Marvel’s Spider-Man and its spin-off/expansion, Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales, were an excellent dozen-hour pair of titles (the latter was arguably shorter) that didn’t require a hundred-hour investment if you wanted to unlock the Platinum Trophy.
So, does it really come off as a surprise that the sequel, Marvel’s Spider-Man 2, will be just as long?
While we already had an idea about the length of Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 campaign while its earlier leaked trophy list is proof that unlocking the Platinum Trophy won’t be as much of a time sink, it’s still different seeing it happen.
As per @ChrisGaming95 on X, it only took him around 30 hours to unlock the Platinum Trophy in Marvel’s Spider-Man 2. They were quick to delete the photo from their social media account, but the internet was much faster in saving proof of their claims.
Additionally, the same user claims that it took them around 15-18 hours to finish the campaign of Marvel’s Spider-Man 2.
Understandably, some fans are feeling disappointed. You don’t often see games with short campaigns these days. Not to mention, Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 is supposed to compete with The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, Baldur’s Gate 3, and Starfield. Something these three games have in common is that, unless you speedrun, they’re good for a hundred or so hours. In contrast, Marvel’s Spider-Man 2’s campaign is good for half a weekend’s worth of gaming and you could achieve the Platinum Trophy without taking a sick leave. But, is that such a bad thing?
Marvel’s Spider-Man, which came out in 2018, was a longer game with “more” things to do compared to Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales. However, this is because it had to spend most of its first act telling us Spider-Man’s story for the nth time and familiarize players with the character and their world. From there, the game ramps up the action until the climax where it feels like it’s a non-stop parade of bosses and big action set pieces, except you’re not just a viewer – you’re living it. Finally, to get the Platinum Trophy for Marvel’s Spider-Man, you had to do plenty of admittedly menial tasks, like solving 20 random crimes in every district in Queens except Central Park. This meant that you had to stop at least 160 crimes to get the Platinum Trophy, which padded the number of playing hours.
In contrast, Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales had none of those and came out of the gate running, so it felt so much shorter and more compact. Nevertheless, both are equally amazing games with lengths that aren’t out of the norm for narrative-focused games.
So, if your main gripe about Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 is it’s too short and you won’t get your money’s worth, you do you. Just remember that the quality and pacing of a story is just as pivotal as its length if not much more so.
Don’t forget, some of the best comic book video games, like the entire Batman: Arkham Trilogy, can be cleared through a single weekend.
In a way, you could say Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 isn’t short – it’s just that people are expecting games to be too long these days.
At the very least, Spider-Man fans can rest easy knowing that Insomniac Games condensed so much of the story in less than 20 hours that it didn’t bother padding the story just to stretch out the runtime and it ends up feeling like an absolute slog by the time you finish it, let alone get the Platinum Trophy.
As we’ve said before, quality and pacing are key to a narrative-driven game, and it’s nice to see Insomniac Games being the living embodiment of Jim Ryan’s guarantee.
Speaking of Jim Ryan, a recent report claimed that Sony’s conglomerate of first-party studios aren’t exactly fans of the company’s live-service direction. With Ryan resigning effective March 2024, it’s unclear if the company will dial back on its live-service genre venture or if it will let things play out while slowly pivoting towards its bread and butter, narrative-driven games, again. For what it’s worth, the directive hasn’t seemed to have affected Insomniac Games. The company is currently working on Marvel’s Wolverine and at least one more unannounced game with a former Blizzard Entertaiment developer, neither of which are expected to have live-service elements.
