This past weekend I saw the new Spider-Man movie, Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, and I’m happy to say the folks at Sony Animation hit another grand slam with this film. I got so stoked for Spider-Man media after finishing this movie that I had to go right to my Playstation and fire up the most recently released Spider-Man game from Insomniac Games, Spider-Man: Miles Morales. I was a huge fan of the 2018 installment in the series, Spider-Man, but I never got around to giving the sequel a try. Thankfully, it was available for streaming and download on PS+, so I took the opportunity to get myself an extra helping of Spidey content and downloaded the game. As I played it, I realized that this blog would be a great place to do some design analysis and review of the game. With the third installment in the series, Spider-Man 2, due this October and Across the Spider-Verse dominating the box office, I’m sure there will be a lot of people who are interested in hearing whether Spider-Man: Miles Morales is worth the investment of their time and money. So without further ado, here is my review from a game design perspective of Spider-Man: Miles Morales with some light spoilers.
Miles Morales stock has never been hotter than it is right now, is it worth buying into this game?
I’m going to use the compliment sandwich style of criticism to analyze this game because I respect all the hard work that went into making this game and believe that this is the most generous way to review a game that acknowledges both its strengths and weaknesses. I think this game is very good and enjoyable, but it is not without its flaws.
Pro: They nailed feeling like Spider-Man… again!
One of the most significant talking points coming out of the first game in this series was how great a job the designers at Insomniac did nailing the feel of Spider-Man, so much so that the refrain, “It really makes you feel like Spider-Man,” became something of a meme for those familiar with the game’s reviews.
Recreating the success of feeling like Spider-Man was probably not as tall of a task this time around now that they have a rock-solid foundation to build off of, but the Insomniac team managed to not only give players that satisfying Spider-Man feeling but add a little extra flair that makes Miles Morales his own kind of Spider-Man. In addition to all your standard web-slinging, high-flying, bad-guy-punching goodness, Miles has some unique tricks of his own including bio-electricity which he uses to stun enemies, and invisibility. The invisibility in particular adds a nice layer of gameplay as it allows you to do things like take out an enemy that is near some of their allies and then immediately turn invisible and zip off to a hiding place, leaving the bad guys to wonder how their friend just got knocked out.
It's rare that traversal is one of the most fun parts of a game, but Miles Morales makes movement fun
Con: Too many collectibles and distraction-missions
In a future blog post, I am going to discuss what I call “Feel Bad Mechanics.” In my opinion, one of the worst mistakes a game can make is including mechanics that don’t contribute to the game’s core fantasy, and unfortunately for Miles Morales, this game is guilty of committing that mistake.
The game’s core fantasy is being Spider-Man, and as I mentioned in the last section, Insomniac absolutely nails that. One of the best touches in the game, in my opinion, is how you can be swinging through the city on your way to do something like help your mom with her local political campaign or meeting up with an old friend only to get interrupted when some nearby baddies decide to commit a crime that only Spider-Man can stop. This is a quintessential aspect of being Spider-Man: you have incredible powers that are fun to use, but the responsibility of having those powers means that sometimes you have to sacrifice parts of your personal life to do what is right: such as being a little late to meet your friend for a roof-top rendezvous because a local gang decided to rob a bodega.
It feels weird that Spider-Man is already so busy and unable to make time for things that are important to him, yet the game expects him to have time to do things like look for time capsules hidden around the city or hunt for where the local gang has stashed its tech parts or, my least favorite, find the source of a sound to help your uncle complete his mixtape where he raps over the sounds of the city (I’m all for avant-garde, experimental art, but that sounds like a truly awful album). With escaped convicts running around the city, a corrupt corporation dead set on changing the city’s energy supply to a dangerous fuel source, a techno-terrorist-led gang wreaking havoc across the city, and all the normal drama that comes with being a teenager, Miles Morales doesn’t have time for these silly side missions, so why does the game act like he does?
Remember when Spider-Man spent an entire issue recording ferry horn sounds? Me neither.
Fortunately, all of these side-missions are optional, but completing them will allow you to do things like upgrade your gear or unlock new suits which will give you new skills to use in combat. I understand the desire to pad the game with content and side-quests like these are an easy way to do so, but the game also includes more thematic, story-relevant side-quests like base invasions, which I think is far superior to the majority of the padding content.
Pro: Flawless tutorial section
If they gave out awards for the best tutorial section of a game, whoever designed the tutorial for Miles Morales would have my vote. Not only does the tutorial section of this game perfectly prepare you for almost everything you will face in future missions, but it’s fun, fits into the story perfectly, and creates ludo-narrative resonance (that’s a fancy phrase for making the player’s experience of playing the game match-up with their character’s experience of being in the game). The tutorial starts with teaching the player (Miles Morales’ Spider-Man) to use his web-slinging skills to navigate the city so he can meet up with the original Spider-Man to escort a prison convoy. Once something goes inevitably wrong and multiple prisoners escape, the game tasks you with defeating some of the escapees, teaching you combat skills in the process. Finally, the tutorial ends with Miles and Peter fighting the highest-value escapee: Rhino. This section helps players learn how to deal with unique challenges the game will throw at them from time to time, in this case, it’s riding the Rhino through the city and trying to minimize the destruction caused by him. Eventually, the game introduces Miles’ bio-electrical powers and tutorializes on how to use them to defeat enemies.
The tutorial section sets up the premise of the game as well: Peter Parker is going out of town with Mary Jane to do some journalism in Europe, leaving Miles Morales as the city’s sole Spider-Man. Miles is apprehensive and doesn’t feel ready to be flying solo and points to his inability to stop the convicts' escape from the prison convoy as evidence that he’s not ready, but Peter reassures him that he’s ready and points to his success at subduing Rhino.
The ludo-narrative resonance comes from the fact that both Miles and the player are learning how to be Spider-Man at the same time. While it’s implied that Miles has had some experience Spideying before the game starts, it does seem like this is one of the most challenging tasks he’s faced since becoming a Spider-Man. As a result of the ludo-narrative resonance, players can quickly appreciate Miles’ perspective and feel the burden he is faced with as he learns the difficulties of being a Spider-Man as well as his nerves about doing the job solo without the veteran Peter Parker there to be his safety-web.
Con: Associating renewable energy with making people sick
One of the main story elements in this game is that Roxxon, an energy corporation that apparently handles all of New York’s energy needs, is using an untested new renewable energy source to power their new corporate campus in Harlem and areas of the city even though they have internal evidence that the fuel source makes people horribly sick.
Clean, renewable, poisonous, and capable of causing massive explosions. Investors are lining up!
While I certainly have no objection to demonizing energy corporations, an industry that has a rich history of screwing over underprivileged communities to make a buck, I can’t help but raise a moral objection to making renewable energy the source of illness. While I’m sure more mature players will realize that this is nothing more than a plot device, this may form a connection for impressionable younger players between renewable energy and illness. I understand why the game’s narrative designers felt that the game needed a fuel source that makes people sick as a main element of the plot, but I think in demonizing clean energy they do the movement a disservice in winning the hearts and minds of people who may be ignorant or unconvinced of the benefits of converting our energy systems to renewables.
Pro: The main storyline is comic book-y in all the right ways
I’m going to try to avoid any spoilers in this section which means that it will be a short paragraph, but the game nails the archetypes of a classic comic book story. There’s an outwardly benevolent but secretly evil corporation, friends who are more than they seem, and plenty of twists and turns over the course of the game’s story. As opposed to the multiverse-heavy offerings of the MCU and Spider-Verse movies that contain a dizzying amount of references to a multitude of characters, Miles Morales chooses to only focus on a small handful of familiar heroes and villains from the Spider-Man canon, but doing so allows the player to build a more meaningful connection with each of them, resulting in a more compelling story.
Con: Dialogue can be a little corny
Unlike the Miles Morales of Spider-Verse fame, the Miles Morales of this game lacks any of the self-confidence or cool that the film version possesses in spades. As a result, almost every conversation Miles is in can feel a little painful. Regardless of whether he’s talking to a super-villain or a bodega owner, Miles’ lack of confidence when talking to anyone can make it hard to stomach the conversation-based cutscenes. This is only amplified by the fact that Miles spends a lot of time talking to himself, and much of that self-talk is either redundantly recapping the events of the game or a Blues Clues/Dora the Explorer style calling out the answer type of exclamation.
At certain points, you just want to grab Miles by the shoulders and give him a pep talk. “Miles, you’re Spider-Man! Without you, the city would be a much worse place! You’re trying your best and you are going to figure this out because you are a smart and capable person, but the first step to doing that is believing in yourself!” Sadly, this sort of pep talk doesn’t come until shortly before the final mission, so prepare to hear Miles be a whiny boi for most of the game.
Pro: Impeccable Level Design
When you’re Spider-Man, the city is your playground, and when the city is your playground, you better be sure that everything is placed perfectly to make things like movement, combat, stealth, and puzzle-solving easily achievable for players. Fortunately for Insomniac, they had built out this version (or at least a very similar version) of New York City for the previous installment in the franchise, but given that Miles Morales adds a few new moves to the Spider-Man arsenal, it was important for that game’s level designers to go through the previous game and make additions so that the player can get the maximum value out of Miles’ bag of tricks.
I’m happy to report the level designers absolutely nailed the game’s levels. Swinging around Manhattan is a breeze with plenty of points on which to tether your web, and even spots without skyscrapers like Central Park give you ample spots to point jump off of, making crossing these zones a different type of traversal challenge that provides a refreshing change of pace. The city is also well equipped to handle the procedurally generated random crimes that Spider-Man will be called on to stop: almost every crime scene gives you a variety of ways to approach be it stealth, all-out combat, or strategically singling out enemies and webbing them to the wall or ground.
This randomly occurring crime happened in an alleyway that was a perfect location for a variety of Spider-Man tactics
The quests that take place outside of the open world also leave little to be desired. Some missions will require you to use stealth to succeed, and the level design for those missions is exquisite. One trap a lot of games with stealth mechanics fall into is that the player needs to make their way through the level in one specific way (by this I mean you need to take out guard A first before using the high grass to sneak around to where guard B and C are talking, use a distraction technique to make guard C walk away so you can take out guard B, etc. and that this is the only way to succeed), but Miles Morales makes it so that you can proceed through these stealth levels in a variety of ways. This is in large part thanks to the web-zip mechanic which allows Spider-Man to quickly jump to pre-programmed positions in the level without alerting his enemies. The web-zip mechanic is complimented beautifully by well-placed points to zip to that can position you above your enemies. These points are generally on some sort of hanging structure, such as light fixtures, ceiling fans, or support beams. The ability to move freely across these points allows you to survey the level and develop a plan of attack as well as a place to sneakily take out enemies one at a t like the ones highlighted in this screenshot are all over the map providing great freedom of movement
In addition to stealth, the levels provide all sorts of ways you can take out your enemies besides using your powerful Spider-fists. Electrical boxes are placed in spots on the map that enemies frequently walk past, and Spider-Man can use an electrical mine to cause these boxes to explode and hit enemies with chain lightning which will immediately incapacitate them. Things like scaffolding, heavy ceiling fixtures, and big metal tubes can be pulled by Spider-Man to crush his enemies beneath them. Almost every level has a variety of objects that can be grabbed with Spider-Man’s web and swung around in circles so it can hit multiple bad guys at the same time. Every level provides a ton of options for how to beat all the bad guys and move to the next objective, and to me, that is the signature of a well-designed level.
These red Roxxon bois are about to get quite the shock...
Con: The final boss fight leaves something to be desired
While the final boss fight certainly fits the game narratively and thematically, the actual mechanical implementation of the boss fight is a bit of a letdown. The boss fight suffers from two big issues, the method in which you beat the boss is too straightforward, and the boss’s difficulty is largely artificial.
In my previous blog post, I mentioned a game design pattern I wrote about boss fights where you can make a boss fight more interesting by adding additional parameters to the boss fight. This can come in the form of having the boss call in minions (Binding of Isaac), having weak points that may be harder to hit but deal bonus damage (Destiny 2), or making it so that the player can change the boss’s state by manipulating its capabilities (Horizon: Zero Dawn). Unfortunately for Miles Morales players, the final boss fight is a straightforward “hit the boss until it runs out of health,” boss fight. This means that once you understand the boss’s patterns, the player doesn’t have to make any decisions, all they need to do is get close to the boss and hit the attack button until the game decides they’ve done enough damage.
Still, that means that the player has to understand the boss’s patterns before they can safely attack which is still a challenge in its own right. Unfortunately, the final boss’s patterns in Miles Morales are pretty easy to figure out and respond to. You will die once or twice at the beginning of each stage of the fight, but once you realize what you’re supposed to do, the boss’s patterns don’t vary enough to force the player to have to think about the best approach for countering any given attack or what combination of buttons to press in order to respond. Many of the boss’s stages only require Spider-Man to dodge one attack before he can begin attacking the boss. In fact, once you understand that there’s no trick to beating the boss other than attacking them directly and not worrying about any of the distractions the game may try to throw at you, these patterns become even easier to identify and play around, leaving the final boss battle to be little more than a matter of mashing the attack button at the opportune time.
Pro: The skill tree is the perfect synergy of system, narrative, and encounter design
The final thing I want to highlight is how perfectly the skill tree works as a point where system, narrative, and encounter design all come together. Skill trees in games are often treated as reward systems where players can upgrade their stats, skills, or equipment by trading experience points or currency for upgrades. In many games, this makes little sense: why is Geralt, an experienced Witcher who has fought and killed hundreds of monsters, learning the most basic Witcher skills through a skill tree throughout Witcher 3? Another issue with skill trees is that they are often used to simply compensate the player for increasing difficulty in the game. It would be difficult for Ori and the Blind Forest players to deal with some of the later challenges in the game if they were not able to upgrade Ori’s health and attack capabilities through the skill tree as the game went on, but the skill tree unlocks do little to change how the player approaches those challenges. Ori and the Blind Forest and Witcher 3 are two phenomenal, 5-star games in my opinion, and while their tech trees give the players interesting decisions to make and have a positive impact on the game, these tech trees aren’t quite perfectly integrated into either game.
It also boasts clean, thematic design
I think Miles Morales manages to deal with both of those issues in the way they implement their tech tree. As I’ve previously mentioned, a big theme of the game is that Miles is still learning how to be Spider-Man and discovering the limits of his powers as he’s doing that. Narratively, it makes sense that Miles is mastering new abilities after each encounter, and in that way, the tech tree in this game eschews the issue of why a powerful character is learning techniques they should already know.
Perhaps more impressively is how the game manages to avoid the issue of the tech tree being nothing more than a scaling solution. While there are unlocks on the Miles Morales tech tree that deal with difficulty scaling such as increased damage, health regen, or increased time in camouflage, much of the tech tree allows the player to unlock new abilities that will influence the way they approach the game. More stealth-minded players can invest their skill points into stealth techs that will allow Spider-Man to do things like turn his incapacitated enemies into web bombs, whereas combat-minded players may invest more in techs that can help with crowd control or stunning enemies for longer. In that way, the tech tree actually shapes how the player will approach enemy encounters in a way that many tech trees fail to.
Conclusion
While a little bit of the shine of this game is taken off by the fact that it is so similar to the first one which was a masterpiece in its own right, Spider-Man: Miles Morales manages to replicate the successes of the original and add a few new twists to an already smashingly fun concept. Spider-Man fans or anyone that’s just hungry for some Spider-Man content like I was coming out of Across the Spider-Verse would be well suited to play this game. While being a Spider-Man fan is certainly helpful for getting into this game, I don’t think it’s a requirement: it’s a good game with a fun story, enough to stand on its own. Players that know characters like Miles Morales, Prowler, and J. Jonah Jameson will certainly find an affinity for the game that players not in the know won’t, but the characters, story, and especially gameplay make this a game that can get by on its own merits. I would strongly recommend anyone who has the time and resources to play Miles Morales to give it a go, it’s a very good game that you won’t regret playing.
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