For the most part, Marvel's Spider-Man: Miles Morales was an improvement on its predecessor in just about every way. Though its length was rightfully criticized, and some fans still prefer the first game's story, Marvel's Spider-Man: Miles Morales delivered a slew of improvements when it comes to the series' combat mechanics, traversal, and side activities. But it wasn't all perfect, and there's one big pitfall that Marvel's Spider-Man: Miles Morales fell into that Marvel's Spider-Man 2 needs to desperately avoid.
From just the one gameplay trailer fans have seen so far, it seems as though Marvel's Spider-Man 2 is going to be a true successor for the series, continuing to build upon its predecessors' excellent foundations with even more combat options, traversal techniques, an even bigger New York City to explore, and more threats than ever before. But it's that last component that Marvel's Spider-Man 2 needs to be careful about.
Kraven's Hunters Need to be More Distinct Than Spider-Man: Miles Morales' Roxxon
In Marvel's Spider-Man, players faced off against a handful of different factions, each with their own unique set of enemy unit types, weapons, and abilities. There were the standard non-powered enemies like Kingpin's thugs, escaped convicts from Ryker's, Tombstone's gang, and the Maggia enforcers, all of which had enemy types that wielded simple melee weapons, handguns, assault rifles, rocket launchers, and occasionally a shield.
Then there were Mr. Negative's Inner Demons and Silver Sable's titular agents, both of which required some unique tactics to defeat. While the Inner Demons required a lot of precise close-quarters dodges and counterattacks to defeat, Sable's agents encouraged a more long-range, stealthy approach, with their forces being able to incapacitate Spidey immediately with their energy bolts.
Rather than try to outdo its predecessor in terms of quantity, Marvel's Spider-Man: Miles Morales instead decided to focus on just three main enemy factions, with Kingpin's henchmen returning, the Tinkerer's Underground making their debut, and Roxxon rearing its technologically-advanced head. But while the Underground posed a significant challenge, requiring the player to use all of Miles' new abilities efficiently to defeat even their weakest enemy types, Marvel's Spider-Man: Miles Morales' Roxxon faction was a little lackluster in its execution.
Essentially just being a re-skin of the Sable agents from Marvel's Spider-Man, Marvel's Spider-Man: Miles Morales' Roxxon enemies offered little in terms of variety, with their static movements and frustrating arsenal not really encouraging smart gameplay in the same way that the Underground did. It's imperative that Marvel's Spider-Man 2's enemy factions all feel distinct from one another, each one encouraging a new tactic from the player, and it should all start with the game's current marketing focus: Kraven's hunters.
Led by Kraven himself, this gang of hunters has been seemingly tasked with locating and capturing New York City's biggest threats, with the Lizard being the group's main target in the gameplay trailer. Though Kraven's hunters appeared throughout Marvel's Spider-Man 2's trailer, they didn't get much time to actually show off their moves, with a Symbiote-suited Spider-Man and his ruthless rampage through them being the focus.
But based on the brief glimpses fans have seen so far, it seems as though Kraven's hunters will have a unique arsenal of weapons and tools at their disposal, ranging from vehicles like helicopters, boats, and jeeps, to weapons and technology like assault rifles and robot dogs. This is hopefully just scratching the surface of what Kraven's hunters can do in Marvel's Spider-Man 2, and with any luck they'll have plenty more tricks up their sleeves that distinguish them completely from any other factions the series has seen so far.
Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 is scheduled to release in Fall 2023 for PS5.