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This page assumes that you've played Marvel's Spider-Man for the PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, or Microsoft Windows, and spoilers for its main story and The City that Never Sleeps DLC will be left unmarked. You have been warned.

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"...'A hero's just someone who doesn't give up.' Your dad said that. He was right. Now, it's your turn. Go be a hero, Miles."

Marvel's Spider-Man: Miles Morales is a Wide-Open Sandbox Superhero Action-Adventure video game, developed by Insomniac Games and published by Sony Interactive Entertainment under the PlayStation Studios imprint for the PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5 on November 12, 2020, just in time for the launch of the latter system. It serves as a Spin-Off to Marvel's Spider-Man and is the second entry in the Marvel's Spider-Man series.

As the title suggests, the game follows Miles Morales after the death of his father, police officer Jefferson Davis. When he wasn't busy saving New York as Spider-Man, Peter Parker helped Miles adjust to life without a dad, remembering the experience he faced after the death of Uncle Ben. This ultimately put Miles on the front lines when helping contain the Devil's Breath contagion as Spider-Man fought the Sinister Six, and as a result of a mutated spider biting him inside the community center where he was working, Miles gained spider-powers of his own.

After the coast was clear once again, Peter and Miles learned each other's secrets, and the older hero eventually agreed to help train his younger counterpart so he could get into the swing of becoming the second Spider-Man. However, not long after his training begins, Miles comes across a threat that he has to deal with on his own: a group of tech-based criminals have targeted a major energy corporation, and it's tearing Harlem apart. Miles takes it upon himself to stop the havoc before it completely devastates the part of New York that he calls home.

Insomniac has noted that the title is not a full sequel to Marvel's Spider-Man, but is instead a stand-alone expansion closer in size and scope to Naughty Dog's Uncharted: The Lost Legacy compared to the other Uncharted titles. As such, the narrative is focused more on expanding Miles' place in the setting rather than following up on Peter's story, which is followed up in Marvel's Spider-Man 2, released in 2023. (Peter does, however, factor into Miles' story in this game.) The Ultimate Edition of Miles Morales also comes bundled with a PS5 remaster of the original game. The remastered version was also released for Microsoft Windows on November 18, 2022.

Previews: Announcement Trailer, Gameplay Demo, Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse Suit Announcement.


Spider-Man: Miles Morales contains examples of:

  • Adaptational Badass:
    • The Rhino is generally treated as a B-level supervillain, bordering on C in the comics. With the increased intelligence from the previous game, this one is an unstoppable brute that can easily take two Spider-Men on at once. He actually defeats Spider-Man in a one-on-one fight, which he's almost never done and is only defeated by Miles due to the latter developing his Venom Blast.
    • Likewise, the comic book Tinkerer is an elderly man who makes weapons for other supervillains, rarely getting his own hands dirty. Compare this to the game's very different version of the character, who is not only younger (and a black woman), but fights on the frontlines with her tech.
  • Air-Dashing: The Venom Dash can be used while web-swinging across the skyline to launch Miles forward in the air, building up more mid-air speed even if you've flung yourself into an area with nothing to web onto.
  • All for Nothing: Discussed during the final battle. Krieger points out to the Tinkerer that even if her plan had worked properly and destroyed only Roxxon Plaza (rather than threatening to destroy all of Harlem), it wouldn't have actually accomplished anything; Krieger himself is safely hiding out in a bunker and won't die in the blast, and the fallout from the plan could easily be spun for for good publicity. Eventually, Krieger does get his comeuppance four weeks later, just like the Tinkerer wanted, but the vigilante inventor had nothing to do with it.
  • And Your Reward Is Clothes: Like in the previous game, several of Miles' suits are purely there for cosmetic flavor and offer no additional suit mods, such as the "Uptown Pride" suit, a gold-trimmed version of his classic suit he gets as a gift for completing all of the Friendly Neighborhood side missions.
  • Anti-Frustration Features:
    • Finishers are no longer tied to Focus, instead, Focus is used for Venom attacks as well as healing. This time, Finishers are stocked after getting high enough combos, with upgrades letting you up the amount of Finishers you can keep stocked, up to 3. This means you can save Focus for heals or Venom attacks while being able to take out enemies quickly much more easily.
    • Street crimes in the previous game were triggered completely randomly, which could be problematic when attempting to get tokens or go for 100% Completion. You can now use the FNSM App to make specific crimes appear whenever you want.
    • While using stealth to clear out the first wave of enemies in the first game's hideouts was fun, it was somewhat hampered by the fact that you'd be automatically detected and forced to properly fight the following waves of enemies no matter what. Also, once you were detected, it was difficult if not impossible to get back into stealth. In this game's hideouts, you stay in stealth after clearing out the first wave and can beat them without ever being detected.
    • Even accounting for the game's significantly shorter length, the new Benchmark requirements are much smaller and omit many of the more difficult or obscure benchmarks from the first game, making them much less repetitive.
  • Apathetic Citizens: Subverted. Despite smear campaigns by Jameson and Roxxon, Harlem welcomes its new Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man and calls out Roxxon when it turns on him. In the finale, several of the townsfolk catch a glimpse of Miles' unmasked face, but refuse to tell the news any of it, simply referring to him as "our Spider-Man" when they ask who he is.
  • Armor-Piercing Attack: Venom moves have the ability to shatter the Underground's armor (mainly consisting of gauntlets and shields) and damage them with normal punches and kicks that they would otherwise block.
  • Artistic License – Geography: The game mostly reuses the same map as the first game, as such it shares many of the first game's idiosyncrasies.
    • The game is set on Manhattan Island, and the broad geography (i.e. the Empire State Building is in the correct general area, as is Ellis Island) is accurate, but it makes numerous changes, while throwing in some additions (i.e. The Raft, Fisk and Oscorp buildings, Avengers Tower, Sanctum Sanctorum):
    • The buildings are proportionally much smaller and more compressed than the real things and some of the streets are much wider, probably due to accommodating street battles and other gameplay events. The map ends with Harlem rather than going further uptown all the way to Washington Heights. Likewise, within the city the geography is shortened by omitting non-landmark blocks — for instance, one block is marked 15th Street, while the next one is 23rd, skipping everything from 16th to 22nd.
    • The game features an elevated railway which disappeared in Manhattan in The '50s. Its inclusion here is an homage to Spider-Man 2 and not reality.
    • The game does feature a number of real-life New York architectural landmarks like the Empire State Building and the Flatiron Building, but many real locations are under copyright and need license for reproduction, necessitating a few tweaks. For instance, the Freedom Tower is altered and unnamed within the game. In addition, a number of other iconic and significant New York landmarks are missing from the game (most notably the giant Metropolitan Museum of Art, which is replaced with some fictitious museum) while Marvel stand-ins substitute for others. For instance, Trump Tower isn't where it's supposed to be, but the Rand Building is standing there.
    • In a diversion from the original, the Chrysler Building is no longer present, likely due to licensing issue as the real building has changed ownership in-between the two games.
  • Artistic License – Law: You can't build a power plant without Department of Energy approval. Which involves providing the DOE with plans so they can confirm that it's a safe design that meets various regulatory requirements. As a result, it should not be possible to legally build full-scale Nuform plants without the government being given access to enough information about Nuform to make its own studies into whether or not it is safe. If nothing else, the Nuform shipment truck did not meet the federal EHS requirements for transporting volatiles, as it was not labelled as carrying explosives, and the interior was not set up to prevent sparks (or, given that Nuform is set off by an electric charge, current) from reaching the volatiles.
  • Artistic License – Law Enforcement:
    • At the beginning of the game, the police operate an Osprey-like VTOL carrying a reinforced container, holding Rhino inside. While this normally wouldn't be an issue, the one they are piloting is equipped with a chin-mounted Gatling gun, one that would never be issued to a civilian law enforcement for obvious reasons.
    • There's no reason that Jefferson Davis would have been allowed to keep case files in his home, and he definitely would not be permitted to give his family access to said case files. Furthermore, the files he took home are about his brother Aaron, AKA the Prowler, which he shouldn't have any access to in the first place on the basis of it being conflict of interest.
    • Corporate security forces may have the authority to protect the corporation that employs them, but their mandate stops at the property line. The police should never have allowed them to cruise the streets with heavily armed stormtroopers in APCs, or to set up shop on rooftops taking shots at passing vigilantes with rocket launchers (regardless of their feelings about Spider-Man the younger, the collateral damage should they miss would be unacceptable), unless they received some sort of official mandate from city hall (which would be politically suicidal after how Sable botched theirs only a few months previously).
  • Artistic License – Politics: Rio's City Council race is kind of odd. It's referred to as a special election, which explains why it's being held in December around Christmas time. But media coverage explicitly refers to Rio's campaign against "the incumbent" (who is never named), and special elections only occur when there's a vacancy in a city office. There's also no mention of party affiliation for any candidate (presumably everyone involved is a Democrat, considering the overwhelmingly Democratic tint of New York City in general and Harlem in particular).
  • Art Shift:
    • The Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse Suit Announcement trailer shows that one of Miles' costumes is his suit from Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, which is not only as cartoonishly-stylized as it is in the film, it's (thanks to a suit mod) even animated "on twos" like in the film. This gives Miles in that suit an appearance of running at a lower frame rate (although a player can turn this off if they want).
    • Similarly, there's a suit Miles can wear based off his appearance in Ultimate Spider-Man (2012).
  • Asshole Victim: Phin/Tinkerer nearly kills a defeated Rhino in cold blood, with the only thing saving Rhino being Miles' interference. Was it unnecessary and wrong? Maybe. But after all the destruction Rhino causes throughout the game and the way he actively taunted Phin about her brother's death, it's honestly hard to feel bad for him.
  • An Ass-Kicking Christmas: Downplayed; the whole of the game is set during the holiday season, with Manhattan covered in snow and festive decorations everywhere, but the story starts on Christmas Eve and most of the plot occurs after the holiday itself.
  • Awesomeness by Analysis: Aaron easily deduced Miles was the new Spider-Man just by watching the news footage of him fighting the escaped convicts, recognizing Miles' moves as the one he used back when he played pick-up with his dad and uncle.
  • Bait-and-Switch:
    • The opening of the game sees Peter and Miles going toe-to-toe with the recently-escaped Rhino, during which Peter gets pretty badly banged up. It seems that this is going to be where Peter meets his end in a manner similar to his Ultimate and Spider-Verse counterparts, but in a fortunate twist of events he survives, with Miles managing to take out Rhino before he can finish the job.
    • The game makes you think that Peter's gift to Miles before he leaves for Europe would be his signature black and red suit which he wears for the rest of the game. However, it's revealed to be a more simplified version of Peter's own suit as well as an upgraded version of Miles' Halloween Spider-Man suit from his first appearance in Ultimate Marvel.
  • Be Yourself: It happens to be the name of the Platinum trophy, and the ultimate Central Theme of the game. The entire story is about Miles coming to terms with being Spider-Man, as well as his own man who isn't just "another Peter Parker" as a superhero.
  • Big Applesauce: The story takes place entirely in New York, with a special focus on Harlem, where Miles moves to after the events of the first game. In it, Miles runs into everything from ridiculously well-armed private security forces, the shady and equally well-armed Underground, and some of Spider-Man's familiar rogues like Rhino.
  • Big Guy Rodeo: Peter Parker spends most of the tutorial attempting to wrangle the Rhino by climbing all over his back and shooting webs at him. After learning the basics of combat and webslinging, the player joins the action and controls Miles as he grapples onto Rhino's back as the massive man rampages through a shopping mall.
  • Bilingual Bonus: The Morales family can speak Spanish. Rio in particular peppers her speech with Spanish sentences, owing to her Puerto Rican ancestry.
  • Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Simon Krieger seems like a nice and understanding guy, if overly enthusiastic, when he first meets Peter and Miles after they defeat Rhino, telling them his private security will take care of turning Rhino over to the cops and that they don't have to worry about the damages Rhino did to Roxxon's power plant. He is actually a ruthless and sociopathic Corrupt Corporate Executive who is working to churn out a clean energy source that is really horrifically toxic, murdered Rick Mason for trying to stop him, hires Rhino as an enforcer rather than turning over to the authorities, and is perfectly willing to torture Miles to force information out of Phin.
  • Bittersweet Ending: Although Harlem was successfully saved and Simon Krieger has to face the consequences of his cavalier attitude towards public safety, Phin never lived to see her brother be avenged. Aaron Davis, the linchpin in finally putting Krieger down, is also going to jail due to his complicity in those crimes but at least his testimony will spare him a long sentence. Meanwhile Harry Osborn and Venom are awake against Curt Connors' advice, and Miles has learned some harsh lessons about what life as a superhero is like. However Aaron is on his way to mending bridges with his estranged family and Miles is truly becoming a friendly neighborhood Spider-Man as himself.
  • Bookends:
    • When Miles first develops his signature suit, he's shown running up a skyscraper. Phin carries him up the same way to get him high enough to safely release the devastating amounts of energy he absorbed from the Nuform reactor.
    • The game begins and ends with Miles and Peter teaming up and web-slinging after a police vehicle, and with one of the Spider-Men drinking a coffee while upside down before declaring "Go time". At the start of the game, it's Peter. At the end it's Miles, symbolizing how he's grown into his role as Spider-Man.
    • In the beginning, when we first get to see Miles' home life, it starts with him having just moved into Harlem and being unsure about the neighborhood even though his mother grew up there, if not annoyed that they left their old home behind. At the very end, after the player completes the scavenger hunt Rio assembled for Miles out of messages from Jefferson, which took him all over the city to places important to Miles and his father, you will end up right back in the same neighborhood park that — by that point — you and Miles will have saved many times over, surrounded by the people who have accepted him. The last line of dialogue Miles has — potentially in the entire game, unless the player didn't do the side missions — will be him realizing his mother was right, and that the neighborhood is beautiful.
    • One of the first things Miles does after getting off the subway in Harlem is talk to a guy painting a Spider-Man mural about the possibility of him putting the other Spider-Man on it. In the final story cutscene, you can see that they did indeed decide to make that change after the events of the game.
  • Boss Banter: All of the bosses you fight throughout the game have quite a bit to say to Miles. If you die, you have to listen to them say it all again when you respawn.
    • The Rhino trades a lot of quips with Peter Parker for the first half of his encounter, but once he takes on Miles solo, he gets more serious and demeaning towards this unfamiliar foe.
    • The Rhino gets even more wordy and dramatic with his threats in his second encounter, especially since he has some shiny new upgrades to brag about. When someone comments on how over-the-top his insults are, Miles just says its a Russian thing.
    • The Prowler's boss dialogue is less confrontational than most other bosses, which is fitting given he's the hero's uncle. Instead, his boss dialogue consists of pleas and orders for Miles to surrender and give up being a hero before he gets himself killed.
    • The final boss gives a lengthy Motive Rant and follows up with a few rebuttals to Miles' quips and criticisms, culminating in stating outright that the boss just doesn't trust what Miles says.
    • Played for Laughs in the last training simulation Peter leaves for Miles. Peter voices all the holograms in the last challenge with the most over-the-top impression of a villain you can think of, which Miles finds pretty amusing.
  • Boss-Only Level: "Thicker Than Blood" is the only mission in the game to consist of a fight against a single enemy: the Prowler, uncle of Miles Morales.
  • Bread, Eggs, Breaded Eggs: Ganke looking for cleaning materials in Miles' apartment.
    Ganke: Bleached borax... borax with bleach... boraxed bleach. Hey, do you guys have any regular bleach bleach?
  • Brick Joke: During the prologue, Miles asks Peter how he can drink coffee while hanging upside-down. Peter responds "very, very carefully." Later, while designing his Classic Suit, Miles attempts the same thing, and ends up choking and spilling his drink everywhere. In the ending, Miles manages to pull this off.
  • Brush-Off Walk-Off:
    Aaron/Prowler: I know I messed up. I let you down. But we're family!
    'Miles: "Family"?! That didn't stop you from lying to me! Manipulating me! Fighting me! Being "family" isn't enough anymore!
    'Aaron: (collapsing his helmet to reveal his face) Doesn't have to end like this. You, me, hating each other. That's how it happened between me and your dad! I don't wanna repeat that.
    'Miles: I don't want that, either. But I can't be the person you wanna turn me into. I can't turn my back when people need me! (walks away) I have to be better than that.
  • Buffy Speak: When an EMT asks for help finding his stolen car, Miles asks if he has the key fob.
    EMT: You mean the beep boop unlock thing?
  • Bullying a Dragon: While admittedly no slouch himself, Rhino decides it's a great idea to taunt the Tinkerer about her brother's death mere seconds after he just got beaten up by her and Miles. The Tinkerer stabs him for his troubles, and Rhino only survives because Miles pushes away the Tinkerer before she can finish the job.
  • Call-Back:
    • While facing off against Rhino alone in the generator room, Miles, knowing full well the guy has no idea who he is, teases him by remarking that the whole pursuit through the city has felt sort of like a wild goose chase. Bewildered and furious, Rhino can only shout, "I HATE CHASE OF GOOSE!" Similarly, a trophy for defeating Rhino is called "Exploding Bulldozer".
    • The side mission where Miles tracks goods stolen from local Harlem businesses leads him back to the same docks where he encountered Rhino in the previous game. If you discover the Underground Cache, which is located in one of the crates he hid in, Miles will make note of this.
    • Immediately after Miles puts on the new costume, a new Just the Facts with JJJ episode queues up, because all of Peter's spider-suits are tuned to Jameson's feed. Not as much of a masochist as Peter, Miles tunes it to "something better" a few seconds in.
    • The Underground is hiding out in Wilson Fisk's now-abandoned office building, the same one that Peter infiltrated in the Batman Cold Open of the first game. It is also mentioned that they've acquired a lot of their resources and territory by picking off the remnants of Mister Negative's Demons gang.
    • While trying to escape Roxxon Tower, Miles finds a computer with three unidentified faces. Two of them are identified as the Black Cat, who went straight(-ish), and Tombstone, who was taken out.
  • Call-Forward: During a flashback to Miles and Phin attempting to see their exhibit in the science museum, Miles bumps into Peter Parker and Otto Octavius, visiting the museum before Octavius's descent into villainy. The two talk about concepts for their prosthetic research, based on a programmable shape metal being displayed at the museum. Octavius warns Peter that the idea could blow out their power grid at the lab. This ends up happening during an early visit to the lab in the first game.
  • The Cameo: During a late game flashback to the Science Expo at OsCorp that Miles and Phin participated in, Miles has a run in with Peter and Otto Octavius. The Flashback takes place about a year or two before the events of the first game so this was when Peter was still working as a Lab Assistant for Otto. If you listen to their conversation you can pick up that one of the exhibits is what gives Otto the inspiration to design his Prosthetics Octopus Limbs.
  • Chekhov's Gun:
    • Miles and Phin's old science project that got into the OsCorp museum. It turns out to be a key component in Phin/Tinkerer's plan to blow up Roxxon Plaza.
    • Miles discovers pretty early on that he can absorb bioelectrical energy and explosively release it in a massive Venom Strike. Guess how he stops the Nuform reactor from melting down in the finale?
  • Chekhov's Gunman: Rhino seems to serve no role other than being the Starter Villain Peter and Miles take on during the Batman Cold Open. Then he turns up again by ambushing Miles at Trinity Church right as he's about to potentially talk Tinkerer down, having become Simon Krieger's new Psycho for Hire.
  • Clothing Damage: The trailer shows Miles' spider-suit disintegrating as he uses the full power of his Venom Strike. This actually happens in the ending, as Miles absorbs the power of the Nuform reactor to prevent it from destroying Harlem.
  • Cold-Blooded Torture: A bunch of goons torture Miles with shock batons to try and press Tinkerer into revealing where the Nuform canister she stole is. It backfires horribly, as Miles' powers allow him to simply absorb the electrical energy from the baton strikes and unleash a massively overcharged Venom Strike on the unlucky Mooks.
  • Collection Sidequest: There are several collectibles you can find throughout New York City any time you're free to traverse the overworld. Collecting them gives you tokens that you can use to upgrade your stuff, just like in the first game.
    • As soon as you encounter the Underground, you can collect Underground Cachces. The gimmick here is that the world map only gives you the approximate location of the cache, so you have to scour around a 100 meter or so area looking for where the box of goodies is hiding. The Underground will also occasionally have one of their goons ambush you right after you open the cache.
    • The second collectible are Time Capsules which have items significant to Miles and his old friend Phin. Each capsule is generally buried or otherwise hidden in some way that requires some puzzle solving to retrieve it. Unlocking each includes a little monologue from Miles about the story behind them, giving more insight into his friendship with Phin.
    • In the second half of the game, Aaron Davis has Miles go out and recollect audio samples from around the city that he and Jefferson used to gather for their music. Upon finding each auditory match, Aaron describes to Miles the falling out between him and Jefferson during his criminal days.
    • After completing the story, Rio sets Miles out on a postcard scavanger hunt for his birthday, which was set up by Jefferson before his death. Each postcard comes with a USB message from Jefferson as he recalls various memories around the city and acts as closure for Miles to hear his father's voice one more time.
  • Combo Platter Powers: Miles has all of Peter's powers, super-strength, durability, agility, wall-crawling, plus a few of his own, like the ability to absorb and emit electricity and the ability to turn invisible.
  • Contrasting Sequel Antagonist:
    • Where Doctor Octopus became so consumed by his vendetta that he didn't care about the innocent people who would be killed by the virus so long as he destroyed Norman Osborn, Phin Mason ultimately accepts Miles' pleas that innocent people will die in her plan and sacrifices herself to stop the unintended consequences of her sabotage.
    • The motivations for Roxxon are distressingly mundane. They've developed an unsafe product and are continuing to market it because they have already invested too much money in its promotion. It's a far cry from the Revenge scheme of Doctor Octopus and Mr. Negative in the first game.
  • Contrasting Sequel Main Character: While Peter was an Experienced Protagonist by the time the previous game started, having been Spider-Man for 8 years, in this game Miles is just starting out.
  • Continuity Nod: Gloria, the homeless woman Peter rescued and directed to find help at F.E.A.S.T. in a minor side quest at the beginning of the first game, had gotten her life back together by the post-game. And if you spoke to her, she mentioned she'd been made manager at F.E.A.S.T. due to how she helped during the Devil Breath's crisis. Come this game, she can be found managing F.E.A.S.T.'s Harlem branch, looking much better and has a girlfriend to boot.
  • Corralling Vacuum: The Gravity Well gadget is a bomb that implodes, sucking every enemy nearby it into the same spot. This causes them to collide into each other and fall over on the ground, leaving them scrambling on the floor long enough for Miles to easily follow up with a Venom Smash or a barrage of web gadgets.
  • Creator Cameo: While Miles steers Rhino through a mall at the beginning of the game, Rhino uses Insomniac Games's logo as a handhold when he jumps from one side of the mall to another. This happens around the same time as Miles asks him if he has any non-destructive hobbies.
  • Crucified Hero Shot: Wouldn't be a Spider-Man game without it. Miles ends up doing this when he webs two sections of a bridge together while trying to rescue civilians after the bridge gets badly damaged during a fight with the Underground.
  • Damage-Increasing Debuff: Enemies hit by Miles's Venom Blast attacks will take increased damage for a short period of time.
  • Damn You, Muscle Memory!: Players who jump into this after Spider-Man (PS4) might get slightly frustrated when they try to activate moves like the Spin Cycle or the Point Boost, unaware that you need to accomplish certain side missions in order to unlock them. They might also run into similar problems when they web up a brute expecting to Web Throw them only to stagger them instead. On the flip side, they might forget that Miles has access to Venom moves and invisibility, thus giving Miles more effective options for crowd control and stealth respectively.
  • Death as Game Mechanic: The Bio-Electric Instincts perk gives Miles a Death-Activated Superpower where any time he dies, he explodes in a Venom Blast and regains full-health.
  • Deducing the Secret Identity: Miles is tasked with helping out his Uncle Aaron with the sabotaged subway system. Miles tries disguising his voice by changing his inflections as Spider-Man, though Aaron is a little suspicious and wonders if they've met before, to which Miles denies. After the mission is over, Aaron gives Spider-Man a free subway pass that has Miles Morales' name written on it. Aaron reveals afterwards that he was watching him fight on TV, explaining he figured it out due to Spider-Man's movements being extremely similar to Miles' own.
  • Developer's Foresight:
    • If Miles fails to save the baby in the mall while riding Rhino's back, Peter will swoop in and move the baby carriage out of the way.
    • The dialogue of the phone call between Miles and Uncle Aaron, while the former travels to the Braithwaite Bridge explosion, is dependent on whether or not Miles interacts with Aaron before Rio's campaign rally.
    • In the final battle, if Miles even happens to be outside the battle arena, the final boss will pull him back to stop him from interfering with their dastardly plan. Similarly, if Miles knocks the boss out of the fighting area, they'll swoop back in using their tech and notes that Spider-Man can't get rid of them that easily.
    • When Miles wears one of the suits with a helmet instead of a mask, the characters' hands will change to be holding it, or going to grip it instead of holding the mask in cutscenes. The suits with hoods also have them pulled down during cutscenes where he takes off his mask.
    • When Ganke talks about getting in touch with Hailey, ordinarily, Ganke will ask how Miles' ASL is. But if Miles spoke to her before the rally, Ganke will note that he's met her before and omit his question.
    • If Miles meets up with Hailey during the final Spider-Man app mission before doing the "Can I Get a Photo?" request, Hailey's dialogue changes; she mentions that she has a friend that would like to take a picture with Spider-Man.
  • Diegetic Interface: The menu for crimes to stop and sidequests to complete in the city is actually an app where people request Spider-Man's help in-universe.
  • Die or Fly: Miles discovers his Camouflage power just in time to escape when a Roxxon squad is about to shoot him.
  • Divergent Character Evolution:
    • Miles plays slightly differently than Peter does. His basic kicks and punches feel less powerful than Peter Parker's. He is more countered by enemies with weapons or shield who have an easier time parrying him than similar enemies did Peter. However his Venom strikes give him super moves to make up for that. Miles also uses far less gadgets than Peter does, in particular not having any of Peter's other web-based gadgets than the basic web-shooters. Miles' camouflage gives him a greater edge in stealth over Peter. This extends to web-slinging: Miles movements are more erratic and varied than Peter's, who are more graceful, as befitting him being more experienced at this.
    • Also, from a character's animation standpoint, Miles wildly flings himself through the air when web-slinging and has a little wobble when landing on a ledge, while Peter is controlled in the air and smooth on the landings, directly contrasting the newest Spider-Man with the experienced one.
  • Does This Remind You of Anything?: The end to the scene of the bridge collapse. Roxxon security mooks hold Miles at gunpoint to the protest of those he saved and one of them even takes out her phone threatening to record their actions, which one of the mooks reacts to with much hostility.
  • Don't Tell Mama: Throughout the game, Miles lies about where he is to cover up his superhero activities while calling his mom to avoid worrying her. By the end of the game, he admits that he was at least a little worried that she'd hate him if she found out he'd been lying to her about being Spider-Man. Rio quickly dispels this notion, as while she's shocked to learn that her son is the new Spider-Man, she tells him that she'll always love him and that she only wants him to be safe.
  • Double Jump: A new aspect of the web-swinging system is that Miles can use his Venom Jump power to make a massive leap mid-air without losing forward momentum. This allows the player to either use the extra time before they hit to ground to dive down to build up speed, perform more Air Tricks to build up more Venom and experience, or both.
  • Double Standard:
    • Miles was upset with the two bosses he encountered in the game due to their actions; he treated the Prowler with more disdain than the Tinkerer. After beating the Prowler, Miles refuses to forgive him and disowns him as family until the Prowler has a heroic moment. However, when fighting the Tinkerer, Miles tries to convince her that they are family and forgives her immediately after defeating her, mainly because of her Heel Realization. This was even though Phin, the Tinkerer, has been distrustful of Miles and had placed more blame on him, even though some of her actions were her own fault. She even threatened to kill Miles during the climax. On the other hand, Aaron, despite his selfishness, was willing to listen to Miles and is genuinely remorseful for his wrongdoings that caused him to become estranged from his family. Moreover, Phin's plan caused more destruction to Harlem than any heist Aaron had ever participated in throughout his time as the Prowler in the entirety of New York. This was justified when it became clear that Aaron's misguided attempts to protect Miles did more harm than good. It ruined his nephew's chance to resolve the conflict with Phin peacefully and endangered the lives of their friends and family in Harlem. Trying to lock Miles away at such a crucial moment was not a wise decision and could have resulted in the destruction of Harlem and its people.
    • Jameson gave a number of fairly justified rants about having a PMC running around Manhattan with military hardware in the previous game, but never says anything against a power company doing something similar in this one, despite Sable at least had a fig leaf of legality to be shooting at things with APC-mounted guns and bazookas through their contract with Osborn while Roxxon does not.
  • Drone Deployer: Miles can fire a projector from his web-shooter that creates a yellow Hard Light hologram in the vague shape of a man. This Holo-Drone will punch the enemy that is closest for as long as it remains (which is only a minute or even shorter if enemies do enough damage to the drone).
  • Due to the Dead: After completing the story, the first scene before the post game starts ishows Miles placing the science fair trophy he and Phin won on top of Trinity Church, saying one last goodbye to his friend.
  • Dual Boss: Peter's final training challenge for Miles is a fight against a hologram Vulture, and then two hologram Vultures at once.
  • Either "World Domination", or Something About Bananas: Peter calls from Symkaria following the fight at Braithwaite Bridge, saying he saw the news but since it was in Symkarian he wasn't sure if a bridge got destroyed or "a bagel got fumigated."
  • Evil Laugh Turned Coughing Fit: There's a series of sidequests where Miles has to complete some holographic challenges that Peter left behind for him. Once you complete those, however, Peter says he has one last challenge waiting and tries end his declaration ominously, only to gag on the laugh and lampshade that they aren't as easy as they seem. Miles tries it for himself immediately afterwards, only for the exact same result, leaving him curious on whether or not people take classes on those.
  • Evil vs. Evil: The main thrust of the plot is a war breaking out between the Underground (a high-tech criminal army) and Roxxon (a ruthless MegaCorp), with Spider-Man caught in the middle.
    • And it's implied that the Underground fought the Demons to obtain their gear.
  • Fantasy Landmark Equivalent: The game contains a generic skyscraper in place of the Chrysler Building; it's been speculated that Insomniac got Screwed by the Lawyers on this, as in between the development of Spider-Man (PS4) and this, the Chrysler Building changed owners, and it's likely more payment was demanded in order to use the Chrysler's likeness.
  • Final-Exam Boss: The Tinkerer incorporates the moves of many Underground Mooks into her moveset alongside new attacks, requiring you to use the same methods for dealing with her.
  • Finger Poke of Doom: One of Miles' grounded stealth takedowns has him merely giving the enemy a Venom-powered tap on the shoulder. The enemy turns around, tries to punch Spider-Man, and then falls unconscious as the Venom surges through his or her body.
  • Foreshadowing: During the Christmas dinner at the Morales apartment, Rio asks Phin about her brother Rick working at Roxxon and Phin awkwardly and nervously pauses before changing the subject. Later on, Miles and Phin find their time capsule with pictures of them with Rick, causing Phin to grow sad. As it turns out, Rick died at Roxxon and Phin has been hellbent on getting revenge for it ever since.
  • Forgot About His Powers: A gadget-based example. When the Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man app was first used, it is shown that Ganke can see through Miles' POV. Yet when Miles retrieved Phin's phone containing footage of Rick's death, he doesn't think of using this to his advantage and let Ganke record said evidence which would have made Phin change plans of bringing Roxxon to justice from a destructive one which is the worse option to something safer which is the better option.
  • Forgotten First Meeting: A flashback reveals that Miles literally ran into Peter at a science exhibit a few years before the first game.
  • For Your Own Good: The Prowler kidnaps and locks Miles behind a laser forcefield so he won't risk his life trying to stop Roxxon and the Tinkerer from killing each other and taking Harlem with them. Miles quickly breaks out, prompting a boss battle with his uncle.
  • Funny Background Event: In the prologue, while Miles is taking care of Raft thugs, Peter is nearby trying to subdue Rhino and can be heard mocking him with Spider-Man's usual quips. Miles is just taken away by his mentor's almost-perfect banters while holding off a group of escaped inmates.
  • Fun with Subtitles: At the beginning of the game, the subtitles call Peter by his superhero name of "Spider-Man" and Miles, even when he's in his Spider-Man suit, by his civilian name. This stays true up until after the first mission, when Peter cedes the role of "New York's only Spider-Man" to Miles while he's abroad helping Mary Jane. The moment Miles puts his mask back on and excitedly says "I'm New York's only Spider-Man!", the subtitles start calling him "Spider-Man" and Peter by his civilian name whenever he calls Miles.
    • Later, during a mission to rescue a cat, the mooks can be heard talking disparagingly about a character called Derek, and soon afterwards the faceless Brute who stole the cat is later identified only by the Subtitles as Derek.
  • Gameplay and Story Integration:
    • In the previous game, Spider-Man's animations while fighting and web-swinging are precise, fluid, graceful, and even a bit playful, as Peter has been doing this for 8 years, is arguably at the peak of his powers, and has a confidence in his abilities earned by lots of experience. In this game Miles only recently gained spider-powers and Peter has only been training him for a few months. As such, he flails a lot more while web-swinging and is clearly a less experienced fighter, with mostly his Super-Reflexes and Super-Strength giving him the edge in combat.
    • At several points, Miles has to absorb the electricity from a generator to shut down a piece of machinery, which will also charge the Venom bar a bit. Miles usually doesn't need to expend a Venom bar to activate machinery, though that would fall under Acceptable Breaks from Reality to avoid the player needing to figure out how to generate Venom when there aren't enemies nearby.
  • Gameplay and Story Segregation: You can wear whatever suit you want in the majority of the game, including the bridge explosion scene, but the next cutscene at Miles' apartment shows the suit Peter gave Miles as the one that was damaged in the battle. Also, no matter what suit you wear during the final mission of the Neighborhood side quests, Miles will be wearing his classic spider suit when Hailey thanks him and gives him her hat and scarf.
    • The first story mission of the game involves Peter and Miles chasing Rhino through several blocks of the city, causing massive property damage in their wake, and later that night Miles catches the Underground completely trashing Roxxon plaza. By the very next day, all signs of the damage caused in these locations is completely gone.
  • Gender Flip: The Tinkerer is traditionally a man named Phineas Mason. This incarnation is a young woman named Phin Mason.
  • Ham and Cheese: Invoked with Peter's final Spider-Training Challenge of a holographic Vulture boss fight, where Peter takes it upon himself to do a ridiculously over-the-top impression of Adrian and roast the old guy, just to make it more fun for Miles. And then, Vulture gets a "brother".
    "Vulture": I'm old! I'm old and I hate youth! Get off my lawn! Early-bird specials! Casual racism that it's not worth it to challenge me on!
    Miles: (laughing) Too real!
    "Vulture" #1: Hey, Vulture 2, when should you buy a bird?
    "Vulture" #2: When it's going CHEEP! HA!
    Miles: (Delighted) I've been WAITING for the bird puns to come out!
  • Hide Your Children: Other than the one baby that Rhino nearly runs over, playgrounds existing, and Miles himself being 17, kids of any age do not exist in this game's world. Not even to walk around the city with their parents, despite NPCs not being harmable. There's even a snowball fight on a roof carried out entirely by adults, not kids!
  • Invisibility: Miles makes use of Spider-Camouflage to get the drop on his enemies. He can only stay camouflaged for a minute or so, which is measured by a bar that also lowers whenever he attacks an enemy. While its valuable for stealth, it also has the benefit of making it near impossible for enemies to hit you with anything but AOE attacks like grenades.
  • Ironic Echo: "I can stop it, I can stop this! No. Phin, don't look." Were the last words Rick Mason said before he dies trying to stop further Nuform Production. In the final battle, when the explosion happened, Miles says "I can stop it—" before Roxxon Tower collapses with him and Phin on top. She gets a flashback of Rick saying his last sentence while witnessing Miles contain the explosion.
  • Justified Tutorial: The game's combat tutorial is presented as a training session that Peter devised for Miles.
  • Like Brother and Sister: Phin and Miles clearly love each other and care for each more than anyone else in their lives, but there's nothing to suggest a romance between them. Phin even says that she thinks of Miles as family, and in the post-story side mission, Jefferson Davis refers to Phin as his "almost-daughter", inferring the sibling bond between Phin and Miles.
  • Make Way for the New Villains: The Underground is shown to have taken down both the remnants of the Inner Demons and the Maggia, establishing themselves as a bigger threat.
  • Mêlée à Trois: The game features a three way battle between Spider-Man (Miles Morales), Phin Mason/Tinkerer with the Underground, and Simon Krieger with Roxxon, with Harlem caught in the middle.
  • Mission Control: Ganke serves as this to Miles throughout the game, giving tech support and advice over his phone.
  • Mundane Utility: One of the game's earliest missions sees Miles use his newly discovering ability to produce thousands of volts of lethal electricity within a second... to light up his apartment's Christmas lights after a blackout.
  • Mythology Gag:
    • Several to Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse:
      • The very first shot of the trailer has Miles hit a glass window with a Venom Blast, which seems to be modeled after the "leap of faith" shot in the movie. It even has Peter giving him a Rousing Speech similar to the one from the same film.
      • One of Miles' falling animations is him facing towards the camera, putting his hands behind his head, and lying back as he falls to the ground the same way he does at the end of Into the Spider-Verse in the shot that changes to him falling back in his bed under his narration. Goes extremely well with the suit from that movie too.
      • Miles' "first" Spider suit is a hand-me-down from Peter while Miles wears a hoodie over it, much like Miles' outfit when he does the leap of faith in the movie.
      • After he's defeated in his boss battle, Aaron Davis/Prowler admits to Miles "I let you down."
      • Miles' tendency to fall upside down as he free falls is all a reference to the leap of faith scene again.
      • The way Spider-Man stops the Tinkerer from killing him - revealing his identity to her right before she delivers the killing blow. - is the same way he stopped Prowler from killing him in the movie.
      • Holo Peter even outright says the line in one of the training exercises.
        Holo Peter: Sometimes, you gotta take a leap of faith.
      • When Miles is surprised that Rio still intends to campaign after what happened at her rally, she tells him "Our family doesn't give up", which mirrors her telling him "Our family doesn't run from things" in the film.
      • The NYPD is instead referred to as the PDNY, as it is in Miles' dimension in the film.
    • The gameplay demo in the Sept. 16 showcase has Miles trying to hold a bridge together with his webs in his hands similar to Peter trying to hold a boat together in Homecoming.
      • Another reference to Homecoming: Miles' menu bio for Ganke gives him the alias "Guy in the Chair," which is how Ned referred to himself.
    • The Animated Series Suit is a slight nod to Miles' voice actor, who also voices him in Marvel's Spider-Man.
    • Peter's suit for Miles is an upgraded version of Miles' first Spider-Man suit from Ultimate Spider-Man, which he almost immediately ditched for being in "bad taste" after Ultimate Peter's death in the comics.
    • Miles has the comic Spider-Man debuted in, Amazing Fantasy #15, atop a pile of comics in his bedroom.
    • The time capsules Miles can find are chockfull of little easter eggs. These include:
      • A flag emblazoned with a panther emblem from the time Miles and Phin went to see the Wakandan Design Group for a class trip. Miles credits this experience with getting Phin into engineering in the first place.
      • A pair of ID badges from Project Pegasus, an advanced S.H.I.E.L.D. research facility from the comics.
      • A 3D-printed model of the hypothetical element that Phin suggested Thor's hammer Mjolnir is composed of.
      • A miniature of a proposed lunar transport that is actually D-list Spider-Man villain Big Wheel's trademark vehicle from the comics.
      • A pair of tickets from a concert featuring Dazzler and Lila Cheney of the X-Men.
    • One of the accounts that comments on Miles' social media is JamesonInSpace, a nod to John Jameson, J. Jonah's son who is an astronaut.
    • The eyes on the Great Responsibility suit are very similar to the eyes on the suit from The Amazing Spider-Man 2.
    • At one point, Miles suggest Peter take up teaching when Peter expresses the need to find a new job, which was his job during The Amazing Spider-Man (J. Michael Straczynski).
    • Jameson, aghast at there now being two Spider-Men, wonders where it'll lead, and mentions Spider-Woman and Spider-Pig.
    • When some of Harlem's residents sees Miles' face after the climactic battle, one of them comments, "He's so young." This is possibly a nod to Spider-Man 2, where Peter is seen without his mask while unconscious and one of his onlookers comments on how young he is.
    • After Miles' aforementioned fight with the Tinkerer, the shots of Miles recovering are near 1:1 recreations of the shots where Peter runs towards the crane from The Amazing Spider-Man.
    • Rhino is fought on an electrical power plant, where he takes out an ally before Spidey uses electricity to beat him. Granted, the fight plays quite differently, but the setting is still very similar.
  • New Game Plus: Unlocked after beating the main story, along with Ultimate difficulty, allowing you to unlock new gear upgrades and skills.
  • Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: While Miles is excited to be Spider-Man and helps fix messes across New York, his overexcited personality and recklessness accidentally causes half of those messes:
    • Miles and Peter's attempt to monitor a transfer of escaped prisoners being taken back to the Raft goes wrong when Miles' actions accidentally result in some of the prisoners escaping, including the Rhino.
    • When Miles tries to intercept the Underground's attack on a Roxxon truck transporting Nuform cannisters, the energies of his Venom Blast destabilize the Nuform and cause an explosion that seriously damages the bridge. As it turns out, however, thanks to Miles' bio-electricity causing the Nuform canisters to explode, Roxxon requires the very last one Phin stole from the bridge in the first place to reverse engineer the project, which is why they're trying to hunt both vigilantes down.
    • Miles accidentally destroys Phin's cellphone along with all of the evidence she'd compiled against Roxxon.
    • Even though she did no better, Phin understandably calls Miles out for his constant screw-ups to prove Roxxon's illegal doings, feeling betrayed for said screw-ups, and overestimating his own abilities that cost most of the evidence against Roxxon.
  • No Cutscene Inventory Inertia: Unlike the PS4 version of the first game, it appears that Miles will keep whatever suit on during cutscenes where he's without his mask if you switch from suits that are meant from those cutscenes, even in the PS4 version. However there is one exception to this: when you complete the "We've Got a Lead!" side mission the final cutscene will automatically revert Miles back to his "Classic" outfit if you weren't wearing it during the mission. The reason for this is Hailey will give Miles her scarf and earmuffs, which is what helps create the then-unlocked "Winter Suit" outfit.
  • No Plans, No Prototype, No Backup: Roxxon has no idea how to make more Nuform. They want their stolen supply of Nuform back so they can reverse engineer more of it. Justified as it's implied Rick destroyed his research when he turned on Roxxon.
  • Nostalgia Level: At one point, Miles infiltrates Fisk Tower, and the layout is very similar to the opening level in the previous game. Humorously Fisk's main office has been made into the HQ of the Underground and they've even hacked into his security feed of when he was mocking Peter during the opening levels of the first game, have defaced his image via photoshop.
  • One-Steve Limit: Two notable subversions for the game:
    • Both Miles and Peter use the alias Spider-Man, while some cases have Miles take up a different alias to separate the two. People refer to them collectively as the "Spider-Men", and interchangeably use Spider-Man even if they talk about both characters in the same conversation.
    • The second is Played for Laughs. One of the Friendly Neighborhood side missions has Miles try to rescue a cat named Spider-Man. His owner, a bodega owner named Teo, refers to Miles as "Other Spider-Man", but Miles finds it more amusing than anything.
  • Optional Stealth: You can defeat a good chunk of the combat encounters throughout the game without an enemy noticing you with a good mix of invisibility, quick web-slinging, and tactical use of gadgets. You can also just crash right in front of enemies and fight them as loudly as possible until they're all unconscious, all the game cares about is that the enemies get beat. Thanks to Miles' invisibility powers this "go quiet until you don't want to" methodology is much more organic than in Spider-Man as in most situations (barring the ones where Roxxon guards have tech that can sniff him out even when he's cloaked) once you find that going loud is no longer working you can go invisible and simply slink away until the heat dies down, at which point stealth gameplay can resume.
  • Photo Mode: Almost identical to one in the previous game, but with new lighting and visibility settings.
  • Post-End Game Content: After completing the main story, you can access a scavenger hunt put together by Rio, making use of recordings Jefferson left behind, for Miles’ birthday. You can also unlock a suit that lets Spider-Man (the cat) ride in Miles’ backpack at all times.
  • Power Incontinence: Miles' suffering this with his bio-electricity causes about 90% of the problems in the game.
  • Powered Armor: Several of Miles' unlockable suits are high-tech armor.
  • Previously on…: The title screen features an optional recap of the previous game's plot, to get players who need it up to speed.
  • Protagonist Title: Miles is the main character of this game, as it is one of his first outings as Spider-Man. Peter even skips town after the opening mission, putting the focus of saving Manhattan squarely on Miles.
  • Put on a Bus: Downplayed. Peter leaves on a trip to Europe at the start and is thus physically absent for most of the game, but he makes semi-regular calls to check up on Miles throughout the story, preventing him from being completely absent.
  • Redemption Equals Death: Phin ultimately sacrifices her life to fly Miles up into the sky so his Nuform-powered super Venom Strike won't devastate Harlem.
  • Related Differently in the Adaptation: Rick Mason is the older brother of Phin Mason/Tinkerer — who is the male Phineas Mason in the comics, and Rick's father.
  • Rogues' Gallery Transplant: Roxxon Energy in the regular Marvel-616 continuity was primarily an enemy to Iron Man (before moving on to Thor and the Hulk) and was a general enemy to everyone in the Ultimate continuity before focusing on Miles exclusively towards the end of the Ultimate Comics run. This game establishes Roxxon squarely as a nemesis for Miles, threatening not just him, but his entire neighborhood.
  • Rule of Symbolism: Even before the reveal of the nature of Nuform, Roxxon's move into Harlem sparks a lot of in game discussion on their negative impact on the neighborhood. Rio Morales is even basing her campaign platform on this issue. This is a clear reference to the real world gentrification issue in which businesses start to buy out property and land, attracting more "affluent" populations to move into these neighborhoods while the impoverished get pushed out and displaced. It's all the more relevant as in real life, Harlem has been having gentrification issues over the past years continuing until now, as affluent landowners expand towards Manhattan's north.
  • Save the Villain: After being enraged by taunts about her late brother, Phin comes dangerously close to killing Rhino before Miles pushes her out of the way. Truth be told, Miles was actually trying to save Phin from murdering a defeated/restrained villain in cold-blood just because he was egging her on, which only angered her even more to beat her best friend to a pulp and renounce him as her family.
  • Secret-Keeper: Miles gets his identity exposed as Spider-Man when he's brought home beaten up in his suit, and he has to explain that he's Spider-Man to his mom since she's at home. In the game's ending, Miles falls to the ground without his mask on, seen by several citizens of Harlem, but none of the residents who see Miles' face expose him to the news media.
  • Sequel Escalation: In terms of the swinging animations and air tricks. Miles shares a few with Peter from the past game, but overall, he's far more dynamic in his movements, and has a deeper pool of tricks you can perform while swinging (or diving!) Insomniac even worked on the transitions between tricks and swinging, having multiple different animations for Miles depending on what trick you were performing before swinging out of it.
  • Sequel Hook: Continuing from the original games Sequel Hook, Norman Osborne tells a scientist to let Harry out of his healing tank, despite his protest. The scientist in question? Dr. Curt Connors, aka. the Lizard.
  • Ship Tease: Miles has plenty with Hailey, a deaf street artist.
  • Shock and Awe: Miles has his bioelectric Venom Blasts, which are strong enough to vaporize his suit if fully unleashed.
  • Shout-Out:
  • Shown Their Work: The developers’ research presented Latino culture in New York (Harlem especially) extremely well. They also got Puerto Rican diaspora down to a T (Miles’s parents are African-American and Puerto Rican), especially during the Christmas dinner scene when Miles looks for his dad’s record, turning this into an unintentional (but awesome) crash course on Afro-Latino people and culture.
  • Silly Rabbit, Cynicism Is for Losers!: Miles and Uncle Aaron repeat the same philosophical argument that caused Aaron and his brother to drift apart. Aaron thinks its better to lay low and avoid risking your life fighting impossible battles against evil, while Miles refuses to run from his responsibilities to help others.
    Aaron: You don't realize, I'm the only one trying to save you!
    Miles: And I'm trying to save everyone else.
  • Smokescreen Crime: In Mission 8 ("Time To Rally"), Rio's campaign rally against Roxxon is attacked by the Underground. Miles deals with them before realizing that the Underground's attack is a distraction so the Tinkerer can steal Nuform from a Roxxon transport.
  • Space Compression: Manhattan in game is a scaled down version. Several neighborhoods are either missing, or rolled into adjoining ones. The north of the map basically ends midway through Harlem, explaining why the Apollo Theatre is missing, along with neighborhoods like Washington Heights, Sugar Hill and Hudson Heights. On a more general level, almost all buildings are actually slightly scaled down. It's most visible when Spider-Man is wall climbing and he's almost as big as entire stories. Several buildings have smaller footprints than they should have.
  • Spared by the Adaptation:
  • The Stinger: Norman Osborn has hired Curt Connors to help treat Harry's terminal condition with the Venom symbiote... and they're getting ready to wake him up...
  • Sunk Cost Fallacy: A number of Roxxon's problems stem from their unwillingness to just cut their losses with Nuform. They've spent a lot of money developing it, even though it's toxic, and are going to build a "clean energy" reactor in Harlem regardless of whether it kills people or not. This despite an underground resistance of teen criminals and Spider-Man becoming a problem.
  • Surprisingly Realistic Outcome:
    • Peter set up high tech challenges for Miles on rooftops. Unlike most games, people do notice the high tech equipment, and several criminals attempt to steal it.
    • Discussed during the Final Boss fight that even if Phin/The Tinkerer's plan succeeded the way she wanted it to and only destroyed Roxxon Plaza and not all of Harlem, it would be All for Nothing. Simon Krieger points out that the plaza is already insured for damages, and being the victim of a terrorist attack would get them a nice payout. On top of that, Simon isn't even physically present for the final fight, so Phin can't even get her vengeance on him.
      • Listening to background chatter in the final dungeon adds another layer to this: the Underground rank-and-file have a much better grasp of the realistic outcome of Phin's plan than she does, and even if the plan went as expected, it would cause enough shrapnel and explosive force to level all the houses surrounding Roxxon Plaza, which they plan on taking advantage of to expand their criminal empire.
      • Since the Prowler has close personal knowledge of all the crimes Simon and Roxxon committed, along with evidence to everything they've overlooked. This ultimately results in Simon getting arrested. However, Aaron gets arrested, too, for conspiring with Roxxon and his previous criminal background (which Simon pointed out earlier), but is implied to get a reduced sentencing for his cooperation.
  • Trailers Always Spoil:
    • As part of the promotion for the release of the game, Marvel Comics started releasing Variant Covers of the game's story for The Amazing Spider-Man (2018) and Miles Morales: Spider-Man (2018) comics. One of these covers happened to feature The Prowler. Prowler was also later heavily featured in the Launch Trailer the week of the game's release.
    • The opening shot of Miles' Venom blast obliterating his suit comes from the very climax, where he's shutting down the reactor and absorbing its power.
  • Toxic Phlebotinum: Nuform, the supposedly clean energy source that Roxxon is trying to install in New York, is actually incredibly toxic and can render people terminally ill with only minimal exposure. Rick Mason and his team all became sick as a result of working on it, but Simon Krieger didn't care enough to spend the money necessary to make Nuform legitimately safe, covering up its toxicity by murdering Rick and concealing his research.
  • Traumatic Superpower Awakening: Miles uses his Venom Blast for the first time when enraged at seeing Rhino beat the crap out of Peter. Later, Miles discovers his invisibility powers when he is being framed by Roxxon for the bridge's destruction, which he uses to escape. Finally, he unlocks the Mega Venom Blast by being captured and beaten nearly to death by Roxxon's soldiers.
  • Villain Ball: Much like in the first game.
    • No particular reason is given why Roxxon has to build their Nuform reactor in the middle of New York City, instead of basically anywhere that its toxicity wouldn't be an issue, save perhaps for Simon Krieger's PR addiction.
    • The Tinkerer similarly goes about achieving their ends in a much more villainous manner than was really necessary. Unlike previous villains who indulged in pointless villainy, they get called out on it and how being evil has actively made achieving their goals much harder.
  • Visible Invisibility: How do you have an invisible player character without players accidentally walking into walls all the time? Simple, just give him a light blue outline that no one can see in-universe.
  • Well-Intentioned Extremist:
    • The Tinkerer is, ultimately, just trying to avenge the senseless death of her beloved brother and his team. Unfortunately, rather than trying to prove Krieger's guilt to the authorities, she wants violent revenge in the form of destroying the Roxxon headquarters, and is willing to do things like supplying criminal gangs and brutalize her best friend to accomplish her goals. Also, it should be noted that while the Tinkerer is well intentioned, the Underground as a whole is just a would-be mob organization that is following the Tinkerer's agenda in exchange for weapons.
    • Aaron Davis/The Prowler ends up selling out Miles to Roxxon. Not because he is evil or greedy, but because he is terrified of the thought of his nephew dying in the crossfire of Tinkerer and Krieger's Evil Versus Evil war, and thinks this is the only way to get him out of said crossfire. Unfortunately, Roxxon is not planning to hold up their end of the bargain.
  • Wham Shot: During a cutscene during the bridge battle, Miles' bio-electricity temporarily shorted-out the Tinkerer's mask and to his horror, reveal her to be Phin Mason.
  • What Happened to the Mouse?: Rhino is neither seen nor mentioned again after Phin nearly kills him.
  • Wide-Open Sandbox: As showcased in the initial trailer, the Manhattan map from the previous game makes a return in an even higher resolution.
  • Worf Had the Flu: Spider-Man (Peter Parker) is dragged through a series of point-blank explosions while riding Rhino, leaving him worse for wear. This means the already dangerous Rhino has no trouble nearly killing the OG Spidey.
  • Writing Around Trademarks: Like in the first game, some New-York specific landmarks and institutions are renamed to avoid copyright. The NYPD is now the PDNY. The Metropolitan Museum of Art becomes the Manhattan Museum of Contemporary Art. Additionally, the Chrysler Building is missing due to it changing owners since the release of the previous game, and the developers being unable to renew their licensing agreement for this one.
  • The Worf Effect: The opening battle with the Rhino has Spider-Man (Peter Parker) beaten and left half-dead before Miles must intervene to save him. Miles proceeds then to discover his Venom blast and defeat the Rhino by himself.
  • X-Ray Sparks: At one point, Miles absorbs so much electrical energy that you can see his organs as energy crackles along his skin.

Miles Morales: Okay... Let's do this.

 
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Simon Krieger Kills Rick Mason

Before Rick and Phin could shut down the Nuform reactor, Simon traps Rick and kills him with an unstable reactor, knowing that Nuform has been making people sick.

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