The best decision that Spider-Man: Brand New Day made was to take inspiration from Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 and its predecessors’ combat and traversal animations. Sadly, one feature present in Marvel’s Spider-Man 2’s gameplay would’ve been perfect for the movie, and its absence is impossible to ignore once you’ve been made aware of it.
Considering how long it is and how few actual, substantial villains there are, Spider-Man: Brand New Day is fairly action-packed. It’s arguably one debut Marvel Cinematic Universe character’s movie more than it is Spider-Man’s, and yet its worldbuilding is important regarding this new era of Spider-Man, as well as the new era of X-Men that will soon be arriving. Spider-Man’s Brand New Day costume is stunning, too, yet there’s one issue I have with it that gets worse and more inexcusable the more I think about it: a lack of battle damage.
Where’s Spider-Man: Brand New Day’s Battle Damage?
It’s a nitpick that I understand not everybody will have. In fact, I’m chiefly pleased by the fact that Spider-Man’s new costume is as wonderfully articulate and comic-accurate as it is, which makes it difficult to find anything worthwhile to complain about.
That said, as brilliant as the costume is, it’s bewildering that it doesn’t sustain a single rip or tear throughout the movie—it’s pristine the whole time, whether Spider-Man’s being battered by Scorpion, dangled by Tombstone, shot by Punisher (also knocked back during the DODC tank chase sequence), pummeled by Hulk, or diced by the Hand. Spider-Man’s costume doesn’t need to be tattered and replaced after every fight, but Peter certainly has the means to efficiently produce numerous copies, and it would’ve gone a long way in expressing how unique and tangible this costume is in comparison to the MCU’s catalog of CGI-laden nanotech ‘suits’ that Spider-Man has been plagued with in the last decade.
Peter suffers a mortal gunshot wound that he would’ve seemingly died from if it wasn’t for Spider-Man: Brand New Day’s Jean Grey, whom Punisher intended to hit, and Peter conveniently collapses onto his back before we get a look at what damage this might’ve done to the costume.
It’s maybe most absurd that Spider-Man: Brand New Day’s Savage Hulk couldn’t blemish the costume, and it’s awkward that Peter removes his unscathed mask during the DODC facility Hand fight to reveal that his face is bloodied and cut. Ironically, Peter’s mask being shredded to reveal half of his face beneath—not unlike the state Tobey Maguire’s Spider-Man is in at the end of Spider-Man’s Green Goblin fight—would’ve reinforced the symbology of the scene when Jean asks him whether he’s Spider-Man or Peter Parker, and his answer is that he’s “both.”
It’s In Marvel’s Spider-Man 2, That’s Where
Thankfully, Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 officially added a new skin adapting Spider-Man: Brand New Day’s costume shortly before the movie was released. The skin’s launch was rather unsavory and unsatisfactory, though a recent patch helped it reach players’ standards.
With Marvel’s Spider-Man 2’s battle damage feature, we finally get to see what this Spider-Man: Brand New Day costume looks like when it’s been through the blender. In Marvel’s Spider-Man 2’s case, this blender is an assortment of hunter mercenaries, multicolored symbiotes, flame-wielding cultists, and petty criminals.
Now, this feature isn’t wildly immersive, and by solving a problem I have with the movie, it creates one I have with the game. For instance, costumes can have battle damage represented on Spider-Man’s head in-game, and, without there being any hair modeled that would theoretically tuft out from these holes, the bits of bare skin that are revealed make it look like he’s bald under the mask.
Seeing as Marvel’s Wolverine’s battle damage will be emphasized as a key feature alongside Wolverine’s regenerative healing factor animations, it’ll be neat to see how advanced Insomniac’s implementation of battle damage is by the time Marvel’s Spider-Man 3 is released. In the meantime, Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 will tide me over with my favorite live-action Spider-Man movie costume, and how well I perform in combat encounters will determine how often I see it get damaged in battle, anyway.
- Released
-
October 20, 2023
- ESRB
-
T For Teen Due To Blood, Drug Reference, Mild Language, Violence
- Developer(s)
-
Insomniac Games
- Publisher(s)
-
Sony Interactive Entertainment
- Engine
-
Insomniac Engine v.4.0
