Marvel's Spider-Man Remastered

Marvel's Spider-Man Remastered arrived on Xbox Series X|S years after its original release for PlayStation, yet it remains one of the best-crafted open-world action-adventures on the market to this day. The player steps into the role of Peter Parker, who as an experienced but weary Spider-Man fights New York's underworld led by the mysterious organization Sinister Six, while also dealing with personal problems in his civilian life and relationships with the people close to him, including a complicated relationship with Aunt May. Swinging through the city using webs is one of the genre's best-executed mechanics—fast, fluid, and carrying a real sense of weight, momentum, and acrobatic freedom while leaping between Manhattan's skyscrapers.

The combat system builds on fluidly chaining strikes, dodges, and improvised use of the environment, somewhat similar to the Batman: Arkham series, but with its own acrobatic identity full of web gadgets and flashy enemy finishing moves. On Xbox Series X|S, the game runs with ray-traced reflections in skyscraper windows, and in performance mode it hits a high frame rate, which comes through strongly during fast combat as well as while flying through a city full of detail and sky reflections. New York is rendered in fine detail, packed with side activities, research stations, pigeon quests, and smaller story vignettes that flesh out side characters and their fates in the New York underworld.

The game was already critically acclaimed at its original release, and even years later it remains among the titles that best define the superhero game genre and set the standard for open-world movement mechanics. On the new console generation it particularly shines through its smoothness, shorter loading times, and visual quality, making it one of the essential stops for any Xbox Series X|S owner interested in action-adventures and stories about superheroes with a human face.

Why play it: Its smoothness, shorter loading times, and visual quality on the new generation make it one of the essential stops for any Xbox Series X|S owner interested in superhero action-adventures.