Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales, review: A polished, exuberant sequel that can’t help playing it safe

When Stan Lee and Steve Ditko first conceived Spider-Man in the early 1960s, they wouldn’t have known what a video game was, much less how well the format would suit their web-slinging creation. But, as the PS4’s Marvel’s Spider-Man proved two years ago, Spidey is the perfect video-game avatar. He’s superpowered but not deathproof; he can fight, climb and travel with a fluidity that seems custom-designed to navigate the three-dimensional urban environments that furnish so many modern AAA game releases. Spider-Man was a hit with players, and the new spin-off sequel, subtitled Miles Morales, was a no-brainer for Sony and developers Insomniac Games.

Shifting the focus away from Peter Parker, the sequel turns to Miles Morales, Spider-Man’s younger protégé who is also blessed with arachnoid powers. With Parker out of New York for a while, Miles is left holding down the fort as the resident neighbourhood do-gooder – and he’s called upon to do a lot of good, and fast. This mostly takes the form of beating up baddies – either going hell-for-leather and brawling with a small army at once, or picking them off stealthily, webbing them to walls and from lampposts one by one. But the gameplay also incorporates gathering collectables, solving simple puzzles, and manoeuvring your way around the city’s rooftops.

The 2018 animated film Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse laid much of the groundwork for Miles Morales in the popular consciousness, familiarising the public with Miles himself, some of his relatives, and the idea of multiple canonical Spider-Men. There are visual echoes of the film in the way the character swings through the air, flailing his arms less gracefully than his older, more composed predecessor. A Spider-Verse costume can also be unlocked, in one of the game’s more overt nods to its cinematic cousin.

Miles Morales is, however, in a similar position to 2017’s Uncharted 4 spin-off, The Lost Legacy. Which is to say, it’s short, with a story that’s over in around 12 hours, and very similar to its acclaimed predecessor – perhaps too similar.  This is most grating in the game’s Manhattan locale. While beautifully rendered and, by most accounts, uncannily true-to-life, the original Spider-Man’s city lacked for vibrancy, and Miles Morales uses a largely unchanged map. The combat is a little slicker here, though, with a greater range of attack possibilities, and the graphics, especially in the PS5 version, are substantially better: its next-gen iteration surely ranks among the most visually impressive video games ever made.

Truly great sequels need to take risks, and Miles Morales is probably too keen to play it safe. But why twist when you have a winning hand? It’s an ecstatic, empowering thrill to swing through the city as Spider-Man – and it’s never been realised more viscerally than here.