Is Spider-Man 2 multiplayer co-op on PS5? With both Miles Morales and Peter Parker being the Spider-Men of New York, it would be great to swing around with a friend and take on the different criminals causing chaos. Given you can see whichever Spider-Man you’re not playing swinging around the city as well, it’s not too far of a stretch to picture Spider-Man 2 mutliplayer or Spider-Man 2 co-op working really well.
As one of the best PS5 exclusives – something we confirmed in our glowing Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 review – it’d be phenomenal to explore the Big Apple with a pal or loved one, and revel in being able to meet all the Spider-Man 2 PS5 characters together. But is Spider-Man 2 PS5 multiplayer co-op actually a thing? Read on to find out if you’ll need to pick up another of the best PS5 controllers for your wall-crawling partner, or if you’ll have to play one of the best games in solitude.
Is Spider-Man 2 multiplayer co-op on PS5?
Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 PS5 does not feature multiplayer co-op and is purely a single-player adventure, meaning you can’t play with friends. This has been confirmed both by Insomniac Games on its official Twitter account, and The Loadout during our review playthrough.
Considering the fact that both of the previous games in the Insomniac series had no multiplayer elements whatsoever, it shouldn’t come as a surprise as disappointing as it may be. As much as we’d love to see a co-op game where you can swing and fight across New York with a friend, it seems Insomniac Games has focused solely on creating a solid single-player story. This is it’s bread and butter, after all.
However, imagine this for a moment. Both you and your friend are swinging in different parts of the city, and whoever is playing as Peter Parker is taking on an enemy base that they’re struggling to complete. Then, your friend playing as Miles Morales swings in to help, and you can perform tag-team finishers and use a variety of gadgets together. We think just about everyone would agree that would be pretty amazing. You could even host a fashion show for all the great-looking Spider-Man 2 PS5 suits, as Peter and Miles have vastly different designs.
After learning that whichever Spider-Man you’re not playing as will be exploring and stopping crimes in the background, many hoped this would open the door for Spider-Man PS5 co-op action, but no. While the other Spider-Man won’t just disappear and can be found doing what Spider-Man does, they will still be controlled by the game as an NPC, rather than another player.
However, developing games – especially AAA behemoths – doesn’t come cheap, and requires a ridiculous amount of peoplepower. If Spider-Man 2 PS5 multiplayer co-op were to feature, it would have likely resulted in the game having to be redesigned from the ground up as a co-op game, balancing around potentially having two players fighting or solving puzzles.
Moreover, it would likely get in the way of the narrative unless concessions were made. For example, what would happen if the Spider-Men were separated, or if one simply wasn’t active in a certain mission? Either the story would have to be changed to accommodate the possibility of two players, or you’d have to deal with your immersion being broken.
And yes, while Insomniac could have kept things casual with online free roam, perhaps opening up opportunities for smaller repeatable missions or inconsequential side quests that would have no impact on the game’s canon, it would most likely become boring very quickly.
Additionally, there’s the simple fact that Spider-Man 2’s campaign is so good that lazily implementing multiplayer on top would do this incredible piece of game craftsmanship a great disservice. Unless it results in us taking out Venom with a one-two combo, we don’t wanna know about it.
We’ve also seen how poor co-op implementation can impact an experience with Marvel’s Avengers, Gotham Knights, and even the yet-to-be-released Suicide Squad: Kill The Justice League. These games have all suffered from a co-op framework that’s not been handled correctly.
Ultimately, it’s for the best that Insomniac chose to focus on the narrative and maintain the vision of a story-driven single-player game. We can only hope that a multiplayer co-op Spider-Man game comes in the future and that it’s done right.
That covers all you need to know about the lack of Spider-Man 2 multiplayer co-op in the PS5 exclusive. If you’re planning to swing into Marvel’s Spider-Man 2, even without multiplayer co-op, you can check out our guide on the Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 villains to see who you’ll be able to take on in-game. If you’re patiently waiting for Spider-Man 2 new game plus to arrive, then be sure to check out some of the other best PS5 open world games that you can pass the time with. Happy web-slinging!