Plenty of new games were unveiled during the PlayStation Showcase on Thursday (24 May), but the real excitement was to be found in 12 minutes of Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 footage that showed off a new villain – Kraven the Hunter – and a whole new look for Peter Parker, the hero of the first game.
The new footage starts with a reveal of Kraven the Hunter, who has targeted the superheroes and villains of Manhattan for his latest hunt. There’s nothing else from him beyond a bit of character work, but it’s clear that Kraven’s Hunters – a faction named after the man himself – will be a serious threat in the game.
This is shown in the next segment, as Peter Parker is trying to keep The Lizard safe from them. It’s our first look at Parker in his new suit and the white and black styling will look familiar to even the most casual fans of the character. Why? Well, it’s comprised of the alien symbiote that bonds with Peter Parker during the Secret Wars comic series.
Take a look in the trailer below, before we lay out what that could mean for the webhead.
In the comics, and even during the symbiote’s appearance in the movie Spider-Man 3, Parker’s personality is impacted by the bond and he becomes a more aggressive and ruthless version of Spider-Man. This is still clearly early days in the game, as Miles Morales asks Parker about his new suit and notes the fact that, whisper it, Parker is kind of acting like a dick.
In exchange for this though, his abilities in combat appear to have had a real upgrade. His fighting style is more aggressive, and the stringy strands of symbiote goop are doing double duty by helping Parker get around the city, but also savaging his enemies.
Miles Morales doesn’t have a cool new alien symbiote, but he is also packing new abilities, which seem to mix tech with his already strong bioelectricity and invisibility powers.
There’s no sign of Venom in the part we’ve shown – which shouldn’t come as a surprise to any of the comic fans who can see where we’re at in the symbiote timeline, but what’s here has already shown that the sequel will be breaking new ground, rather than being a retread of the successful first time games in the Marvel’s Spider Man franchise.
