceral gameplay moments, finding a perfect balance between audience accessibility and impactful sequences. How Insomniac Games achieved this is very promising for its next project, with it recently being confirmed that the studio is spearheading the Marvel's Wolverine title. With Spider-Man 2 being comparable to Wolverine in many ways, the latter could easily feature the same dark themes and gameplay as the former.
Marvel's Spider-Man 2 and Wolverine Exploring Darker Themes
How Venom and Kraven Play into Marvel's Spider-Man 2's Dark Themes
- Marvel's Spider-Man 2 is much more violent
- Kraven kills multiple super-villains
- Venom eventually kills Kraven in a particularly gruesome manner
Most of the more brutal gameplay sequences in Spider-Man 2 come from the Venom segments in the game. Of all Marvel characters, Venom is one of the more bloodthirsty and unforgiving, offering a huge contrast to the happy-go-lucky nature of Peter Parker and Miles Morales.
The player can briefly play as Venom in Spider-Man 2, with the symbiote showcasing some extremely violent finishers that push the game's T-Rating to its limits. Other enemies will stagger in horror as Venom picks up a victim, with his next possible actions including breaking their spine, goring them with his teeth, or brutally slamming them into the ground. This gives a fantastic narrative weight to Venom's gameplay segments, with the player being as shocked as the poor guards who are tasked with taking down the alien creature.
The fact that these scenes are still unnerving while adhering to a T-rating bodes extremely well for Insomniac Games' upcoming Wolverine project. At his core, Wolverine's character is much more anger-driven and jaded than Spider-Man's, with his trademark claws offering a much more brutal way of dispatching foes than Spidey's webs.
Wolverine is Usually a Violently Inclined Superhero
This is well evidenced in the recent movies surrounding Wolverine, with 2017's Logan famously adopting an R-rating. Insomniac Games has already proven itself with T-ratings and could be given room to spread its wings with a more mature age rating in its Wolverine project. With the company having already dipped its toes in more visceral gameplay segments with Spider-Man 2's Venom, a greater artistic license with Wolverine could lead to some fantastically gorey sequences in the recently announced game.
Despite Wolverine being more worthy of a higher age rating than Spider-Man based on its source material, Sony will likely want to maintain a lower rating to appeal to the largest audience possible. This could easily see Wolverine being given the same T-rating as both Spider-Man releases, which would make it that much harder for Insomniac to give the title the gritty connotations that surround the character.
Although brief, Spider-Man 2 did showcase how darker themes can be explored with a T-rating, and Insomniac would surely be able to recreate this balance for Wolverine, should it have to.
With that in mind, an adult rating for the game would foster gameplay that is much more reflective of what Wolverine represents as a character and would surely lead to a much more artistic and memorable overall product. Regardless of what age rating Wolverine is attributed to, it is clear that Insomniac Games can do an excellent job at exploring the brutality of superhero worlds as well as the positives.
Marvel's Spider-Man 2
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OpenCritic Reviews
- Top Critic Avg: 88 /100 Critics Rec: 91%
- Released
- October 20, 2023
- ESRB
- T For Teen Due To Blood, Drug Reference, Mild Language, Violence
- Developer(s)
- Insomniac Games
- Publisher(s)
- Sony Interactive Entertainment
- Engine
- Insomniac Engine v.4.0
- Prequel(s)
- Marvel's Spider-Man
- Franchise
- Spider-Man
WHERE TO PLAY
Spider-Men Peter Parker and Miles Morales face the ultimate test of strength inside and outside the mask as they fight to save the city, each other and the ones they love, from the monstrous Venom and the dangerous new symbiote threat.
Explore an expansive Marvel’s New York with faster web-swinging and the all-new Web Wings, quickly switching between Peter and Miles to experience different stories, epic new abilities and high-tech gear.
Wield Peter’s symbiote abilities and Miles’ explosive bio-electric powers in battle against new and iconic Marvel Super Villains – including an original take on a symbiote-infused Venom, the ruthless Kraven the Hunter, the volatile Lizard, and more from the Marvel Rogues’ Gallery.
- Platform(s)
- PlayStation 5, PC
- Genre(s)
- Open-World, Action-Adventure, Superhero
- How Long To Beat
- 17 hours
- Metascore
- 90
- PS Plus Availability
- N/A
