Following the new Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 trailer released during the latest State of Play broadcast, Insomniac Games opened the floodgates of information. We know the playable area is nearly twice as big as in the original game thanks to the addition of Queens and Brooklyn boroughs to the game’s rendition of New York City, but does that mean the length is also increased in this sequel?
That’s not really the case, Insomniac’s Senior Creative Director Bryan Intihar said in an interview with GamesIndustry.biz. The estimated length of Spider-Man 2 will be similar to the first title; according to HowLongToBeat, that’s around 17 hours for the main quest, 25.5 hours for the main quest plus side content, and 34.5 hours for a full completionist run.
We don’t ever say ‘oh it’s going to be this long’. What we try to do is set the vision. What is our goal? What are the pillars that support it? And then we start working on it and it organically works out.
That being said, we knew it was going to be a bigger experience than Miles Morales. But it was about doing what was right for the story we wanted to tell. I would say it is very comparable to Spider-Man 1. It’s not like we’ve doubled the size of the game. We want to do what is right for the vision, the time and attention you need to create that experience, and also take care of our team. It’s not a 200-hour game. I would have a lot less hair if it was a 200-hour game.
Elsewhere in the GI.biz interview, Intihar explained that one of the goals for this sequel was to make bigger setpieces (specifically, boss battles), which was possible thanks to the PS5’s near-instantaneous loading times.
We knew from the beginning we were going to make Spider-Man 2 for PlayStation 5. And then it’s about what the PlayStation 5 offers that we can take advantage of. We are very lucky to work with Mark Cerny, who is one of the producers of the game. He is my mentor. I owe a lot to him in terms of who I am today professionally. Working with Mark helped us understand where the console is going. We knew about the SSD. And so that fantasy of players of ‘I want to swing faster and faster and faster’, we knew we could deliver that.
But also… what is it about the console that allows us to deliver the vision for the game? We wanted our set pieces, our villain moments, to feel bigger. And we wanted to go seamlessly from below ground to above ground, to go from exterior to interior quickly. With the PS5 and the loading, we can do that a lot easier than before.
Yesterday, Insomniac also clarified the graphics preset modes that will be featured in Spider-Man 2. As usual for their latest games, there will be three: 30 frames per second, 60 frames per second, and 40 frames per second if you have a 120Hz display with VRR and HDMI 2.1 support. For the first time, they’ve managed to include ray tracing support in all of these modes, though of course, the quality will vary based on the frame rate target. Additionally, the ray traced reflections have been expanded to include water surfaces and the ocean itself.
Spider-Man 2 launches on October 20 on PlayStation 5. A PC version is likely inbound in the next couple of years.
