The Ugly Truth Of What PS4 Fans Will Be Missing Out On In Spider-Man: Miles Morales

The PlayStation 5 has quite a few must-buy launch titles. Gamers will be able to play plenty of exclusive games day one, such as Astro's Playroom and Demon's Souls. One of the biggest launch blockbusters is Spider-Man: Miles Morales, which is bound to push PS5 sales, but unlike other launch titles, it will also release on the PS4. However, the PS5 version will feature a few spider-gadgets that PS4 owners won't be able to access.

Insomniac Games' Creative Director, Brian Horton, recently sat down with Game Informer to discuss all the hard work, research, and brainstorming that went into Spider-Man: Miles Morales (e.g., whether the game's winter weather would impact Miles' ability to traverse Harlem). Near the end of the video, Horton stated that the Insomniac team did away with loading screens to deepen the "connection between missions and the open world," which prompted one of the interviewers, Andrew Reiner, to ask about more fundamental differences between the PS4 and PS5 versions.

While Horton didn't confirm that the PS4 rendition of Spider-Man: Miles Morales will keep the first game's subway loading screens, he admitted that fast travel and death will incur some form of loading screen. Moreover, Horton stated that his team was able to "take full advantage of all the features in the PlayStation 5." First and foremost was graphics fidelity — PS5 owners will see ray traced reflections in their copies of Miles Morales. Ray tracing is beyond the PS4's capabilities, so PS4 copies will ship without ray traced windows or other graphical options made possible through the PS5's 10 teraflops of graphics power.

The PS5's DualSense controller was also tapped to provide, as Horton put it, "a next level of immersion." For example, whenever players use Miles' bioelectricity, the controller will rumble. On PS4, players will feel one big universal jumble of a rumble throughout the controller. However, the DualSense's haptic rumble will dial the feedback up to 11. Thanks to the DualSense's more advanced rumble motors, PS5 owners will feel the sensation of Miles' bioelectricity travel from one side of the controller to the other.

Web-swinging will also feel more immersive on the PS5 than on the PS4. Thankfully, players don't have to worry about the DualSense sticking to them as spider webs do, but the controller will apply resistance to its triggers whenever Miles webslings through the city. Players will feel the impact of a web finding a connection point, as well as the line's tension as it supports Miles' weight and slings him forward, all through the triggers. PS4 players, meanwhile, won't receive any haptic feedback.

While Horton stressed that the PS4 and PS5 renditions will provide the same gameplay experience, he ultimately admitted that the PS5 port's improvements turn the PS5 version of Spider-Man: Miles Morales into the definitive Spidey experience. While gamers can drop $50 on the PS4 version instead of a PS5 copy (plus $400-$500 for a PS5), they will miss out on all the bells and whistles that transform the PS5 version into an experience that is greater than the sum of its parts. You can't get more of the "ugly truth" about a game than hearing which version is better from the horse's mouth.

While PS4 players will be saddled with the knowledge they are playing an inferior version of Spider-Man: Miles Morales, there will also be other general changes made to the Spider-Man formula. In late September, word spread that the remastered version of the original Marvel's Spider-Man (which comes with every Ultimate Edition copy of Spider-Man: Miles Morales) will feature a very different Peter Parker. He has all the same voice lines and personality quirks but has received a new face. Judging by the Peter & Miles Texting Teaser Trailer, Peter will keep this new look (or one very similar to it) in Miles Morales. 

This change will no doubt come as a surprise to gamers who played the original Marvel's Spider-Man on the PS4 and haven't kept up with the news of Peter's remastered facelift. While it seems unlikely that this update will only apply to the PS5 version of Miles Morales, the general reaction to Pete's facelift is nonetheless almost as bad as the backlash to Miles' new shoes.

While Spider-Man: Miles Morales isn't exclusive to the PS5, much of it seems to have been designed with that console in mind. Ironically, even though you can buy a PS4 copy of the game, its missing features may ultimately help sell customers on the PS5.