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[ChiefDada]

Here's how character switching in Spider-Man 2 works

Insomniac Games' Bryan Intihar and Ryan Smith explain how character switching in Spider-Man 2 works.

www.eurogamer.net

Last week, Insomniac Games showed off Spider-Man 2's seamless transitions between Peter Parker and fellow web-slinger Miles Morales.

These moments in the sequel's gameplay reveal were impressive, invoking memories of similar fluidity from Insomniac's fellow PS5 exclusive Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart. But I still had questions. Can we only switch characters at certain story points or will we be able to switch between them freely?

It turns out, the answer is a little bit of both.

"When you're playing the main story, we control when you switch between Pete and Miles... it's done in service to the story when we're making those switches, for sure," Spider-Man 2's creative director Bryan Intihar told Eurogamer in an exclusive interview. "So, as you saw on that gameplay reveal, which is a segment of the main story, we are pre-determining those based on what we want to do for how the story plays out."

When you are in Spider-Man 2's New York open world, however, it's different.

"We have content designed around Peter, we have content designed around Miles and we have content where you can play either," Intihar shared. "You'll be able to - in the open world - freely switch between them with a simple button press." This is thanks to the power of the PlayStation 5.

"Being able to switch in the open world so quickly between the two characters is really, really awesome," Intihar smiled. "Just being able to pick and choose who I want to play as for a certain activity... it's been so awesome to have that feature. [It's] something we probably wouldn't have explored previously."

Additionally, this character switching will all tie in with Spider-Man 2's three skill trees - one for Peter, one for Miles and one that is shared.

"We want to make sure that when you do switch between the heroes, there's a sense of familiarity. They're both Spider Man, you know how to play the game, but you still have that flexibility in that customisation for upgrading each of them with their [skill trees]," Spider-Man 2's game director Ryan Smith elaborated.

"We saw in the gameplay reveal where Miles has the evolved Venom powers, whereas Peter has the Symbiote abilities. And so those, those change a bit of how you play, and you can upgrade those in their respective trees as well."

I asked if there will be the chance to perhaps switch to other characters, such as reporter and Peter's girlfriend MJ, but I was quickly told I needed to keep the focus on last week's gameplay.

Ah, well. I tried.

You can read more from my chat with Spider-Man 2's directors, where they discuss balancing the sequel's darker tone and the theme of addiction, here.

 

[James Sawyer Ford]

Insomniac making the world's first single player only co-op game

 

[mansoor1980]

SSD and I/O magic

 

[Zathalus]

SSD and I/O magic

Yep, no way the PS4 could do something like this. I heard GTA V was supposed to have multiple protagonists that you switch between but it was scrapped due to hard drive limitations.

 

[Kurotri]

Am I losing my mind or something? How is this impressive? Seems like a pretty by the numbers feature. GTA 5 did it too? AC Syndicate?

 

[JaksGhost]

Yep, no way the PS4 could do something like this. I heard GTA V was supposed to have multiple protagonists that you switch between but it was scrapped due to hard drive limitations.

Instant switching vs 1 minute of floating over the city while my soul searches for the next character to control.

 

[SCB3]

Am I losing my mind or something? How is this impressive? Seems like a pretty by the numbers feature. GTA 5 did it too? AC Syndicate?

Battlefield 2 on Xbox 360 also did it, you could swap between any soldier on the Battlefield it was awesome

 

[reksveks]

I want to see what happens when/if you have the two spidey's in the same location and then you switch.

 

[Mr Moose]

Yep, no way the PS4 could do something like this. I heard GTA V was supposed to have multiple protagonists that you switch between but it was scrapped due to hard drive limitations.

You can quit the game, load it again and switch to Miles before GTA V character switches (I'm joking but... Maybe).

 

[tmlDan]

Am I losing my mind or something? How is this impressive? Seems like a pretty by the numbers feature. GTA 5 did it too? AC Syndicate?

You mean this? where it took 70 years by the time i swapped?

 

[BrutalTruth_]

You could do this on BF2: Modern Combat on the OG Xbox with no load times.

I guess it's impressive because it's open world

 

[Kurotri]

You mean this? where it took 70 years by the time i swapped?

My point is that this feature, altough improved I guess thanks to da powah of the PS5, was introduced 2 generations ago. This stuff is to be expected. I have no idea why we need articles highlighting this as if it was some insane revolution.

 

[Zathalus]

You can quit the game, load it again and switch to Miles before GTA V character switches (I'm joking but... Maybe).

Yes the SSD is far faster and allows for near instant switching, but the concept itself has got nothing to do with SSDs or fast I/O. I was mostly poking fun though.

 

[Robb]

I don’t mind that gimmick. Hopefully there’ll be some substantial differences in the unique missions for each character.

 

[JaksGhost]

My point is that this feature, altough improved I guess thanks to da powah of the PS5, was introduced 2 generations ago. This stuff is to be expected. I have no idea why we need articles highlighting this as if it was some insane revolution.

They're not reinventing the wheel but proving upon it. The article was also talking about other elements as well but the OP wanted to just highlight this one thing since people were talking about it in the other threads.

 

[tmlDan]

My point is that this feature, altough improved I guess thanks to da powah of the PS5, was introduced 2 generations ago. This stuff is to be expected. I have no idea why we need articles highlighting this as if it was some insane revolution.

well, this time you're swapping between two heroes with wildly different powers on the fly with different quest lines....id say thats building upon it and way more evolutionary considering only 1 game, maybe two did it previously?

 

[MasterCornholio]

Yep, no way the PS4 could do something like this. I heard GTA V was supposed to have multiple protagonists that you switch between but it was scrapped due to hard drive limitations.

Those transitions in GTAV took a while though. Here it's instant thanks to the I/O and the extra power of the PS5.

 

[adamsapple]

"When you're playing the main story, we control when you switch between Pete and Miles... it's done in service to the story when we're making those switches, for sure,"

So it's a narrative device then. Ah well, would have been nice if there were options to tackle the story content differently as well.

 

[Nautilus]

Eh, don't like this overly big focus Sony is giving Miles. Spiderman is and always will be Peter Parker, and that's who I want to play as. Not to say that playing as Miles is bad, but this sounds like Miles is like 50% of who you play as in the game, and I'm not particulary fond of that.

 

[Mr Moose]

So it's a narrative device then. Ah well, would have been nice if there were options to tackle the story content differently as well.

Like in the recent trailer.

 

[Salty Popsicle]

My point is that this feature, altough improved I guess thanks to da powah of the PS5, was introduced 2 generations ago. This stuff is to be expected. I have no idea why we need articles highlighting this as if it was some insane revolution.

Because until the game is made available on PC, this "instant-switching" feature will be pegged by Sony and the greater gaming media as some innovation that could only be done on PS5 hardware.

The "instant world switching" from Ratchet and Clank that everyone lauded a few years ago will be available on PC very soon so they needed a new thing to market.

 

[JaksGhost]

Eh, don't like this overly big focus Sony is giving Miles. Spiderman is and always will be Peter Parker, and that's who I want to play as. Not to say that playing as Miles is bad, but this sounds like Miles is like 50% of who you play as in the game, and I'm not particulary fond of that.

You've got over 30 other Spider-Man titles available that are solely Peter Parker, you'll live.

 

[T4keD0wN]

Crazy how many people act like fast travel + switching a character is something impressive.

You can instantly teleport in tons of games (its just locked for players, but you can do it with console commands)

 

[Kagoshima_Luke]

Which button switches to Venom?

 

[SmokedMeat]

Another Spiderman thread just to confirm you can switch between characters.

 

[Mr Moose]

Because until the game is made available on PC, this "instant-switching" feature will be pegged by Sony and the greater gaming media as some innovation that could only be done on PS5 hardware.

The "instant world switching" from Ratchet and Clank that everyone lauded a few years ago will be available on PC very soon so they needed a new thing to market.

You know they were talking about PS4 when they said "This is a game that wouldn’t be possible without the power of PlayStation 5. We’re introducing more vibrant worlds than ever before, the speed of the SSD allows us to leap across the galaxy nearly instantly, and special effects like ray-tracing shows off the capabilities of the new console.", right? Surely? They don't make the games for PC/Xbox, the f do you think they were talking about?

 

[Thief1987]

Crazy how many people act like fast travel + switching a character is something impressive.

How many? I don't see a single one in this thread.

 

[Nautilus]

You've got over 30 other Spider-Man titles available that are solely Peter Parker, you'll live.

I will, but that won't deter me from speaking my mind.

 

[Salty Popsicle]

You know they were talking about PS4 when they said "This is a game that wouldn’t be possible without the power of PlayStation 5. We’re introducing more vibrant worlds than ever before, the speed of the SSD allows us to leap across the galaxy nearly instantly, and special effects like ray-tracing shows off the capabilities of the new console.", right? Surely? They don't make the games for PC/Xbox, the f do you think they were talking about?

They do make games for PC actually. Spiderman Remastered is on PC.

 

[Mr Moose]

They do make games for PC actually. Spiderman Remastered is on PC.

No, they don't. Nixxes ported it.

 

[SCB3]

Eh, don't like this overly big focus Sony is giving Miles. Spiderman is and always will be Peter Parker, and that's who I want to play as. Not to say that playing as Miles is bad, but this sounds like Miles is like 50% of who you play as in the game, and I'm not particulary fond of that.

Eh Miles is fine, he’s actually the best example of introducing diversity to an established IP, he’s not replacing Peter, he’s his own character and a good one at that

He does feel like a Spider-Man for the next generation, my son loves him more than Peter and that’s fine, Peter Parker is my Spider-Man and Miles happens to be others

 

[Ristifer]

Spider-Man 2: 2 Spider-Men

 

[ChiefDada]

Another Spiderman thread just to confirm you can switch between characters.

You didn't read past the headline.

 

[Pelao]

I imagine that by the end of the game you're going to be able to switch between three characters: Peter, Miles and Eddie, or whoever ends up being Venom in this universe.
If the symbiote powers have their own skill tree, they're not going to let you lose whatever you invest in them once Peter loses the black suit.

 

[Warnen]

Yay another magic ssd feature that will run on pc when ported without the magic ssd…

 

[ADiTAR]

It's cool, but what does the other Spiderman does while your with the other? just freeze his life?

 

[ChiefDada]

Yay another magic ssd feature that will run on pc when ported without the magic ssd…

Yes, I would expect PC hardware to be significantly better in the year 2025.

 

[Warnen]

Yes, I would expect PC hardware to be significantly better in the year 2025.

Yeah but will still run a 1060…

 

[diffusionx]

uhh i switched characters instantaneously in lost vikings on snes, checkmate ponies

 

[SmokedMeat]

You didn't read past the headline.

I read the entire article.

It’s like GTA V. Icons on the map for Peter, icons on the map for Miles, and icons for either.

All thanks to the power of PS5, this never before seen character switching can exist now.

 

[intbal]

You could instantly switch between four different characters anywhere on the map in Brute Force on the original Xbox.

 

[Mr Moose]

I read the entire article.

It’s like GTA V. Icons on the map for Peter, icons on the map for Miles, and icons for either.

All thanks to the power of PS5, this never before seen character switching can exist now.

If that's what you got from

"Being able to switch in the open world so quickly between the two characters is really, really awesome," Intihar smiled. "Just being able to pick and choose who I want to play as for a certain activity... it's been so awesome to have that feature. [It's] something we probably wouldn't have explored previously."

Then that's on you.

 

[ChiefDada]

I read the entire article.

It’s like GTA V. Icons on the map for Peter, icons on the map for Miles, and icons for either.

All thanks to the power of PS5, this never before seen character switching can exist now.

Then your original comment that the article was written "just to confirm you can switch between characters" looks even more silly. They are discussing the character switching feature's functionality and parameters, not just that you can do it; which like you said, we already knew.

 

[Tams]

Eurogamer

 

[SmokedMeat]

If that's what you got from

Then that's on you.

You’re going to have to help me out on how this is awesome.

It’s switching characters. What am I missing here? I’m legit not seeing it, and feel like I’ve done this in other games.

 

[Mr Moose]

You’re going to have to help me out on how this is awesome.

It’s switching characters. What am I missing here? I’m legit not seeing it, and feel like I’ve done this in other games.

It doesn't suggest they invented character switching, you made that up yourself. All it says is they like the feature, fast switching between characters (and it being actually fast).

 

[DeepEnigma]

Yep, no way the PS4 could do something like this. I heard GTA V was supposed to have multiple protagonists that you switch between but it was scrapped due to hard drive limitations.

It took you 2+ minutes to load into the damned game and over a minute to switch.

I mean, even a microwave could run DOOM, I suppose.

 

[T4keD0wN]

How many? I don't see a single one in this thread.

Come on, at least read the very beginning of the article.

Last week, Insomniac Games showed off Spider-Man 2's seamless transitions between Peter Parker and fellow web-slinger Miles Morales.

These moments in the sequel's gameplay reveal were impressive

People in this thread at least dont buy that lame marketing attempts, they just pretty much give credit.

 

[rodrigolfp]

Like this?

 

[skit_data]

Damn, this sounds pretty sweet.