They just had a story/tech showreel and discussion meeting over Zoom, and my contact has shared everything the main "Speaker" discussed and what was shown. I made sure they took notes of the important bits. Plenty of story, too. It was about an hour long, so strap in. Here's what they had to say, with other details being added in after a phone call between us.
Cutscenes:
Game begins with fly-by through the city, showcasing winter environment, leading to an apartment. Peter is in his and MJ's apartment, they're video-calling. This scene elaborates on MJ's whereabouts, peace talks in Samkyria are concurrently happening as they speak, so she should be heading home in a few weeks after post-war interviews and headlines.
MJ asks Peter what's been going on in his life in New York, and Peter confesses that he's rejoined The Daily Bugle as a photographer to help pay the bills. MJ says that shouldn't be so bad, especially if they work together, but Peter webs over a newspaper from the kitchen counter. The headline is that JJJ has returned to his previous position in the company due to financial hardships (elaborated on in The City That Never Sleeps DLC). Speaker says that they "enjoyed the podcast take, but want to return to the roots".
MJ reacts negatively to this, telling Peter that she wasn't even informed. Peter apologizes for breaking the bad news. Peter's Spider-Sense goes off, but that's where it gets cut short for the meeting.
Mechanics: Winter Physics
Spider-Man on top of a building: Snow is accumulating on his suit. As you move, some falls off.
Peter walking through New York as himself. Snow is accumulating on his jacket. Footprints in the snow are present, both by the player as well as citizens walking around.
Three different weather types are shown: Light rain, Light snow, heavy snow.
Speaker says there are about 7 dynamic weather types in-game.
From what I have gathered, especially based on what my contact has said, the weather systems will come and go freely. Time passes without transitions, along with the weather, and all will be representative within cutscenes. Story apparently takes place over a longer period of time than the first, therefore there is more room for days to pass within gameplay. Speaker says that they tried to avoid writing in "This happens at night, or this happens during the day-" as much as possible. They did say that they could not get around it entirely, however. So expect to see certain and unexpected time-of-day shifts within the game.
Speaker also says that people are going to be playing in one instance for a long time, and that this was a good segue into the meat of the game.
Dynamic Missions:
Speaker really turned on the charm for this next one, and was pretty proud of what they had in store. Balloon missions is the first. Spider-Man grabs a balloon caught on a flagpole, a balloon flying away in the air, and a balloon that was caught in a helicopter. Yes, a helicopter. The landing gear, specifically. These are definitely a call-back to the Spider-Man 2 Movie-Tie-In game.
Construction workers hanging onto ledges and falling off of buildings, people needing to be brought to the hospital, as well as rescuing people from burning buildings are some examples shown.
Speaker says that "small missions like these help illustrate the "friendly-neighborhood" aspect of Spider-Man, and players will react positively to it, based on feedback". Speaker says there are a few more, but wanted to move on to the side-missions.
Side Missions:
A fight with Mysterio is shown, albiet very briefly, on the statue of liberty. Not sure if this was another reference to Spider-Man 2, but the fight looked very different from that game.
A few still images of a theatre and a clocktower were also shown, with Mysterio at the center of each.
This also confirms that the Statue of Liberty will be a traversable location, and we will probably see more than one appearance of Mysterio throughout the game.
Side missions are going to appear throughout the story and in greater number than the first game.
Some side missions contain major villains, and others help flesh out the world.
A side mission in Hell's Kitchen with a "certain lawyer" was teased. Daredevil will most likely make an appearance, if not at least mentioned.
Another side mission with a certain "Fantastic and Fiery" personality was also teased and will be used for new racing mechanics. If anyone predicted Human Torch races, congratulations.
Cutscenes:
An argument with Eddie Brock and JJJ occurs, with Peter stepping in. This is the first time we've seen JJJ and Eddie in-person, and they look fantastic. My contact described Eddie's design as "Spectacular Spider-Man-esque in nature", the cartoon show, for those who are aware of it. Big, bulky, and brash.
The cutscene ends just as Peter is about to say something.
Doctor Conners is mentioned within the scene.
Cutscenes:
Major one here. In an alleyway, a giant, squirming blob of symbiote lays on the ground as Spider-Man approaches it. This is definitely not Venom, but it is definitely a symbiote. My contact described it as a "Proto-Venom". Some specific dialogue taken from Peter, transcribed poorly by me - I'm sure Yuri knocked it out of the park, though.:
That last one is crucial to the scene, as the symbiote leaves Harry and bonds with Peter. My contact says that they originally wanted Harry to be Venom, but felt like the introduction of Eddie Brock-Venom would make for a lengthier story and would also satisfy comic fans. They also want to save Harry for something special later down the line.
So from what I have gathered, within the context of the story, Harry is the first host of the Oscorp-created symbiote.
It is not alien in origin, and was used as a cure for Harry's disease.
Harry is ultimately cured by the time the symbiote leaves, so there is room for him in the future of the story, but at this point he is hospitalized after Peter stops his rampage.
Harry breaks free during Act 1 and goes on a manic-filled killing spree, and the scene just described wraps up the events, leading into Act 2.
Mechanics: Black Suit
A few still images of the classic black suit are shown, and everyone on Zoom clapped for it. Suffice to say, they wanted the black suit just as much as fans did, so they're doing something right here.
Speaker says that they wanted to add an extra step towards "tailoring every player's experience".
Spider-Man is on a roof, the weather and sky are clear so that light is reflecting off of the suit more. His classic suit is being worn.
Contact says that this was his favorite part of the showreel, and I'll admit, it's definitely mine too.
The black suit is switched on with a simple button press, then switched off again.
Speaker had this to say: "Taking major inspiration from Web of Shadows, we knew that the symbiote system in this game needed to be as fluid and fun as possible". So for anyone who predicted a Web of Shadows style system, you guessed correctly, and I'm glad you did.
"But that's not all we have to show you-", the speaker said. The suit selection screen is opened once more, and most of the suits are greyed out. However, the advanced suit and the webbed suit (raimi suit) are available.
The advanced suit is selected, and then the black suit is switched on. "Every suit has their own symbiote version-", the speaker said.
The webbed suit is then selected, and my contact said that it took him back to 2007, when Spider-Man 3 was released. It looked beautiful.
Mechanics: Black Suit Combat
My contact has said that they tried not to copy Web of Shadows in its entirety, but they did take inspiration from the combat system switching in that game. Arkham-Knight styled combat, similar to Spider-Man PS4, was shown. Precision, combos and key presses, and dodging are once again the focus when fighting without the symbiote suit.
However, when using the symbiote suit, certain elements are removed for more "fluid" combat. Combat is described as being more powerful, with faster attacks and much less dodging. Players zip from enemy to enemy, and can attack multiple enemies at once by using certain symbiote abilities.
The symbiote suit has its own separate skill tree that is unlocked after obtaining it.
The skill trees are slightly larger than in the previous game, but nothing to write home about. This shouldn't be a problem to players, however, as there are now two different skill trees to explore.
Not much was shown in terms of symbiote combat footage, though, as it's most likely still under development. Combat reworks and additions can take forever, especially with a new system being made.
Cutscenes:
A few cutscenes and clips are shown, stitched-together for the sake of time.
Peter (Under the influence of the symbiote.) and Miles arguing. The black suit then forms around Peter and he jumps off of a roof.
Miles stopping a robbery (His classic suit is shown here). Speaker also said during this that Miles also has equippable suits.
Miles swinging through low building traversal and running on rooftops.
Miles using the new "Web-Chain" mechanics, zipping between rooftops and ledges.
Miles section ends with him fighting a group, just before Peter tags in and the two fight together. You're able to switch between both for certain sections.
Norman Osborn in the lab where Harry escaped, he's tinkering with a few viles of unknown-materials. Presumably, Peter Parker's DNA.
Norman Osborn smashing a bunch of equipment, as well as throwing a table out of a window.
The showreel ended with a fade to black, accompanied by Norman's laughter.
Wrap-Up:
One last thing was shown. Three images for a wave of DLC - Presumably just like how there were 3 DLC's last time.
Morbius, Carnage, and Wraith. Seems like the theme of the DLC's are killers and redemption, depending on who Carnage is. My contact says they are leaning towards Peter Parker-Carnage, and you would play as Miles, but they are in the concept stage and have not fully decided on that yet.
They were originally planning on revealing it over the summer, but now due to the situation we are all facing, they are pushing it to late summer, August most likely, or potentially later, depending on how the situation develops. Release remains Holiday 2021.
That's all I have for you all. Stay safe in quarantine.
I hate the fact that they're always lining up DLC for after the main game as a means of maybe nickel and dimming customers. However i did feel i got value from my 1st playthrough of Spider-Man and i'm really looking forwards to a sequel. I am gonna buy the DLC for it now and hopefully finish NG+ too.
Was just revisiting the first one today and, though it looks great, I was thinking that I really can't wait to see how the second game looks on PS5. I think improved lighting will make a huge difference to how NYC looks.
-be able to swing around nyc holding a villain or civilian and being able to drop them from the sky
-better interactions with the pedestrians
-I was also bothered that spiderman could swing mailboxes and sewer lids around and it would never hit a person it should atleast knock them out in the next game
-a honor system you choose if you want to be good or bad spidey
- be able to walk around as peter parker in public
-be able to swing around nyc holding a villain or civilian and being able to drop them from the sky
-better interactions with the pedestrians
-I was also bothered that spiderman could swing mailboxes and sewer lids around and it would never hit a person it should atleast knock them out in the next game
-a honor system you choose if you want to be good or bad spidey
- be able to walk around as peter parker in public
I do understand the "morality" element of choice but i feel like Spiderman is a moral hero in terms of majority portrayal so feel like dropping civilians or criminals would have to be done in a way where they don't "die" per se but even in Spider-Man you basically knocked enemies off skyscrapers and they're basically "dead" even if it doesn't specifically say it. I do like the idea of having more dynamic missions to save citizens and so on because just walking the streets and having a button prompt was a little boring.
The problem is too that the animations when saving people didn't consider how you rip a door off a car to save people and you're basically swinging it around like you do in a fight and throw it away to pedestrians. So that hopefully gets improved.
I generally feel like because NYC has already been created. They just need to re-skin the city textures and other bits they could upgrade. They also hopefully can dump all the duplicate assets and to make new things with those space savings in activities to help prolong the idea of a "living" City Spiderman saves people in past the endgame as opposed to just a New Game +.
I generally feel like because NYC has already been created. They just need to re-skin the city textures and other bits they could upgrade. They also hopefully can dump all the duplicate assets and to make new things with those space savings in activities to help prolong the idea of a "living" City Spiderman saves people in past the endgame as opposed to just a New Game +.
Agreed. They've built Manhattan so I also hope they just add more detail to what is already there rather than start over again. A graphical upgrade across the board of course but also building sites from the last game being turned into completed or more developed projects, more buildings we can enter outside of missions for side activities, more interactivity overall particularly at street level but also below street level and when swinging between skyscrapers with new attachment points for webs and more crimes to stop and people to save. Essentially just increase immersion across Manhattan and add a borough or two.
I'm really curious as to what will happen with suits. I'm hoping those who have completed Spider-man PS4 will have all of the unlocked suits available to them at the start of the sequel or, and this is probably more likely, available from a couple of missions in. I want to have access to all of those suits but I don't want to have to unlock them again. In the sequel we should only be unlocking new suits for Peter and, I assume, Miles.
I still feel that they didn't quite capture the exact style and look of NYC in the Spider-Man games made so far. It's just not capturing the visual accuracy of it for some reason, so it would be great if they take visual details to the next level with the PS5. Maybe photo realism is the only real way to capture the style of NYC.
Chances of a sequel are high, so this rumor has some merit I bet.
Walking around as regular Peter Parker whenever you want would be cool. I want to feel the contrast of being Spidey versus being a regular person, and the fun of finding a place to change outfits quickly.
If Rocksteady is working on a Superman game, I hope that's possible too. It's an integral part of the films and character.
I still feel that they didn't quite capture the exact style and look of NYC in the Spider-Man games made so far. It's just not capturing the visual accuracy of it for some reason, so it would be great if they take visual details to the next level with the PS5. Maybe photo realism is the only real way to capture the style of NYC.
Chances of a sequel are high, so this rumor has some merit I bet.
Walking around as regular Peter Parker whenever you want would be cool. I want to feel the contrast of being Spidey versus being a regular person, and the fun of finding a place to change outfits quickly.
If Rocksteady is working on a Superman game, I hope that's possible too. It's an integral part of the films and character.
The problem with making an accurate NYC is that it sometimes is too gritty for the aesthetic the games are going for. Spider-Man had some sombe and mature moments for sure but the bright world is there primarily for that hopeful sheen of superheroes. I personally thought they did a great job for what they were doing and tbh, i felt like the floor level stuff was very nicely detailed so i'd love to have a feature where it can toggle the camera into that more "Uncharted" feeling camera at will.
That said, i'm sure they'll knock it out the park again and it will be a flashy system seller.
I do understand the "morality" element of choice but i feel like Spiderman is a moral hero in terms of majority portrayal so feel like dropping civilians or criminals would have to be done in a way where they don't "die" per se but even in Spider-Man you basically knocked enemies off skyscrapers and they're basically "dead" even if it doesn't specifically say it. I do like the idea of having more dynamic missions to save citizens and so on because just walking the streets and having a button prompt was a little boring.
The problem is too that the animations when saving people didn't consider how you rip a door off a car to save people and you're basically swinging it around like you do in a fight and throw it away to pedestrians. So that hopefully gets improved.
I generally feel like because NYC has already been created. They just need to re-skin the city textures and other bits they could upgrade. They also hopefully can dump all the duplicate assets and to make new things with those space savings in activities to help prolong the idea of a "living" City Spiderman saves people in past the endgame as opposed to just a New Game +.
Have you never watched what happens when Spidey kicks people off of a roof? They are webbed, safely, to the side of the building. Very clever by Insomniac. I remember them mentioning it when they were making the first game.
The problem with making an accurate NYC is that it sometimes is too gritty for the aesthetic the games are going for. Spider-Man had some sombe and mature moments for sure but the bright world is there primarily for that hopeful sheen of superheroes. I personally thought they did a great job for what they were doing and tbh, i felt like the floor level stuff was very nicely detailed so i'd love to have a feature where it can toggle the camera into that more "Uncharted" feeling camera at will.
That said, i'm sure they'll knock it out the park again and it will be a flashy system seller.
I hear what you're saying, though there's plenty of room for improvement in details of the city, but also the pedestrians most of all.
The pedestrians in Spider-Man PS4 were very generic and forgettable, compared to a game like GTAV, which had a lot of visual variety in them. Another game that needs to work on its pedestrians are the Watch Dogs games. They often look like they're in a trance and spaced out or something, though Watch Dogs 2 offered a ton of variety in their appearances, so that's a plus.
Have you never watched what happens when Spidey kicks people off of a roof? They are webbed, safely, to the side of the building. Very clever by Insomniac. I remember them mentioning it when they were making the first game.
Honestly i haven't seen them get webbed when i knock them off. Perhaps i need to stop a crime on top of a building next time and then go looking down that section to see it. I actually am ready for a New Game + too so maybe i'll have a look then.
To be completely honest, I dont want a Spiderman sequel right now. I feel like its still too soon for that. Same with God of War and Horizon Zero Dawn. I'd rather have either new IP or modern versions of older, long dormant franchises.
To be completely honest, I dont want a Spiderman sequel right now. I feel like its still too soon for that. Same with God of War and Horizon Zero Dawn. I'd rather have either new IP or modern versions of older, long dormant franchises.
There's room for sequels of course, though I do enjoy new series and ideas as well. Insomniac has a major hit on their hands, so it's likely they'll just continue with a sequel, while developing a new IP title in the background most likely.
To be completely honest, I dont want a Spiderman sequel right now. I feel like its still too soon for that. Same with God of War and Horizon Zero Dawn. I'd rather have either new IP or modern versions of older, long dormant franchises.
Whilst i understand the sentiment, i think most of these may come 2021 onwards and the fault of Sony is not reviving their dormant franchises by now which tbh, in a way i'm fine with because the ones you mentioned in the other thread getting remakes during a PS5 era makes them stand the test of time even more and they could do some really interesting things with them now.
That said, Naughty Dog could finish The Last of Us Part 2 and be stuck on DLCs for it and then maybe after that go try their hand at reviving the series for modern times or perhaps nake an original IP.
Spider-Man on the other hand is 2 years old and popular atm. Sony will want to make a sequel for release by 2021 i think as well as the others. They're system sellers and money makers after all. I don't think waiting more than 2-3 years is usually necessary either and Horizon is basically at 3 years, God of War at 2 years so i don't mind seeing sequels in the first few years of PS5.
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RUMOUR - Spider-Man 2 Details *Spoilers if true*
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