One of the most praised elements of “Marvel’s Spider-Man” game was its depiction of Manhattan.
Sure, there were some flourishes, including an Avengers Tower building and an East River supervillain prison. Otherwise, a solid amount of the city was convincingly recreated from Times Square to the Empire State Building.
For the upcoming sequel game, Insomniac Games is expanding beyond Manhattan itself to cover the larger range of New York City, including Queens and Brooklyn and effectively doubling the playable area of the first game according to The New York Times.
The report reveals one famous landmark is missing – the Chrysler Building. The building appeared in the original 2018 game but not the 2020 “Miles Morales” spin-off and won’t return here – all down to Insomniac not being able to reach a copyright agreement with the building’s new owners.
As the game is built specifically for the more powerful PlayStation 5, the production team could design buildings with greater depth. Design director Josue Benavidez says there were more challenges though, from the quirky geometry of brownstones and rowhouses, to figuring out where to end the playable area in boroughs that stretch into Long Island.
Important sites from the comics, such as Aunt May’s house and Brooklyn Visions Academy, also had to be clearly represented. Benavidez says “everything is very intentionally placed” in the game, including more trees than the real New York City.
The game’s senior creative director Bryan Intihar says: “With success comes greater expectations” and that includes sales. Arguably the biggest PlayStation exclusive of the year, the game follows in the wake of the original “Spider-Man” and the “Miles Morales” spinoff having reportedly sold a combined 33 million copies thus far.
“Marvel’s Spider-Man 2” hits game stores on October 20th.
