Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 is one of the best-looking games on PS5. It’s even better looking on the PS5 Pro, thanks to visual enhancements that focus on the smaller details. Kraven the Hunter’s chest hair, for example. I’m not above objectifying a virtual man. When Insomanic Games designed Kraven, they knew what they were doing. With arms like that, and his chest hair on show, he’s a man of the people. He’s for everyone.
What the PS5 Pro does for him is enhance his model significantly. The furs on his vest are more buoyant and lifelike, and in cutscenes, they react naturally to the game world’s elements – they float and fuss in the breeze, and reflect light from nearby sources. They’re wonderfully wispy and natural looking, adding to the drama of Kraven’s outfit.
His beard and eyebrow hair are also neater, with well-defined individual hairs and a better-defined jawline. Then, the aforementioned chest hair. This chest hair is not a static object, but tiny, individually-rendered hairs that also react to the elements. When we first see a glimpse at Kraven, his chest hairs are blowing in the breeze, majestic and out there for all the world to see.
Is it an unnecessarily detailed touch? It’s certainly indulgent. But it’s hard to deny that his chest hair being rendered so lovingly on the PS5 Pro adds stature and appeal to this version of Kraven. That’s not to mention the detail that’s gone into his greased muscles – and that you can now better see his pulsing veins beneath his arms and chest.
That level of detail extends well beyond Kraven’s model, with the same treatment given to Miles and Peter’s spider-suits, as well as the city streets they travel through. The added compute power of the PS5 Pro can be understood in teraflops, but in practically, it’s best seen in the way light reflects off the game’s world as you travel. How the sun’s rays illuminate the Spider-Men, and how light bounces off mirror-like glass panes.
The detail here, and how quickly it loads in, is pretty stunning. The PS5 Pro adds in layers of hyper-realism, getting us much closer to smooth, emotive, and relatable human depictions. In a character-driven game like Marvel’s Spider-Man 2, enhanced power allows for more relatable, engaging stories. You can see more emotion in the eyes of character models, and feel their struggles more deeply.
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Of course, you can also just sit back and appreciate the beauty of it all – particularly as the camera moves closer, and suddenly you can see layers of strands in Spider-Man’s costume, and appreciate how much detail’s gone into its digital construction.
It’s all in the subtleties – the way the light reflects off the shiny black webbing of Spider-Man’s costume, while also charting the course of his muscles beneath the suit. The way his deltoid is outlined. Many of these details can be seen in the base PS5 version of Marvel’s Spider-Man 2, but with a lesser degree of definition and clarity.
That’s an important point to consider when analysing the PS5 Pro. This is a console that does exactly what the PS5 does, but faster, and with more precision. For Marvel’s Spider-Man 2, you can see the impact of the console’s added power in its smaller touches – close-ups of spider-suits, tiny little hairs floating in a breeze, and strong definition and clarity when characters are in motion.
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Everything is sharp to a point. Lines are well-defined. Colours are bright and rich. As you’re flying through New York, you’ll marvel at the game’s lovely, ray-traced sunsets.
And through it all, the PS5 Pro maintains a low, steady hum, like it’s doing nothing at all.
I’m not going to say the console is revolutionary for gaming on PS5 – because the PS5 is already a fantastic, high-performing console on its own merits. But if you’re looking for more beauty in your games, and to see scenes loading in snappily, without any effort or friction – or, if you just want to see Kraven the Hunter in his slick, more well-defined form – the PS5 Pro will serve you well.
Playing Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 on this console is wild. It’s amazing to see just how far video games have come.
A PS5 Pro was provided to GamesHub for the purposes of this review. A PS5 code for Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 was previously provided for review.
