Spider-Man PS4 the sequel
First a warning SPOILERS for the 2018 game ahead.
In September, Spider-Man for PS4 was finally released and the game speaks for itself.
In this article, I give my version of the inevitable sequel in terms of storyline, characters and unlockables.
Obviously, I don't know what all three DLC chapters will be about so they might contradict some of the following.
The post credit scene in Spider-Man PS4 seem to tease both the Venom-symbiote and the Green Goblin so these will play major roles in the story.
STORY:
Some time after the first game, Peter is on his feet again. He has a good apartment and is in a relationship with Mary Jane. He has also gotten a new job at Empire State University under Dr. Curt Connors – the former Lizard.
Miles is a hero in training; he has a costume and calls himself Kid Arachnid (two Spider-Men might be unnecessary complicated). During the game he learns to use his powers including camouflage and venom blasts, both something that Spidey doesn't have.
In the opening he two heroes stop a villain from committing a crime in the city.
Norman Osborn has completely abandoned his political career and is now focusing on curing his son. To that end, he enlisted geneticist Prof. Miles Warren in Washington. Warren has now arrived in New York and with him is his young assistant Gwen Stacy.
Being from New York, Gwen and Peter dated in high school, but when her father police captain George Stacy was killed in action, she broke up with Pete and moved away with her family. Now she's back in New York working for Warren and dating Peter’s former-bully-now-friend Flash Thompson. Flash is a soldier and works with war veterans.
Osborn and Warren have been working on a black substance that theoretically should be able to cure Harry. The basis for the black goo is the OZ formula, an unstable performance enhancer originally conceived for military use.
The breakthrough came when Norman acquired an unknown element from a meteor crash site. However, OZ and the element can't be combined without a bonding agent.
Norman suspects that Spider-Man’s powers might be related to OZ. Therefore, the scientists theorize that the wallcrawler’s DNA could be the key to making the black substance work.
Norman anonymously hires Alistair Smythe (a master of robotics) to retrieve a blood sample from the hero and the Spider-Slayers are dispatched to obtain it.
This leads Spidey and Kid Arachnid to face off with several Spider-Slayers of all sizes in the city. In the end, Smythe goes after the hero proving that he himself is the ‘Ultimate Spider-Slayer’. He tracks Pete’s genetic signature to ESU and attacks Dr. Connors. When Spider-Man arrives, Smythe obtains his blood and sends it to his employer before being defeated.
In the chaos, the stress causes Connors to transform into the Lizard and disappear into the sewers.
Peter runs into Gwen waiting for Flash in Central Park. She tells him that she left him because she blamed Spider-Man for the death of her father. Later she realized that it was never his fault. Peter acts confused but she says she knew he was Spidey. Why else would he always run off, get bruised and always get the best photos for the Bugle. Happy for each other, they arrange a double date at a café. It's a little awkward at first but it ends well.
Later Spidey calls Yuri Watanabe who was under Captain Stacy back in the day. She remembers him fondly and reassures the hero that his death was nothing more than a tragic accident.
Strange lizard-creatures starts to emerge from the sewers and cause problems.
Prof. Warren and Gwen finishes the ‘healing suit’, which unknown to her now includes Spidey’s DNA. Harry is cured and has a happy reunion with Peter and MJ at the Osborn penthouse. He will however need regular treatments at OsCorp with the suit to remain healthy.
Gwen secretly examines a sample of what she quickly learns functions like a symbiote. Very dangerous and very much alive. In addition to the OZ, it's made from something unidentifiable, living and alien. She meets Peter and tells him that she fears for Harry if he continues treatment.
Peter asks her for help to create an antiserum for the Lizard to which she agrees. Unknown to both a piece of the symbiote has stuck to Gwen and crawls to Peter during a hug. Wanting to be whole the symbiote controls Peter in his sleep. It makes him don his costume and brake into OsCorp. Here they absorb the rest of the symbiote and it becomes the black suit.
Peter becomes more powerful and freer than he’s ever been. Slowly he changes and becomes more aggressive each day, something that both MJ, Miles, Yuri and Flash notice. During this time, Gwen finishes the Lizard serum and Spidey and Kid Arachnid track down the Lizard in the sewers. He is mutating all the reptiles in the area with radiation to overrun Manhattan. They defeat him, inject him with Gwen’s serum and he reverts to his innocent human self.
Meanwhile, without the symbiote Harry is deteriorating. Norman is furious and when he sees Spider-Man wearing the black suit in the media he goes mad with hate and injects himself with the imperfect and unstable OZ. It’s painful but makes him stronger and sharpens his senses.
Some time later Spidey is ambushed by the Green Goblin and they have a brutal battle between the skyscrapers. In the end the ‘hero’ proves too strong for the flying villain.
Meanwhile, Miles Warren has studied a small sample of the symbiote kept separate from the rest. He discovers that it is very vulnerable to sonics.
After a heated argument with Mary Jane, Peter is cornered by Flash who tells him that he needs to get it together. Peter almost punches his friend but takes off after being stopped by MJ. She calls Kid Arachnid and tells him they've got a problem.
Miles faces Spider-Man and it escalates to a fight which ends with the younger needing a hospital bed after saying that May would have been ashamed of Peter. Peter is horrified by what he's done and tries to remove the suit but he can't. He contacts Gwen and meets her and Dr. Conners at ESU. Sadly, the symbiote has bonded too strongly to him and they can't get it off. In a fit of rage and desperation, Spidey thrashes the lab and swings off.
Warren creates a serum that will temporarily give the Goblin the ability to produce a sonic sound (which comes out as a laugh).
During their second battle, the Goblin uses this laugh to weaken the symbiote. When Peter realizes that the symbiote is weakening, he exposes himself to the sonic laugh despite great pain and rejects it hard. His face is exposed and the Goblin recognizes Peter as his son’s friend.
Here Peter has a battle with the symbiote within his own mind for control (similar to what happened in Spectacular Spider-Man). In the end Peter wins.
While Peter sheds the suit the Goblin completely separates them with a pumpkin bomb, sending the hero flying into the river.
At his penthouse, Norman gives the symbiote to Harry. He tells him that Peter Parker had stolen his cure and that he and Mary Jane were never his friends and only ever liked him for his money. Combined with the symbiote’s hate for Spider-Man’s rejection, Harry’s anger turns them into a big black monster with sharp teeth bent on destroying his former friends.
Peter apologizes to everyone especially Miles who's been discharged from the hospital. They forgive him.
Over the next few days, Peter returns to his normal life as both Peter and Spidey. Soon however he starts being stalked by a black menacing creature calling itself Venom. Venom (clearly the symbiote) knows everything about him and terrorizes him.
As Spidey, Peter asks Dr. Conners to help him create a sonic transmitter to use against the symbiote.
MJ tries to visit Harry at the penthouse but is blocked. On her way home, she calls Peter and tells him that something’s wrong. During the call, MJ is kidnapped and Venom comes to the phone. He dares Spidey to follow them and save his girlfriend.
Peter calls Miles whose powers have healed him up, to collect the sonic transmitter from ESU and bring it to him.
The webhead tracks Venom to an abandoned underground train station where they face off. Venom reveals himself as Harry and Spidey tries to reason with him, but to no avail. Venom defeats Spider-Man and is about to kill both him and Mary Jane when Kid Arachnid shows up in camouflage mode with the sonic transmitter and blasts him.
The sonics are amplified in the small space and the symbiote leaves Harry and disappears into the tunnels.
While all that is happening, Gwen is having doubts about her employers. She follows Warren to Norman’s secret lab. Here she finds evidence of several illegal doings including illegal human testing in an effort to find a cure for Harry. She steals some evidence not knowing that there's a surveillance camera.
Due to his long exposure to the symbiote, Harry’s body has now been completely and unexpectedly cured. His mind however is shattered and he is send to Ravencroft for treatment.
Gwen meets Peter and tells him all about Norman’s illegal experiments. He takes the evidence to pass on to Yuri. Gwen has also talked to Flash and they're both leaving the city and a new life.
Spidey tells Yuri that the Goblin must have been working for Norman Osborn since the symbiote made it’s way to Harry. However, they can't prove a connection.
Thanks to Gwen’s evidence, Yuri initiates a manhunt for Norman for illegal experiments and it makes headlines in the papers. The man himself seems to have vanished since his son was sent to Ravencroft. The same is true for Prof. Warren.
Some days later at Grand Central Station, Peter and MJ say goodbye to Gwen and Flash. Suddenly the roof explodes and the Green Goblin flies in laughing. He yells that he will have his revenge. There's a panic and people flee. In the chaos, Peter quickly changes to his costume while saving civilians. The crumbling roof falls toward Mary Jane and some bystanders but Spidey catches it the last second. While Spider-Man is distracted, the Goblin yells that he will take care of the snitch. He goes for Gwen and knocks Flash out of the way when he tries to protect her.
The Goblin laughingly grabs Gwen and flies off with her kicking and screaming. Spider-Man throws the fallen debris away and shoots a web at the villain’s glider and hangs on.
The Green Goblin takes them to the top of the Brooklyn Bridge. At some point during the fight the Goblin grabs Spidey by the neck and rips off his mask telling him that he want to look into his eyes as he dies. He will kill both Peter and Gwen for what they did to the Osborn family. Peter is being strangled when Gwen hits the villain from behind with a pipe. The sudden hit makes the Goblin drop Peter. Furious, he knocks Gwen over the bridge. Peter gasps for air but manages to temporarily blind the Goblin with web and shoot a line to save Gwen. It catches her but when he pulls her up, she's dead. (Whether it's from shock or the sudden stop isn't made clear.)
This causes Peter to experience a rage unknown to him since the death of Uncle Ben. He throws himself at the Goblin still on his glider. After a topsy-turvy flight full of kicks and punches, they crash into a warehouse. Spidey has the chance to kill his enemy but doesn't.
The Goblin tries to kill Peter one last time using his glider only to accidentally kill himself instead when Spidey jumps aside. Peter unmask the dead man and to his surprise, it's the father of his best friend and former mayor himself. He puts the mask back on and leaves while calling Yuri.
Days later Mary Jane writes the sad story of the former mayor gone crazy and killing a young woman as the Green Goblin after his son went insane.
The last cutscene shows the characters at Gwen’s funeral. Peter asks a brokenhearted Flash what he's going to do and he says that he's arranged for a transfer and will leave the States with his new military unit. Peter and MJ pay their respect to the graves of Aunt May and Uncle Ben before going home.
Post credit scene:
Miles Warren is in a lab. He puts on a black jackal mask and holds up a blonde hair. He says that with Spider-Man’s DNA, he just might have a chance to save his darling Gwen.
CHARACTERS:
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Peter Parker/Spider-Man (playable)
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Mary Jane Watson
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Miles Morales/Kid Arachnid (playable)
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Gwen Stacy (playable)
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Flash Thompson
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Norman Osborn/Green Goblin
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Harry Osborn/Venom
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Miles Warren/Jackal
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Yuri Watanabe
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Curt Conners/Lizard
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Alistair Smythe/Ultimate Spider-Slayer
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J. Jonah Jameson (podcast)
PLAYABLE CHARACTERS:
Throughout the game you play as three characters:
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Peter Parker/Spider-Man
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The main and primary character. He plays basically the same as in the first game until he gets the black suit. Then he is more powerful and can use symbiote based attacks.
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Miles Morales/Kid Arachnid
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As the second Spider-Man he has many of the same abilities. In addition he can use camouflage and venom blasts. He is very handy during stealth missions.
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Gwen Stacy
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Gwen is a scientist like Peter and parts of the story is told through her. She also conduct experiments and solves puzzles like those in the first game. She also gets to save Peter during the final boss. This version is very similar to the Emma Stone version. (She replaces Mary Jane as the third playable character.)
CHARACTER NOTES:
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Gwen Stacy: One major character missing from Spidey’s world in the first game was Gwen Stacy. Like in the Raimi movies Mary Jane is the girl-next-door love interest, although this time as a reporter. Therefore Gwen is introduced here as a former girlfriend of Peter’s and fellow scientist. That way they maintain their close relationship without turning it into a love triangle. The last part of the game is essentially an adaption of ‘The Night Gwen Stacy Died’.
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Flash Thompson: Another character not often featured in video games (if ever). Here, like in the comics, he’s a former jock and bully while also being Spidey’s biggest fan since high school. He's a soldier and a good friend to Peter. After being heartbroken by Gwen’s death he leaves the country for army work – opening the way for a potential Agent Venom storyline.
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Harry Osborn/Venom: Turning Harry Osborn into Venom over Eddie Brock isn't something I’d normally appreciate but it makes more sense within the story and was already teased in the post credit scene. As Venom, he (like Brock) stalks our hero and really gets under his skin. Essentially this is the classic Venom with a twist of Osborn.
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The symbiote is a mix of the regular and ultimate versions. It's created from a mix of OZ and an unknown living material from outer space.
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Norman Osborn/Green Goblin: The villain is created with the OZ formula but otherwise it's the ‘616' version of the character. As such he is very intelligent, strong, resourceful and maniacal. He wears a green and purple suit complete with a mask and uses pumpkin bombs and a glider. The sonic laugh used by the Goblin is usually exclusive to Phil Urich in the comics.
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Miles Warren: A master geneticist. He's in his 40’s and always wears a red suit. It's hinted throughout the game that Warren may have deeper feelings towards Gwen. When he becomes the Jackal in the post credit scene, he resembles the version from ‘Dead No More: The Clone Conspiracy’.
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Curt Connors/Lizard: A Jekyll/Hyde character who transforms during extreme stress. As the Lizard he mutates into a green reptile monster with it’s own agenda for the world.
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Alistair Smythe/Ultimate Spider-Slayer: A self-made cyborg and master robotics expert. In addition to smaller Slayers, the trio (Black Widow, Tarantula & Scorpion from 'Invasion of the Spider-Slayers') would also be featured as mini-bosses. Alistair himself would be a mix of his 90’s and modern looks.
STORY AND GAMEPLAY NOTES:
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The story is more personal for Spidey this time as most villains are someone he knows as Peter. The city is never in any major danger so it's more about the people in his life.
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The black suit provides new abilities and gameplay.
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It would be cool if Spidey could do the slingshot over the city and up walls for faster travel.
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There are four comic book villains in the main story (plus a Jackal cameo): the Spider-Slayers (several robots and Alistair Smythe), the Lizard, Green Goblin and Venom. (I wanted to avoid using any villains previously featured.)
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More enemies could be written in if necessary and others could appear in side missions like Black Cat, Tombstone etc. in the first game.
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Taskmaster and his challenges return
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J. Jonah Jameson would also return to do his podcasts.
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Of course, there would be street crime including new gangs and weapons to bring gameplay variety. They would also include the Lizard’s rampaging creatures and malfunctioning Spider-Slayers
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The post credit scene shows Warren becoming the Jackal and teases the cloning of Gwen. The idea is that the clone created with Spidey’s DNA could be Spider-Gwen. She could be a playable character in a later game.
NEW SIDE MISSIONS (or DLC) suggestions:
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Miles Morales must hunt down the Prowler only to discover that it's his own uncle under the mask.
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Someone is performing impossible thefts all over the city leaving very wet crime scenes. Spidey and Yuri track Hydro-Man to an abandoned ship where they face off with him.
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A scientist working secretly for Fisk have developed interdimensional portals. They are however unstable and pop up all over the city. The webslinger closes them before facing the Spot in his own dimension. (I recently read ASM #589 and thought that the Spot would be good for a side mission)
NEW PLACES:
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With the Venom fight and the hunt for Lizard you need to able to go into the underground railways and the sewers
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The Brooklyn Bridge would need to be accessible as well
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It would be cool if you could go to Liberty Island and Ellis Island maybe by jumping on a boat
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Explore Dr. Connors’ lab at ESU
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Explore and experiment at OsCorp with Gwen
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More Marvel references in the city like the Baxter Building and the Latverian Embassy
UNLOCKABLES:
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After completing the game you would unlock New Game + where you could play the whole game with previously obtained abilities and switching between Spider-Man (normal and symbiote) and Kid Arachnid at choice
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In addition to changing the time of day it would be cool if there were rain, thunder or maybe even snow available
NEW COSTUMES would be available throughout the game including:
Spider-Man (normal):
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Superior Spider-Man
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Spider-Man (Ben Reilly)
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Scarlet Spider (Kaine)
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Spider-Man Unlimited (TV show)
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TASM 1+2
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Raimi suit
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Spectacular Spider-Man TV
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Amazing Bag-Man
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Silver Spider armor from 90’s
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Peter Parker (civilian)
Spider-Man (symbiote):
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Exclusive black suit (part of story) - I assume Insomniac will create their own version of the suit
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Classic black Suit
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Spider-Man 3 black suit
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Spectacular Spider-Man TV (black)
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Superior Venom
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Spider-Carnage
Kid Arachnid:
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Classic Miles Spider-Man
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Miles homemade (Edge of the Spider-Verse)
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Standard from Edge of Spider-Verse
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Spidey with hoodie (Edge of the Spider-Verse)
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Miles Morales (civilian)
That's all for now. I hope you enjoyed it. It's the first time I've ever written something for a game, so I really hope people like it.
I have an idea for a third game involving Carnage, Agent Venom, the Jackal, Spider-Gwen and others.
Thanks for reading :)