Spider-Man’s Web Swinging Looks Fast and Fluid
Insomniac’s upcoming Spider-Man game is set for a September 4 release and two of the studio’s team members explain the game’s web swinging in-depth in a Game Informer video.
Creative director Bryan Intihar and game director Ryan Smith describe how the game tailors button inputs during web swinging in order to reduce the amount of time the players sit idly in the air and accentuate the amount of time swinging. Inputs will be simple chainable commands that create fluid movements around the city.
The pair also claim that players won’t be hitting walls, since Spider-Man has been swinging for years. Instead, he will be catapulting off of New York City walls and free falling to reach the game’s swingable areas.
Here’s an excerpt from the video:
“It’s the number one thing we knew we had to get right. It’s the first thing we ever worked on in terms of building a Spider-Man game. It’s all come together in terms of prototype space to now you really get the sense of speed with the visual effects that are there. Similar to what we’ve thought talking about combat, we want you feel great instantly when you pick up the controller, but over time you start to see the complexity. You start to see the depth.”
Another thing they touch on is the ability to latch onto the buildings beneath you in order to regain momentum. This also prevents the problem of sticking to imaginary buildings.
In the past, Intihar said that the game isn’t going to focus on violence, instead emphasizing on traversing the living, breathing world and helping civilians.
“It’s certain scenarios we’ve put him in, certain abilities he’ll do during combat to prevent people from dying,” said creative director Bryan Intihar. “So whether it’s about deciding where stuff gets placed or how it unfolds, Spider-Man’s not gonna be killing people. That’s not the game we want to make.”
“We don’t want you to feel like you’re beating up guys just for the sake of beating up guys,” he added. “We do have scenarios where there aren’t civilians around, but we also want to push the feeling of being a hero in New York City. Spider-Man is its protector. Whether someone’s calling him a menace or not, he feels responsible for it.”
Spider-Man is set for release September 7th on the PlayStation 4.