Marvel’s Spider-Man Review — One of the Best Spider-Man Games Ever Made

Review originally dated: September 14, 2018

There are certain superhero games where, after only a few hours, you know you are playing something special.

Marvel’s Spider-Man is one of those games.

Insomniac Games has delivered an absolutely incredible interpretation of Spider-Man that understands not only what makes the superhero exciting, but what makes Peter Parker such an incredible character in the first place.

And I absolutely love it.

Rather than telling us another Spider-Man origin story, Marvel’s Spider-Man introduces us to a Peter Parker who has already been Spider-Man for years. He knows how to fight. He knows how to swing. He has encountered villains before. He has relationships, responsibilities, and history.

That decision gives the entire game a confidence that I immediately fell in love with.

This Is Peter Parker

The greatest strength of Marvel’s Spider-Man is its story.

There are massive superhero battles, incredible villains, and enormous action sequences, but Insomniac never forgets that underneath the mask is Peter Parker.

His relationships with Aunt May, Mary Jane Watson, Otto Octavius, Miles Morales, and the other people around him give this story its heart.

Peter is trying to save New York while simultaneously attempting to keep his personal life from falling apart.

That is Spider-Man.

Some of my favorite moments aren't necessarily the enormous battles. They're the conversations between characters, the quiet moments between missions, and the little glimpses at Peter's life away from the suit.

And as the story progresses, everything becomes increasingly emotional and personal.

Without diving too heavily into spoilers, the final stretch of this game is fantastic.

Insomniac clearly understands Spider-Man's greatest strength: Peter Parker will continue trying to do the right thing even when doing the right thing absolutely destroys him.

Swinging Through New York Never Gets Old

Then there is the web-swinging.

Good lord.

Moving through New York as Spider-Man is so much fun that there were countless moments where I completely ignored the next objective and simply swung around the city.

The movement has weight without feeling slow. Spider-Man dives between buildings, gains momentum, launches himself into the air, runs across walls, and effortlessly transitions between animations.

Simply getting from one side of Manhattan to the other is entertaining.

That is one of the biggest compliments I can give an open-world game.

I don't always want to fast travel because I'd rather just be Spider-Man.

Combat Makes You Feel Like Spider-Man

Combat is similarly excellent.

Peter is incredibly agile, bouncing between enemies while using webs, gadgets, aerial attacks, environmental objects, and his surroundings.

You can throw objects across a room, web enemies to walls, launch someone into the air, dodge incoming gunfire, and immediately transition into another attack.

There is a rhythm to the combat that becomes incredibly satisfying once everything starts clicking.

And because Peter has so many gadgets and abilities available, encounters give you plenty of opportunities to experiment instead of endlessly repeating the same combination.

The different Spider-Man suits are another fantastic addition. Unlocking them became something I constantly wanted to do, and having so many different looks from throughout Spider-Man's history makes the game feel like a celebration of the character.

A Spider-Man Universe I Want More Of

What excites me most is that this doesn't feel like a one-and-done Spider-Man adventure.

It feels like the beginning of an entire universe.

Characters are introduced.

Relationships change.

New heroes begin emerging.

Certain storylines conclude while others clearly have much further to go.

By the time the credits rolled, I didn't feel finished with this version of Spider-Man.

I wanted another game.

I wanted another story.

I wanted to know what happened next.

Insomniac has taken familiar pieces of Spider-Man history and rearranged them into something that feels both recognizable and completely its own.

That's extremely difficult to pull off with a character who has existed for this long.

They did it.

Final Verdict

Marvel’s Spider-Man isn't merely a great superhero game.

It's a great Spider-Man story.

It's a great Peter Parker story.

And it's one of the most enjoyable games I've played in a long time.

The story hooked me. The characters made me care. The combat made me feel powerful. The web-swinging made simply traveling around New York ridiculously entertaining.

Most importantly, the game understands why people love Spider-Man.

There is spectacle everywhere, but beneath all of it is a story about responsibility, sacrifice, relationships, and someone who keeps getting back up no matter how many times life knocks him down.

Insomniac Games didn't just make a Spider-Man game.

They created a Spider-Man universe I desperately want to see continue.

FINAL SCORE: 10/10

Absolutely Amazing.

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Archive Add-On 2026

Eight years later, I think the greatest compliment I can give this game is simple:

I still love it.

Since its original release, I have replayed Marvel’s Spider-Man somewhere around five to ten times, across its different versions, and it has never lost what made me fall in love with it in 2018.

I earned the Platinum Trophy in the original PS4 release and later earned the Platinum again in Marvel’s Spider-Man Remastered.

After all of those playthroughs, all these years, and everything that has happened with this series since, I still consider the original Marvel’s Spider-Man one of the greatest Spider-Man games ever made.

Some games are incredible when you first play them and gradually lose a little of their magic.

This one never did.

Every time I return to this New York and Peter leaps from a building for that first swing, it feels like coming home.