Review: Spider-Man: Miles Morales
Even if Spider-Man: Miles Morales was nothing more than a quick cash-in for the sake of having a sexy PS5 launch title and an attempt to capitalize on the success of Into the Spider-Verse, a lot of people (myself included) would have actually been okay with that. Insomniac’s Spider-Man was remarkable, but one of the only complaints about it was that the post-launch DLC wasn’t of the same quality. So, if Miles Morales was essentially just a $40 skin, just that would be enough to reignite my interest in jumping back into that game. The fact that Spider-Man: Miles Morales doesn’t play it safe and exceeds the 2018 classic in every area is mind-blowing.
After its initial announcement, there was a lot of confusion as to what Spider-Man Miles Morales actually was. Was it DLC for Spider-Man? Had Insomniac already developed a sequel in that little time? The truth is that we’re starting to see more of these one-off releases that are shorter in length but that evokes the same scale and experience as the full-length content. Naughty Dog’s has done this a few times with The Last of Us: Left Behind and Uncharted: The Lost Legacy and The Coalition’s recently launched one with Gears of War 5’s Hivebusters. Spider-Man: Miles Morales is in that same category. You get side missions galore and a ton of collectibles to hunt down, but the biggest difference is that the campaign clocks in at around 5-6 hours. Now while that may seem disappointing at first, trust me when I say that the fact that Insomniac went with quality over quantity really pays off. It’s one of my absolute favorite stories in a long time, and with the length being a handful of hours, revisiting it from time to time doesn’t seem so daunting.
Holding off on playing Spider-Man: Miles Morales until I had secured a Playstation 5 was about as easy as finding a Playstation 5 itself. The temptation to go with the PS4-version was intense, but I am so glad that I managed to hold off. Booting it up on a PS5 makes one hell of a first impression. With the Playstation 5’s power, New York City looks incredible. Not only are you getting more details and a higher resolution than the 2018 game, but Spider-Man Miles Morales takes place during the holidays, so there are snowstorms to swing through and vibrant Christmas decorations to gawk at.
The inclusion of a Spider-Verse skin is amazing
Everything is just so damn smooth. The game gives you the option of going with a framerate-driven performance mode or a visually enhanced mode that provides ray-tracing, but no matter which one that you choose the gameplay never stalls. Spider-Man can be fighting a dozen enemies, throwing out all of these extreme animations with all of these crazy particles going off and the game never stops purring. It’s so impressive.
Speaking of impressive, Spider-Man: Miles Morales is the first next-gen game that has startled me by the load times. When you boot up the game and select “Continue,” you’re instantly back in the game. There are no load times whatsoever and it still feels like some sort of sorcery when you experience it.
Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales is the first must-play game of the ninth generation of consoles.
