Need a Spidey recap?
Every generation of consoles has a memorable Spider-Man game. The PS1 had the Neversoft classic, PS2 had the surprisingly groundbreaking Spider-Man 2 movie licence and Shattered Memories on the PS3 was way ahead of its time with the Spider-Verse theme.
We reckon 2018’s Spider-Man for the PS4, developed by Insomniac Games, is the best yet, though. And its sequel – dropping this month on the PS5 – is looking to be this generation’s Spider-Man.
But before you start playing, do you remember how the last one finished? It’s a sequel after all, and it directly ties in with its predecessor and the Miles Morales spin-off.
If you’re anything like us, you’ve played a lot of games since then, and your memories of the story are on the vague side. So, let’s have a look at where the plot left off.
Spider-Man 2 recap – everything you need to remember
Even though Miles Morales was a short game, it’s still a game in its own right. So we’ll be discussing both games separately down below. And even though they weren’t epic 40-hour RPGs, they still have a lot to cover. So let’s get started!
What happened in the first Spider-Man PS4 game?
Let’s cast our minds back to 2018. Infinity War had dropped, and we were on tenterhooks waiting for the cliffhanger to be resolved in Endgame.
Meanwhile, in the gaming world, our minds were being kept occupied by Insomniac’s epic new Spider-Man… Take a look at the video from MrRedRivers below for a full recap.
The game opens with Peter Parker (Spider-Man) being rudely awakened via police radio. He learns that that Wilson Fisk is attempting to flee the police. He helps the cops, including his detective friend Yuri Watanabe, to capture Fisk.
But it doesn’t end here (there wouldn’t be much of a game if it did). Many things start to go awry – Peter’s mentor and colleague Otto Octavius has his research funding from Oscorp (run by Mayor Norman Osborn) cut, and a masked gang called the Inner Demons start to take up where Fisk left off.
The Inner Demons are searching for something called Devil’s Breath, a dangerous bioweapon created by Oscorp (see how it all ties together?) with the intention of curing terminal illness. Spider-Man and Mary Jane manage to obtain Devil’s Breath.
However, Otto Octavius – his mind addled by the neural interface of his mechanical tentacles – vows revenge on Oscorp for cutting his funding. He frees a few classic Spidey villains from the Raft prison, and unleashes the toxic Devil’s Breath on the whole city. New York descends into anarchy, Mayor Osborne declares martial law and blames Spider-Man for the bioweapon outbreak.
Our hero – now a fugitive from the law – still manages to save the day. He defeats the escapees from the Raft (Electro, Vulture, Rhino and Scorpion), before confronting his old mentor Octavius.
After defeating him, Spidey is faced with a Sophie’s Choice conundrum: Immediately save his Aunt May from the effects of Devil’s Breath, or take longer to develop a cure for the whole city. He reluctantly chooses the latter (some great responsibility right there). Aunt May reveals she’s always known about his secret identity, and tells Peter how proud she is, before passing away.
The game ends with a bit of a cliffhanger. Peter’s old friend Harry (Mayor Osborn’s son, and the person for whom Devil’s Breath was created), is being kept alive by a black, alien-like substance. Any guesses as to what that is?
The story is occasionally intercut with a sub-plot revolving around a young man called Miles Morales. He happens to be bitten by a radioactive spider halfway through, and learns he has interesting abilities…
What happened in Spider-Man: Miles Morales
The spin-off from 2020 was one of the first major releases on the PlayStation 5. It’s a lot shorter than the first one, but it’s still a cracking game with a stellar story.
After a year of training together, Peter and Miles face Rhino, a fight in which Miles discovers he has a unique ability called “Venom”. Peter then tells Miles that he’s leaving the city for a while, to help Mary Jane cover a news story in Symkaria. So the protection of New York is up to Miles for a while…
His first job is a big one. Miles prevents a criminal army known as the Underground from stealing a an experimental power source prototype (called Nuform) from the Roxxon Energy Corporation.
Meanwhile, Miles’s classmate Ganke Lee creates a Spider-Man app for citizens of the city, which inadvertently reveals Miles’s secret identity to his uncle, Aaron Davis.
After another huge conflict between Roxxon Energy Corporation and the Underground, we learn that the sinister leader of the latter’s group – known as the Tinkerer – is his childhood friend Phin.
Miles accidentally explodes a batch of Nuform with his Venom power, destroying the Braithwaite Bridge. Spidey fall out of favour with the public… but learns he can turn invisible.
Miles learns that Phin’s brother Rick created Nuform while working for Roxxon, but the ominous power made him ill. He and Phin attempted to expose the dangers of Nuform, but he was killed in the process. Miles decides to work with Phin and expose Nuform, along with the nefarious head of Roxxon – Krieger.
In a story of twists and turns, Miles’s uncle Aaron is revealed to be the Prowler. He initially helps Miles, but then tries to prevent him getting involved in the war between the Underground and Roxxon by physically restraining him.
Miles escapes, and after finding out Phin’s plans to destroy the Roxxon building would actually destroy all of Harlem, he sets out to stop her. It’s almost too late, but she sees her mistake and helps try to stop the explosion. Miles absorbs the Nuform into himself, and Phin flies him way above the city, saving the citizens but dying in the resulting explosion.
Roxxon and Krieger are shut down and arrested respectively, and Aaron turns himself in as the Prowler to publicly testify against them. Miles is back in the public’s good books as Peter returns.
In a post-credits sequence, we return to the characters of the first game. Norman seems to release Harry from his chamber, while talking to a certain Curt Connors…
And that’s it, the first one-and-a-half games in the series. Bring on Spider-Man 2!
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