The visual upgrade & Peter’s new face
Marvel’s Spider-Man Remastered (PS5) Review
Marvel’s Spider-Man on the PS4 recently got a remaster upgrade for the PlayStation 5. Only available through Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales’ Ultimate Edition, the remaster comes packaged in as a voucher code. Once redeemed, you’re able to experience the remaster with all of its visual upgrades and fully see the new Peter Parker model in action. After playing through this game once again on the PS5, how good are the visual bumps?
The story and gameplay is still the same from the PS4 version (full spoiler review for story & gameplay thoughts). The prominent difference for this remaster is the graphics and visuals. Off the bat, you can tell the visuals have been enhanced for the PlayStation 5. Added shadows and lighting effects to make this game look more realistic.
Just like the Miles Morales game, you get the option between fidelity and performance mode. Fidelity mode is all about enhancing the visuals to give the best looking graphics at 30 frames per second including ray tracing and enhanced lighting. Performance mode focuses on a 60 frames per second experience at slightly lower visuals. No ray tracing or enhanced lighting for performance mode but you do get the highest frames possible for Marvel’s Spider-Man. Playing through this game once again on performance mode, it’s amazing watching this game move at 60 frames per second. The higher frames makes this game really stand out from the original and the improved visuals are still noticeable. Insomniac Games put a lot of effort into remastering this game for the next generation and I greatly appreciate their work here. In addition, the load times for this game are super fast now. Just booting the game up, you’re instantly taken to the main menu to begin your journey as Spider-Man once again. Marvel’s Spider-Man is now the best looking it can be on this new hardware.
The new Peter Parker model takes the stage as its reveal left many fans questioning Insomniac’s decision. If you read up on the PlayStation blog article, the devs decided to recast the face of Peter to better capture Yuri Lowenthal’s performance for the remaster. First reactions sparked angry Spider-Man fans to go wild on Twitter, not really happy with this change to make this version of Peter look nothing like the original and much younger too. My initial reaction wasn’t all that positive either. Just like most of the fans on Twitter, I was shocked by how different this version of Peter looked compared to the original. Granted, I wasn’t a huge fan of the original look Peter had for Marvel’s Spider-Man but slowly grew accustomed to him when I finally played the game. I didn’t hate this decision personally since I can see how much better the new face captured Yuri’s performance from this one clip. Also, I know Insomniac Games isn’t dumb enough to make a big change like this without a concrete decision. Since many fans experienced a full story with this version of Peter, it feels like to them that their version of Peter Parker is getting recast for a reason that they can’t fully get behind. The backlash became so bad, the creative director at Insomniac Games, Bryan Intihar, came out with a statement about the new model. Bryan admitted it took him a while to get used to this version of Peter but knew this decision had to be made. In order to better capture Yuri’s performance, this decision was not made lightly and hoped fans would understand this was best for the future of the franchise.
Now that I’ve fully played Marvel’s Spider-Man Remaster, what do I think of the new Peter Parker model? It looks pretty good. You can notice very subtle facial movements in the new model that wasn’t there previously. When I started the Miles Morales game, I was already somewhat used to this new look of Peter Parker. This might be a controversial statement but Peter Parker is just another white boy. I’m not saying I’ve fully detached myself from the original model but I’m quickly getting use to this new one. Ben Jordan, being the new face model, honestly fits as an older version of Peter Parker. Once you finally see this new face in context with the rest of the cast of characters, it does work. I did say in my Medium article he does look younger than Miles being side by side, but seeing them together in cutscenes, the new face model doesn’t look as jarring as I initially thought. Obviously, some people will still gravitate to the original Peter model but this new model is here to stay as he’s already being used in the Miles Morales game and probably for the foreseeable future of Insomniac’s Spider-Man. Overall, I’m content with the new Peter Parker model. It still takes on the Peter Parker look while capturing Yuri’s performance better for the next generation hardware.
In conclusion, Marvel’s Spider-Man Remastered is a phenomenal enhancement of the original PS4 title. Boosting the visuals to the standard of the PlayStation 5 while adding the option of a 30 or 60 frames per second experience is awesome. Insomniac Games truly went above and beyond to upgrade this game for the PS5. The new Peter Parker model does capture Yuri’s performance better while fitting this older version of the character. I only recommend picking this remaster up if you want to experience this game once again at a higher frame rate with better visuals and/or you want to see this new Peter Parker model in action. Or if you’ve never played Marvel’s Spider-Man, this is for sure the definitive way to play it. I had a blast playing this game once again, this time at 60 frames per second and a new Peter Parker model to boot.
Travis “tvsonic” Vuong
Business e-mail: travisvuong56@gmail.com
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