In Defense of Marvel’s Spider-Man 2’s MJ Missions

Highlights

Insomniac’s Spider-Man series features remarkable gameplay, from seamless web-swinging to engaging combat and set pieces.
Despite initial criticism, Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 improves MJ missions with more player agency, including rush tactics and shooter-esque mechanics.
The playable MJ sequences in Spider-Man 2 offer a necessary storytelling perspective and hold narrative weight as they continue to ensure MJ’s importance.

Insomniac’s Marvel’s Spider-Man series nails its weighty yet fluid web-swinging mechanics, aerial combat and web-based gadgets, and spectacular playable set pieces to make its gameplay remarkable. To balance that, Insomniac’s Spider-Man series also throws in some science puzzles and walking-and-talking sections to make Peter Parker as memorable and engaging as his alter ego.

But Insomniac’s Spider-Man series doesn’t just put players in the shoes of the titular web-slinger. Across the series, players also occasionally take control of Mary Jane Watson. These missions see players sneak around environments and use light stealth mechanics to distract guards, locate evidence, and avoid enemy patrols. These MJ missions were a major point of criticism for Insomniac’s first Spider-Man game, but against all odds, they returned in last year’s sequel and are a lot better than they’re often given credit for.

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Defending Marvel’s Spider-Man 2’s MJ Missions

Insomniac Didn’t Take The Easy Way Out

By far the biggest criticism of 2018’s Spider-Man was the game’s MJ missions. In this first iteration, MJ’s missions felt rather repetitive and meandering, never really evolving throughout the game and always feeling like an awkward break in its otherwise excellent pacing. When Insomniac announced back in 2021 that it was working on a sequel, MJ missions would immediately be on a shortlist of features players hoped wouldn’t make it back. But, much to their dismay, Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 would end up delivering its own set of MJ-focused missions.

Despite all of the criticism these stealth-oriented MJ missions received in their first iteration, Insomniac refused to take the easy way out and simply drop them from the sequel, believing them to be an integral part of the series as they offered a different perspective on the game’s world, characters, and Action. While this is a commendable decision, it’s a fairly risky one, and thankfully Insomniac went to great lengths to try and improve these MJ missions for Marvel’s Spider-Man 2.

Spider-Man 2’s MJ Missions Are a Significant Improvement

Some of the biggest criticisms surrounding Marvel’s Spider-Man‘s MJ missions were their lack of player agency, as well as their linearity, repetitiveness, and frequency, and for the most part Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 tries its very best to rectify all of these issues. In Marvel’s Spider-Man 2, MJ features in just three missions, all of which give the player an increasing amount of agency. Plus, MJ missions aren’t all about pure stealth this time around and give her a legitimate weapon to take down hunters with.

How MJ can dismantle waves of Kraven’s hunters is still a bit of a hurdle in terms of suspending disbelief, even with a quick one-liner about training with Sable as a way to justify her newfound espionage tactics.

In the first mission, players are sneaking through an enemy encampment and are encouraged to avoid enemy patrols completely. In the second mission, players have a bit more agency in which routes they can take and how many enemies they can stun. In the third mission, the game essentially evolves into a third-person shooter with MJ blasting her way through hordes of symbiotes.

It gets a little outlandish by the end, but there’s no doubt that Spider-Man 2‘s playable MJ sequences hold narrative weight and are a whole lot more exciting and varied than those in the original title. These missions also occur at much more natural points in Spider-Man 2‘s story. Though they still drag down the pacing a little, Spider-Man 2‘s MJ missions feel like a necessary break amid the non-stop Action of swinging around the city as two Spider-Men.

Marvel’s Spider-Man 2

The sequel to 2018’s Spider-Man and its Miles Morales spin-off, Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 is a PS5 console exclusive. Insomniac’s open-world game features Peter Parker and Miles Morales as dual protagonists, with the two heroes going up against the likes of Kraven, Venom, and Lizard.

Released: October 20, 2023
Publisher(s): Sony Interactive Entertainment
ESRB: T For Teen Due To Blood, Drug Reference, Mild Language, Violence
How Long To Beat: 20 Hours
Metascore: 90
PS Plus Availability: N/A