Marvel's Spider-Man is probably Insomniac Games' most highly anticipated game of all time. The company have been developing Spider-Man for a few years now and everything points to it being the game every fan of the web-head has been waiting for.
The level of detail that has gone into
Marvel's Spider-Man is quite impressive and this is mostly due to the Insomniac Games' team, as well as the game's Creative Director—Bryan Intihar—who is a huge fan of the character and wants to make the best game possible.
In a recent group interview at an Italian press event, Bryan Intihar was asked about Rocksteady's highly acclaimed
Batman: Arkham Trilogy games and how those compare to what they've done with their own
Marvel's Spider-Man. Intihar wasted no time and stated that they actually have played the Arkham games and had this to say:
"
Let me get ahead of you: yes, we played the Batman Arkham games and many fans have asked how we’re going to compare with the quality standard they were able to set. Rocksteady redefined the quality of superhero games and we want to be at their same level".
The
Batman Arkham games, while very different in tone to the one seen in
Marvel's Spider-Man, are considered the best videogames in the superhero genre. Superhero games, besides a very few exceptions, had been somewhat difficult to translate when going from comicbooks to video games. In other words, the
Batman Arkham games set the bar for superhero games, and the bar is actually quite high.
Marvel's Spider-Man looks great and seems like it will also manage to set its own bar in the superhero videogame genre—especially because the team at Insomniac Games have made sure to focus on delivering a compelling story, as well.
Intihar was also asked about Mary Jane's involvement in
Marvel's Spider-Man after being revealed that she would not only be playable, but also play a key role in the game. He mentions that he loosely based Mary Jane's character on some experiences he himself had when he just graduated.
"
I looked back and thought: ‘How was it when you graduated? What did you do?’ I’ve been a journalist, it was one of my first jobs. During college, I wrote about video games and I remember that the Editor in Chief was very important to me, as I was searching for a guide. So I thought: who could be that kind of character for Peter? Obviously, it had to be a known character since a mentor has to be relevant. Then I also reflected on how my life changed back then. Friendships and relationships change a lot from high school to college since you often move elsewhere, start doing new things and grow up as an adult. For some, it becomes all about the career and friendships are sacrificed for that, as happened to me, but it’s an age where you feel like you can do everything even though you realize it’s actually not possible", reflected Intihar as he mentions that the character needed to be relevant in a way that felt organic to both the main character[Peter Parker/Spider-Man] and the narrative.
"We asked ourselves how we could reflect all these emotions in Peter’s context since he’s also someone who carries the weight of the world on his shoulder, and we decided it was fair for a superhero to have weaknesses, that he could find himself asking for help without feeling guilty for it. Once we had designed this situation, the obvious question was: ‘Who could help him along this journey?’ and the answer couldn’t but be Mary Jane, a woman that’s been previously featured as an actress, as a club owner, roles that I wasn’t able to fit with everything else in the game".
"So, what else could we have her doing? I imagined she could be an investigative reporter, possibly looking into these Inner Demons and what’s happening in New York now that the Kingpin, AKA Wilson Fisk, is out of the game. Ultimately, it was more about deciding what we wanted from Peter and his journey. Mary Jane’s role came as a result of that, to balance everything out".
The more we hear from Bryan Intihar and how he has been able to incorporate passages of his own life into the game, the more
Marvel's Spider-Man looks like it will become one of the greatest superhero games of all time, right up there with the brillian Batman Arkham games.
With a little bit under a month until the highly anticipated
Marvel's Spider-Man is released, we can rest assured that the wait will not be in vain. Everything points to Insomniac Games delivering a product nothing short of a master piece. They have delivered some amazing games in the past and all of that experience made them the perfect studio to develop a game about one of the most iconic superheroes of all time:
Spider-Man.
Sony Interactive Entertainment, Insomniac Games, and Marvel team up to create a brand-new, authentic Spider-Man adventure exclusively for PlayStation 4. Take control of an experienced Peter Parker who is more masterful at fighting crime.
Marvel's Spider-Man will be available exclusively for the PlayStation 4 on the 7th of September.