(This post contains spoilers for Spiderman PS4 and Spiderman: Miles Morales.)
Almost everything in Miles Morales was an upgrade to the Spiderman PS4. Combat was upgraded with venom powers, the music was much better, blending the traditional spiderman fanfare with a hip-hop twist, and the graphics were top-notch as always. Even the web-swinging, which I didn’t think could get any better, was improved with more fluid animations and air tricks. Insomniac has proven once again just how much they love Spiderman, and how much effort they put into these games.
But there was one thing Miles Morales couldn’t quite match its predecessor in. The story.
The Downfall:
Now, don’t get me wrong, the story in Miles Morales is good; great, even. But there are aspects of it that weigh the whole thing down below Spiderman PS4’s story. The heaviest of those weights is a character we meet early in the story.
Phin.
For those of you that don’t know, Phin Mason is the main antagonist of this game. Her brother, Rick Mason, developed a new form of energy, ironically named Nuform, for a corporation called Roxxon. But one unfortunate side effect of Nuform is that it makes people sick. Very sick. When the head of research and development, Simon Krieger, pushes the project forward despite its side effects, Rick – alongside Phin – infiltrates Roxxon and attempts to put a stop to it. Simon Krieger is one step ahead and traps Rick, killing him by using the Nuform reactor. Phin barely gets away and swears revenge on Roxxon, developing something called programmable matter and donning the name Tinkerer.
It was difficult for me to decide what it is about Phin that I don’t like. Her motivations are clear, most of her actions are understandable – I’ll get to that later – and even her major flaws are explained with her personality and her backstory. So, what is it about her that drags this story down for me? And then I realized that, at times, Phin Mason is two completely different people. In a game as short as Miles Morales, it becomes even more noticeable.
But before I elaborate on Phin’s biggest issues, there are commonly criticized facets of her character that I personally disagree with.
I’ve read complaints that Phin gets angry at Miles for not revealing his identity to her, meanwhile she didn’t tell him about her being the Tinkerer. While I understand the frustration this has caused fans, this is very in character for Phin. From the beginning of the story, it’s established that Phin is cocky. One of Mile’s and Phin’s conversations on a rooftop ends with this:
Miles: “You know I’m taller than you now, right?”
Phin (pointing at her head): “Not in here.”
Phin is a genius, and she knows it, maybe too well. Her hubris blinds her to several truths throughout the story. One of those is the fact that she has also not been honest with Miles. We all know people like that in real life. They say or do things, then get mad at us if we do the same. This is what Phin does. This makes sense for her character.
Speaking of Phin’s hubris, this also comes into play when Miles attempts to tell her about Simon Krieger’s changes to the Nuform Reactor, which would turn Phin’s plan to destroy Roxxon Plaza into all of Harlem being destroyed as well. Not only is Phin not willing to listen to Miles because of his lie, but she also doesn’t want to accept that her calculations are now wrong. Both stem from pride, and that is the flaw in her character. Still, this isn’t a complaint. In fact, I like that Phin has this flaw. She’s still a teenager and is the inventor of programmable matter, supplying weapons to a gang called Underground. Of COURSE she would have an overinflated ego.
But now I’m going to focus on the complaints I have about Phin, the ones that can’t be defended with her ego, or her blind rage against Roxxon for the death of her brother.
I mentioned that most of Phin’s actions are understandable. The following are not. Two moments stand out in particular: The chase scene and the aftermath of the Rhino boss fight.
The chase scene happens after Miles attempts to steal the Nuform from the theatre. Phin intercepts Miles and takes the Nuform. What follows is an intense chase scene through the city that, while fun to play, undermines Phin’s character. Phin has made it clear that her intention is not to hurt people. Yet, as we’re chasing her through the city, she is throwing bombs all over the city like a terroristic Santa Clause. She plants craters in buildings, destroys at least a dozen cars, and almost sinks a freighter. There’s no mention of injuries or deaths after the chase, but how many people could she have harmed or killed in that chase alone? How many DID she kill that the game chose to ignore?
Here is the scene in question:
The second moment is after the boss fight with Rhino. This is when Miles discovers that Phin’s plan would destroy all of Harlem instead of just the Roxxon Plaza. As Miles is combing through this information on a computer, Rhino taunts Phin about her brother’s death. Enraged, she stabs Rhino and attempts to kill him. Miles, being Spiderman, leaps in and stops Phin from finishing the job.
I can understand Phin being angry about this. Rhino hurts and kills people, as do the other super villains, but he went out of his way to save Rhino’s life by tackling Phin. We, the player, understand this to be what Spiderman does. He doesn’t discriminate in who he saves. It’s all a part of the “Great power, great responsibility” motto. But Phin doesn’t. I sympathize with her on that. When she summons hulk fists with her programmable matter and pounds Miles’s face into the dirt in a fit of rage, followed by a threat to kill him if she sees him again… yeah, I’m not going to meet you there, Phin.
And it sucks, because only minutes before, Phin opened up to Miles, saying how Miles was like a brother to her after Rick had to “become my Dad.” It was a beautiful scene and one of the few where I truly believed Miles’s and Phin’s friendship. It felt like a true relationship on the rocks. And when Miles is getting beat to a pulp by Roxxon guards minutes earlier, Phin is worried about him, scared that he’s going to die. In the span of twenty minutes, Phin fears Miles is about to die, opens up to him about how he was like a brother to her, then tenderizes his face like a slab of meat and threatens to kill him, swearing him off as any form of family to her… what?
It gave me such whiplash when I saw that scene. A heated argument would have served a similar purpose. Maybe even a single punch to knock Mile’s back. But almost killing him? I lost my connection to her. It felt like she was a completely different character. And that’s Phin’s biggest problem. It felt as if two writers created Phin, both fighting over which one they wanted to keep in the game.
Now let’s talk about Phin’s death. After Miles absorbs all the energy from the overloading Roxxon reactor, he cannot contain all of it. He must let it out. Phin takes a piece of programmable matter from her hand, attaches it to her shoe, then runs like Flash up the side of the Roxxon building. Then she flings herself as far into the sky as possible, telling Miles to “let go.” He does, unable to do anything else, and Phin dies. It’s such a good scene, and I wish I had felt more than I did. I wanted to feel for Phin and be sad about her death, and in some ways, I was. She had such potential to be a character I rooted for, but those whiplash scenes made it hard to believe her when she went from killer to Phin so fast. With this being said, another ruining factor for Phin is that the game simply isn’t longer.
This isn’t a criticism of the game at all. This was always intended to be a shorter game, and I don’t fault Insomniac in any way for that. This game was Uncharted: Lost Legacy, and it needed to be. I just feel like Phin would have been better utilized in a longer game. They could even keep the scene where she threatens Miles’s life, but place it much, MUCH longer after she opens up to him. It would ease the whiplash and make her death scene so much more impactful. A ‘friends to enemies’ dynamic like Peter and Otto, which is obvious they were trying to mimic in the first place.
Also, on a completely unrelated note, another thing about the story that bothers me is a particular scene with Ganke and Danika. I like Danika’s podcast, sometimes almost as much as Jameson’s. I like that Jameson is Peter’s thing and Danika is Miles’s. It’s a nice contrast and a better way to individualize Miles and Peter. Danika is wholesome, and her life tips at the end of each episode are a nice addition. I also love Ganke. I like how he and Miles are a team, and there’s a particularly sweet scene where Miles reminds Ganke that it wasn’t just Miles doing the work, but Ganke too. Honestly, the friendship between them is more believable than Miles and Phin. But onto the scene in question.
Shortly after Miles and Ganke take down Wilson Fisk’s remote operation from prison to stage a criminal takeover of Harlem, Danika invites Ganke onto her podcast. Ganke accepts, then tells Miles that he’s going onto Danika’s podcast… Miles encourages it…
Do we… do we not see the problem with this?
Ganke not only goes on Danika’s podcast, but she states his FULL NAME. Ganke then confirms his involvement with Spiderman and calls out the names of six other people that aided him in taking down Fisk’s operation. Ganke has now painted a target on his back, as well as other innocent people. He’s also made it easier for anyone to figure out Miles’s identity. Oh, look, a muscular 17-year-old kid that hangs out with this Ganke Lee guy. I wonder if he’s Spiderman.
Here’s the scene:
Anyway, I’ve ranted enough. Let’s switch the best parts of Miles Morales’s story.
The Triumph:
Every character in Miles Morales, save for Simon Krieger and Phin, is incredible. Mile’s mom, Ganke, Gloria (who returns from the last game), Uncle Aaron, Teo, and last but certainly not least, Hailey. Seriously, it’s so nice to have a deaf character in a video game, and the sign language interactions between her and Miles were the absolute sweetest thing. My favorite moment of Hailey’s is when she gives Miles her scarf and earmuffs and it unlocks as a costume you can actually wear. Hailey is the best, and I hope we see more of her in Spiderman 2. Also, I hope she and Miles get together. They would be the cutest couple.
Anyway, it isn’t just these characters. It’s the other one-off civilians and the way Miles interacts with them. From getting ice off some guy’s crane, to finding stolen toys for the F.E.A.S.T drive, to saving Teo’s cat (appropriately named Spiderman) from a group of bad guys. All these things are integrated and selected from the wonderfully crafted Friendly Neighborhood Spiderman app. This culminates in Miles not just becoming Spiderman but a friendly neighborhood Spiderman. Peter Parker isn’t as much of one anymore, because the threats he deals with are generally larger. But Miles, just like Peter when he was starting out, does these simple tasks that really make you FEEL like a friendly neighborhood Spiderman (I know, I said the meme).
The moments in Miles Morales’s story that hit the hardest always involve Miles and the people of Harlem. Most notably, the final scene. After Phin’s well-made but ultimately disappointing death scene, we get the most emotional scene in the game. When Miles plummets to the ground, Mile’s mom rushes to him, crying out in fear for her son’s safety. All the people in Harlem that Miles has helped throughout the game are there as well, and they all see Miles without his mask.
Miles wakes up, much to the relief of his mother, and in a moment that made me grin from ear to ear, none other than the best girl herself, Hailey, brings Miles’s mask to Ganke, who gives it to Mile’s mom, who puts it on Miles. Then, in a moment beautifully reminiscent of the train scene from Sam Raimi’s Spiderman 2, the people of Harlem comment on how young Miles is. The press arrives, and the mural painter from the beginning of the game tells Miles to get out of there, that they’ll handle the press. They all line up, forming a barrier between the press and Miles. Gloria, Hailey, everyone. The press ask the mural painter if they saw Spiderman’s face and who he was. The mural painter says, “That guy? He’s our Spiderman.”
Ugh, just writing about that scene gets me a little bit emotional. I stand by my statement that Spiderman PS4 has the better story, but this scene right here is in my top three for both games. It’s just so emotional, so impactful, so well done. And what makes this scene even better is that I went out of my way to do all the side missions and activities through the Friendly Neighborhood app, which served to further attach me to these characters. The fact that these are optional is icing on the cake. I could gush about this scene alone for hours.
Which you can watch right here:
On another unrelated note, the best side mission in this game is the one where Miles must fight Peter’s hologram version of Vulture. Peter’s dialogue, especially the fact that he voices vulture, is perfect. Peter is such a chaotic person, and it shows. You can tell Insomniac had so much fun making this.
In fact, my favorite moments in this game are when Peter and Miles are together, so I’m very excited to see more of that in Spiderman 2.
Peter Parker being Peter Parker:
As you can see, even though I have issues with the story of Miles Morales, doesn’t mean I didn’t still enjoy it. A perfect story is a boring story, and while Miles Morales didn’t meet the heights that the first game did, it is still an incredible game with a great and fun story with a lot of heart in it.
And come on, a Spiderman game set in Christmas? My two favorite things? Together? Yes, please! I never thought I would get the chance to swing through a snowy New York City as Spiderman, and I shouldn’t be surprised that Insomniac were the ones to finally grant me my childhood wish. Now excuse me while I start another playthrough and live out my Christmas Spiderman dreams.
A.K. Rohner 