A huge selling point for Marvel's Spider-Man 2 was the fact that it would allow players to assume control of both Peter Parker and Miles Morales' heroes. Both Spider-Men have been the leads of their own titles in the series, but the sequel has managed to bring their stories together with the option to switch between the two on the fly while exploring New York to embark on character-specific side-missions or experiment with their different abilities.

[Warning: The following article contains spoilers for Marvel’s Spider-Man 2.]

Much like 2018's Marvel's Spider-Man, Marvel's Spider-Man 2 also has sequences in which players control other ing characters. In Marvel's Spider-Man, these sequences were stealth-based and served as a contrast to Peter Parker's superheroes by stepping into the shoes of two non-superpowered characters: Mary Jane Watson, and Miles Morales prior to the latter's fated spider bite.

5 Hailey Cooper

Street artist and love interest to Miles Morales, Hailey Cooper, is playable in the "Graffiti Trouble" side mission, which is accessed via the Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man app. Miles turns up to sort out an issue reported on the app where a shop has been tagged, but Hailey has beaten him to it and appears to have covered it with her street art. The mission then flashes back to Hailey's perspective to tell the story of how she teamed up with the struggling artist behind the tags, Kayla to help bring their vision to life.

While Hailey was only playable in this one mission, it was a unique experience as her character is deaf. Therefore, instead of there being dialogue, she sees emoji-type images to convey emotions and what items she needs to use. "Graffiti Trouble" also made good use of the Dualsense controller's features in a similar way to InFAMOUS Second Son's graffiti missions, as players have to shake the controller to accumulate the paint and use the R2 button to spray.

4 Mary Jane Watson

Players will once again be able to play missions as Mary Jane in Marvel's Spider-Man 2. These sequences have taken a significant step up from the first game's by incorporating more mechanics that shouldn't seem too unfamiliar to fans of the stealth genre, as they allow the Daily Bugle journalist to fight back against her opponents. MJ has spent more time in the field while reporting in Symkaria and has returned with a Sable pistol, which she can use as a stun-gun for non-lethal takedowns.

Much as Marvel's Spider-Man naturally progressed Mary Jane's inventory with each mission, incorporating lures to misdirect foes, and finally a stun gun in her final mission, its sequel will see similar upgrades being introduced with each mission. As Marvel's Spider-Man 2's story unfolds, Mary Jane unlocks extra stealth combat features such as a web-shooter attachment for her pistol. Unfortunately, while these improvements do make MJ's sequences more fun, they still don't quite reach the heights that come with playing as one of the game's superpowered characters.

3 Miles Morales

Miles Morales has received a significant upgrade in his abilities since players last saw him in Marvel's Spider-Man: Miles Morales. Marvel's Spider-Man 2 takes place nine months later, and while Miles still looks to Peter for guidance sometimes, it's clear that the two are able to function as equals. Miles' bioelectric Venom abilities - not to be confused with the symbiote Venom - are great fun to use as they can be used to take down entire groups with blasts or chained attacks. Miles also has the advantage of turning invisible, which is great for stealth sequences.

Miles at times feels more versatile than Peter, especially early in the game, and even though Peter has the benefit of the symbiote suit introduces an array of brand-new abilities, Miles bioelectricity gets some significant upgrades as well. So he's not left behind, Miles' powers regularly get new iterations throughout, and upgrading these through the skill tree results in some exceptionally satisfying moves, such as chaining lightning strikes between foes, or teleporting between enemies to deliver electrically charged punches. For the most part, Miles is on par with Peter, but the allure of the symbiote suit ultimately makes the latter a bit more fun to play as.

2 Peter Parker

While Miles' powers revolve around different kinds of electrical attacks, Peter Parker, however, has two very different kinds of abilities as the game progresses. Aside from his array of gadgets which he shares with Miles, Peter starts the game with some mechanical Superior Spider-Man-esque arms, which he says stemmed from his work with Otto Octavius. These are cool and can be used to quickly take down foes once charged, however, Peter's gameplay really becomes interesting when he acquires the Venom symbiote.

The symbiote may play on Peter's emotions and corrupt him as a person, causing friction with those closest to him and making him far more aggressive than usual, but it is incredibly fun to control during gameplay. The symbiote suit has a variety of brutal tendril attacks as a default that can defeat opponents in far fewer hits than usual.

Once a meter bar is filled, players can trigger a rage mode, in which the suit's appearance changes with a more angular, aggressive style that looks like a halfway point to Venom's final design as Peter can unleash attacks to clear out entire groups with ease. While Peter does give up the suit as part of Marvel's Spider-Man 2's story, Insomniac did include a narrative reason for keeping the symbiote abilities afterward through the Anti-Venom suit, which has the exact same powers gameplay-wise, but swaps out Venom's black tendrils for white ones instead.

1 Venom

After seeing how much it corrupted him, Peter tries to return the symbiote to Dr. Connors. Unfortunately, when doing so, Harry takes it back and transforms completely into Venom. While many knew Harry would become Venom prior to Marvel's Spider-Man 2's release, it comes as a great surprise when players then get to control the incredibly overpowered villain as he goes on a rampage through Oscorp and then through Times Square. Venom throws around Kraven's hunters with ease and causes incredible amounts of destruction before the sequence ends with a boss battle against Kraven.

Playing as Venom was high on many fans' wishes for Marvel's Spider-Man 2, and there was plenty of speculation prior to the game's release surrounding whether Insomniac would make the character playable in the same way he was in 2005's Ultimate Spider-Man. While the sequence is short, it is also highly effective as a storytelling technique and establishes just how much of a threat Harry has become by letting players experience his full power firsthand before having to combat it as the Spider-Men later in the game.