Best Spider-man game to date in terms of story and gameplay --Story: Peter Parker has been Spider-man for 8 years already, so no origin story with the radioactive spider or Uncle Ben's death (although mentioned briefly in the story). There's a nice mix of a dual lifestyle in this game as the story balance out Peter Parker's personal life with that of Spider-man; making the character you play more relatable and to switch things up so you don't get constant combat making for good pacing. Plot (minor spoilers, first few hours): Spider-man finally takes down the Kingpin and put him in jail. As a result, a new villain arises in the form of Mister Negative. Mister Negative or Martin Li also runs F.E.A.S.T. shelters across the city, which Peter's Aunt May works for which complicates things. Aside from the Mister Negative; you face other villains in Spider-man's rogue gallery like Shocker, Electro, Rhino, Scorpion, Dr. Octopus, Vulture, Taskmaster and more. These characters don't play a huge part in the story compared to Mister Negative (and maybe one more villain), but the boss battles they're in are really fun. Other villains are mentioned (but not able to face against) through phone conversations, collectables, and JJJ podcasts. Guess they want to save it for potential sequel. There is DLC announced for the Black Cat as of this review with two more to come after. --Gamplay: A mix of Spider-man 2 and Batman Arkham games with it's own identity mixed in. Web-slinging feel very natural once you get the hang of it, and way better than the Spider-man 2 game as you can more manual control. You have to time your button presses to shoot out webs, calculate airtime, forward thrust and momentum. It controls are very seamless once you get used to it. Combat is very fast paced. Very similar to the Batman Arkham games with it's attack, dodge (when you get spider sense) mechanic, but more room to maneuver around compared to batman due to Spider-man having more agility, speed and ability to web swing. -Options for combat are: Melee Attacks Web based attacks Dodge Web Gadgets: use of elemental webbing and/or web bombs/traps. Some of which are super effective against certain enemies Swing Around- can be used as hit-and-run tactic if you're not high enough level Grab nearby objects with web and toss at enemies Activate focus meter/Activate Suit Powers - heal or do finishing move There's a lot of combinations you can do, especially as you upgrade abilities. Combat is very fast, responsive and will not overwhelm you with options as these abilities will unlock gradually as you progress. It's also not a button masher as some abilities require you to time button presses or hold buttons for few seconds during combos. -Upgrade System There are 2 ways to upgrade Spider-man: leveling up and crafting items. There are 3 upgrade trees you can select from: Innovator: tactical skills Defender: Melee combat based Web-sling: Jump around/dodge better during combat, also can use in overworld/chase sequence mini-games -Crafting. You can upgrade your suit and make gadgets by collecting in-game tokens by doing side objectives -There are 27 suits to collect. To unlock suits to craft, you have to be a certain level (and have materials) or complete certain objectives. If you 100% all side objectives you get this half naked spider-man suit where he's just in his underwear and a Spider-man mask. Last level unlock suit is at level 50. If you pre-order the game; the Spiderpunk suit, for example is unlocked from the get-go instead of having to wait till you reach level 16. There are 3 empty spaces for 3 additional suits. I assume it'll be included in the 3 planned story DLC for the game. -Other Gameplay To change up the pace a bit; you also play as Mary Jane, where you have to sneak around enemies to escape certain areas. There's also QTE (quick time events) during cinematic sequences Taskmaster acts like the Riddler in the Batman Arkham games giving you various side quests around the map before you face him Game takes around 15-20 hours to complete depending on your skill and how fast you intend to rush through the main story campaign. To collect everything and get platinum trophy it can take upwards to 40 hours. --Graphics Game looks very good, especially on the PS4 Pro where Spider-man's suit and puddles stand out more compared to the regular PS4. Whatever format you play it on, the game looks amazing. Has very good draw distance, and cinematic cutscenes. If you are nitpicky and walk up to individualized objects, the textures may be off a bit. Seeing the fast paced nature of the game, you most likely not have time to look around the over world anyway. Regardless, one of the best looking PS4 games to date Voice acting is also very good. Like the banter between Peter and Mary Jane. Also get some fun laughs when you use the Quips (tell jokes to enemies) ability for the Comic Spider-man suit. Overall, had a blast playing this game. If you're a fan of Spider-man or super hero games in general; it's a must buy.