[i]Spider-Man 2018[/i] is truly a marvel of a game. Having first played it back on the PS4 when it launched and finished the story, I walked away remembering having a great time with the game. But as time went on and the wider console ecosystem moved forward, it became one of those games that sat untouched on the shelf, held back more by circumstances than anything else.
Then eight years later, I stumbled across the Remastered version on sale. It took all of five seconds before I hit buy, recalling the experience I had with the game. So I downloaded the game, launched it, and went in with the simple intention of benchmarking it before putting it aside for another day.
Then that benchmarking session somehow stretched into four hours, and by the end of it, I've rediscovered exactly what had hooked me the first time around.
This game is a rollercoaster of an experience that stays with you for its entire duration. It swings straight into action from minute one, its gameplay instantly gripped me with how immediate and to the point it was, and the experience kept on rolling hours later with barely a dip in its fluidity. It is a far cry from its contemporaries which always seem drown their best ideas in bloated excess. Spider-Man, on the other hand, puts every ounce of its AAA production value on display as it facilitates the main gameplay loop of superhero sandboxing in a spectacularly rendered New York, an amazingly realised traversal system that flows seamlessly into combat, racing challenges, or the other dozens of activities which the game peppers its open world with to compliment the fantasy of becoming your favourite neighbourhood vigilante, with every facet dripping with quality in its presentation.
And now, with the title having been remastered and ported to PC, the experience is better than ever with the updated visuals, higher frame rates and a more accessible ecosystem that allows you to further tailor the game to your liking.
It is genuinely eye-opening to realise just how rare this breed of AAA titles has become: the kind that feels like it justifies its massive budget and cultural presence. [i]Spider-Man 2018[/i] isn't without some of the typical AAA flaws: the combat starts to wear thin in the late game when enemy and encounter types become a bit too repetitive; the open world activities and side missions can feel formulaic at times; and more often than not, the game chooses "show over play", opting to use scripted QTE sequences instead of organic gameplay for its pivotal moments. But none of those detract from the satisfying core gameplay loop who got me blasting through the entire game in just over a week, constantly harbouring the thought of delving back into it whenever I was away from the screen, despite this being my second time through it, and left with the contentment that not a single minute of the 30 hour playtime felt unearned.
In brief, [i]Spider-Man 2018[/i] represents the best of what AAA gaming can offer: a game that leverages its abundant resources to make every fibre of its being worth experiencing, and reminding you why you loved gaming in the first place.
