Spider-Man is chock-full of content, so instead of playing the first few hours blind, here are a few tips on how to make your experience great. It's not always about saving the city from crime, but when it is, we've got you covered in that regard, too.
Aerial acrobatics
Peter Parkour Parker has all sorts of tricks up his sleeve to traverse New York City in style. You don't need to just swing from one building to another in a simple arc. Put some flair into it! Spider-Man encourages you to take his acrobatic talents and apply them to your movement whenever possible, rewarding you with XP for doing so.
Because when you're free falling ten stories, why not make it fun with some front flips thrown in? Just look at how awesome it is in action. Insomniac did good.
You can unlock even more skills to spice up your movement through Spider-Man's skill trees, particularly the Webslinger tree. One such skill called Quick Zip allows Peter to "web zip a second time without losing any altitude." The more you unlock, the more variety you'll have in your swinging.
Back to school
Peter's been Spider-Man for several years now, meaning he's well past spending his high school days skipping class to take out a few bad guys. When he was in such a rush, he'd end up leaving behind his backpacks all around the city attached to rooftops and alleyway walls with his trusty web-slinger. Luckily for you, they're still there.
These serve as fun collectibles to go and find, but they also grant you more XP and items that give you a deeper look into Peter's early days as our friendly neighborhood Spider-Man. If you're getting tired of beating up thugs, go out and search the city for these.
Spectacular heights
You'll want to take down bases and research posts early to earn tokens. Don't save these for your endgame excursions as you clean up loose ends on the map. In order to find these, you can activate any of the many towers you'll come across that shine beacons at nearby activities and important locations. Climbing to the tops of buildings certainly rewards you with beautiful vistas of the city that never sleeps, but it also serves a functional purpose within the game as well.
Tokens are essential for unlocking new suits and upgrading Peter's gadgets. Even if you happen to love the look of his standard suit that you begin the game with, don't settle for it. Though each suit has a particular enhancement that unlocks with it, these abilities aren't actually locked to specific suits. This means that the Spider-Bro ability that comes with Stark's Spidey-suit can be used when you don any of the other suits as well. Insomniac gives players the best of both worlds: form and function. No more choosing one over the other.
Which brings us to my next tip:
Crowd control
Even with all of Spider-Man's abilities, you may still find yourself overwhelmed in a fight. To avoid this problem before you even encounter it, unlock the Spider-Bro's suit for some aid in controlling the mob. The Spider-Bro lives up to its name. It's a drone that swoops in during combat to help take the pressure off you. You shouldn't rely on it too much, however. It can stun enemies with what are akin to taser webs of some sort, but it won't do all of the heavy-lifting for you. It's up to you to finish the fight after it's stunned a group of enemies. If you're having trouble growing accustomed to Spider-Man's combat system, this could be your saving grace in the early hours.
Aside from your Spidey-suits, you won't want to ignore your gadgets either. These are crucial in your adventure. If your Spider-Bro isn't doing enough, you can utilize other gadgets like web bombs.
We'll have a couple of guides up shortly to help you unlock every suit and figure out which suit powers are the best. Until then, check out our Spider-Man: Beginner's Guide and our Spider-Man review where we gush about Insomniac's achievement.
