Five years after the rousing success of 2018’s “Marvel’s Spider-Man,” the long-awaited sequel was released on Oct. 20 and was worth the wait.

In between those five years, the Miles Morales spin-off game, “Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales” was released on Nov. 12, 2020 ,and was very well-received by fans despite its short game length.

In “Spider-Man” and “Miles Morales,” players can only play as the respective title character.

Now, in “Marvel’s Spider-Man 2,” both Peter Parker and Miles are playable characters. Each one offers a unique skill set that makes swinging around New York City and engaging in combat more enjoyable than the first two games.

One of the significant differences between the first “Spider-Man” game and this one is that the face of Peter is different than it was in the first game. Even though the change took place with the “Miles Morales” game, Peter was only a side character and didn’t have a lot of screen time.

While the facial features are different, the voice behind the mask is the same. Once again, Yuri Lowenthal delivers a brilliant performance as the voice of Peter. Much like the first game, Lowenthal shines with his comedic quips during fight scenes and also during the emotional moments.

He was able to portray a new side of Peter in this game when the symbiote, an alien that looks like goo and takes over people, changes their personalities and increases their strength, infects him. During this portion of the game, Peter’s personality changes from his always positive perspective to a much more negative one where he emotionally hurts the people closest to him.

While this transition could have been rushed, you can see Peter’s change slowly build up throughout the game. The tone of Lowenthal’s voice gradually becomes more angry and frustrated as Peter is infected.

Coming into the game, it was fair to question how the developers would handle having two main characters who have significant character arcs. Both Miles and Peter had powerful character development throughout the game.

Having the two alternate Spider-Man characters be relatable to people in real life has always been the strength of the Spider-Man character. This was the case once again.

In this game, Peter gets fired from his job as a teacher and has to balance having his own home with his girlfriend, Mary Jane Watson (better known as MJ), trying to find a job to provide for them and balancing his responsibility as Spider-Man.

For Miles he has to focus on trying to get into college. For much of the game, Miles does something a majority of students do: he procrastinates writing an essay to get into college.

He does this by using his persona as Spider-Man to get out of his frustrating personal problems.

The most vital aspect of the game is the character moments and how emotional they are.

Some of the best moments in the game for Peter happen early on when he reconnects with his best friend, Harry Osborn. One of the best missions in the game is a flashback of the two in high school, where Peter has to sneak around without getting caught by the janitor and security guards. While part of the mission is a flashback, the two of them are also at the high school in present time, where they talk about all of the memories the two made together, including sneaking around the school.

Peter’s relationship with MJ also took a step forward. While their relationship was off and on in the first game, the two are much more stable this time around.

However, it wouldn’t be a Peter Parker story without some conflict with his love interest. The problems occur when Peter is infected and MJ, who is a reporter for The Daily Bugle, writes an article talking about whether Peter’s Spider-Man does more harm than good.

Part of the reason why she does this, is to gain approval from her editor-in-chief, J. Jonah Jamison, who is famous for hating Spider-Man. After finding out about the article, Peter tells MJ that she’s never been the hero and it’s just him doing all the hard work.

Like always, the two are able to rebound and remain together.

Another strong character relationship in the game is between the two protagonists, Miles and Peter.

The mentor and mentee dynamic between the two is apparent from the beginning of the game when Peter is a teacher at Miles’ high school. Even though it would’ve been cool to see them in that setting more often, one scene in particular was hilarious and was a solid way to start the game.

Miles sees that the villain Sandman is about to attack and so he shouts out “bathroom” as a way to let Peter know that he has to go do Spider-Man things. A few moments later, Miles comes back into the classroom shouting that he needs help.

While the audience obviously knows that he’s talking about dealing with Sandman, the way his classmates react thinking he’s talking about going to the bathroom is a good laugh to open up the game after the emotional first scene with Harry and his dad, Norman Osborn.

Just like with Peter and MJ, Miles and Peter’s relationship takes a hit when Peter is infected. Peter gets frustrated with Miles after he gets in the way of Peter tracking down Lizard. This leads to them not being in contact with each other for a portion of the game. The two even have a fight against one another towards the end of the game. This is when Peter is free from his symbiote suit and tells Miles how much he truly means to him. The most important message Peter gives to Miles is to prioritize being “Miles” over Spider-Man.

For Miles, the relationship between him and his mom, Rio Morales, is very passionate. After losing his father, Jefferson Davi,s in the first game, Rio thinks Miles would be hesitant to accept her looking for a new relationship. However, Miles is very accepting of this and wants what’s best for his mom.

Miles’ best friend in his solo game, and this game, is Ganke. Even though Ganke isn’t given an emotional story arc like some of the other characters, his value is still felt as he is always there when Miles needs someone to talk to.

The love interest for Miles is Hailey Cooper. Their relationship is unique because Hailey is deaf and can only communicate with Miles, and others through American Sign Language (ASL) which makes for some very heartwarming scenes between the two.

The most emotional character relationship for Miles is with Martin Li. Li was the second main villain in the first Spider-Man game and was responsible for killing Miles’ father after he blew up City Hall. Miles spends most of this game seeking revenge for what he did.

Later on in the game, the two have to work together to help Peter. This is one of the most emotional missions in the game, as we see Miles willing to work with someone who caused him so much emotional pain. This mission shows how much Miles grows throughout the game.

While they didn’t quite reach the bar set Dr. Otto Octavius and Li as the two main villains, but Venom and Kraven the Hunter both were well written villains.

Kraven the Hunter is quickly introduced as a threat after Peter and Miles discover that he’s defeated many of the villains from the first game with relative ease.

Even if he isn’t the most compelling villain story-wise, he still poses a severe threat to the Spider-Men for much of the game.

Unlike Kraven, Venom is a massive part of the emotion of the story. Venom takes over the body of Harry, and it actually keeps him alive from the disease that sidelined him in the first game.

Even though Kraven is the primary antagonist in over half the game, there’s no question how much of an impact Venom made throughout the game. Nearly every character issue caused by Peter is due to the effects of the Venom symbiote.

Another positive for Venom, and the game as a whole, is how they implement him into the story. They easily could’ve shoehorned in Eddie Brock, the most well-known character associated with Venom, as a villain. However, they were able to perfectly craft a compelling and sensible story by Harry being Venom in a way that didn’t feel forced.

One of the only complaints from this game is the repetitiveness in the story fight scenes. While there are more groups to fight in side missions, players spend about 85% of the game fighting against the hunters, which can eventually get tiring and repetitive.. This was too similar to the first game and how it had the same problems with the demons to a lesser extent.

Just like the last game, this one did a great job of getting fans excited for the future. The two post-credit scenes laid the groundwork for what could be in store for the potential final chapter of this amazing story of Spider-Man.