Headscratchers / Spider-Man (PS4)

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Main game

• Considering how far Norman has gone in producing GR-27, would the ethical choice be to just pull the plug on Harry? He's been kept in stasis for at least a year, and no-one is likely to trust Oscorp after the whole Devil's Breath debacle.
  • It's his son. I think Norman has gone beyond ethics and wouldn't let a little legal snafu stop him.
• How and more importantly where did Peter Parker pick up his clearly-trained martial arts abilities in this game? Not only does Peter fight with clear, well-practiced and actual Real Life martial arts techniques, but the directors of the game have gone on record to state that this Peter is actually proficient in Capoeira and La Lucahdores Wrestling (in addition to the obvious self-taught Le Parkour Free Running).
  • In Ultimate Spider-Man, he was asked by a heroic Triad vigilante why he does not possess refined combat techniques, to which Peter answers “I would LIKE to not fight like a mental-patient; but if I go to a Dojo, with my strength I will definitely hurt people during training.” Ever the Nice Guy, Peter for the last 50 years refuses to learn martial arts so he would never worry about potentially hurting classmates. So, without a proper teacher, much less a Wu-Guan/Dojo/Gym with training partners to practice with, how the heck does Peter Parker in the PlayStation 4 Universe become such a precise, skilled and elegant martial artist trained in proper Capoeira and La Lucahdores wrestling and even a bit of boxing?
  • The only logical explanation is that he's either self-taught by watching instructional videos or has had one of his superpowered ilk teach him over the years.
  • In 616, Peter learns the Way of the Spider. PS4 Peter may have undergone some training from someone.
  • New York is a pretty diverse place, and Peter had already been Spider-Man for at least eight years when the game begins. That's plenty of time and opportunity to learn formal martial arts. Also, the PS4 game is in a distinctly different setting from Ultimate Spider-Man, so Ultimate Peter's motivations don't necessarily carry over to the game Peter.
  • There’s still the issue of Peter being physically stronger than even Captain America even as a beginner; 8 years or not, how is he going to make it to his first green-belt (the equivalent of a Karate yellow-belt in Capoeira) without sending classmates home in a body-cast with an imperfectly executed “Armada Pulada” (Jumping reverse roundhouse kick) that is his main attack in the game?
  • Because he's learned how to manually control how much strength he puts into his movements and actions? It's not hard, regular people do that all the time.
  • He likely learned from one of the Avengers, since they are confirmed to exist in this universe and you can even visit Avengers tower. Most likely from Captain America, who's both tough enough to take blows from Spidey and extremely skilled.
    • Another potential tutor could be Black Panther. He has similarly enhanced reflexes, agility and strength. Maybe Wakandan Martial Arts resembles Capoeira, while Peter was a wrestling fan and added the Luchadore stuff himself?
  • It's also possible that, like the Ultimate version, in this timeline Peter had a slightly longer career as a wrestler before Uncle Ben died and was able to pick up some tricks while he was there.
  • Clearly, he has a lot of control over how much strength he puts into any given motion. If he were naturally clumsy, he'd be breaking his phone and ripping his clothing all the time. Being as strong as he is didn't recalibrate what he thinks of as a "normal" amount of a strength, it just greatly increased the maximum force he's capable of using. He's much stronger, but he never has a moment of "not knowing his own strength."
  • The Silver Lining DLC clears up this mystery. Spider-Man tells Sable he learned to fight by watching movies.
• How can certain characters (i.e Mr. Negative, Taskmaster, Scorpion, Vulture, Doctor Octopus etc. take so many punches?
  • The vast majority of Spider-Man's villains either have superpowers themselves or are wearing armor that protects them to an extent. Doctor Octopus could be particularly resilient because his actual physical state is immaterial as long as he can maintain mental control of his artificial arms.
  • And/or Spidey is intentionally pulling punches and only over the course of the fight does he increase the amount of force until he finds the right amount of strength to use. After all, Spidey can, in most interpretations, lift around 10 tons. Even a 1/10th of that would be enough to seriously harm someone. And if one then asks why he doesn't go straight to that amount from the beginning, well… it's not easy to dial in that kind of precise effort if you're not doing it regularly so unless he's fighting the same villain daily, he's just not really able to gain that kind of precise knowledge.
    • After completing some of his challenges, Taskmaster specifically points out that Spider-Man is pulling his punches. Spider-Man points out he's not trying to kill people
• Why does Spider-Man's Spider-Sense not work during cutscenes? It should work at all times. And how is Silver Sable able to kind of defeat Spidey when as even a Badass Normal she should not be touching the guy who as a beginner could dodge bullets fired point blank at him.
  • Even in the comics, Spider-Sense doesn't always trigger. There are quite a few explanations for why that is, such as the Spider-Sense simply being overwhelmed because there's so much danger it can't pinpoint where a particular attack is coming from, the Spider-Sense being somehow disabled or affected (e.g. in the comics some villains like Mysterio used to have gas that could block it, and Venom is completely invisible to it), or Spider-Man himself is too distracted or weakened to notice or react to it. Heck, it might even be as simple as the Spider-Sense just not acknowledging something as a threat until it's too late.
  • When Silver Sable first confronts Spider-Man, she clearly takes him by surprise thanks to those restraints (you'll notice that following that cutscene, his Spider-Sense now acknowledges Sable's soldiers as threats, allowing him to dodge the restraints afterward). When they confront each other the second time, Sable uses the same acrobatic move Captain America does in the MCU Civil War to use Spidey's own webbing to knock him down. The third time, Spider-Man is busy trying to open a heavy security door and simply doesn't have time to respond to her charging at him and shoving her guns in his face.
  • It DOES work in Cutscenes. Watch his head. It shows the flash pretty consistently when he's surprised. He just misses the prompt in Cutscenes, same way YOU do pretty constantly in gameplay.
• The Oscorp exhibit at Grand Central Station putting actual live devices on display instead of mere props, without so much as a safety wire or a glass case protecting it. What was to stop anyone from simply grabbing the device and running away with presumably a very expensive machine?
  • No one except the local beat cops, and given the Demons take over the exhibit without any problems, this was likely an intentional plot point; Oscorp nearly dooms themselves thanks to their hubris and ineptitude.
  • Norman Osborn consistently fails to take basic, common sense safety measures (like not putting dangerous research labs in Manhattan). At a few points, people point this out, but he's too arrogant and unconcerned about others to take that to heart.
• During the Grand Central Terminal hostage situation, do we see any incoming passengers arrive only to find the gates are closed and there are masked criminals in the main area? I doubt the Demons were powerful enough to shut down all the trains coming into the station from elsewhere, so people would've gotten off at GCT, not knowing anything was wrong, and been blocked by the closed gates. Is this ever addressed?
• On a related note, the Demons placed the Devil's Breath amongst the hostages. Once they bolted, why didn't MJ swipe it to make sure the Demon's couldn't re-enable the bomb? Was it too cumbersome to carry?
• When the prisoners escape, why don't they ditch their orange jumpsuits for normal clothes as soon as possible? I'm willing to bet most of them aren't eager to be going back, so why are they making themselves easy to identify and recapture? All it would take is one robbery of a department store to have regular clothing and be able to blend back in to society.
  • Presumably because they'd also have to ditch the expensive guns that they picked up; even in civilian clothing, roaming New York with an assault rifle would draw attention from the police and Sable forces. And though the smart thing to do would be to just ditch the guns, they're wanted criminals in a city locked down by martial law and their faces and identities are known to the authorities - in their minds, the guns are the only thing that will give those authorities pause from stopping them.
  • Some probably did ditch their prison clothes and go to ground, instead of trying to take over the city. The cops and Spider-Man were too busy to hunt for them. This explains why crime remains high if you keep playing after the story ends.
• Why is Spider-Man the only hero saving New York? It makes sense at the beginning of the game when everything is going on behind the scenes, but after all of the prisoners escape and NYC turns into a war zone, with bioweapons and 6 dangerous supervillains on the loose, no one is there to help Spidey?
  • Would the game be any fun if the Avengers swooped in to save the day before you could? A more in-universe answer: the big time heroes are busy fighting HYDRA / an intergalactic threat / each other, the smaller time heroes living in New York are busy stopping the crimes and rounding up criminals that Spidey doesn't have time for offscreen.
  • Also, consider the particular limitations of most street-level heroes (Spidey being probably the top end of what a street-level hero can do, bridging the gap to Avenger level stuff) - people like Daredevil and Luke Cage can't move as fast as Spidey can across the city, for instance, and so while they might be around, it's likely that they're helping at a more local level and/or organizing as a support structure for Spidey where he takes the lead (off-screen) since he's the expert on the situation. After all, it's not like it'd be always practical to have a team meeting while a crisis is happening (this not being represented in the game comes down to problems with licensing, disc space, resource creation and sheer time and pacing).
• On a similar note to the above, why isn't the government sending in the military to restore order to the city? You can't let a city go to hell on that scale if you want to be respected as a legitimate authority.
  • Possibly Norman Osborn's insistence that he has the situation under control keeps the Governor/President from activating the National Guard. Legally, they might have the power, but as NYC mayor and politically active oligarch, Norman might be able to slow that down. After the Devil's Breath is released, the quarantine would keep everyone out, though the National Guard/Army might be enforcing it from the other side.
  • There's also another simple, but somewhat more unfortunate reason: Sable International is a stand-in for organized military forces. The game even specifically, at one point, tries to call parallels to Sable and PMC contractors used by the military overseas so the player can "get it" on some level, but needless to say Spidey having to straight-up fight the military, in New York City, would be problematic in America in 2018 on multiple levels and with multiple demographics. So Sable is used as a stand-in to make things more palatable, but it does introduce some logical holes if you think about it too hard.
  • Given that there are about a dozen NY National Guard units based in NYC, several of them in Manhattan, you'd think their officers would be making a public stink about not being permitted to protect their city while foreign nationals patrol the streets and routinely violate the public's civil rights in the process.
• That said: why the hell isn't there a much bigger Federal presence after the City Hall bombing, and with the Demons on the loose? Now, yes, this does have an answer (the need to keep the cast small enough to keep track of, and once again a non-desire to put Spidey at potential odds with actual government agents), but especially since the game is set in New York City, another terrorist act in NYC in The New '10s would result in the city being swarmed with Federal agents and authorities, and if things got any worse, really, the National Guard should be in force.
  • If I said it was Normie pulling a few strings (because he doesn't want the Feds looking too closely at the Demons or their relationship to his administration), would you buy it?
• Why, exactly, does this version of Norman Osborn have a beef with Spidey? While having a vigilante running around doesn't look great (since it says the police can't handle things), Spider-Man isn't a threat and shares many enemies with Osborn. JJJ has apparently been ranting against the Oscorp surveillance system and raising (very legit) concerns about Norman's use of his office to help Oscorp. Mr. Negative and the Demons are openly out to destroy Osborn. Doc Ock is similarly motivated by a vendetta against Norman. Despite this, Norman has the Sable Agents focus on Spider-Man rather than on the people trying to ruin and/or murder him. This seems personal and beyond just needing a scapegoat.
  • Norman is hiding secrets, like his part in creating the Devil's Breath, his role in turning Martin Li and Otto into supervillains, and hiding his son in a tank with a symbiote (although that last bit isn't immediately relevant) and Spidey was a convenient scapegoat for the shitfest in Manhattan. So Norman decides that by blaming Spidey, he gets to keep his own hands clean, and no one has to know about the shady shit he's doing.
  • Also, from a pure political sense, he might be fine with Spidey in private, but publically has to at least pretend to do something. At the heart, Spidey still is a vigilante and can potentially cause damage, at least to structures, which costs money. Can't be mayor if you don't get votes and I could imagine at least a little bit of a platform of "Spidey should at least be SOMEWHAT accountable" would grab enough votes.
• Where was the Shocker after Spider-Man arrested him? He’s not present at the Raft break-out (and Yuri confirmed that everyone at the Raft has already broken out) when he could’ve been a useful ally for Doctor Octopus, but he basically disappeared from the plot the moment Spider-Man arrested him.
  • Given how disturbed Shocker was by dealing with the Demons with now the entire city in a state of martial law with a paramilitary occupation force and an epidemic on the loose, not to mention Pragmatic Villainy had always been his shtick, it's likely Shocker left the city or laid low until the crisis was over.
  • It's also possible, considering how reluctant he was to be returning to his life of crime, that he just stayed in his cell to wait out his sentence.
  • It's specifically stated in-game, after Shocker is sent to the Raft, that he's being placed in protective custody. It's likely Peter informed the authorities that he was being threatened and coerced to rob the banks. He knows that if he leaves protective custody in the prison, it's very likely that the Demons will kill him. So it's in his best interest to stay put even if the prison is broken wide open.
• In the last act, Spider-Man is severely injured by Doctor Octopus to the point that he can't even walk, and it requires Dr. Michael, Silver Sable, and the people at F.E.A.S.T. to heal him up. The question is, how did they do all that without actually removing Spider-Man's costume to look at the wounds? He definitely received some nasty head blows when Doc Ock curb stomped him, so his head undoubtedly needs to be checked. I know, if they remove his mask, then everyone at F.E.A.S.T. would know Spider-Man's true identity, but still… how'd they manage to heal him back to a functional state without actually checking him up thoroughly?
  • Dr. Michael was the one who did the actual check-up, and in all honesty, he probably did get a look at his face and knows who he is. He leaves Spider-Man alone with May, with the implication that he realizes the two are related. As for why Dr. Michael didn't say anything, probably a combination of gratitude for Spidey saving his life earlier, and Doctor-Patient confidentiality, which is taken very seriously by medical professionals.
• "Need a date to the policeman's ball?" Are these actually a thing? 'Cause Yuri, when playing ball with Spidey's flirting, seems to indicate so. This is not a thing I have heard of. On a side note, I can totally picture Yuri taking Spidey to one just to fuck with her co-workers.
  • The New York City Police Foundation holds an annual Gala.
  • It's also an easy set up for Spider-Man's black and white suit.
• Peter is shocked to find that the villain at the end of one of the side missions is… Screwball! Okay. A) The plot of the mission was you taking "the Screwball Challenge", and B) She's been talking to you this entire time via phone. There should have been absolutely no mystery about who was behind this, Peter. Why are you surprised?
  • He seemed more surprised she was the 'hostage' than that it was her. Remember, he was under the impression the woman he'd be meeting at the end was an innocent woman taken hostage, not the villain doing the 'kidnapping'.
  • I was under the impression that Peter had no idea who Screwball is before. When you first take up a challenge, Spidey thought it was just a fun challenge until Screwball mentions that she 'kidnapped' a woman. If he has dealt with Screwball before, he would know that it was her the instant her voice comes up. So yeah, Peter had no idea who he's dealing with even if the title of the mission tells us so.
  • He has caller ID, so if he'd never had her number he could easily not know who it is. If you don't know them well or their voice, how often can you tell who you're talking to over the phone? Hell, Miles calls both Peter and Spider-Man at separate times in game and doesn't tell the difference.
• We all know that Jonah can be pretty ludicrous in blaming Spider-Man, but why exactly does he blame Spidey's takedown of Fisk for the rise in crime? The police had been mounting a case against him for however long by that point and were going to take him down one way or another. All Spidey did was stop him from getting away before it happened.
  • Simply put, the answer is in the name. J. Jonah Jameson HATES Spidey. Always has, always will. Anytime Spider-Man can be even remotely linked to anything bad going down, Jonah will find a way to put the blame on Spidey's shoulders.
  • Jameson actually gives a reason that makes sense; a power vacuum. Fisk ran a large ciminal empire with vast resources. With him out of the way, all manner of thugs and criminals would want to be the new bigshot. This includes the likes of the Maggia and Demons.
• A minor one, but why would Fisk go through the trouble of deleting his servers in the intro, and as importantly, why would the police extend themselves to try and stop him? I don't know law from the next guy, but whatever inculpatory evidence you have on your server probably doesn't matter when your paid goons are shooting at the police with military weaponry.
  • If you listen to some Enemy Chatter in his construction sites, they reveal Fisk fled the country last time he was nearly convicted and only returned after his lawyers found an out, but was still able to run his criminal empire from there. Stopping him from escaping was necessary and I imagine Yuri wanted to hedge her bets and get such overwelming evidence even someone with his claws as deep into things as Fisk didn't have any possibility of a loophole to escape through. A corrupt judge plus lawyer saying 'well there's no proof Fisk ordered his men to do that' might be able to at least get him a reduced sentence, getting as much proof as physically possible prevents him from getting Off on a Technicality. Keep in mind the DLC reveals Yuri's Arch-Enemy is the Maggia who thrive on doing just that, so it's completely in character to want to get as much proof as physically possible to make sure he can't weasel his way out.
• Peter mentions that he never managed to give his prototype spider-tracer a useful effective range. Okay... except that he's planted "tracking dots" on every single backpack he's left webbed up over the years, which we use to track them down now...
  • He's only able to track them using a city spanning crime detection network, which is why he heads to retrieve them now. It's likely their range really does suck and without literally being able to scan the entire city for the signals, that's why he lost all these backpacks in the first place.
• Why does Oscorp keep a live sample of the Devil's breath around? With all their tech, they could just store it digitally, on a massively secure, air-gapped server, and never have to worry about it somehow infecting anything, allowing them to do digital experiments till they perfect it as a cure and not a toxin. As opposed to, you know, having an easily stolen, live sample around?
  • Harry's diary states he's being prepped for treatment with Devil's Breath. Presumably, the live sample is somehow involved in that, or the destructive failings of it only became apparent in live tests on animals.
  • Could also be that re-building the sample would be expensive. It's still being worked on. Besides, it's sort of a massive plot point that anything having to deal with Harry's cure is sort of a massive obsession of Norman's that blinds him to safety/ethical concerns (like Martin Li's incident). It's perfectly in character for Norman to refuse to have the sample disposed if there might be delays to have it recreated when/if needed to save Harry.
• How does Screwball spontaneously get super powers allowing her to out-parkour Spider-Man?
  • Pretty clearly it's technology based.
• Why did they go with the name "Webbed Suit"? I get why they couldn't call it the "Raimi Suit" or the "Tobey Maguire Suit", I'm just wondering why they chose that name in particular.
  • It refers to the raised webbing on the suit.
  • They don't mention anything not directly comic or universe related. The Holland era suits are dubbed "Stealth" and "Upgraded" suits, not directly mentioning their movie or actor.
• Am I missing something that was stated about Ock's past? His hatred for Osborn all stems from how Osborn screwed him out of the money and prestige of their inventions, yet he keeps ranting about how taking Osborn out is The Needs of the Many, and the story and characters treat him pretty sympathetically, even though his motivations are purely selfish.
  • He never claims to be going after Norman because of The Needs of the Many, he and Martin simply say they want him to face justice. They also view his political corruption to be a blight on the city; perhaps in their own minds, this justifies their actions, but it's pretty clear their motivations are entirely selfish ones. The other characters and story only treat him sympathetically in that they know he started out as a good and brilliant man, who could have done great things for the world with his intellect, before his ideas were stolen by Norman, then he discovered he had a debilitating disease and the neural interface drove him insane. This is what motivates Peter to try and reach out to him at the start, but by the end of the story, Peter is severely disillusioned with him, disgusted at his waste of potential and has all but turned his back on him.
  • His motives are also based on jealousy, as he keeps trying to do things the "right" way, while Norman keeps getting away with his corrupt methods. Everything he did for Oscorp, and he was bought out for a relatively small amount of money and no claim to anything he might have done while there. Norman keeps rising, and he's stuck where he started or worse.
• If Doc Ock's prosthetics are some type of new technology, why does Scorpion possess a tail that seems to have the same attributes just as effectively?
  • Scorpion's tail is a weapon, not a prosthetic. It can hit, smash and sting really well, but it doesn't seem to be capable of the same finesse or fine motor control as Ock's tentacles. It'd be useless as the replacement for functioning hands that Doc Ock needs.
  • Hidden in plain sight before the Sinister Six are revealed, screens in the lab show the development of all the villains suits as Octavius worked on them, specifically Vulture's miniature jet engine and the injection tip of Scorpion's tail. Peter asks Electro where he got the new suit; it's not hard to think that Doc Ock made upgrades to all their suits prior to the breakout, and that Scorpion's tail has some aspects of the new prosthesis integrated in it.
• What is the purpose of the Anti-Ock suit? Peter claims he knows all the tentacles weaknesses and that the suit helps, but you fight Ock the same way you fight anyone. Dodge, web, punch. Throw shit back at him. There doesn't seem to be any weakness-exploiting going on.
  • Ock built his main suit, so right off the bat, this armor is not Ock's design. Secondly, it's just armored and likely reinforces key parts of his suit.
  • Depending on how much of the neural interface was incorporated, the new suit could also allow Peter to move as fast/faster than Doc's arms. He's beaten pretty bad by this point and is barely holding himself together. The suit, with its neural integration, could allow Peter to move easier helped by thought than by his own worn out muscles at that time.
• How exactly were the doctors able to treat Peter without taking off his suit?
  • By removing everything except his mask.
• Wait, when exactly did Mr. Li figure out that Peter Parker is Spider-Man? For he sure treated Peter as if he knew he was Spider-Man.
  Li: I'm sure you and May have nothing to worry about… as long as you stay away from places you're not supposed to be. [Later, sicks brainwashed homeless people on Peter]
  • He saw Peter coming out of an unused room, which was the exit to his hidden room. He knew Peter had been snooping.
    • I think he only knew about Peter snooping, but not that he was Spidey.
  • Replaying the game, it is clear that Mr. Li didn't know that Peter Parker and Spider-Man were the same person. When he traps Spider-Man in the Negative Realm, he mocks Spider-Man for not showing up, despite everyone at F.E.A.S.T. knowing Peter was there and him getting injuried trying to help. What Li DID know was Peter helping his girlfriend Mary Jane investigating his Demon Gang. As far as he knew and cared, the two of them were Nancy Drewing him independent of Spider-Man.
• Why does MJ's Spider Plushy have a white logo? Until shortly after the start of game, he wore the traditional suit with the black logo; how can there already be toys made resembling the new suit?
  • Because Insomniac is really proud of that Suit and treat it as canon whenever they can. The cutscene with Peter designing the suit only shows up the first time you play the game, as when you replay the game (and they hope with the Advanced Suit from the beginning and throughout), it just goes to the showing-off the suit cutscene. There are a handful of scenes after that where Spider-Man shows up on TV in cutscenes, and he is always in the Advanced Suit. Kind of the same thing with it showing up as a Plushie in a cutscene.
  • Maybe she bought it in the game store just north of the Empire State Building — if you look inside, you see a shelf of Spider-Man plushies with a distinctive white spider on the front.
  • The visit to MJ's apartment is quite late in the storyline and there are a couple of timeskips, at least 1 week after the city hall bombing, so there's some time for the plushie manufacturers to make the new design.
• Given that the fast travel is entirely based on the New York subway system (and entering them does open the fast travel menu), why aren't the subway stations fast travel points?
  • Because then, there would be like 50 of them. One per area is surely enough — the game is still about swinging after all.
  • They addressed this in the sequel. In Miles Morales, the fast travel locations are Subway stops and the animation shows him running up the steps after using it.
• Based on what you see if you watch an enemy fall after being knocked off a rooftop, it seems that the fail-safe Spidey uses to save them is based off of the trip mine. With this in mind, two questions come up. One: why could they be used before the trip mines were made available? And two: how could the fail-safe save the Sable guys in the armor that neutralizes all the Spider Gadgets?
  • In-game, if you Perfect Dodge an enemy that had anti-webbing ability, you could web them while their faces were covered. So maybe being in freefall for too long deactivates that suit ability?
• What did Martin Li and the Demons need all the money for? Much is made of the fact that the Demons are heisting everything and even sending Shocker to rob a bank because they need tons of cash. But their plan doesn't really need much money - the Devil's Breath and guns are stolen, the Demons aren't paying bribes, Li is converting people instead of hiring them, etc. The only thing they are shown buying is the armored vehicle thing from Tombstone's gang, and Li could easily afford that from his personal fortune.
  • Li has a personal fortune? I can't say about Shocker, but the demon gang don't actually need the money, they're just heisting everything to cause unrest, undermine law & order and cause mayhem to make the Mayor look bad when he can't stop them. There's also a certain amount of segregation between the main story and the side quests.
    • Li's character bio claims that he was a billionaire shipping magnate before he opened F.E.A.S.T..
  • Beyond causing chaos to discredit Osborn, initially the Demons are posing as a street gang taking advantage of the weakness of Fisk's gang now that their leader is in prison, both in order to acquire the weapons they would need for the real plan and to mislead the police, if Jefferson and Spider-Man had identified the Demons as what the really were, a Terrorist Organisation operating within a Major US city instead of the street gang they were pretending to be at first, the police response would've been faster and harder and the Demons may not have been able to act as they did later.
• When Li was exposed as the Demon's leader after the City Hall attack, why did no one tell Aunt May? You'd think she would be the first person the police talk to.
  • Li wasn't exposed after the city hall attacks. Only Spidey saw him and he only told MJ and Yuri. May clearly does know after the GCT attack though when Li is jailed.
    • Spidey doesn't see Li, Peter is knocked out. Miles sees Li during his stealth section. After watching the scene again, apparently the police don't believe that Li is responsible, but that still doesn't explain why Peter and MJ don't warn May.
    • Actually, when he's looking around just before the bombing, Peter did see Li, he just wasn't knocked out. Meanwhile, Miles actually didn't see Li, Li called out to his men from a distance and Miles was focused first on the guy about to kill him, then on his dad's corpse. After GCT, he specifically mentions contemplating quitting when he found out; if he'd seen Li, he'd never have agreed to work for F.E.A.S.T..
• How come Li doesn't also hold Ock responsible for his accident? He was working with Oscorp at the time, but instead Li not only works with Ock, but acts as a subordinate?
  • Norman is clearly the one pressing to test faster, as Octavius comes in too late to stop it. Before he went mad, Octavius was clearly the more empathetic of the two, so it stands to reason Li trusted Ock more and doesn't hold him to the level of Osborn, who was moving too fast.
• A large portion of the mystery could've been solved a lot faster if Mary Jane had done what she does in her two subsequent stealth missions, and taken pictures of the Devil's Breath file back at the art gallery. Then she'd've had the pictures and could've given up the file to the Demons without losing anything. I get it was for story pacing, but why not at least have her try and just find the file was corrupted later or her camera broken in the fight, rather than making her look dumb?
• How does doing the science lab missions not blow Peter's secret identity? He does them and is noticed doing them as Spider-Man as per JJJ's podcast. But Harry gave Peter the codes to the labs, and presumably he's making the case for keeping them as Peter. It wouldn't take much to put 2 and 2 together there.
  • The science labs were a pet project of Harry and his mother. Harry's mother is dead, and by the time the game opens, Harry is unconscious in suspended animation in Norman's lab. No one else knows that Harry sent the messages to Peter Parker, and if Harry wakes up in a sequel, then he probably will put 2 and 2 together.
    • I wouldn't be so sure, people have noticed that Spidey has been doing various odd jobs like chasing pigeons and swinging through smog, but certainly going by JJJ's podcasts they don't know the context, with JJJ speculating that he's chasing the pigeons to eat and swinging through smog to get high, and we don't even know for sure Peter's crediting himself at all or just logging the data at the research stations, certainly by the time Harry wakes up even if he takes the time to look through he reports from the research stations it's unlikely that he'll connect them to some odd activity from Spidey from months earlier at least that will probably have been buried both on Social Media and JJJ's podcast given all the larger events (Devil's Breath, Hammerhead, The Underground V Roxxon) that have occurred at the same time.
  • It's not uncommon for people to think there's some personal connection between Peter and Spidey, I remember at least once a villain (Rhino I believe) turning up at the Daily Bugle because he thought Peter might have a way to contact Spidey, since he's the only guy who can get a decent picture of him, and I think that, in the comics, he did at some point confess to making Spidey's gear, around the time of Horizion labs if my memory is correct. Even without the latter link it's possible anyone who realizes what Spidey was doing and is aware of Peter's connection simply assumed Spidey got a call from his old photographer about some minor crises that he could help with and, being Spidey, he quickly swung over.
• It's well established that webbing only lasts an hour or so before turning into powder, unless Peter loads specialized webfluid. How can there still be webbed-up backpacks from years ago? And don't go telling me that in this universe webbing lasts forever, because that is probably false.
  • In-universe: He must have used special long-lasting webbing. For some of the backpacks, he obviously intentionally left them there long-term (Sandman), but for most, he seemed to genuinely forget he'd left them there. The real answer is, of course, Gameplay and Story Segregation; the game wanted collectibles whether or not they make sense.
• Something about the gadgets that don't automatically refill doesn't make sense to me. The trip mines, web bomb, spider drones and suspension matrix make sense, they are all physical items Peter can only be carrying on his person and once he's thrown them they're gone. But the impact web is just a higher pressure web shot, so why can't that auto refill? I would mention the concussive blast and electric web but I'm not entirely sure where they stand, the concussive blast seems to just be a burst of compressed air or something similar but it may need some kind of ammo canister, and I don't know if there is something added to the electric web or if it's just electrified by the web shoot as it's launched.
• The Demon's masks have no eye holes and seem to be made of wood. How exactly do they see?
  • I am pretty sure there was a part of a cutscene when we had a first person shot from a Demon where Peter took of his mask, and he sure could see out from that.
    • True, but the times we get to actually inspect the masks the back appears to have no holes, and close ups of the demons during cut scenes there are no visible eye holes, that scene does exist, but it is the exception, not the rule.
• How do those whips work, real whips cannot wrap around someone and yank them out of the air.
• On the main page, it's mentioned somewhere that despite her claims, there are several crimes Screwball can be charged with from the main game sidequest, including reporting a false crime, namely her "kidnapping". Did she actually report that? The person is told that there is a kidnapping victim is Spider-Man, a vigilante. Unless we assume he called Yuri about it.
• What were the scientists developing GR-27 thinking, calling it "Devil's Breathe"? Although it functions as a bioweapon, it was developed with the intention of being a cure for Harry's disease and "Devil's Breathe" is not exactly the warm welcoming name you'd expect a cure to have. That would be like if a cure for cancer was discovered and it was called "Cthulhu's Spit" or a cure for diabetes was called "Venomous Bile" or something like that? Okay, those are terrible names but you get the point.
  • Presumably it got the name after seeing the sickness it causes.
  • It was also an in-lab nickname, basically a morbid inside joke, never intended to become public knowledge.
• How Long was Otto planning his actions? When Peter goes back to the Lab there are implications he’s been supplying weapons to other members of the Six for years, and he would have needed time to whip up that gear for them and do the research to make them the offers. Was he planning it for years or just since the City Hall bombing?
  • I don't think he was implied to be supplying the others for years, in fact Electro explicitly calls attention to his new suit, which he describes as a perk of his 'exclusive club', implying it is something he's just got in return for joining up with Otto, I think the implication is supposed to be, that rather than the neural interface, it is the electrocution that Otto suffers in the malfunction in the first scene is what caused his descent into darkness, with the neural interface only making things worse, given that over time we see him building parts of Electro, Scorpion and Rhino's gear in the lab, presumably he did research over the course of the game before making his offer, as to exactly how, I'm not sure, maybe he literally showed up at the raft in the breakout with their new gear and said "help me and you'll be rewarded."
• How can Spider-Man have so many backpacks webbed up around the city if his webbing only lasts for one hour?
  • How can ordinary thugs break Spidey's webs if he can use them to stop cars and hold up cranes? Unfortunately, the answer is, "it's a video game".
    • Alternately, he uses different settings on his webbings, having to use quicker 'blast' webbings, as opposed to the more string-like normal webbings. After all, he canonically has 'impact blast' webbings. Side effect of just webbing a little at a time is that there are openings to burst through.
    • When on a sidequest that temporarily disables his main, swinging-related web cartridges, Spidey's Web Zip still works and he exclaims that those cartridges are fine. Presumably, those webs can't withstand the twisting strain of swinging - in any case, using different cartridges for different purposes like that means he can switch between them very fast.
  • Various sources have had Spider-Man use webbing that lasts longer than the traditional hour; These backpacks could just be other examples of this.
    • The issue is the webbing is known to last for a few hours but these things lasted for years exposed to the elements. Seriously Peter is sitting on a gold mine if he's developed a material stronger then titanium, within the budget of a poor man, and is light as a feather. Oh, and it lasts for years.
    • It's implied the very reason Peter hasn't been able to make money off his web formula is specifically because he couldn't find a way to make it long-lasting.
    • There's also no way for Peter to patent the formula without outing himself as Spider-Man
  • Peter probably uses more durable web when leaving behind his personal belongings, just to prevent them from falling from the places he webs them to. After all, he doesn't know how long his heroics will take. And considering how many he has left forgotten around the city, those were probably some prolonged Spidey events.
  • The backpacks are also intended to double as mobile resupply points, even if some of them date to several years prior, so it stands to reason that Peter would make sure they're wrapped with the good stuff.
• How did Aunt May afford so many backpacks?
  • It's pointed out in one of the many backpack collectables that Peter won a science competition sponsored by Wilson Fisk, and one of the bonuses was a lifetime supply of backpacks (and a check he never cashed).
• Why wasn't Shocker part of the Six? He doesn't even have a station in Doc's evil lair, so it doesn't look like Otto even tried to get him to join.
  • Maybe after his second escape the police got a clue and took his suit apart instead of leaving it in one spot to be easily reclaimed.
  • The other supervillains recruited into the Six have personal vendettas against Osborn or Spider-Man, are promised something they really want by Otto, and are pretty viciously amoral. Mac is 'just' offered money and a clean criminal record but he's a complete Card-Carrying Villain who might well have contributed for free; the others are less broadly Ax-Crazy but either can accept or outright don't care about massive loss of life. Members of the Six whose grudges may be less important to them are counterbalanced by wanting something enough.
    • In contrast, Herman's motivations seem to be money and not getting killed by Mr. Li, and fight dialogue suggests that he and Spider-Man sometimes talk science. He's far from harmless but is still closer to a Punch-Clock Villain than any of the Six. It's very possible that if he was in on the whole scheme he would have at worst just escaped in the chaos, at best decided that Even Evil Has Standards. Otto couldn't control him with Revenge or greed and so just left him out of his plans. If he was let out in the general upset and escaped on his own then he probably decided to lie low until the plot was over.
  • Remember, Herman is the poster boy for Pragmatic Villainy; he only commits crimes for his own benefit, and avoids doing anything beyond bank robberies to avoid catching the attention of Punisher. Even if Otto had approached Herman, he'd likely have taken one look at Otto's plot that begins with an act of bio-terrorism and he'd immediately want nothing to do with it.
  • This is addressed in the game. After he's arrested and sent to the raft, Spider-man gets a message that Shocker is being placed in protective custody. At that point it is known he is being coerced, and Spidey figured out it was the Demons and told Yuri. Shocker KNOWS that if he leaves protective custody, the Demons will kill him. It's in his best interest to stay put, even if the prison is blown wide open.

The City that Never Sleeps DLC

• In Silver Lining, Peter's plan to catch Screwball is to ambush her at the subscriber milestone party and needs Miles to find the location when he eventually realized that she would only reveal the location to her subscribers. Why didn't he just subscribe himself, as Peter Parker? It would bring her 1 subscriber closer to her goal, so she'd throw the party and he'd have a window to track her down and, as she doesn't know who's behind the mask, it'd ensure she'd send him the location herself (if memory serves, the goal is 50 million + subscribers so it's not like it'd be a major risk to his secret ID). Honestly, it feels like they just wanted something to make you take time off the screwball plot line and give Miles something to do.
  • It's possible that he's concerned about her hacking him through his account, paranoid perhaps, but you can never be too careful, alternatively it's possible that he didn't want to indulge her, or even, if his social media account publicly displays his subscriptions, he might be embarrassed to be seen subscribing to Screwball's stream.
    • Furthermore it's possible Peter may be under scrutiny, given his role in developing Otto's arms, and he doesn't want to risk being seen to support Screwball's stream, given the illegal nature of her actions.
  • Alternatively it's possible he did they just didn't show it on screen.
• Have Spider-Man and Hammerhead met before in this continuity or not? I played the entire game but I couldn't find anything either confirming or denying whether Spidey knows him in any way besides by reputation.
• How was Oscorp able to make brand new weapon designs for Sable International? Does Osborne not know of export laws? Selling military hardware to foreign nationals without clearing it with the Department of Defense is a federal crime. The fact that a paramilitary unit based in a highly unstable Eastern European country, which recently occupied NYC and caused a major stink while doing so, is receiving munitions that have not been submitted for export approval from a company owned by the man who invited them into New York is inviting the FBI to come swarming all over Oscorp digging everywhere, assuming the whole bit about accidentally making a bioweapon through a reckless and inadequately monitored gene therapy project run in the middle of Manhattan didn't do that first.
  • Presumably it was manufactured during the Devil's Breath crisis, there may have been some loophole given Sable was in his employ.
  • For that matter do we know it wasn't cleared? The police make no reference to Oscorp acting illegally here, just that they had to keep the tech out of Hammerhead's hands.
• How exactly did a virus allow Screwball to block the use of Peter's gadgets?
  • Most of his gadgets are controlled remotely, including the system that rotates the wrist launchers to the new gadget. Her virus could intercept the activation signal, keeping them from being used.

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