Darren Price
Sony blesses PC owners with another of its former PlayStation exclusives, the follow-up to Insomniac’s acclaimed web-slinging Spider-Man game, Marvel’s Spider-Man Miles Morales.
Back in 2018 the PlayStation 4 game, Marvel’s Spider-Man finally allowed me to relive a childhood dream of swinging around New York City as The Amazing Spider-Man. Other games had come close like Spider-Man 2 (2004) and Ultimate Spider-Man (2005), but most since those two titles just never managed to capture the thrill of swinging on a web across the Manhattan skyline.
Marvel’s Spider-Man made the transition to PlayStation 5 and then onto PC via a remastered version that upgraded the visuals for the improved hardware. It’s no surprise to see the follow-up game, 2020’s Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales make the jump to PC as well.
The PC version comes to us via veteran conversion outfit Nixxes Software, who have perfectly reproduced the PlayStation game for PC. The game includes the ray tracing features of the console version with support for Nvidia DLSS and AMD FSR 2.1 adding an extra performance boost.
The PC version also supports ultra-widescreen monitors.
For those not familiar with Miles Morales, he was first introduced via the Ultimate Comic line of Marvel comic book. This series, which started in 2000, rebooted many Marvel characters into a more realistic contemporary setting, intended to appeal more to a new generation of fans. These comics are often seen as the inspiration behind the more grounded Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Towards the end of the Ultimate line of comics, in 2011’s Ultimate Fallout series, Peter Parker was killed. A new Spider-Man, Miles Morales, a bi-racial 13-year-old, the son of an African-American father and a Puerto Rican mother, took over. Miles Morales’s Spider-Man was folded over into the main Marvel comics universe when the Ultimate imprint finished in 2015’s “Secret Wars” series.
For their follow-up game, Marvel’s Spider-Man developer Insomniac Games set themselves a bit of a challenge with Miles Morales. Whilst a DLC pack featuring Mile Morales swinging around Peter Parker’s NYC would’ve been acceptable, a full-priced sequel would need a bit more meat.
For this new Spider-Man game Insomniac covered Manhattan with a layer of snow, setting the game at Christmas time in New York. Players are treated in snow-covered roofs and puddles of melting snow at ground level (perfect for showing off ray-traced reflections).
The story continues from the ending of Marvel’s Spider-Man. With Peter Parker holidaying in Europe, the mantle of being New York’s main Spider-Man is passed to the rookie Miles Morales. Gifted a new suit by Peter Parker and with an app designed by his tech guy best friend, Ganke, Miles takes heads out as the city’s protector and friendly neighbourhood Spider-Man.
The game follows an identical format to the main Marvel’s Spider-Man game. It’s an open-world mission-based game with XP allowing Miles’s Spider-Man to upgrade abilities and tech. As well as the main story missions there are loads of activities, side-missions, and random crimes that all need Spider-Man’s help. New suits and equipment are purchased using ability tokens and tech parts that are earned from completing tasks and missions.
The web-swinging physics of the game is incredible and there’s a lot of fun to be had just swinging around, taking in the scenery, and stopping a few crimes on the way. Spider-Man: Miles Morales, like its predecessor, allows players to jump in for a quick go, solving a few crimes or taking on some activities. This means players can progress in the game without the need to get into the multi-part story missions best left for longer sessions.
The main story involves the conflict between the malevolent corporation, Roxxon, and an outfit called The Underground. The Underground, led by the mysterious Tinkerer, is after Roxxon’s unstable Nuform power source. Spider-Man finds himself up against The Underground’s advanced weapons. The game also features The Rhino and The Prowler.
As well as the game’s amazing web-swinging, the other standout feature is the rather breathtaking combat. Spider-Man punches, kicks, and shoots webs whilst taking on multiple attackers armed with guns, iron bars, and fists. Using Miles’s Spider-sense, players can jump and dodge to avoid bullets and blows, whilst striking out at the enemy. It’s a lot of fun, made even better as abilities and special moves are unlocked as the game progresses.
The PC version of the game is the most visually uncompromising. Whereas the PlayStation version does allow some customisation in selecting performance of visual fidelity, the Pc version give player full control over their experience based on personal preferences and hardware capabilities.
The inclusion of DLSS and FSR allows players to push the visuals a little further and also play the game on more modest PC set-ups.
Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales is another fantastic triple-A PlayStation title that looks and plays incredibly well on PC.
If you are a fan of the character, enjoyed the first game, or are a fan of huge open-world action games, you are going to love this one.
Released: December 2022
Rating: PG
Platforms reviewed: PC (Windows)
Genre: Action
Developer: Insomniac
Publisher: Sony
