Released in 2018, Marvel’s Spider-Man stands as one of the most impressive games of the PlayStation 4 generation. With a huge, detailed environment, gloriously detailed characters and top-tier post processing effects, in combination with superb, well-balanced gameplay, Insomniac demonstrated once again why it’s one of the most talented, ambitious studios around. And somehow, with Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales, the developer not only has to top it, but to provide a next-generation vision for PlayStation 5, while at the same time also delivering a PlayStation 4 rendition of the game. The odds seem insurmountable – but rest assured, Miles Morales delivers.
It begins with the simple act of launching the game. Once you clear menu screen animations, loading times are a mere four seconds – an astonishingly short space of time. In fact, the UI transition adds three seconds further to the count. This is so fast that it rivals any cartridge-based system from the past. We’ve had optical discs and spinning platter drives limiting the speed of consoles for more than two decades, but with the arrival of a fast SSD in the PS5, we’re witnessing the end of waiting – or at least, that’s the hope, and Spider-Man: Miles Morales highlights what’s possible. By comparison, the original PS4 Spider-Man took over 30 seconds to load.
It’s not just the fact that SSD technology has been added to the mix, though – the new hardware decompression blocks integrated into PS5’s SoC also free up valuable CPU time, aiding performance elsewhere. So what we’re looking at here is a combination of super-fast storage and decompression in conjunction with Insomniac’s own streaming technology that helps make these remarkable loading times possible. And once the game has completed its initial load, the first glimpse of Miles himself reveals further next-gen enhancements. The level of detail on the character is certainly eye catching, but what’s new?
The first thing that really stands out to me is the new hair strand system, which extends to all of the characters in the game. Not only is this system flexible enough to handle different types of hair, but each representation is of exceedingly high quality. The way light plays off the hair strands, the way it moves as characters emote – it’s a nice upgrade from the previous game. Sub-surface scattering is also increased in quality, leading to more realistic depiction of skin translucency, while eyes and teeth are now more detailed with additional screen-space shadows bringing finer close proximity detail. Character rendering was already top-notch in the original Marvel’s Spider-Man, but these changes really enhance the overall presentation. The in-game model is similarly detailed. Thanks to photo mode, it’s possible to bring the camera right up against each character. The resolution of the materials is absurdly high, while facial details are just exceptional. The PS4 game still looks good but elements like eyebrows, hair, skin and eyes receive a massive boost in fidelity for the new game.
However, it’s the representation of New York City that perhaps best showcases Insomniac’s technology and the capabilities of the new console. Yes, hardware-accelerated ray tracing is a big deal here, but detail across the board is improved. The draw distance of vehicles and pedestrians is pushed out significantly while the overall density is increased: this means more activity at street level, resulting in a world that feels more like a bustling metropolis. In the original game, you could very clearly see where the activity ended in terms of draw distance – and while it worked OK given the hardware limitations, head-to-head comparisons between generations are eye-opening to say the least.