Summary
- Marvel's Spider-Man 2 outshines the original in boss fight quality, allowing for genuine combat instead of an emphasis on QTEs.
- Insomniac's next Spider-Man game must live up to high expectations in designing Green Goblin.
- Venom's unique boss fights in Marvel's Spider-Man 2 may provide a template for how Insomniac wishes to design Green Goblin in the future.
Marvel’s Spider-Man only narrowly beats out Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 in terms of how many bosses are fought, which is partly due to its DLC bosses. But the original undoubtedly pales in comparison when the quality of each is assessed because whereas Marvel’s Spider-Man relied heavily on set-pieces and QTEs Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 allowed players to fight bosses with the same combat they dole out on mobs and made each boss intricate with attacks players could parry.
Insomniac’s next Spider-Man game should now have its own spectacular boss fights and it’s going to have a lot of expectations to satisfy when it comes to its design of Green Goblin as an antagonist. Out of all the antagonists in the series and their boss fight designs thus far, it seems clear that the final boss fight in the sequel against Venom has the greatest chance of inspiring Marvel’s Spider-Man 3’s Green Goblin.
Marvel’s Spider-Man 2’s First Venom Fight is Unique to the Symbiote’s Strengths
Venom appears in two boss fights—one for each Spider-Man. Each of these boss fights is different, too, and showcases a unique Venom design. The first, against a Peter Parker who’s now equipped with a curative Anti-Venom symbiote, is the hulking brute Venom is classically known as, throwing his mass and tendrils around with big AoEs between parryable command grabs.
This boss fight contains stage transitions between the Midtown football field they battle upon, which Venom’s enormous substance is also hoisting midair in separate chunks that players traverse between when the one that’s currently occupied is swarmed by gnashing symbiote teeth.
Moreover, this boss features intermittent spawns of symbiote enemies fighting alongside Venom, though they can be disintegrated instantly by web-yanking suspended police cruisers and emitting a frequency that stuns symbiotes. This boss fight is a comprehensive and wholesale interpretation of what Venom classically brings to the table as a villain.
Marvel’s Spider-Man 2’s Second Venom Fight Represents Two Possible Green Goblin Designs
Meanwhile, Venom’s second boss fight, though similar in intervals, includes a form with winged flight and explosive projectiles he can launch at Miles Morales. This form is neat, but for a boss who was already expertly crafted for a previous fight it seems superfluous to give him flight and projectiles. Perhaps Insomniac wanted to give him two distinct boss forms so that both Spider-Men could have their own unique boss fight against him, with Miles getting to tackle the winged Venom by himself before both wall-crawlers beat on him in a QTE-laden cutscene.
Rather, another logical reason why Venom was given this form could be so Insomniac could experiment and prepare for how it plans to design Green Goblin in one or multiple boss fights. It’s still unclear how Marvel’s Spider-Man 3’s Green Goblin will take shape despite the series heavily suggesting he’ll be an armored Emerald Elf astride a glider, which could sap the same boss attacks and moves Venom possesses in his second boss fight.
That said, there’s a chance he also mutates into a muscle-bound brute with pointy ears and can throw fireballs, like in the Ultimate Spider-Man comic book run and video game adaptation, which could scalp from Venom across both of the antagonist’s boss fights in Marvel’s Spider-Man 2. No matter which path Insomniac takes with Green Goblin, Venom may have been purposefully designed to lay the brickwork for their climactic boss fight.
Marvel's Spider-Man 2
- Released
- October 20, 2023
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.
- ESRB
- T For Teen Due To Blood, Drug Reference, Mild Language, Violence
- Developer(s)
- Insomniac Games
- Publisher(s)
- Sony Interactive Entertainment
- Franchise
- Spider-Man
- 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
