The big highlight from Sony’s 2023 PlayStation showcase.
Right away, the most obvious visual improvement comes down to the building rendering.
Buildings were made with relatively simple, tiled textures with repeated detail.
It’s interactive in a way that we simply didn’t see in the prior titles.
Prior Spider-Man titles relied on screen-space reflections, even on PS5, so this is a definite upgrade.
They have the uniform appearance characteristic of rasterised shadows, and struggle slightly with fine geometric features at times.
Outside of that, the showcase footage does look very polished.
Beyond all the technical minutiae, I’m impressed with the Spider-Man 2 demo.
I really like that Insomniac has expanded Peter Parker’s abilities for this entry.
The symbiote powers look very tactile and satisfying, and each combat move is well-animated.
Insomniac has delivered three defining current-gen console experiences so far this generation.
For the studio to deliver another heavy-hitter three years into the console’s lifecycle is very impressive.
