There has been a debate about “dollars per hour” value in video games for a few years now, as games become more and more sprawling. There are many who believe that with game prices at $70 now, the longer a game is, the more valuable it is.
And this has come up yet again with Marvel’s Spider-Man 2, a game that said up front it would be around the same length as the first one.
Well, having 98%-ed my review copy of the game, I am free to speak to this now. Yes, the game is shorter than many mainstream AAA offerings this year, giants like Starfield and Baldur’s Gate 3. Like, a fraction as long as those big ones.
However, it’s great. In a year of so many games, and specifically, so many good games, it is refreshing to experience a stellar game like Spider-Man 2 and not need to devote months of your life to it. And as a result, the game never overstays its welcome, even as you pursue total completion.
So, to answer the basic question, I would say the story content of the Spider-Man 2 is probably like 14-17 hours long. There are barely anything resembling time or level gates for story content, so if you wanted to straight blitz it, you could do that in a shorter time, but you would be disadvantaged with underpowered gear and skills for some of the game’s later, tougher segments. A more “normal” playthrough, mixing and matching side quests and objectives within the game, was around 24 hours, I’d say.
As for going harder than that? I can confirm some earlier reports that 100%-ing the game (at 98%, I did almost everything but a few missing collectibles) probably takes around 28-30 hours. By the end, I was passing up random street crimes eventually because I had so many materials I just didn’t need to do them anymore. Sorry, NYC citizens.
But that 30 hours includes every main mission, side mission and POI and collectible (there are not like, 100 of those, so it’s not bad). I…loved this? It was easily a point in the pro column of the game, that I could essentially max it out without it totally consuming my life. The two week review period we got was more than enough time to take this at a comfortable pace.
Insomniac has confirmed that they will be adding New Game Plus mode to the game, along with Mission Replay, some time before the end of the year most like, so if you want to keep going, you’ll be able to. If you do so retaining all your gadgets and powers? Well, I would probably advise cranking up that difficulty for round two.
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