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Spider-Man PS4 needs to get several important things right when it releases this upcoming

early September, and has Spider-Man been visually downgraded since its 2016 debut?

Insomniac Games, one of my all time favorite studios, has a lot on their plate.

If they deliver a great Spidey game, the developer is off to the races and will have a successful

future ahead of it.

If it fails and Spider-Man PS4 proves to be a disappointment, well, that'll be very

problematic for Insomniac.

Now I'll be approaching this by treating Spider-Man PS4 as an open-world game, first

and foremost, but because at its core that's what is.

A title allowing you to freely explore New York City as a fan-favorite superhero, and

Spider-Man will need to avoid several open-world tropes if it wants to succeed.

I've been avoiding coverage for the game as I still want to actually be surprised by

it.

But the first thing Spider-Man needs to include is well thought out and story-based side missions

littered throughout New York City.

We can't have generic fetch quests plaguing the game, the type of side content you see

in most of Ubisoft titles, for example.

Missions with all similar gameplay loops that don't offer anything interesting besides

giving you the ability to level up.

The Batman: Akrham franchise is a great example of how to pull off side missions in open-world

superhero games.

You have content focusing on villains like Two-Face in Arkham Knight for example, where

he's robbing banks and you have to stop him.

There are cutscenes and there's a nice story beat to it.

It'll be great to explore New York and take on side missions featuring some of Spidey's

more obscure villains and story moments you won't get to see if you only complete the

main campaign.

Rockstar is also great at doing this as well.

In GTA V for example, Trevor has this whole side mission where he meets an old couple

from England who like to steal items from celebrities homes.

Trevor ends up doing favors for them and this side story ends in a car chase through a hospital.

Spider-Man PS4 will have a large playground and an exciting city, my hometown New York,

for players to get lost in.

So populate it with meaty and memorable missions.

The second important thing Spider-Man PS4 needs to get right is its boss battles.

Boss fights have to be well designed, engaging, and entertaining.

While this is important in any game, it's especially important for a superhero title

like Spider-Man.

We've already seen almost all of the baddies Spidey will be battling in the game, save

for a few surprises.

Each boss, whether it's elector or rhino, needs to feel different.

Part of of the fun of any superhero game or movie for that matter is the villains the

hero has to go up against.

The saying, your story is only as strong as its villain, rings true all of the time.

I'm not too worried about Spider-Man PS4 having good bosses given the fact Insmoniac

has consistently delivered great boss battles throughout many have its games, especially

Ratchet and Clank.

The last thing Spider-Man PS4 has to get right in my opinion is, well, the story.

This seems obvious enough but video games still, for the most part, don't have great

stories to tell.

The industry is still in its infancy when it comes to being able to deliver writing,

characters, and plots that can be comparable to movies and novels.

Since I've been avoiding most coverage for Spider-Man PS4, I'm not entirely sure what

the game's story is about.

But, there has to be a good mix of drama and emotion, and humor.

It's incredibly difficult to pull off, actually.

Being able to produce a game that's funny but also offers serious themes to ponder over

is challenging to say the least.

But looking at Insomniac's track record once again, this is a studio that has always

been able to offer great humor while still exploring heavy themes with its eccentric

characters.

If Spider-Man PS4 is able to nail all three of these things, then it'll definitely be

a huge success.

Now, briefly touching on Spider-Man PS4's visual downgrade controversy, a few fans have

been claiming the game has lost some of its visual flare since it made its debut back

at E3 2016.

This is including the lack of puddles in certain levels, believe it or not.

Now this visual downgrade claims isn't totally out of the question in my opinion.

Watch Dogs suffered the same fate if you can remember, and Sony also showed off a different

Killzone 2 many years ago that looked nothing like the final product.

Some these things have happened plenty of times before.

But Insomniac has denied the claims and by all accounts, the game still looks stunning.

Its visual appeal shouldn't be the main point of concern for people in my view.

It's the three things I've mentioned and the gameplay.

So, we should move the focus away from this.

But either way, we'll find out soon enough how Spider-Man PS4 holds up.