SPIDER-MAN 2
Verdict: A thrilling, adrenaline-fuelled, web-slinging adventure
What is it?
Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 is an action-adventure game for the PS5 developed by Insomniac Games. It features Peter Parker and Miles Morales struggling to navigate the next steps in their personal lives while combatting an assortment of villains. Among them including a private militia led by mercenary Kraven the Hunter, the shapeshifting criminal Sandman, the monstrous Lizard and the extraterrestrial Venom symbiote, which bonds itself to Parker and negatively influences him, threatening to destroy his personal relationships.
Gameplay
Gameplay builds on the foundation established by its predecessors, with an emphasis on the multiple playstyles afforded by Peter Parker and Miles Morales as their respective Spider-Men. The game expands on their existing traversal and combat abilities, including new web-based gadgets and suits that can be unlocked through progressing the story. As with the prior games, content outside the main story route consists of completing side-missions and obtaining collectibles dispersed throughout the game’s open world sandbox, with the player able to switch between Parker and Morales to complete dedicated objectives for each of them.
Graphics
The game expands the prior entries’ New York City open world by opening up areas such as Brooklyn and Queens as accessible boroughs during the main story campaign and while free-roaming in the game’s open-world sandbox, instead of solely being restricted to Manhattan.
ALAN WAKE II
Alan Wake II is a survival horror game developed by Remedy Entertainment. A sequel to Alan Wake, the story follows on 13 years after bestselling thriller writer Alan Wake went missing, at a time when a string of ritualistic murders occurs in the town of Bright Falls, Washington. Saga Anderson, an FBI agent, is sent to Bright Falls to investigate the killings, where she finds herself tangled in a supernatural horror story written by Wake in order to escape from his captivity.
DETECTIVE PIKACHU RETURNS
This new adventure follows Tim Goodman and his partner, a wise-cracking Pikachu with the ability to communicate with Tim, as they attempt to solve the ongoing mystery behind the disappearance of Tim’s father. The mystery unfolds in Ryme City, a place where humans and Pokémon coexist and support each other. Partner Pokémon and wild Pokémon alike wander the city alongside the people who live there.
SUPER MARIO BROS. WONDER
Super Mario Bros. Wonder is a side-scrolling platform game. As one of eight player characters – Mario, Luigi, Princess Peach, Princess Daisy, Toad, Toadette, Nabbit and Yoshi – the player completes levels across the Flower Kingdom with assistance from its talking flower-like denizens. Like prior Super Mario games, players guide their character to the end of a level while avoiding enemies such as Goombas and Piranha Plants, and transporting through Warp Pipes.
