Spider-Man: Miles Morales picks up not too long after the events of the first game, but puts players in control of the titular Miles, who is still coming to grips with his powers under the tutelage of Peter Parker. But with Peter away on assignment, Miles is left to contend with a growing threat within New York and build up his own arsenal of abilities and gadgets just like in Spider-Man PS4.
In our PS4 review for Spider-Man: Miles Morales we covered most of the nuts and bolts of the game, from the story to the design to the gameplay. On PS5, there are no noticeable changes when it comes to content – the real benefits come in the visuals and the performance. With great hardware comes great fidelity, as they say.
As with many Sony first-party titles, Spider-Man: Miles Morales offers two graphics options in its menu. One puts the focus on visuals by offering as close to native 4K as possible with some added bonuses, while the other favors performance by toning the details down a bit and keeping things running at a steady 60FPS.
In the PS4 era, the performance and visuals modes were negligibly different. Performance meant that the frame rate was a little more stable but there were still plenty of dips even on the PS4 Pro. The Visual or Graphics mode would scale up to 4K and usually, the stutters were more frequent. With Spider-Man: Miles Morales, the differences are a lot more noticeable, but neither is bad. In fact, both modes offer a great experience – it just comes down to personal preference.
Performance mode delivers a steady 60 frames per second, even while swinging around as Miles in the open world. Many PS4 games tried to hit the 60FPS goal, but they still had quite a few stutters. On PS5, Spider-Man: Miles Morales is smooth. The one key tradeoff, though, is that the visuals, while still sharp, are not as impressive.
Spider-Man: Miles Morales‘ visual mode might be the best way to play the game. With Ray Tracing turned on and tons of little effects working all over the place, the presentation is incredible. Reflections in the buildings, the sun beaming through the New York skyline, and the glow of nighttime Harlem at Christmastime all come together to make Spider-Man: Miles Morales feel truly next-gen. Even something as simple as the detail in Miles’ jacket comes alive in a way that’s only made possible by this new hardware.
That’s not to say that the performance mode is bad – plenty of gamers value a higher frame rate over anything – but personally, just a small glimpse of the visuals mode was enough to show that this is the superior way to play. It feels like a completely different game in some respects, even though this is ostensibly standalone DLC for Marvel’s Spider-Man. Admittedly, the sample size is small for now, but right now this is the best-looking PS5 game.
Alongside the beefed-up visuals, Spider-Man: Miles Morales uses the hardware of the PS5 to deliver a better-playing experience as well. The console’s SSD takes out all of those noticeable hitches or hiccups that might have been seen in last-gen open world games and the PS4 version of this game. There was no pop-in while swinging around New York at fast speeds. The game blends into and out of cutscenes (also into and out of indoor environments) effortlessly. And combat feels snappier and clearer than it does on PS4. Miles transitions into those flashy finisher cutscenes with a panache befit of “Spider-Man with electricity powers.”
Eventually, the appeal of the SSD will become old hat, but for right now and with this game, in particular, it feels significant. Spider-Man PS4 did some clever things to hide its loading screens, but they were still present. On PS5, Miles can zip across the Manhattan island in an instant. In some cases, it’s easy to see the PS5’s SSD at work, like popping into a menu to switch a Spider-Man suit, while other times the benefit is more behind the scenes and on the technical side, like the people and cars moving about on the streets below.
Spider-Man: Miles Morales is an exceptional follow-up to Marvel’s Spider-Man, even if a lot of the formula feels familiar. On PS5, though, it is a must-play just to see the potential of the new hardware and what it will offer from both a visual and a performance standpoint. For many console gamers, this will be their first taste of steady 4K 60FPS or Ray-Tracing that adds meaningful improvements to the presentation. Insomniac’s work on the game is stunning.
Spider-Man: Miles Morales releases November 12, 2020 for PS4 and PS5. Game Rant was provided a PS5 code for this review.
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