Small Details You Missed In The Spider-Man: Miles Morales Gameplay
Since Sony confirmed future PlayStation 5 owners would receive a Marvel's Spider-Man sequel in the form of Spider-Man: Miles Morales, the hunt has been on for more information about the title. During the Sept. 16 PS5 Showcase, Sony lifted the curtain, complete with gameplay samples and story teasers. However, some of the trailer's biggest bombshells didn't come from what audiences saw, but what they didn't see.
While the gameplay demo trailer clocks in at over seven minutes long, it web-swung along at a brisk pace. The video included many features no doubt familiar to Marvel's Spider-Man veterans and Marvel fans alike, but it also smuggled in several details you might not have noticed. Then again, it's not difficult to miss small design elements when you're engrossed by the game's marvelous graphics and animations.
Read on if you want to learn about Spider-Man: Miles Morales details that likely escaped the notice of even Uatu the Watcher's eyes.
Morales has more tricks up his sleeves
Marvel's Spider-Man packs in quite a few gameplay mechanics, including web shooting and wall crawling (i.e., Peter Parker doing whatever a spider can), as well as Focus and suit powers. The latter additions provide various benefits, such as instantly finishing off an opponent or automatically regenerating Focus. Judging by the trailer, Spider-Man: Miles Morales will keep some of these abilities, and introduce new skills unique to Miles.
In the gameplay trailer's HUD, Focus sits next to a lightning bolt symbol, while the suit power bar has been replaced by a "Camouflage" meter. These reference Morales' exclusive powers: Bioelectricity and, um, Spider Camouflage. The gameplay trailer demonstrates Morales using these respective powers to electrify his enemies and temporarily go invisible, respectively.
Since the lightning bolt symbol goes dark whenever Miles uses an Electrokinesis power, it is apparently a resource separate from Focus, as that bar is expended when Miles instantaneously incapacitates a thug. However, with the advent of Camouflage, unique suit powers (and possibly the inclusion of multiple suits) might be more absent than Peter Parker's biological parents. Or maybe Morales will receive multiple suits, and Camouflage is only one possible suit power. We just don't know.
HUD meters were very scripted
When a video game studio or publisher premiers a trailer, it is usually scripted, and gameplay trailers are no exception. These videos are supposed to demonstrate a game at its best, not what happens when the game proves too hard for the gamer — or when the title glitches out. The Marvel's Spider-Man: Miles Morales gameplay trailer also follows this pattern.
When the fight breaks out on the bridge, Morales has a full health bar and one Focus meter. However, after he is temporarily tossed aside by a neon blade whip, Morales suddenly has two Focus bars. But, the scriptedness doesn't end there. Morales is hurt during the fight, but once the fight gives way to a bystander-saving segment, he finds himself with a full health bar. Was this an oversight since the rest of the trailer consists of quicktime events? Will the game magically heal players between cutscenes? So many mysteries, so few answers.
The Tinkerer is unlike any version seen before
Even though Marvel's Spider-Man features a who's who of Spidey's rogue gallery, each villain is (mostly) unlike any prior incarnations. For example, Norman Osborn doesn't dip into his Green Goblin persona (he might not even be the Green Goblin in this Spider-verse), and Otto Octavius develops his robo-octopus limbs because of a degenerative neurological disorder. This design philosophy will apparently continue into Spider-Man: Miles Morales.
According to the gameplay trailer, players will face off against the corrupt Roxxon Corporation and villainous Underground, the latter of which is led by the Tinkerer. These names should sound familiar to any Marvel aficionado, but while the game's Roxxon lives up to its devious roots, the Tinkerer and the Underground are vast departures.
Usually, the Tinkerer is portrayed as an old, balding genius. No matter his universe of origin, however, the Tinkerer can basically create death rays out of old cathode ray tube television sets. Moreover, he is a brain for hire. Meanwhile, this game's Tinkerer leads her own criminal army of neon cyberpunks. Yes, her. Judging by the Tinkerer's slender build and modulated voice, this version probably is female. As for her army, it shares the same name as a group of superheroes that formed when Captain America was replaced by a cosmic duplicate, colorfully dubbed "Stevil" by Rocket Raccoon.
What was up with the energy canister Morales touched?
During the gameplay trailer, the Tinkerer's Underground army attacks Roxxon goons to get their neon mitts on Roxxon's experimental energy source, Newform (get it?). Morales tries to wrench a canister of Newform from the Tinkerer but fails, all while his Bio-Electrokinesis is active. The Tinkerer slams Morales into a truck full of Newform, which causes them to explode and wreck the bridge.
However, the canister Morales initially touched does not explode. In fact, if you look closely, it pulses with his' Electrokinesis, and the Tinkerer escapes with it. This raises the question of what is going on with the sole surviving Newform canister. Did Morales' electro-power and the canister combine to create a new form of, well, Newform? Will this unforeseen energy amalgamation play a significant part in the game's story? We will have to wait and see.