The Best Superhero Game of the Last Decade Just Came to PlayStation Plus

There’s been a lot of Spider-Man video games over the decades, from the chunky PS1 game to the pizza-delivering wonder of the Spider-Man 2 movie tie-in. But no other game has managed to capture the complex relationship between the superhero and Peter Parker as Insomniac’s Marvel’s Spider-Man. It’s not just the definitive Spider-Man experience, it’s unequivocally one of the best superhero games of all time — and Spider-Man is finally on PlayStation Plus, if you somehow haven’t played it yet.

The real key to what makes Spider-Man shine as a representation of the character is the delightful new universe Insomniac Games crafted. The studio was clearly inspired by the comics and films, but deliberately crafted an entirely new world, with the intent of exploring new facets of Spider-Man and the people around him.

This world’s version of Peter Parker is an older veteran superhero who’s been in the game saving New York for years now. The city is thrown into chaos when a new super-human threat named Mister Negative appears, orchestrating a plan to control all of New York’s criminal underworld. While the villains are familiar, these are different versions with unique motivations, histories, and relationships.

This enables Insomniac to tell a rich and complicated new story about Peter struggling to keep up his duties as Spider-Man and forge a life for himself. That’s really the crux of what makes this game work — Insomniac isn’t afraid to explore the emotional weight of living a dual life, and the fact that Peter Parker and Spider-Man are bonded, almost inseparable. Identity crisis is at the heart of Spider-Man, brought to life through fantastic performances across the board. But Yuri Lowenthal really stands out as one of the best versions of Peter we’ve ever seen, bringing all the wit, heart, and cockiness you could ever want.

There are some fascinating dimensions brought to the Spider-Man mythos, from Peter’s unique relationship with Dr. Octavius, to the introduction of a new Miles Morales. The other element is how rich the city of New York feels — a stunning recreation that feels like a living, bustling city. A lot of Spider-Man’s side quests also help flesh out the world and characters. You can gather keepsakes of Peter’s around the city that give you little tidbits of his past — the menu from his first date with Mary Jane, his Pizza delivery uniform, a library card. There are also side quests where you actually do the Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man shtick, finding someone’s lost pigeons or using your Spider-Bot to clean up radioactive waste.

There are boundless amounts of heart and personality packed into Spider-Man’s world, but it also nails the other side of the equation — the gameplay feeling of being a superhero. It’s not unreasonable to say this game has some of the best movement and traversal of any video game out there, absolutely nailing the thrill of swinging around a metropolis. It’s effortless to get around the world, so much so that you’ll likely never even want to use the fast travel system — it’s that much of a joy to simply swing.

On the combat front, Spider-Man plays a lot like the Batman Arkham games, with a crunchy combo system all about stringing attacks together, timing dodges, parries, and more. The whole system flows together impeccably well, and Insomniac layers on its trademark wild gizmos and gadgets on top of that — from gravity wells that draw enemies in, to little spider drones that angrily zap hapless thugs.

I could genuinely drone on and on about what makes Spider-Man so great, but the bow that ties everything together is how tightly paced and compact the experience feels. Yes, it’s an open-world game with a massive world, but you can also beat everything in roughly 50 hours. Spider-Man smartly manages to avoid the bloat that drags down so many other games by giving all its side content narrative context or meaningful links to progression. Each aspect of Spider-Man is already strong on its own, but it’s all lifted up because of that laser-focused pacing that relishes in emotional character moments.

While Miles Morales and Spider-Man 2 are great games in their own right, I wouldn’t hesitate to say the first game is still the strongest, simply because of how tightly designed it feels. It’s the kind of game that feels like an instant classic — the one you go back to for a yearly replay because it just feels that good to exist in its world. It’s a game I’ve personally replayed a half-dozen times, whenever I need that superhero fix. If you haven’t experienced one of PlayStation’s defining exclusives, it’s time to fix that.

Marvel’s Spider-Man is available on PS4, PS5, and PC.