Opinion

Spider-Man 2 is proof that Insomniac is by far the best Playstation studio

24-10-2023

Translation: Eva Francis

Insomniac Games has just released another PS5 smash hit – Spider-Man 2. In my opinion, Insomniac is without doubt the best Playstation studio right now.

The reviews for Spider-Man 2 are overflowing with praise. The open-world blockbuster is hailed as the best PS5 game ever, the best superhero game ever and the best game yet by Insomniac. Even fellow editor and superhero grouch Phil loved Spider-Man – here’s his review.

With the release of Spider-Man 2, Insomniac has fortified its status as the best Playstation studio. Read on to find out why.

Incredible release speed

After Insomniac was acquired by Sony in 2019, the studio went into speed mode – Spider-Man 2 is already its fourth (!) PS5 release. In 2020, Insomniac launched Spider-Man: Miles Morales and a remastered version of the first Spider-Man game alongside the Playstation 5. About a year later, the studio followed up with Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart. And now, two years after the intergalactic platformer, Spider-Man 2 has already been released. And, in case you forgot, a Wolverine game’s in the pipeline, too. Unbelievable!

That’s an incredible output – and even more impressive if you look at what the other Playstation studios accomplished in the same time frame. Naughty Dog, for instance, has only released a remake of the first The Last of Us (2022) since the launch of The Last of Us Part 2 in 2020. The standalone multiplayer game for The Last of Us has since been put on hold. Santa Monica Studios released the excellent God of War: Ragnarok a year ago. After the open-world hit Ghost of Tsushima (2020), Sucker Punch delivered another DLC for the game in 2021. Polyphony Digital delighted racing fans with Gran Turismo 7 (2022) and Guerilla Games most recently released the excellent games Horizon: Forbidden West (2022) and the DLC Burning Shores (2023).

All in all, that’s about one to two releases per studio – including DLCs. This is a «regular» output for AAA studios. Insomniac, however, has managed to release four PS5 smash hits in the same period – and already has the next blockbuster, Wolverine, in the pipeline. According to statements by employees, this is happening without crunch times – that is, without a disproportionate amount of overtime.

High quality throughout

Despite the breakneck release pace, Insomniac’s games have good reviews across the board. The first Spider-Man and the remastered version boast a Metascore of 87. The standalone expansion Miles Morales has a score of 85. Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart even scores 88 points. Spider-Man 2 has a record-breaking rating of 91.

In other words, Insomniac hasn’t only managed to maintain the high quality level, but has steadily improved. In my opinion, their games deserve even higher ratings.

Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart is full of mirror-like surfaces with ray-tracing reflections.
Source: Insomniac Games

Insomniac games push PS5 hardware

Apart from the excellent gameplay mechanics, current Insomniac games also offer beautiful graphics and a technically impressive implementation. The studio has been constantly pushing the limits of the PS5 since the beginning of the new console generation. The following aspects stand out in particular.

Ray tracing and the like

With Miles Morales and Spider-Man Remastered, Insomniac already delivered impressive ray-tracing reflections on Sony’s new console for the launch of the PS5. These were further developed in Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart and perfected in Spider-Man 2. Having said that, perfected may sound like an exaggeration. But honestly, I don’t think much more is possible on PS5 hardware – especially not in such a huge and complex open world game.

Virtually no loading times

Insomniac doesn’t do loading times – their PS5 games launch within seconds. With the Fast Travel option in Spider-Man 2, there’s no waiting at all. You just click on a point on the open-world map and Spidey swings his way through the urban canyons. No other studio currently manages to implement such seamless transitions and virtually non-existent loading times. What a joy – especially after the countless loading screens in Starfield.

60 fps and VRR

The graphical splendour in Insomniac’s PS5 games is rounded off by a super-smooth frame rate. I can choose between a range of graphic options, going far beyond the standard options of Fidelity with 30 fps and Performance with 60 fps. If you have a 120 Hz TV, you can use a VRR option with Insomniac's games. In Spider-Man 2, this setting allows for a performance mode without a frame rate limit as well as a fidelity mode with 40 fps. This may seem like a small improvement compared to 30 fps, but it makes a big difference when you play the game.

Digital Foundry’s tested the modes in Spider-Man 2. Check out the video below starting at minute 8:00 to get an impression of them.

Insomniac games aren’t 100 hours long

In a time when games are getting longer and longer, Insomniac offers pleasantly manageable playtimes. Insomniac games aren’t 100-hour monsters that I need to take a month off work for. They’re rather short, but all the more spectacularly staged blockbuster games that I can finish within a realistic time frame. According to howlongtobeat.com, the average playtime of the PS5 games released so far is as follows:

Spider-Man Remastered: main story: 17.5 hours – main story and extra content: 29.5 hours – platinum trophy: 43.5 hours
Spider-Man: Miles Morales: main story: 7.5 hours – main story and extra content: 12 hours – platinum trophy: 18 hours
Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart: main story: 11 hours – main story and extra content: 14.5 hours – platinum trophy: 18 hours
Spider-Man 2: main story: not enough data yet – main story and extra content: 16 hours – platinum trophy: 27.5 hours

That’s right up my street. After finishing an Insomniac game, I never feel oversaturated, but am left wanting more. And if I want more, I can get the platinum trophy – which I did in Rift Apart and the first two Spidey games and will definitely do again in Spider-Man 2.

In my opinion, Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart has the perfect length.
Source: Insomniac Games

Insomniac games have their own DNA

Insomniac doesn’t reinvent the wheel with every release. Instead, their games build on each other in terms of content and mechanics. I like that. I enjoy when I can feel that a studio’s games have their own DNA, such as familiar elements that reoccur throughout several games and are perfected with each release. That’s exactly what Insomniac does. The gameplay elements from the current Spider-Man games have their origins in the studio’s early history.

In the 2000s, Insomniac was best known for the Spyro the Dragon games. A few years later, the studio combined the classic platformer and collectathon elements from Spyro with new, more action-heavy shooter mechanics. The result? Ratchet & Clank. The developers have perfected this new genre mix in a total of ten games.

That’s how it all started – with Spyro the Dragon.
Source: ModernXP / YouTube

Insomniac used the experience gained with the Ratchet & Clank series to further develop the Xbox-exclusive shooter Sunset Overdrive in 2014. This game builds on the shooter-platformer mix of Insomniac’s previous games and puts a greater focus on the game character’s locomotion. I shoot and fight my way through a colourful open world, run along the walls of buildings, elegantly jump around and swing along power poles. Sounds familiar... Spidey, is that you?

Lindsay Keys, Animation Director at Insomniac, confirmed with a post on X that Sunset Overdrive laid the groundwork for Spider-Man. Without the crazy Xbox shooter, we’d never have been able to enjoy the ultra fluid locomotion system in Spider-Man.

The release of the first Spider-Man game was the foundation for Insomniac’s standalone expansion Miles Morales and the sequel Spider-Man 2. New York didn’t have to be redesigned from scratch for the two following games either. The city was wrapped in a winter gown in Miles Morales and a new district was added in Spider-Man 2. Insomniac didn’t have to reinvent the Spider-Man mechanics either, but could invest plenty of time in perfecting them. Reusing game environments, assets, animations, and gameplay systems allowed the studio to focus on other areas of the game. As a result, the quality (and Metacritic rating) increased with every sequel.

Spider-Man also benefited from Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart. Insomniac flexed the PS5’s muscles with the interdimensional rifts in Rift Apart. This game repeatedly teleported me back and forth between several dimensions, all in a matter of seconds. In Spider-Man 2, there are also portals that teleport Spidey to new locations – even smoother than in Rift Apart.

With one jump, Spider-Man teleports out of New York and into an arctic landscape.
Source: Digital Foundry / YouTube

It’s fun to see the studio develop its own ideas in each new game and find new ways to apply them. I can’t wait to see the Wolverine game and find out if it’s also inspired by previous Insomniac games.

Here’s a detailed game review of Spider-Man 2:

Review
Spider-Man 2 review: an action spectacle without equal
by Philipp Rüegg

For even more Spider-Man 2 content, check out the upcoming episode of our «A Tech Affair» podcast (podcast in Swiss German).

Header image: Insomniac Games

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Domagoj Belancic

Senior Editor

Domagoj.Belancic@digitecgalaxus.ch

My love of video games was unleashed at the tender age of five by the original Gameboy. Over the years, it's grown in leaps and bounds.

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