Was anyone else pleasantly surprised by Spider-Man PS4's combat?

[vestan]

I'm gonna be honest, I remember watching the E3 2017 demo and thinking the combat looked straight 💩 , but I started to get a bit interested when the E3 2018 demo rolled around. The weaving in and out, dodging, various types of grabs, throwing objects at people, suit powers, use of gadgets etc just looked really fluid and clean. You could tell they captured how agile Spider-Man is really well.

Getting my hands on the game a few months later, it felt a lot less automated than Arkham games, especially with the introduction of air combat. I'm not gonna say this shit gets super deep like KH2FM or DMC5 but it feels good smacking some mook into the air, webbing him up, jumping off him then swing-kicking him into a nearby wall. It's very easy to look flashy and I think that's pretty cool.

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Maybe an unpopular opinion but outside of DmC, Spider-Man by far has one of the best combat systems in a western action game. I was really surprised by how good it felt to just pummel dudes and this is coming from someone who's become super fatigued by that Arkham style combat system which feels a lot more restrictive and not as free-form coming off of Spider-Man.

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[JaseMath]

I was; I thought it was fucking awesome. My GotY last year—I actually felt like a superhero.

 

[AnimeJesus]

No, it was basically Batman combat without any depth or balance.

 

[Desma]

It was pretty good, but it feels repetitive after a while.

Also, after a while they start adding some enemies that are just annoying to fight

 

[Porygon]

No, it was basically Batman combat without any depth or balance.

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Came to post this, thanks

 

[dancingphlower]

I thought it was quite fun, and the difficulty spike in the DLC forced me to use every gadget at my disposal which was nice.

 

[mozbar]

No, it was basically Batman without any depth.

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I was about to say this. You can get by without ever using any of the gadgets. IIRC, Batman encouraged you to use them.

But this is one of the many gripes I have with its lack of depth.

 

[jwk94]

Yep shit is great. I wasn't expecting it to be that fun. Made those kill everyone missions feel super badass when you were surrounded.

 

[Saber_of_Truth]

Eh I found it alright. I think it tried to be Arkham but what it misses from the Arkham is the sense of rhythm. Arkham games are nearly rhythmic in their combat and I didnt get the same from Spiderman

 

[Deleted member 13798]

No, it was basically Batman combat without any depth or balance.

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Agreed.

People shit on the Arkham combat but it's really good and requires a lot of precision if you want to explore everything you can do with it and against the various enemy types. But you can also win by button mashing if you don't care to put the time into the intricacies. Easy to learn, hard to master.

Spiderman felt more hollow to me; very simplistic for lack of a better term.

 

[leng jai]

You have had some low expectations.

 

[jwk94]

I was about to say this. You can get by without ever using any of the gadgets. IIRC, Batman encouraged you to use them.

But this is one of the many gripes I have with its lack of depth.

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What difficulty did you play on? I played on the hardest difficulty when it came out and I constantly had to use the shock webs and fists. There were definitely some gadgets I never really touched outside of the moment I got them, though.

 

[Jerm]

Not at all.

 

[VeryBerryPunch]

No, it was basically Batman combat without any depth or balance.

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Yeah it did feel kind of shallow.

Weaving in and out of enemies doesn't feel as good as it does in the Arkham series
But its a different style of combat

 

[Fat4all]

I liked it a lot more than batmans combat thanks to the indicators being placed over spider-mans head instead of over the heads of the enemies

made me feel really good being able to dodge attacks that come from off-screen thanks to indicators popping off over head

 

[skillzilla81]

I was about to say this. You can get by without ever using any of the gadgets. IIRC, Batman encouraged you to use them.

But this is one of the many gripes I have with its lack of depth.

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I never use gadgets in Batman. I always use them in Spidey /shrug.

They're not super similar, though. Spiderman is a lot more nimble, has a lot more verticality, and can use the environment in cool ways that Batman doesn't.

 

[Papercuts]

No, it was basically Batman combat without any depth or balance.

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Pretty much.

It's fine for what it was I guess.

 

[vestan]

You have had some low expectations.

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I did

Still good tho 🤷‍♂️

 

[leng jai]

What difficulty did you play on? I played on the hardest difficulty when it came out and I constantly had to use the shock webs and fists. There were definitely some gadgets I never really touched outside of the moment I got them, though.

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Even on the hardest difficulty it was too easy really and there were just 1 or 2 OP abilities that worked against everything.

 

[AllMight1]

The combat is good and has growth potential.
All of the enemies outside bosses in the game are dissapointing.

 

[Captain of Outer Space]

It felt like a better version of the Arkham combat system where you had a number of ways to utilize your tools depending on how you preferred to spec out your tools and abilities, especially with all of the aerial moves at your disposal.

 

[Moist_Owlet]

No. The suit gadgets were overpowered

 

[modiz]

No, it was basically Batman combat without any depth or balance.

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I felt like the other way around, just the fact spiderman isnt auto sliding 10 meters to the next enemy to punch them made it feel much better for me.

 

[Lotus]

I mean it looked cool, but it certainly wasn't anything to write home about...

 

[Jobbs]

Nah.. I actually really dislike that kind of combat. It's a carbon copy of the batman games, which I already disliked combat-wise.

No real depth or challenge, just push buttons and watch stuff happen.

 

[NightShift]

It was about what I expected. Similar to Arkham combat but with a lot of self expression since that's what Insomniac is particularly great at.

 

[jdh96]

The combat being similar to the trash combat system found in the Arkham series is particularly why I still haven't picked this up, despite me enjoying Spiderman as a character.

 

[Slayven]

It was great, Spiderman should always be moving and kinetic. Well Peter should. Kaine and Miguel would just be tanking shit and busting heads straight up

 

[blitzblake]

Felt the complete opposite.. especially compared to Batman.

 

[Jawmuncher]

I thought it was fine, I got the platinum after-all. But it wasn't a stand out for me, especially later in the game with the more futuristic enemies.
Like you definitely feel like Spider-man but on the same hand it felt very simple a lot of the time. It's hard to explain, but there's definitely a good base there for future titles though.

 

[Deleted member 59955]

The combat being similar to the trash combat system found in the Arkham series is particularly why I still haven't picked this up, despite me enjoying Spiderman as a character.

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"Trash combat system"

You must've been playing different games. Maybe you were playing the old Batman games.

 

[rusty chrome]

Felt the complete opposite.. especially compared to Batman.

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That's funny, I played Arkham Knight after Spider-Man and the combat felt completely inferior. I love how Spider-Man allows for more creativity in its' combat, with deeper combos and more ways to mix things up. Every encounter in the Arkham felt the same to me, it got extremely repetitive. I still enjoyed the stories in the Batman games but the combat got surpassed by Spider-Man. Spider-Man "copied" it and made it better.

 

[jdh96]

"Trash combat system"

You must've been playing different games. Maybe you were playing the old Batman games.

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We can just agree to disagree the combat system is pretty mindless and shallow imo.

 

[Deleted member 49535]

I played it on the hardest difficulty and loved it. Honestly I couldn't ask for more. Playing on hard forced me to be constantly moving with all the shooting going on, which is what makes it feel like you're really Spider-Man.

 

[IceBear]

expected better for a supposedly "top tier AAA studio".

 

[Precious Tritium]

Thought it was really good, sounds cliche but it made you feel like Spider-Man. It's a variation of the Arkham style combat, which the way you can move from enemy to enemy always felt out of place for Batman especially when they slowed down and zoomed in on a backflip turned into a kick from across the room.

 

[Deleted member 31333]

I enjoyed it. It was a good take on Arkham combat with a Spider-Man feel. My only complaint was that it felt too easy. Even on higher difficulty I had no problem keeping a combo going whereas with the Arkham games, it took a lot more skill to get a high combo. I also don't think I ever died during combat in Spider-Man.
I like Spideys gadgets too although I wish you had access to more than just one without slowing down time to switch.

 

[Deleted member 16876]

It was basically Spider Man 2's combat but with more depth and more smooth. I loved that gamw and liked it here as well.

As for best western combat, I am going to go with GOW4 cause it was perfection. It is so good.

 

[hydruxo]

I liked it, but after you get used to it it's super easy even on harder difficulties. Web blossom was overpowered as hell. You have so much mobility that you can just swing away and pop back in to finish off enemies over and over again until they're all gone. Combat was really fun just almost too many tools at Spidey's disposal to the point where it felt like easy mode most of the time.

 

[Wet Jimmy]

The hand to hand combat felt terrible - especially so when you realise a guy who can punch through a brick-wall takes a dozen tippy-taps to knock out generic-thug-guy.

There were some flashy animations, but that didn't stop combat from being a bad take on the Arkham series.

 

[Gpur]

No, it was basically Batman combat without any depth or balance.

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This. I always had the feeling that any mistake wasn't my mistake but a game faulty (imprecision, lag of input etc) differently in Batman games were any lost was definitely my fault.

 

[mxbison]

I liked it and thought the amount of moves and options were just right.

I don't need 100+ moves and combos that I can't remember anyway.

 

[Tyaren]

I was, I absolutely loved it. :) I played Arkham Knight before and I had been told that the combat system is quite similar and I was like: Okay, I didn't love Arkham's combat but it was okay...and so I was very pleasantly surprised that the Spider-Man combat was so much fun. It is so fast and fluid and often it feels almost like my intuition and reflexes take over and I don't even think anymore. It's just fun darting around and doing the craziest stuff in the spur of the moment.

Spoiler

I guess that is indeed what combat feels like being Spider-Man. ;)

 

[Kalentan]

No, it was basically Batman combat without any depth or balance.

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What? Batman's combat is incredibly easy on the harder difficulties. You hardly needed to use shit to get past it.

Spider-Man's combat on the higher difficulties made you need to use gadgets and such.

 

[BIGLukas]

Yeah I thought it was great and much better than the Arkham stuff, especially on the hardest difficulty. Probably my favorite thing they added was the ability to dodge onto a wall and then boost off of that.

 

[Supermanisdead]

It was pretty poorly balanced. I really hate when games try to add "challenge" by giving you enemies that you need to do 1 specific action against or use 1 specific weapon.

 

[WordsintheWater]

Loved the combat, thought it was incredibly fun and fighting a bunch of dudes without getting hit, while using your gadgets is a feeling no game has replicated for me.

 

[AfropunkNyc]

Skill tree was trash. The gadgets made the combat not feel so repetitive.

 

[SidFromTsushima]

I am convinced people saying that the combat is just like arkham either played it on easy or purposely played it exactly like arkham. Unlike Arkham, where there is absolutely zero sense of positioning and spacing, where you can just stand in the middle and counter everything or magnetize to an enemy across the room, spider-man actually encourages proper positioning and mobility during combat, the dodging timing is also less forgiving as you can dodge out of one enemy's attack into another if they are both attacking. Then, all the aerial stuff and little touches like off the wall attack and swing kick add a lot more variety to the combat. Gadget use also allows more freeflow, creativity and combo-ing them together or within combat was extremely fun, compared to arkhams more restrictive use of gadgets during combat.

Arkham's combat at the time was okay and fit the games, but I always found it extremely boring and easy, but maybe that's because I grew up playing ninja gaiden, devil may cry and those cuhrazy action titles.

Spider-man 2 can improve the combat a lot though. For now, its serviceable, but there's a lot of potential for combat, especially during boss fights if Insomniac can nail it.

 

[MarvelousIntent]

I really enjoyed Spider-Man's combat as well. There were some moments that felt overwhelming to me, specifically in the DLC, but zipping around, dodging bullets, beating the crap out a grunt in mid-air was fun.

Also, as someone who loves the Arkham games, let's not kid ourselves. The gadgets are mostly unnecessary against grunts. I can only think of one circumstance that absolutely required the use of a specific gadget, and it's the bat claw on an electrified grunt in Arkham Knight. Everything else can be beating with counters, attacks, and the occasional stun.