Insomniac’s Spider-Man is quickly becoming one of my favorite games of 2018 because it’s Insomniac’s Spider-Man. It’s not simply another game with Spider-Man’s face on it, nor is it just another superhero game; it’s a game with its own identity that succeeds at what it sets out to do, and superbly at that. I’ve been an outside observer of Marvel canon for years, but for the first time, I feel deeply invested in these characters and excited to learn more about this superhero and his associates.
That’s what I’d expect any good game built around a character from another form of media to do. It makes logical business sense for a huge comic publisher to use games as a gateway to pull new enthusiasts into their main audience. I’ll gladly embrace that if there’s a lot to love about both that IP and the game itself, as is the case with both Insomniac’s Spider-Man and Spidey’s exploits elsewhere.
But many licensed games have done more to repulse us. Even the phrase “licensed game” carries a stigma that paints them as lazy cash-ins because that’s exactly what many of them have been conceived as for a long time. That has gradually changed over the years thanks to hits like Rocksteady’s Batman: Arkham Asylum. Uncoincidentally, that game shares one major trait with Spider-Man that sets them both apart from others — they had both the resources and the creative freedom to reach their full potential.
Source: Destructoid It’s time to give licensed games more creative freedom