Spider-Man 2 – On this day

The beginning of the 21st century was very good for Marvel’s Spider-Man. First, the creators of Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater games did a great job with Spider-Man and the Enter Electro sequel for the first PlayStation. This was followed in 2002 by Sam Raimi’s summer blockbuster, as well as an accompanying play for the film. Two years later, Spidey was rocking New York again, and a game called Spider-Man 2 offered us the best superhero experience in Spider-Man costume to date.

The interesting thing about this game is that it was made by today's creators of the Call of Duty: Black Ops series; at least in that version for the PlayStation 2 console we prefer to remember. Namely, Spider-Man 2 also appeared on the PC, but it was a different game with a different story and much more boring gameplay.

Gameplay in the PS2 version allowed free movement through four regions of New York and Manhattan, respectively. The daily work of Spider-Man, like rescuing innocent people from gangs and delivering pizza to Mr. Aziza, was rewarded with heroic points with which we then upgraded Spidey’s skills. This was the first real open-type Spider-Man game, largely inspired by the success of the then-hit Grand Theft Auto 3. 

The story of the game itself followed the plot of the film, but also expanded it with new characters, such as Black Cat, Shocker, and others. The reason for this was that the team did not immediately have access to the script of the movie itself during the development of the game. Interestingly, there was even more content in the plan, but the Treyarch development team had to get a good chunk of that stuff out of the game so they could launch it in parallel with the film of the same name.

Presentatively, the game benefited from the movie. The actors from the film recorded their voices for the play as well, and lead actor Tobey Maguire was particularly enthusiastic about the job because he loved playing video games himself. 

Spider-Man 2 for the PlayStation 2, Xbox, and Gamecube remained remembered as the best Spider-Man game to date, and many will say that even numerous sequels have failed to surpass it in some segments. There just wasn’t a better superhero game of that type at the time.

The Treyarch team later didn't get a chance to work on their own Spider-Man game and switched to the Call of Duty series. Fortunately, in 2018, the development team of Insomniac Games took the job and made a game with Marvel’s Spider-Man that managed to surpass the legendary Spider-Man 2 in quality.