Locomotion is one of the most important things to get right in a Spider-Man game. Swinging between the skyscrapers of New York, feeling that rush of inertia as the webslinger hurtles through the air at dizzying speeds, is one of the core tenets of the Spidey experience. And from the brief hands-on we had at E3 2018 with the new Spider-Man game that’s coming exclusively on the PlayStation 4, it seems like developer Insomniac Games has nailed that swinging feeling.
During our demo, we were able to freely roam around the open environment of New York city, traversing the world and getting into the occasional scuffle to get a feel for how Spidey moves in this new game. And I was immediately struck by how easy it was to keep moving as the ol’ webhead. Swinging between buildings was as easy as holding down the R2 button, while tapping X would give Spidey a speed boost for even quicker traversal. And while this game does require buildings or other objects for Spidey’s webs to attach to (so no off-screen magical walls that Spidey’s webs will always somehow find), finding yourself in an area with no buildings (such as a park) doesn’t mean you’ll have to run on foot. The R2 button in this case acts as the “Go” button, with Spidey automatically webbing to a distant object and propelling forward, which makes sure he never really slows down if you don’t want him to. But if you did want to stop…
