Thomas Crinall

Insomniac delivers again. Think spiderman but bigger and better in every aspect. This year has been hit or miss with so many AAA games riddled with bugs and poor performance at launch. Spiderman 2 is flawless, the performance is rock solid, the graphical fidelity on offer even in performance mode is staggering. It really pushes the PS5 hard and it's worth it. I've spent the last 3 hours with a massive grin on my face. If you are even remotely a fan of marvel and spiderman - BUY THIS GAME!

Played the demo on PS5, was going to buy as although flawed the demo grabbed my attention enough to warrant a purchase. The demos main issues were a clunky cover mechanic and horrible camera shake/screen judder during cut scenes. Both are noticeably improved in the final release. Imagine my joy when It was on gamepass on Day 1! People can fly have clearly learnt from the failed looter/shooter games of the past and this game is a breath of fresh air for the genre and its fans. Yes, the shooting and combat/cover borrows heavily from Gears and the division but its made unique by the altered powers and the 4 very distinct and unique character classes. Skill tree and abilities have lots of depth and I love the fact you can respec at any point for free encouraging different play styles. Loot and the associated crafting/modding is almost Diablo esque and its very satisfying. You're literally having loot thrown at you and it's a great way of managing it where you can swap out mods on different guns, armour pieces to match the style of play that you're going for. The story also surprised me, its actually got me hooked. Very sci-fi with a decent dose of gallows humour. It's clear they're trying to explore the morality of whether anyone should have as much power as an "altered human" but it does so without taking itself too seriously and I've actually laughed out loud at certain points as the main character is very well voice acted with great timing on line delivery. If you're a fan of looter games, give outriders a go. It's not perfect but is a million times better than Anthem or The Division we're at launch and will only get better with time. The endgame is where its at with this genre and there's enough loot/gear tweaking to really perfect that ultimate build. For reference I've been playing on Series S and haven't experienced any issues bar 1 crash on Day 1 immediately after downloading. Frame rate is solid 60fps and visually it looks great at a dynamic 1440p on my LGCX.