Insomniac Games made headlines earlier this summer when it revealed its hotly anticipated Spider-Man title would not allow players to kill people. For a crime-fighting game, that sentiment felt silly—especially now, when the popular trend is to re-imagine superheroes as “realistic,” grimdark, or otherwise tortured psychopaths who do murder. But , out September 7, makes kindness feel good. In the 20-plus exhilarating hours of gameplay the PS4 exclusive offers, you’ll find yourself freed from the cynicism of our pop-culture zeitgeist, and delighted by a refreshingly unironic, wholesome experience.

That’s not to say this iteration of Spidey is flimsy. Insomniac’s take on the classic Stan Lee/Steve Ditko character evokes everything that’s good about the half-century-old youngster, slinging together a kinetic, high-energy update that’s as much a playground for adrenaline junkies as it is an intimate meditation on the growing pains of a newcomer to adulthood. Spider-Man has been a proud gaming tradition, but I think it’s safe to say that this version does it best.

Perhaps taking cues from the similarly excellent trilogy from Rocksteady Studios, Marvel’s Spider-Man does away with the tired origin story thread and instead launches with the seasoned webslinger in his prime. There’s no lengthy tutorials, no flying-through-hoops training modules, and although he’s not voiced by Tom Holland or Tobey Maguire, this Spider-Man feels familiar. You’ll slip right into the iconic suit, webbing up bad guys with Spidey’s well-written, wisecracking flare. The game’s expansive, open-world setting feels dynamic and as intuitive as ever on the trusty DualShock controller.

Marvel

You’ll come to know and love the Peter Parker of Spider-Man, too. The game offers a significant (albeit sometimes tedious) amount of playtime outside the red, blue, and black suit, letting you navigate the exploits of a good-natured college graduate with too many people who care about him and not enough time on his hands.

You’ll find yourself freed from the cynicism of our pop-culture zeitgeist, and delighted by a refreshingly unironic, wholesome experience.

The storyline has echoes of Sam Raimi’s beloved take on the franchise with Maguire in 2002. Their trilogy excelled in its portrayal of a young, well-intentioned sap struggling just to make it in Manhattan, and Insomniac's Peter Parker, lovingly voiced by Yuri Lowenthal, swings much to the same tune. Some of the game’s most enjoyable missions burden the player with sorting through the mayhem of dinner reservations, birthday parties, and in one memorable sequence, recovering lost personal items through the real-life terror of New York City’s Department of Sanitation customer service hotline.



It’s in this way that Insomniac took special care to emotionally ground the carnage of Spider-Man: It firmly roots the violence of vigilantism in the next-door sincerity of Peter Parker. Unlike other choose-your-own-adventure titles that may allow you to cause senseless destruction and beat up civilians on the street for fun, Marvel’s Spider-Man makes you eager to do right by Peter. He’s the moral center to which the complex web of trauma, crime, and gang warfare is tethered, and about as vulnerable as he’s ever been. This is not a game that makes you want to kill anyone.



Marvel

Spider-Man will undoubtedly face heavy comparison to the Arkham trilogy. It’s hard to play an open-world superhero game with a multi-layered plot dominated by an iconic rogues gallery and a hero whose personal life is colliding head-first with his vigilante persona, and not think of the sultry, smoke-covered streets of Batman: Arkham City. The Batman games are so exceedingly elegant and well-crafted that they’ll probably go down as the definitive take on the character. In the case of Spider-Man, the comparison is welcome, as this game does for the Marvel icon what Rocksteady did for the Dark Knight.

And compared to other video games, it's a welcome dose of escapism from the ugly cynicism of the day. Playing out murderous fantasies in games like Grand Theft Auto V, God of War, and Far Cry 5, while invaluable for releasing pent-up rage, certainly leaves a strange taste in the mouth, especially when anger and outrage froth from every corner of social media. A wholesome experience like Insomniac's Spider-Man is unexpected—and very restorative. The best part is, if you get sick of being a nice guy, you can web-kick some ass, too.

Dom Nero Video Editor Dom Nero is a staff video editor at Esquire, where he also writes about film, comedy, and video games.

This content is created and maintained by a third party, and imported onto this page to help users provide their email addresses. You may be able to find more information about this and similar content at piano.io