Marvel's Spider-Man

***Marvel's Spider-Man***, commonly referred to as ***Spider-Man***, is an action-adventure game developed by Insomniac Games and published by Sony Interactive Entertainment for the PlayStation 4, based on the Marvel Comics superhero Spider-Man. Released worldwide on September 7, 2018, it is the first licensed game developed by Insomniac. The game tells a new story about Spider-Man that is not tied to an existing comic book, video game, or film, and covers both the Peter Parker and Spider-Man aspects of the character.

*Spider-Man* was well received upon release. Critics hailed it as one of the best superhero games ever made, praising its gameplay, particularly the combat and web-swinging mechanics, graphics, story, soundtrack, and design of New York City, while expressing criticism for a lack of innovation in its open-world design.

## Cast and Characters

* Peter Parker/Spider-Man (Yuri Lowenthal)
* Mary Jane Watson (Joan Cusack and Laura Bailey)
* Miles Morales (Nadji Jeter)
* Aunt May Parker (Nancy Linari)
* Norman Osborn (Mark Rolston)
* Otto Octavius/Doctor Octopus (William Salyers)
* Wilson Fisk/Kingpin (Travis Willingham)
* Martin Li/Mister Negative (Stephen Oyoung)
* Harry Osborn (Scott Porter)
* Max Dillon/Electro (Josh Keaton)
* Mac Gargan/Scorpion (Jason Spisak)
* Aleksei Sytsevich/Rhino (Fred Tatasciore)
* Adrian Toomes/Vulture (Dwight Schultz)
* Yuri Watanabe (Tara Platt)
* Herman Schultz/Shocker (Dave B. Mitchell)
* J. Jonah Jameson (Darin de Paul)
* Tony Masters/Taskmaster (Brian Bloom)
* Lonnie Lincoln/Tombstone (Corey Jones)
* Screwball (Stephanie Lemelin)
* Jefferson Davis (Russell Richardson)
* Rio Morales (Jacqueline Pinol)
* Felicia Hardy/Black Cat (Erica Lindbeck)
* Silver Sablinova/Silver Sable (Nichole Elise)
* Morgan Michaels (Phil Morris)

Referenced:

* Uncle Ben Parker
* Tony Stark/Iron Man
* Crusher Hogan
* Robbie Robertson
* Eddie Brock
* Betty Brant
* Gloria Grant
* Dr. Karla Sofen
* Mary Parker
* Richard Parker
* Phillip Watson
* Vanessa Fisk
* Flint Marko/Sandman
* Fritz von Meyer/Swarm
* Quentin Beck/Mysterio
* Aaron Davis
* Matt Murdock
* Flash Thompson
* Steve Rogers/Captain America
* Dr. Curt Connors/The Lizard
* Janet van Dyne/Wasp

## Plot

Peter Parker / Spider-Man assists Yuri Watanabe and the NYPD in arresting Wilson Fisk, with the authorities finally having enough evidence to serve a warrant. Afterwards, Peter investigates a possible break in at an auction house storing Fisk's art collection, where he runs into his ex-girlfriend Mary Jane Watson as well as masked gunmen searching for a file. Mary Jane finds the file, which details a secret project named "Devil's Breath", but the gunmen seize the file from her and escape. Despite being estranged, Peter and Mary Jane decide to work together to investigate the theft. Peter consults with Martin Li about the origin of the masks, and Li remarks they are involved with a group called the "Inner Demons" and warns Peter not to investigate further. Peter, who helps Otto Octavius in his lab, returns to finish work on their artificial arm, but Mayor Norman Osborn forcibly shuts down the lab, seizes Octavius' research, and terminates his grant.

Meanwhile, the Inner Demons continue to attack Fisk's properties and holdings. After several victories against them with the help of Officer Jefferson Davis, Peter attends a rally for Osborn's re-election campaign with Davis, Mary Jane, Miles Morales, and Rio Morales also in attendance. However, Mayor Osborn receives an anonymous threat, promising to destroy him and his city, causing him to leave the rally early. The Inner Demons then attack the rally with suicide bombers, killing many of the attendees including Davis, who is Miles' father. Peter witnesses Li, taking the alternate form of "Mr. Negative", leading the attack on the rally. However, he is knocked out by the blast.

In the aftermath of the attack, Miles joins F.E.A.S.T. as a volunteer, meets Peter, and quickly befriends him. At the same time, Osborn hires mercenary Silver Sable and her PMC, Sable International, to take down the Inner Demons. Sable doesn't trust Peter and constantly makes things difficult for him. Peter continues to pursue Mister Negative and the Inner Demons, discovering that Li has a grudge against Osborn and seeks to steal the Devil's Breath, a bioweapon Osborn inadvertently created while searching for a universal cure for disease. Li manages to steal the Devil's Breath and attempts to deploy it in Grand Central Station, but is foiled by the efforts of both Peter and Mary Jane. He is subsequently arrested and sent to the Raft, a high-security prison. Meanwhile, Octavius becomes more obsessed with getting revenge on Osborn and begins further developing his artificial arms, turning them into large tentacle-like constructs and controlling them via an untested neural implant. Peter quickly grows concerned that the implant may negatively affect Octavius' mental state.

With his new arms, Octavius attacks both Ryker's Island and the Raft as "Doctor Octopus", releasing all of the prisoners within including Mister Negative, Electro, Vulture, Rhino, and Scorpion, with whom he forms the Sinister Six. He also steals the Devil's Breath from police custody and releases it in Times Square, infecting hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers, including Peter's Aunt May. With the combination of the outbreak and the mass escape of criminals, New York quickly falls into chaos, and Osborn declares martial law. Peter goes to apprehend his escaped enemies, quickly rounding up Electro, Vulture, Rhino, and Scorpion while Mary Jane searches for the Devil's Breath cure Oscorp is seemingly working on. She breaks into Norman’s penthouse and learns that his son Harry: Peter and Mary Jane's best friend is terminally ill and that the Devil’s Breath was actually designed as a cure for his condition. After discovering his secret lab, Mary Jane learns that Martin Li was one of the test subjects for the Devil's Breath which granted him his powers. This however ended in tragedy as Li had accidentally killed his parents, sparking his grudge against Osborn. Mary Jane soon learns the location of the cure and informs Peter. After convincing Sable that he's trustworthy, Peter heads to the lab and defeats Li, but Octavius arrives and takes both Osborn and the cure, leaving Peter critically wounded.

With no other choice, Peter builds himself a new armored suit and goes after Doctor Octopus, who reveals he knew Peter was Spider-Man, defeating him atop Oscorp Tower while saving both Osborn and the cure. The amount of cure recovered, however, is too small to save everyone infected and Peter is faced with the choice of either using the limited amount to save Aunt May, who is on the verge of death, or allowing the doctors to study it and mass produce a cure to save everyone else. Peter ultimately chooses the latter and has a tearful farewell with Aunt May, who reveals she already knows he is Spider-Man before passing away. Silver Sable leaves New York to rethink her life choices following her encounter with Peter. Meanwhile, Miles is bitten by a spider that escaped Osborn's personal lab. A funeral is held for Aunt May, who is buried next to Uncle Ben. Three months later, New York has largely returned to normal and Peter and Mary Jane decide to rekindle their relationship.

In a mid-credits scene, Miles reveals to Peter that he has gained spider-like powers, prompting Peter to reveal that he is Spider-Man. In a post-credits scene, Osborn returns to his lab where he has Harry kept in a holding tank with a black web-like substance until a cure can be found for his condition. As Norman places his hand on the tank, the substance reacts and copies him.

## Development

Marvel Games approached Sony Interactive Entertainment (SIE) wanting them to publish a Marvel game and to treat the game like a first party SIE title. The game was the first licensed game developed by Insomniac Games after 22 years of developing original properties, such as *Spyro*, *Ratchet & Clank*, and *Resistance*. Bryan Intihar, the producer of *Sunset Overdrive* and former community manager of Insomniac Games, served as the lead creative director, with Ryan Smith serving as game director. The game uses a modified version of the game engine first used in *Sunset Overdrive*. The game features the largest production team for an Insomniac game. The game was announced during Sony's E3 2016 press conference on June 13. It was the first in a series of games made by Insomniac and Sony and marked the start of Marvel Games' new strategy to work with the "best game companies" who are passionate about their characters.

In April 2017, Ryan Penagos, vice president and executive editor of Marvel Digital Media, stated that the game would be released in 2017. At Sony's E3 2017 conference, the first gameplay demo was shown and it was announced that the game would be released in 2018. The game went gold on July 30, 2018, and was released on September 7, 2018. In addition to the special edition, a limited edition PlayStation 4 Pro bundle with the game was released on the same day.

Yuri Lowenthal is the voice and physical actor for Spider-Man in the game.  In early 2015, Lowenthal gained the role after some initial pushback within Insomniac due to him voicing one of the main playable characters for Insomniac's most recently released game at the time, *Sunset Overdrive*, but ultimately the game's lead writer Jon Paquette convinced the studio to cast him in the role due to his trust in Lowenthal's acting ability. Lowenthal worked with two stunt people throughout the game's development. He tried to differentiate between his voices for Peter Parker and Spider-Man but thought that they could not be totally different and as a result spent a large amount of time "finessing and massaging" his performance to achieve a balance.