Although smaller in scale and severely lacking on the narrative front, Miles Morales builds effectively enough on the template of the first Insomniac Spider-Man game to prevent it from feeling like an overblown DLC; providing a succinct and enjoyable experience wrapped up neatly in a satisfactory PC port.

Much to my surprise, earlier this year saw the release of Insomniac Game’s Spider-Man Remastered on PC, and it quickly rose to become one of my favourite superhero games of all time (you can read my review here). It’s no surprise then that 2020’s spin-off title, Spider-Man: Miles Morales, would also receive a PC port, and although I’m not exactly the biggest champion of the Miles Morales character in Spider-Man media, I was eager to jump in given my experience with the first game, and although I came away a little disappointed, it was not a bad experience by any stretch of the imagination.

Spoilers ahead!

Story is by far the weakest element that Miles Morales has to offer. Set a year after the first game, the narrative sees Miles left on his own as Spider-Man when Peter Parker is sent overseas for work, and he is quickly embroiled in a battle between a street gang with powerful technology and the militant forces of a corrupt energy corporation. It’s not exactly the most compelling or original plot out there, especially with the rich source material to draw from, and although it counters the first game’s issue with how bloated its story felt, I can easily say that Miles feels far less memorable. This isn’t helped by a shortage of distinctive levels, with moments like the opening and the bridge battle being the only ones to linger in my mind. Between the identity of The Tinkerer and Prowler’s betrayal, the “twists” in the story that are so obvious that I hope they were intentionally predictable, and not half-hearted attempts to be genuinely shocking, and all in all the main plot really just blurs together into this amorphous blob of passable filler that exists to uphold the gameplay. Aside from the collectable hunts (that actually give a little insight into various characters), the side content doesn’t offer much either – there’s a small story arc revolving around a villain from the previous game, and a handful of short “missions” that aren’t really anything more than menial tasks meant to pad out the open world offerings, all hammering home the game’s obnoxious point that Miles is a “Spider-Man for the common people”, as if that isn’t already what Peter Parker’s Spider-Man is all about.

Speaking of, the final assessment that the story comes to about Miles as Spider-Man is that he’s “Harlem’s own Spider-Man”; with the not-so-subtle inference that he’ll be there to champion the rights of minorities where the other Spider-Man wouldn’t. It does a disservice to both characters, painting Spider-Man in a negative light, and detracting from a potentially brilliant arc for Miles that the game had set up in the beginning. By thrusting him into the role of “New York’s only Spider-Man”, Miles loses that safety net of Spider-Man being around when things go wrong, and this was fertile ground for a fantastic origin story for the character as he truly learns the responsibility of being a hero, but the game fails to embrace that by opting for its beat-you-over-the-head commentary about how nobody cares about minority communities. There’s not much to be said for the other characters; the supporting cast is essentially just Miles’ mother, and his really annoying comic-relief friend who constantly badgers you during every fucking mission. As for the villains, I can hardly say that The Tinkerer is the most exciting choice for a main villain in the first place, but as predictable as her arc is, it’s surprisingly well thought out. The same can be said for The Prowler, who proved to be my favourite character in the story thanks to his grey morality, strong motivations and solid arc. Even though the writing has its fair share of issues, Miles Morales‘ story isn’t terrible; it’s short enough to not leave a bad taste in your mouth, and the story is tight enough so that it works, but otherwise it just feels a little shallow.

Thankfully things are much better on the gameplay side – Miles retains the core gameplay that made the first game so engaging, with fun, flowing combat and masterful traversal mechanics that bring the Spider-Man fantasy to life. Yet, as satisfied I was with the original gameplay recipe, here it sees some definite improvements on top of that to match the Miles Morales character and his abilities. Stealth sees the biggest overhaul thanks to the Camouflage ability and new gadgets like the Remote Mine and Holo-Drone that allow you to distract and dispatch enemies from a distance. There was a number of encounters throughout the game that seemed to be designed with stealth in mind, so there was plenty of opportunity to experiment with these tools also. The new Venom meter encapsulates all of Miles’ bioelectric abilities, adding depth to combat, traversal and puzzle-solving – the various Venom attacks give you an edge in combat (maybe too much of an edge really!), while the Venom Boost will launch you into the air during traversal, and various environmental objects can use or provide you with Venom energy. Unfortunately some tools and abilities from the original game are now absent here, and I’m not exactly sure to what end either, but on the flipside of that you aren’t stuck relearning every skill from the original game either. In place of this is a smaller skill tree that largely targets Miles’ new abilities, but I must say I’m not a fan of how certain skills, among other things, are locked behind the New Game Plus mode, which I didn’t particularly desire to play this time around.

It’s very apparent that Miles was originally intended to be a DLC expansion for the first game, feeling very light on content in a number of areas. The main story is brief, side content sparse, and the number of suits, skills, gadgets and upgrades are all reduced by comparison, and it is a little disappointing considering it cost me only slightly less than Spider-Man Remastered. Nevertheless, it does feel like less of a chore to get through all the content the game has to offer, especially with far fewer nuisance activities dotted around the open world, which has been revamped with a wintery setting to help it feel a little more differentiated. This is the case for the updated animations, which make the web-swinging and combat feel a little more fresh, as well as reflecting both Miles’ personality and inexperience, or in the words of this game’s most famous review, “the exaggerated swagger of a black teen”. Despite how hard that assessment was memed to death, there is something to be said of how hard the game plays to the cultural origins of the Miles Morales character. The rap soundtrack, the hip-hop elements added to the score, the in-game Black Lives Matter mural, the thematic elements of the story, countless aspects of design across the game; as much as some might claim otherwise, Miles Morales is still tied down by the basis of his inception – he’s not just Spider-Man, he’s black Spider-Man, and I think ultimately the game still fails to make him any more than that.

Altogether, there’s not really any two ways around it – Miles Morales is a bit of a downgrade from Spider-Man Remastered. Yet, with that said, it’s not bad either – and if you enjoyed the first game, you’ll more than likely enjoy this too. It retains the core gameplay and the Spider-Man backdrop that made the original so fun, and it more or less justifies its own existence with its story material, gameplay additions and design changes. It also proves to be another solid Sony port to PC with very little in the way of performance issues and bugs, and even though I was teetering on the edge of a higher rating, with all of its shortfalls in other areas I’m pretty comfortable to leave it at this.

6/10