The name Miles Morales will certainly not be familiar to everyone. But anyone who has followed the comics in recent years or knows the PS4 predecessor knows about the second Spider-Man next to Peter Parker. When his mentor has to leave town for a while, it is up to the 17-year-old Miles to ensure law and order in wintry New York.
Of course, it doesn’t take long before the spider is challenged in training: Miles uncovered a large-scale conspiracy and also had to take on a new criminal syndicate and its leader Tinkerer. In between, numerous petty criminals still want to be stopped and some private problems dealt with. Yes, apart from the action, Miles Morales has a lot in common with the “big” Spidey.
Spider-Man: Miles Morales
But that’s by no means bad, because once again it makes a lot of fun to stir up the many bad guys with hearty combos, various network attacks and evasive maneuvers. Especially on the PlayStation 5, which offers a 60 fps mode, the brawls are as dynamic and fast as one had always wanted. The same applies to swinging through the canyons – whoever has experienced the “improved” Spidey does not want to go back, because there is a great feeling of speed here.
In addition, the new Sony console delivers a crisp, sharp 4K resolution that only reveals slight flickering edges or isolated pop-ups if you look very closely. Optionally, you can also play with ray tracing and 30 frames per second: Then you will see more reflections in puddles and windows, a finer contrast ratio and even more differentiated and more intense colors. In addition, the loading times are really short: from the start of the software to the main menu, it takes a mere twelve seconds and a game can be loaded within just one second.
On the PS4 Pro, the game takes around 56 seconds from start to the main menu and 21 seconds for the game status. Naturally, this version also does worse graphically because it lacks some sharpness of detail, luminosity and the higher frame rate. Nevertheless, Spider-Man: Miles Morales looks really good on the old hardware and plays great. Should you later switch to the PS5, you can download the next-gen upgrade for free and transfer your saved game.
Reason to Buy the PS5
Just like in the predecessor, Manhattan is open to you again in Spider-Man: Miles Morales, which of course has all sorts of secondary activities to offer in addition to the main missions. Crimes in the streets and on the roofs of houses happen randomly and are short action bites. Tasks like rescuing cats, collecting escaped pigeons or looking for a stolen car are a little longer. And then there are larger and coherent side missions that tell their own stories.
The Spider-Man app on Miles’ smartphone tells you what’s going on in town right now. With a swipe of the touchpad you have all activities in view and can be easily guided there. Completed missions earn you brands that you can use to unlock new suits for Miles or improve his technical aids. In addition, there are of course skill points, thanks to which the powers of the new superhero keep improving. Some collectibles as well as various challenges in the areas of combat, stealth and locomotion are also included.
Although most of the gameplay is well known from the 2018 Spider-Man, Miles Morales is a lot of fun. On the one hand, this is due to the unchanged great feel that the combination of fighting and swinging creates. On the other hand, the character of the young wall crawler likes: Miles’ sympathy for his family and his neighborhood make him just as likeable as the occasional insecurity in dealing with his strength.
