Summary
After delivering an impressive recreation of New York City back in 2018, Insomniac Games has returned to make it even better.Marvel’s Spider-Man 2has taken the strong foundations of that first game and expanded upon it with the addition of Queens and Brooklyn. This means that players have much more of the city to swing around in, which leads to a fantastic superhero experience. New areas also means new points of interest to explore, includingNew York’s Coney Island. Unfortunately, though, it feels like Insomniac missed out on making that area a fun piece of side content.
InMarvel’s Spider-Man 2, players get to experience everything that Coney Island has to offer during one of the story chapters. However, before and after that chapter, they are unable to really do anything there. While the focus of the game should be on delivering the Spidey fantasy, having some fun mini-games to play could have been a nice addition to the experience. Its absence does not detract from the game that much since most will likely not even notice or care that the rides are inaccessible in the open world, but Coney Island’s inclusion as a replayable bit of side content could have really livened up the open-world a bit more.
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Marvel’s Spider-Man 2’s Coney Island is Filled With Missed Opportunity
In real life,Coney Island is an extremely popular tourist destinationin Brooklyn. It sits in the southwestern part of the borough on the shores and offers a ton of entertainment for those who want to visit. There are numerous rides, games, shows, and all the classic foods one would expect from an amusement park. But it is far more than a simple park, as it is actually considered an amusement district, with more than 5 million people visiting each year.
Coney Island was absent fromthe first twoMarvel’s Spider-Mangames, but since Insomniac has expanded the world with the addition of Brooklyn, this fun-filled district has come along for the ride. It also serves as much more than a simple addition to the map, as it takes center stage during the main story. In the chapter “A Second Chance,” Peter Parker, MJ, and Harry Osborne all head off to enjoy everything that Coney Island has to offer. During this mission, players are able to ride all sorts of rides and play various theme park games. While things take a turn for the worse, the majority of the mission is a great change of pace from the constant high-stakes nature ofMarvel’s Spider-Man 2’s story.
It seems like Insomniac Games put a decent amount of work intorecreating Coney Island and its many attractions, but for some reason this is the only time players actually get to mess around with any of it. After the mission ends, the amusement district simply becomes just another part of the game world with no further interaction. This feels a bit disappointing, especially after the studio had confirmed that players could mess around in Coney Island during their crime fighting adventures. What it forgot to mention is the fact that players can only do that in one mission.
It could have been really fun if players were allowed to relax in Coney Island whenever they felt like it. While many players would likely just ignore the feature altogether, having that option could have helped liven upMarvel’s Spider-Man 2’s open worlda bit more. The game is currently drawing some criticism for its lack of interactivity in New York City, and while the exciting traversal system definitely makes up for that, letting Coney Island’s many attractions exist outside the story could have also helped. After all, Insomniac already put in the hard work to make the rides and mini-games, so it would not have needed to design any new mechanics. Even though the game is a fantastic superhero adventure, having more content to engage with could not have hurt.
