Miles Morales takes his place on the PlayStation 5
The next generation of gaming is finally upon us. The Xbox Series X and the PlayStation 5 have been released as the newest and hottest items for this holiday season. With the PS5, we saw the release of Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales from Insomniac Games. Revealed earlier this year during the PS5 event in June, this announcement had many Spidey fans excited for a solo Miles Morales experience. I was hyped to see the return of Insomniac’s Spider-Man since it’s my favorite game on the PS4. This title’s intention is to explore Miles’ character further after a full year of training under Peter Parker. Insomniac Games also stated Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales would be a stand alone title and much shorter than Marvel’s Spider-Man. Think of Uncharted: The Lost Legacy or inFAMOUS: First Light, a sort of sequel to their predecessors but nowhere near the same scope. In addition, this game is going to take full advantage of the PS5, having features like near-instant loading, ray-tracing, and 3D audio. Other details on Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales slowly came out closer to its release like story details, gameplay videos, and the release date. Miles Morales is set to launch with the PlayStation 5 on November 12th. Also, the game is coming to the PlayStation 4 as well as a Ultimate Edition for the PS5 which would include a remastered version of Marvel’s Spider-Man. The PS4 version would be lacking ray-tracing and other next generation features but would allow people who aren’t able to get the PS5 right now, have the opportunity to still experience Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales. The PS4 version does support a free next gen. upgrade, so you can experience the next gen. features whenever you decide to get the new console. Now that the game is finally here, what are my thoughts on Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales on the PlayStation 5?
The story of Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales is about Miles Morales coming into his own as Spider-Man. After successfully dealing with Rhino, Peter reveals he’ll be going to Symkaria with MJ as a work vacation. This leaves Miles by himself as the only Spider-Man in New York City. Miles will have to learn how to defend his beloved city without the help of his mentor. He does have the help of his best friend, Ganke Lee, as he’ll be relaying Miles information on missions. A new rising war between Roxxon Corporation and the Underground starts causing havoc in Harlem and it’s up to Miles to defend his new home. The Underground is a high tech criminal organization who intend on stopping Roxxon from releasing a new energy source called Nuform. The overall story for Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales is pretty damn good. I didn’t think I would be as engaged with the story as I was with Marvel’s Spider-Man but it’s kind of close. We get to fully explore Miles as a character and his supporting cast as well. Insomniac Games did a phenomenal job completing Miles’ arc that started in the 2018 game. Being able to see how Miles comes into his own as Spider-Man is great and really fits this version of the character.
I already mentioned his best friend, Ganke Lee, but we also get to see his relationship with his mom, Rio Morales, and his mentor, Peter Parker. I’m glad they used Peter sparingly throughout the game’s story. The lack of Peter nails home Insomniac’s intention for a Miles Morales focused story. By the end of it, I’m extremely happy with the final story. The way this war between Roxxon and the Underground plays into Miles’ story is smart. And the ending?? Oh my god, I was really taken aback by the game’s conclusion. Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales truly delivers on a story that fleshes out Miles’ character, thus completing his arc.
The gameplay is more of Marvel’s Spider-Man but with the Miles Morales twist. He has his own animations when swinging around the city and beating up enemies. Swinging around as Miles Morales is as much fun as it was with Peter. Miles’ animations while swinging are much more lively than Peter’s. I would assume it’s because Miles is still very early on in his career as Spider-Man. Beating up enemies while dodging incoming attacks is still the name of the game. Miles has his venom abilities or electricity powers. You can punch, dive, and knock enemies up with your venom powers. The venom bar replaces the focus meter from Marvel’s Spider-Man which would allow the player to perform a special finisher. Now, the special finisher is attached to a 15 hit combo which makes getting the finisher feel much more rewarding. The special finisher acts just like before, an instant K.O. to whichever enemy you’re able to use it on.
The venom bar can still be used to heal Miles, just like the focus meter from Marvel’s Spider-Man. Another ability Miles has is his camouflage. Being able to turn invisible on the fly to avoid enemy detection makes stealth sections feel so much better. A problem with the stealth in Marvel’s Spider-Man is having no real escape when getting caught. You just have to fight your way out of the encounter. In this game however, you can camouflage to hide and soft reset the encounter.
Camouflage isn’t broken either, the cool-down period between the next time you can camouflage is like 10–15 seconds which may not seem like a lot of time but you can be caught in a fight during that time. Also, if you decide to break the camouflage early, you still have to wait for the cool-down period to camouflage again. Insomniac Games made the camouflage ability to enhance the stealth sections while not breaking the game entirely. The missions and collectibles to find throughout the city are still present. Story missions obviously advance the main story-line of Miles. The side missions are now tied to the mobile app Ganke developed. Each side mission activates when you select it in the app. These missions are mainly about Miles being the friendly neighborhood Spider-Man, helping out the people of New York City in whatever problem they may have. It could be finding their lost cat or fixing a jammed frequency, these are simple missions for a quick burst of fun. The app also has the random crimes to select from. The crimes will still pop up on the map randomly but if you want to manually activate a crime on the map, you can do that via the app. You can activate them manually because there’s a trophy for getting the bonus objectives in each type of random crime. Just like the side missions, quick bursts of fun if you want a break from the longer story missions. Peter set up these training exercises throughout the city for Miles to do. They’re like the Taskmaster challenges from the 2018 game, missions to test your skill in combat, stealth, and web swinging. Unlike the Taskmaster challenges, these training exercises feel more attached to the story and fit the narrative of Miles coming into his own as Spider-Man.
Underground Hideouts and Roxxon Labs are just like the Demon and Fisk bases, beating up a bunch of enemies to reclaim the territory. There are collectibles scattered throughout the city to find like the Underground caches and time capsules to encourage exploration. There’s still a ton of side activities to do within this shorter title. Side missions, collectibles, almost every side activity found in Marvel’s Spider-Man is also here in the Miles Morales game. In a much smaller capacity to be fair, but Insomniac Games didn’t skimp out on the extra content for those completionists. Speaking of completionists, 100%’ing this game isn’t all that difficult. There are a couple of side activities I didn’t mention because they’re spoilers. Depending on how much stuff you do in between your story missions, you’re bound to have a couple of hours of gameplay left if you want to 100% it. The trophies for this game aren’t that bad either. Most of them can be achieved just by playing the game normally but some of them do require some attention if you plan to platinum this game. Also, finishing new game plus is a requirement for the trophies, so be prepared to play this game all over again. In conclusion, the gameplay for Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales is what I expected from a shorter Marvel’s Spider-Man sequel. Same fun as hell gameplay, new abilities to use as Miles, side activities are plentiful, and a not so hard path to 100% completion. I honestly had so much fun playing as Miles because of his venom and camouflage abilities. He doesn’t have as many gadgets to work with but his new innate abilities make up for it. Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales delivers on the same fun gameplay experience while being a shorter game.
Presentation wise, this game looks fantastic on the PlayStation 5. You can choose to play this game in fidelity mode or performance mode. Fidelity mode focuses on graphical enhancements like ray-tracing, enhanced lighting, and additional VFX while providing an extra-high-quality picture in 4K at 30 frames per second. Performance mode focuses on a 60 frames per second experience without the graphical enhancements and a lower-resolution base in 4K. No matter which mode you decide to play on, the game will look amazing. If you want to push for higher graphics and visuals, choose the fidelity mode. If you want a higher frame rate, choose the performance mode. Personally, I played the entire game in performance mode. Watching the game move in 60 frames per second was such a treat. You instantly notice the difference from 30 to 60 when you switch it in the first menu. Fidelity mode is pretty cool but I value a higher frame rate over better graphics.
Nadji Jeter as Miles Morales really sells this version of the character. He’s super passionate about Miles and it does show in his performance. The music for this game is fitting for Miles as a character. Playing hip hop inspired music throughout your adventure is a really nice touch. And as a fan of modern hip hop music, it’s neat to see Insomniac Games get it right for this game. The DualSense controller is nifty as well. You can feel the subtle vibrations in the controller during your playthrough. In later parts of my playthrough, I did run into some weird and random glitches. They didn’t break the game entirely but did take me out of the experience for a minute or two. Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales is a stunning launch title for the PlayStation 5. Whether you play in fidelity or performance mode, you can tell how beautiful this game is. While not exactly perfect, I am thoroughly satisfied with how this game looks, feels, and sounds on the PS5.
In short, I had an incredible time playing Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales. The story being the conclusion to Miles’ arc in becoming Spider-Man is wonderfully executed. The gameplay still nails the fun action I’ve come to love in Marvel’s Spider-Man. The performance mode makes this game really pop for console gaming. Even if you’re not able to play this game on the PlayStation 5, I’m sure the PS4 version still delivers on every other front. Clocking in at around 6–8 hours to finish the main story, Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales is most definitely worth the full price of $49.99. It’s a shorter open world Spider-Man game featuring Miles Morales. If you decide to play everything this game has to offer, minus new game plus, you’re looking at an additional 2–3 hours of playtime. I am in love with this game because of Insomniac Games’ love and care taken to create this version of Miles Morales.
Travis “tvsonic” Vuong
Business e-mail: travisvuong56@gmail.com
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