So, here we are, friends. As difficult as it is to believe, we’ve arrived at the tail end of 2018. Whether you achieved your new years' resolution of dragging your cheeks to the gym three times a week or not, it doesn’t matter now. 2019’s just around the corner, you’ll get another shot then.

In the interim, let’s pause and take stock of everything this year has brought. It’s been an interesting one for gaming, that’s for darn sure. The Switch has seen hits like retro-tinged RPG Octopath Traveler, as well as a run of Wii U ports (Captain Toad’s Treasure Tracker, Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze) that has left certain fans cold. It’s all about placeholders until the much-hyped Super Smash Bros. Ultimate arrives.

Over at PlayStation, meanwhile, 2018 has seen the arrival of a range of huge multi-platform titles and exclusives. Key among them were Monster Hunter World, God of War, and of course, Marvel’s Spider-Man.

Now, I’m a huge fan of Spider-Man as a character, and I’ve been having all kinds of fun with the game. It’s important to keep in mind that this is Insomniac’s first shot at a game of this caliber, and I really do think that they deserve massive kudos for that. At the same time, though, nothing and nobody is beyond reproach.

Impressive superhero game as it may be, Marvel’s Spider-Man has its flaws. Join us for a look at DLC shenanigans, lacking boss battles and an entirely lovable Doc Ock. Watch out for spoilers throughout, though, if you haven't finished the story.

25 Who’s The King Of The Swingers?

Let’s kick this party off the right way, with something that’s sure to be a little controversial. When the internet first got its hands on Marvel’s Spider-Man, one of the biggest topics of discussion was the web swinging mechanic. Some thought it was the best so far, liberating and natural, while others felt differently.

The game that kept being brought up by way of comparison was the much-loved Spider-Man 2. For me personally, Marvel’s Spider-Man feels just a little shonky compared to that system. In the PS4 title, your movement seems to be geared towards covering distance fast, while precise on-the-fly movements can be a real pain.

24 To Arkham Or Not To Arkham?

Another controversial point, for sure, and one that I feel compelled to tackle head-on right off the bat. As we know, the Arkham titles are another example of superhero games done very well, and there are certainly similarities to be drawn between them and Marvel’s Spider-Man.

In terms of the combat, players are divided. Some will tell you that Spider-Man fights in just the same fashion as DC-dweller Batman (not in terms of animation, but in terms of mechanics), with a dodge replacing the counter. Others would vehemently disagree with that, but for the purposes of this piece, I’m definitely in the former camp.

23 Dang Those Drones! Dang Them To Heckola!

On the surface of it, I definitely liked the inclusion of the Taskmaster challenges. Not only did they give another Marvel character his little cameo moment, but it was something else to strive for. A little beat-your-high score element that the game didn’t otherwise have.

The interesting thing about them is how certain players had issues with some types of challenge, but breezed through others. It’s like the Dark Souls effect. Some breezed through a particular boss and found another a complete roadblock, while the opposite held true for someone else.

Most of the ire, in my opinion, was directed at the drone challenges. They called for precise web-swinging on the fly at times, and the system in place struggles with that.

22 Suit-able… Suits

Now, this was inevitably going to be an issue. After all, Spider-Man is one of the most beloved characters in comic book history. People are enthusiastic; they’re invested in him and protective of him. Just as important, they have their own favorite incarnations of him, and they want to see them represented.

As much as Insomniac did a good job of varying the available suits, there were omissions and important ones.

There were always going to be, as the Webhead’s had a bigger wardrobe over the years than the entire Kardashian family combined.

21 The Sad Symbiote Suit Situation

Ah, yes. This is the big one, friends. Say what you will about the game’s take on the Iron Spider suit (it’s the recent movie one, as opposed to the comic book original), but no change or omission caused as much griping as this: the classic Symbiote suit is nowhere to be seen.

As creative director Bryan Intihar explained in an interview with Kinda Funny Games, there was a reason for this decision: “I think something like [the symbiote suit] deserves its day in the spotlight. I think just making it an unlockable suit wouldn't be doing it justice. It's one of the best stories for Spider-Man. I think it's a complex story.”

Still, it rankles.

20 That Shoehorned Stealth

Ah, yes. Here comes another much-snarked aspect of Marvel’s Spider-Man: those stealth sections.

I can see where they were coming from with this. After all, we’re here to play through an actual story, not just engage in endless battles with waves of mobs. To that end, there are moments when we step out of the Spider-suit and into the shoes of Mary Jane and Myles Morales. There aren’t too many of them, and they’re blessedly brief, but these missions soon proved themselves to be a point of contention for a lot of players. I enjoyed them, but I can certainly understand why others wouldn’t.

19 The Mary Jane Mystery

So, yes. The stealthy, sleuthy segments were definitely one part of the game that divided opinion. Players and critics alike reacted to them in different ways, seeing them both as a welcome change of pace and a needless distraction in equal measure. Different strokes for different folks, as they say.

All of which is completely valid, of course. The same holds true with the presentation of the characters themselves. This take on Mary Jane is both similar and separate to the MJ we’ve seen before, and opinions are divided there too. Is she whiny? Too opinionated? Is she fair with Peter? Is she not? Some have had strongly negative reactions to the MJ we meet in Marvel’s Spider-Man.

18 Blossom-ing Into A Real Pain

Here’s another thing that players took issue with early on.

As you’ll know, most of the suits in the game come with their own associated power. The neat thing about this system is that, once said suit is unlocked, so is the power, and it can be equipped to any of the other suits you own. I appreciated this, as it allows you to combine your favorite look and power together.

While this is great, one of the very first suit powers was considered all kinds of OP: Web Blossom.

In a lot of situations, especially early on, you can defeat a group in a single button push. It may be a single-player game, but this doesn’t sit right with a lot of us regardless.

17 Got To Hawk That DLC

Now, we live in an age of DLC, season passes, microtransactions and other unscrupulous shenanigans. That’s the way the industry is heading now, as sad as it is. Countries all around the world are calling for changes to this attitude, and we’re winning small battles (back in July, as we reported, Middle-Earth: Shadow of War was forced to remove its microtransactions after a backlash), but these practices go on.

A big deal like Marvel’s Spider-Man was bound to have some manner of DLC, but still. The way that The City That Never Sleeps got the ruthless trailer treatment even before the game’s release was just tasteless.

16 Super Samey Side Missions

As with any open world game, Marvel’s Spider-Man wasn’t short of side missions. Generally, these took the form of helping out civilians with their various problems, or dealing with criminal activity that they’d gotten themselves tangled up in.

All of which I have zero issue with. This our old buddy Peter Parker, after all, and helping random citizens in distress is his entire raison d’etre. The problem I had with a lot of this side content was that it all seemed quite by-the-numbers and uninspired.

15 Dude, Where’s My… Boss Battles?

Yes, I know. If we’re being strictly persnickety about it, that headline’s not grammatically correct. We can’t question it, though, or the whole Dude, Where’s My Car? reference would fall apart. Let’s just leave it be.

Hurrying right along, though, the game’s boss battles have been subject to a lot of criticism too. For me, they were a little too easy, few and far between, and didn’t make the greatest use of the pantheon of ridiculous villains Spider-Man has gone up against over the years. Shocker, in particular, I found an early-game disappointment.

14 (Not So) Long Live The King

Speaking of disappointing boss battles, I’m not quite sure what to make of the Kingpin. He functions as a sort of combat tutorial for the game, sure, so he wasn’t intended to be difficult in any real way. I just wonder if they made a mistake in offing such a prominent personality so early on.

It was a bold move, and one that allowed other, lesser-known villains some time in the spotlight (as we’ll discuss later in this rundown), but I feel as though Kingpin could have been better used.

A couple of snarky back-and-forths on the phone was all he got after that first segment.

13 A Questionable Collectathon

So, yes. It’s tough to pick out the faults of a game so well received (and that I personally enjoy so darn much), but I’m not all about the snark here. Insomniac’s achievement in creating a vast and bustling take on New York City really cannot be overstated. It’s a treat just to swing around at times, and that speaks volume about what they’ve done here.

Having said that, let’s not deny that there’s a whole lot of Assassin’s Creed-style collecting to do. You mark a backpack on the map, head over and grab it, and then repeat. The same for the landmarks.

12 The Brutes Are Totally… Brutal

This is, I’m totally prepared to admit, more of an early-game issue, and you can totally circumvent it by investing in the right abilities. The tools are there for sure. It’s just… darn those brutes.

Early on, these hulking, muscular enemies can be tough to deal with. They shrug off your attacks (and even gadgets, to a certain extent) like freaking Arnold Schwarzenegger in the Terminator movies. It’s only a little later that you can web them up and swing them around like their fellow felons.

That’s quite some damage they deal, too, when you’re not handy with your dodging.

11 What’s Up, Doc?

Now, this one surprised me, it really did. Oftentimes, when a movie or video game adaption focuses on the human side of a character, it’ll be the hero or heroine. This makes perfect sense, of course, in terms of relatability, and the goal was always to remind us about the Peter Parker inside the Spider-Man suit.

What I was not expecting (and here’s another of those spoilers I warned you about) was the sympathetic presentation of Otto Octavius. You could see how he’d been manipulating events for some time, even as Peter continued working with him, but the way he was presented and written made me feel every kind of sympathy for him.

That wasn’t cool, Marvel’s Spider-Man, it really wasn’t. Yep, this isn’t a serious entry, but I still wanted to bring that to everyone’s attention.

10 ‘Farming’ Crimes Is A Bad Time

As I say, the game isn’t short on collectibles, but they’re just so easy to pick up. If you nab a few on your way to each objective (which you naturally will as you traverse the city, thanks to the minimap), it won’t be long before you find that you’ve got them all.

When it comes to 100% completion of every district on the map, though, there’s something else you’ll need to deal with: crimes.

Once there’s nothing left to do in the city, you’re just swinging around waiting from the various types of crime to ‘spawn,’ and that’s not a good time.

9 A Real Pacing Problem

Yet again, people are going to have wildly differing opinions on this one, but another issue that often rears its head is the game’s pacing.

I can totally appreciate the fact that we start the game right in the thick of things. We don’t get to see Peter Parker being bitten by a radioactive spider for the umpteenth time, and we don’t need to. It’s straight into action with a veteran Spider-Man.

While I’m on board with this, the game tends to follow quite a repetitive formula. It’s all about big setpiece moments, in between protracted periods of samey mob-bashing and police-saving.

8 Timed Stealth? What In Heckola Are You Trying To Pull Here?

We’ve already touched on the challenges, and how different players will have problems with different ones (then there are those who will deny ever having any trouble with any of them, because there are always those people).

The drone challenges are a popular grievance, but I struggled the most with the stealth ones. It’s the time limit that caused me all the trouble. When that’s so important to your final score, the game’s perch takedowns and the like are just impractical. You’re forced to try and string together web strike takedowns, which is hardly an elegant solution.

7 Open World Woes

We’ve also already covered the City of New York itself, which Insomniac has realized in impressive fashion in the game. Naturally, compromises had to be made and certain things were scaled down, but all in all, it’s an impressive technical achievement. The resultant city is a joy to just get lost in.

Is it particularly impressive compared to the things other vast open world games are also doing, though? I’d say not. The collectibles, as I say, are nothing out of the ordinary, and these sorts of free-roam world are ten a penny these days.

6 Is It Just My Eyes?

Another factor we’ve already touched on is the way that the DLC was pushed so heavily before the game was even released. I mean, sure, I’m down for extra content being created and delivered after launch. If it’s had the same love and attention lavished on it as the main game, I’ll support that. Let’s get through the launch before you start foisting it on us, though.

Early this September, there was a huge controversy over whether the game’s visuals had been downgraded.

As WccfTech reports, this is nothing new for a big 2018 release (and has since been largely debunked), but the drama left a foul taste in some players’ mouths.