So I know I’m a little late to the party but thanks to the deluge of sales that Sony have splashed us with this Summer, I’ve finally been able to play Spiderman PS4. Now I have a deep connection to Spiderman. When I was 4, I used to collect all the figures. When I was 7, I used to read the comics at home after school. Even when I got to the age of 21, I went to comic con dressed as Spiderman Noir, having been inspired by the massively underrated Spiderman Shattered Dimensions on the PS3. I had high expectations for Spiderman PS4 having experienced the high calibre of storytelling in the past Spiderman comics, games and movies.
Sony did not disappoint. I’ve been playing this game all week and enjoying every minute of it. From the main story, to the side missions to the collectables, I’ve not been bored. Why is that? Why is it that a game with so many main and side missions has a 47% platinum trophy completion? (According to psnprofiles)
It isn’t inconvenient to do so. After every few missions, the player is prompted to complete activities through NYC until the next story missions unlocks. This gives the player time to complete missions that unlock more abilities, as the player gets used to the mechanics of the game and can explore more of the city. In addition, the swinging mechanic is so smooth that the player may feel more inclined to swing to story locations rather than fast travel thus passing quick side objectives and completing them on the way.
The balance of task and reward. Most of these side objectives like backpacks and crimes are pretty quick and easy to complete and give the player a sense of achievement afterwards. The player also receives physical rewards that can unlock abilities, suits and gadgets. Honestly, guys it’s like a rabbit hole. One street crime leads to one lab missions which leads to three backpacks which leads to a taskmaster crime… It just keep going! My only issue with this was that in the third act of the game, a lot more side objectives open like street crimes and hideouts. These can get repetitive over time and introducing so many near the end of the game does begin to feel a little grindy.
Indeed there are a lot of side objectives. From backpacks to street crimes to taskmaster tasks, side missions, research labs and even catching pigeons… let’s just say you won’t be bored. But from my experience, I never lost track of the main story. Why is that?
The main story prepares the player for this. Jumping from situation to situation across NYC actually happens a lot in the main story. While dealing with escaped convicts, demon terrorists and remnants of Fisk, the player also has to keep in touch with Aunt May, MJ and Yuri and while helping Doctor Octavius with his project. The player already has to keep a lot in their mind and can therefore take on a few extra tasks without losing focus. Moreover, the breaks between high tension story beats actually the player a chance to breathe. Continuous high tension and non-stop action could cause an emotional exhaustion and have the opposite effect on the player.
The side missions make sense. Signified by a blue diamond, these reward XP over tokens. Because there are so many beats in the story, some things get put to the side, like Tombstone’s gang that MJ runs into while searching for the demons’ plans. Instead of shoving this to the side as a cute reference, there are a series of side missions involving the gang. This ties up their story while not having them overrun the higher stakes with the Demon’s plots.
Not necessarily a distraction. Sometimes instead of story, side objectives can unlock lore that add extra content, expanding universe and building character over adding story beats.
Phone reminders. Between missions Spiderman will call various main characters discussing past events and future plans. This means that the player is reminded of the main story in between missions. In addition, this gives all the main characters to be up to date. This avoids the obligatory ‘how could they have known that?’ issue quite smoothly. The player can also listen to the JJJ radio that comedically recaps that main story while throwing back to the first Spiderman film.
The collectibles are unique from each other. In so many games, I see a series of different collectibles that are all obtained the same way despite having different named categories. In this game, the collectibles and missions are divided into different types that make them unique.
So how do these side objectives add to the story and universe?
As mentioned earlier, side objectives reward XP and deal with less tense situations that tie up loose ends in the main story. These often allow the player to complete a series of different activities for an XP reward. I really enjoyed seeing the three part storyline with Tombstone’s gang as that’s a villain that I didn’t really know much about.
I also enjoyed the Negative storyline, finding different locations by just image. The fights were a little easy but in this case it was really about the journey. I would’ve preferred the one distributing the images to be more significant, whether he became the victim or perpetrator of the incident somehow. Either, that or it could’ve been Miles sending the pictures as it would’ve been nice to see more interactions between him and Peter. As written on NYFA, ‘Side quests are enticing when the story and characters relate in some way to the main plot.’ In contrast, Screwball is a new villain (as far as I’m aware) but jumped out to me, despite only having one mission. She seems culturally relevant and her means of ‘I didn’t actually do anything, I just encouraged others’ is actually pretty ingenious. I would love to see more of her!
From here, I’ll be discussing the other objective types in descending order scale by difficulty and time taken to complete. The research labs were set up by Osbourne and need Spiderman to complete missions with their tech to prove to the mayor that they are worth keeping up. These focus on movement over combat. The implications of these side stories are great because they are culturally relevant right now with the undeniable effects of global warming. They show the player different types of pollutions, where they come from and how they can be prevented or amended. It also provides a little foreshadowing, discussing characters that will be important much later.
The Taskmaster missions are effectively time trials and are much more gameplay oriented that story oriented. However, through the player being able to hone their skills through these missions, the main missions can go a lot smoother allowing story to have a better flow, rather than having, for example, a slower than desired chase sequence that breaks immersion for the player. Every mission unlocks dialogue with Taskmaster allowing the player to become acquainted with the illusive character.
Collectable side objectives include backpacks and landmarks. Backpacks are items that Peter holds dear and has hidden across the city. They provide a look into Peter’s character allowing the player to see into his background and character judged on what he values. At times, they are a nod to other Spiderman media. What he cherishes says a lot about who he is and helps the player to reminisce about how he’s become the person he is. For Landmarks, the player must go around and take snaps of certain iconic parts of NYC. The idea of Spiderman being a real shutterbug (Literally!) adds to his quirky character while also letting the player get to know the famous city. You could even say it adds an FPS element into the gameplay.
As I mentioned before, street crimes and hideouts are the weakest in terms of story. They show how much effect the gangs are having on the city adding a sense of urgency and danger. Having said that these become repetitive over time especially in the third act.
I rate the overall story of this game quite highly. Rather than retelling the origin of Spider-Man that we’ve seen three times in just the movies, the game rebuilds Parkers early universe and focuses more on type villains origins similar to Batman. Side missions in this game do not take away from the main plot but rather build around it and tie up loose ends from storylines that had to be it aside for bigger issues for Spider-Man in NYC. Each side mission is more than a collectathon and rather a set of different challenges that all have both a tangible reward and contextual purpose.
Richard Moss on Gamasutra reached out to several game writers and designers for their thoughts and recommendations and came up with four strong rules for side quests in gaming. I wanted to rate Spiderman judging on their criteria.
- A good side quest informs the plot.
I would argue they do. They may not foreshadow plot points often, but they do definitely deal with issues brought up in the main plot that it doesn’t necessarily have time to cram in, and that may overwhelm the player if it did. No one likes a superfluous main story.
2. A bad side quest is a quest that upstages the main quest.
Again, most of the side objectives in this game are short and have much less importance than the main story. A lot of these missions deal with smaller groups of thugs or personal collection for Spiderman. At the same time, the side quests are still important with the superhero mentality of, ‘If it stops evil, it’s worth doing.’
3. Side quests should be quick and fun.
As mentioned, all of these are much shorter barring the side missions (blue diamond). All of the side objectives seem to be gameplay related and versatile, some using puzzles or combat or movement or stealth or sometimes all four!
4. Side quests should use the core gameplay mechanic.
This is in terms of not using a new novelty mechanic to solve issues. Spiderman only did this once with the Spiderbot. Other than that, the game uses core mechanics and this helps the player to effectively train to take on the more difficult enemies later in the game.
As written by the guardian, ‘What really makes these fictional realms worth saving? Role-playing games need to offer more than a sequence of linked events toward a monumental finale. A world is made of people, not just objectives’. Side quests are ‘tiny stories that make the emotional texture of a journey richer and fuller’. The importance and effect of these can be seen with the success Spiderman PS4 has received, not just in it’s main story, but it’s overall completion rate.
Sources:
Griffin, Sarah Maria. (2020) In video game stories, it’s often side quests that are mmost meaningful. Retrieved from: https://www.theguardian.com/games/2020/may/27/in-video-game-stories-its-often-side-quests-that-are-most-meaningful
Moss, Richard. (2018) Designing side quests? Study these 7 games (and some Chris Avellone pointers). Retrieved from: https://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/314812/Designing_side_quests_Study_these
New York Film Academy. (2015) Six Invaluable Tips For Designing Fun Side Quests. https://www.nyfa.edu/student-resources/tips-designing-fun-side-quests/
