– The New York of Marvel’s Spider-Man is the New York of your dreams, of your imagination – says Jacinda.
-What are you talking about? – I ask him.
– Red brick buildings, yellow taxis, fire escapes and smoke in the sewers. We took all this and put it in the city, it is a very condensed version of New York, but with everything that makes it unique.
Jacinda Chew, art director of Marvel's Spider-Man 2, has been working at the Californian studio Insomniac Games for 20 years. She has been an art director since 2009 and titles like Ratchet have passed through her hands.
The new thing from Insomniac Games is a great popcorn adventure, it is a video game that could very well be a superhero movie blockbuster, although with the particularity that you are Spider-Man. The action, but also the story and the characters are the key to this title that, for 30 hours, keeps you glued to the chair and to the controls. “Although it continues, it recovers and raises to new heights the spectacular nature of its action game proposal,” we said in our analysis of Marvel's Spider-Man 2.
As we pointed out at the beginning of the article, beyond Peter Parker or Miles Morales, another protagonist of the game is the city of New York. A reduced and condensed version that, as Jacinda Chew said, is the New York of dreams. “We don't scan the city, we rely on photos and our memories. When we had doubts we even asked on Internet forums about the city,” explains Chew.
The map of Marvel's Spider-Man 2 grows compared to the two previous installments. It now occupies Manhattan, Brooklyn (where Miles Morales lives) and Queens (Peter Parker's neighborhood). “There are residential areas with lower buildings and also many industrial areas, we put a lot of effort into making web swinging work and be just as fun in skyscrapers as it is in lower buildings,” he says.
Regarding movement, it should be noted that now Spider-Man can also plan. He doesn't literally fly, but almost. And this also put Insomniac Games' art team in considerable trouble. The art director points out that “planning implies that you can rise higher and we need to increase the drawing distance and the quality of the models so that it looks good.” New York from a bird's eye view, basically. “To do this we needed the power of PS5 and a lot of technology,” she adds.
There are Spider-Man movies, animated series, toys and even underwear with the face of the spider hero. But the base and reference are always comics. “They're like the Bible to us,” Chew says. Most of the costumes, locations, and also the villains come from the comics. Among others, in Marvel's Spider-Man 2 the Lizard, the Sandman and Venom make their debut.
“Designing Venom was very complex,” begins Jacinda Chew. “In the comics you never see how he opens his mouth and changes size many times. After trying many things, we came to the conclusion that Venom, being a symbiote, can change shape. When he opens his mouth, there comes a point where he unhinges his jaw like a snake. There is a lot of technology just in Venom's jaw,” she assures.
Something similar happens with the Sandman. “First we wondered if he had legs or if he was like a genie out of a lamp,” Chew notes. “The Sandman can also change size so, like with Venom, we tried putting different versions into the game to find out which worked best. If we made it too big it was not comfortable for the player and if we made it too small it was unspectacular. In the end we did it,” Chew is proud.
Marvel's Spider-Man 2 is a direct sequel to the two previous titles, but not only in terms of story, but also because of its design and gameplay. It is a small evolution of the formula. But it remains that: it is an evolution and not a revolution. Although he doesn't need it either. For Chew, one of the most difficult things about making a sequel “is that you have to satisfy the audience's expectations, but you also have to surprise them.” Marvel's Spider-Man 2 achieves this with an incredible sense of spectacle and with animations that almost look like they came from a pre-rendered movie (something that, as we saw in Ratchet
Swinging – and now also gliding – through the city of Marvel's Spider-Man 2 is a joy and all its characters exude charisma. So get your web shooter ready, the game arrives exclusively on PlayStation 5 today.
