Everything we learned from Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 previews

Our first look at the game’s boss fights

One of the weakest points of Marvel’s Spider-Man for PS4 was its handling of boss fights. While the final fight was amazing, and the encounter against Task Master was a standout as well, most of the bosses didn’t offer enough gameplay variety or were challenging enough to be memorable. However, it seems Insomniac listened to all the feedback and will double down on the boss fights for Marvel’s Spider-Man 2.

Bosses will now have health bars, and they will become increasingly more difficult as their health depletes. In order to demonstrate just how much of an improvement was made in this area of the game, Insomniac allowed players to experience the boss fight with the Lizard in the hands-on demo (and you can take a look at it in the video above).

According to multiple players, the Lizard will become increasingly bigger and stronger throughout the course of the game. Apparently, that has to do with Kraven’s hunt, but we have yet to know the exact reason behind Dr. Connors’ increasing transformation into a monster. However, one thing is for certain: that chase scene between Peter and the Lizard really looks amazing.

Mysterio will make his debut

While we’re on the note of bad guys, Mysterio will make an appearance in Marvel’s Spider-Man 2. He was included as an easter egg in the original game, but it was finally time for players to meet Insmoniac’s version of Quentin Beck. It appears Mysterio will have its own series of side missions as evidenced by the image below where his symbol can be seen as an AR landmark in the city. Perhaps completing all of his missions will lead to an encounter with the master of illusions himself.

The traversal system

One of the few negative details highlighted in the previews is how the game failed to revamp Miles Morales’ traversal system. It’s reported that Miles’ animations while swinging are pretty much the same as the ones in Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales. That in itself isn’t inherently bad, as swinging across New York’s skyline in Insomniac’s previous Spider-Man adventure was insanely fun. However, Peter’s animations were reportedly improved (even going as far as including an animation where Pete solves a Rubik’s cube mid-air), so it’s disappointing to hear Miles didn’t get the same treatment.

However, that’s not to say the traversal system will remain exactly the same. First and foremost, players will be able to traverse the city at three times the speed of the previous games when using webs to catapult themselves across the sky. Besides, both Spider-Men will also be able to glide through the city thanks to the web-wings in what may be the biggest addition to the game’s traversal system yet. Finally, the web-slinging will also be faster and a few new mechanics will also be added to it.