Spider-Man PS4 creative director talks pillars of gameplay, all of Spidey’s powers unlocked from the start

Sony came out swinging for Paris Games Week 2017, and one of the biggest games they had to show was a new look at Marvel's Spider-Man. The trailer was a more story-oriented affair, which may not be the most exciting way to show off a game, but creative director Bryan Intihar talked with IGN about the game's four pillars of combat and gave insight into what kind of Spider-Man we will be playing.

This version of Spider-Man is in his early twenties, employed in his first ever job, and dealing with real-world non-hero struggles as Peter Parker. As you can tell from the trailer, Peter Parker is a significant part of PS4's Spider-Man, but so too is Mary Jane. In fact, there will be individual sections where we will control her, and that's all part of delivering a unique game.

Intihar said:

"We said right at the start of this project that we want to stay true to the DNA of the Spider-Man universe […] But we also didn't want to just repeat everything you've seen in the movies or the comics and the games – because there's been a lot of them, right? We had to mix things up, and I think MJ's a good example of that character."

As far as Spider-Man himself, fighting as the wall-crawler is built around four main pillars; melee, web-slinging, environmental actions, and gadgets. Succeeding in combat is predicated on being able to mix and match freely, which Intihar says involves "switching right." As IGN's Joe Skrebels points out, this could mean that players might have to use the D-Pad to change combat types.

Another detail that sounds quite refreshing is that Spider-Man will have all of his powers from the get-go, which ties into him being a more experienced web-slinger in his early twenties. It wouldn't seem to make much sense to force a hero that's already been around the block a few times just to re-learn tricks both he and fans already know.

"It's not like you load up the game and he doesn't have any powers. The first time you're swinging, the first time you're fighting, you need to feel like Spider-Man," says Intihar.

PS4's Spider-Man doesn't currently have a release date, but it is scheduled to come sometime in 2018.

[IGN]