With Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 due out in just over a month, one of the most hotly anticipated features in the game is the classic symbiote suit set to be donned by Peter Parker throughout the game. In the gameplay reveal for Insomniac’s exciting new superhero title, we see several new abilities related directly to the symbiote suit shown off. Based on what we have seen, it seems the symbiote suit’s abilities will be more than just extra brutal combat animations and special finishers, but instead a deeper system of unique abilities, with a special suite of symbiote attacks, such as a slam, seen on the game’s HUD.
Related: Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 Debuts Exciting New Trailer at SDCC 2023 with Massive Surprises
Frankly, it makes a lot of sense to give Peter some extra oomph by way of the symbiote suit. After all, players have the ability now to swap freely between playing as Peter and Miles whenever playing outside of main missions. As Miles has his own set of unique abilities between his electric “venom” powers and his active camouflage powers, it might be tough to give players a solid incentive to play as the original Spidey without something extra up the sleeve. Giving Peter special symbiote abilities would be a great way to make up for the extra powers Miles has access to.
But that is all temporary, right? We already know Venom will be in the game. It stands to reason that, at some point, it is likely Peter will lose access to his symbiote suit over the course of the game’s story. Of course, there remains the possibility Insomniac has a new trick up its sleeves that will allow Peter to retain the symbiote abilities indefinitely, but assuming it is indeed the case that he loses it over the course of the game, how will these abilities remain in later levels and the post-game?
Speculating on Symbiotes and Special Moves
There are a lot of questions to be raised about how the symbiote will work in the game. For example, the first game allows you to wear whatever suit you want from your unlocked list at any time, cutscene and otherwise, save for a couple of brief sequences closer to the end of the story. That’s all fine and dandy, but in the sequel, Peter succumbing to the symbiote suit and its influence is clearly a major plot element. As such, it would be a lot weirder to be running around as the Bombastic Bagman while Peter menacingly stalks a hallway behind Mary Jane.
Not many fans may remember this, but about a year and a half ago rumors started to spread that Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 would feature “a symbiote variant of every suit” in the game. Take this suggestion with a mighty hefty serving of salt, though, as very little has come along to corroborate this. That said, it would make a lot of sense to incorporate such a system, as it would allow players to maintain their fashion freedom. Otherwise, the options are to either lock the suit a lot more often than the previous entry, only allow the use of specifically designated “symbiote suits” at certain times, or allow the use of obvious non-symbiote suits in scenes that demand its presence.
Extending this to the abilities the suit provides, however, some outs already exist. In the initial reveal trailer for the game, we saw Peter using robotic legs similar to those used with his Iron Spider suit in other media. Recent toys further suggested this has not been cut as a feature. This is purely conjecture, but could Peter’s unique abilities be mainly built around these legs rather than the symbiote?
Many fans have speculated on the possibility of Venom being a playable character. If that does indeed turn out to be the case, it would make sense to introduce players to the symbiote abilities through Peter during his time wearing the suit, and then later make them permanently accessible in late and post-game sequences by way of being Venom’s primary power set, whilst Peter, when not under the suit’s influence, has a playstyle built more around his mechanical spider legs and gadgets. As for how this could affect Peter wearing alternate symbiote suits (of which there will hopefully be many,) if this were the case, after he loses the costume they would likely become cosmetic-only.
While this certainly would make for three unique character playstyles and would likely excite fans, I feel the need to once again state this is all speculation. There is no confirmation that Venom will be playable, and even the extent of Peter’s mechanical legs is unknown, as they were simply a minor unlockable suit power in the previous game.
As such, while all of this is certainly possible, for now, it’s just speculation. It will be interesting to see how Insomniac chooses to go about balancing the symbiote abilities, making Peter and Miles both feel unique and special, and storytelling through gameplay all together with the many balls they will now have to juggle.
It will have steep competition, too. Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 releases exclusively for the PlayStation 5 on October 20th, just three days after Alan Wake II and on the same day as Super Mario Bros. Wonder.
How do you think Insomniac will integrate the symbiote into the post-game? Do you think it will be usable despite Peter not canonically having it any longer, or do you think Insomniac is hiding a playable Venom up its sleeves? Let us know in the comments and on out social media feeds!
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