Starting February 17, 2026, PlayStation Plus Extra and Premium subscribers can download Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 at no additional cost. This is Insomniac Games’ crown jewel — a PS5 exclusive that launched at $70 in October 2023 and has been sitting at a 90 on Metacritic ever since. If you’ve been holding off, your patience just paid off in a massive way.
What Is Marvel’s Spider-Man 2?
The sequel to both 2018’s Marvel’s Spider-Man and 2020’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales, this game lets you play as both Peter Parker and Miles Morales across an expanded version of New York City. The story centers on two major threats: Kraven the Hunter, a ruthless predator who’s arrived in NYC to hunt the city’s most dangerous supervillains, and the alien symbiote that bonds with Peter and transforms him into something darker.
If you played either of the previous games, you already know the formula — open-world action-adventure with an emphasis on fluid web-swinging traversal and flashy combat. But Spider-Man 2 pushes everything further than its predecessors in ways that actually matter.
The Web-Swinging Is the Best It’s Ever Been
Let’s start with what you’ll spend the most time doing: getting around. Spider-Man 2 introduces Web Wings, a wingsuit that lets you glide between buildings using wind tunnels scattered across the city. Combined with the existing web-swinging mechanics, traversal feels genuinely varied for the first time. You’re not just holding R2 and swinging in a rhythm anymore — you’re chaining swings into wingsuit glides, launching off buildings, and threading through gaps between skyscrapers at absurd speeds.
The PS5’s SSD eliminates loading screens almost entirely. Fast travel is instant — not “pretty fast,” not “a short loading screen.” Instant. You open the map, pick a spot, and you’re there. It’s the kind of technical achievement that sounds small on paper but completely changes how you interact with the open world. You stop avoiding fast travel because there’s no penalty for using it.
The expanded map now includes Brooklyn and Queens alongside Manhattan, roughly doubling the playable area from the first game. More importantly, the new neighborhoods feel distinct. Coney Island’s boardwalk, the residential streets of Queens, the industrial waterfront — it’s not just Manhattan with a different coat of paint.
Combat Actually Has Depth Now
The first Spider-Man game had a fun combat system that eventually became repetitive. You’d dodge, punch, use a gadget, and repeat. Miles Morales added bioelectric powers that spiced things up, but the core loop was similar.
Spider-Man 2 solves this by giving each character meaningfully different combat styles. Peter gets the symbiote suit, which adds brutal, heavy-hitting attacks with tendrils that can grab multiple enemies at once. Miles’ bioelectric powers have been expanded with new abilities like a chain lightning that jumps between targets and a thunder burst that clears entire rooms.
You can swap between Peter and Miles at almost any point during free roam with a quick button press. Each has their own skill tree, their own suit abilities, and their own feel. Peter hits harder and wider; Miles is faster and more precise. Boss fights — particularly the Kraven encounters — are genuinely challenging and require you to use your full toolkit rather than just mashing square.
The parry system is the real game-changer. Enemies now telegraph attacks that you can parry with precise timing, opening them up for devastating counters. It transforms combat from “dodge everything” to a more aggressive, risk-reward style that rewards paying attention to enemy animations. It’s clearly inspired by the Arkham games and Sekiro, and the implementation is excellent.
The Story Is Better Than It Has Any Right to Be
Without spoiling anything major: this is a story about Peter Parker losing himself to power and Miles having to step up. The symbiote arc is handled with surprising emotional weight. Peter’s transformation isn’t just a gameplay mechanic — it’s reflected in his relationships, his dialogue, and the way the city reacts to him. Mary Jane, Harry Osborn, and the supporting cast all get meaningful screen time.
The game runs about 15-20 hours for the main story, with another 20+ hours of side content if you want to see everything. The side missions are a mixed bag — some are genuinely great character-driven stories (the Flame missions, the Mysterio sequences), while others are standard open-world busywork (collect these tech crates, clear these enemy bases). But even the weaker side content is elevated by the combat and traversal systems.
The pacing stumbles in the middle third, where the symbiote storyline takes a backseat and you’re mostly doing Kraven-related missions that feel like filler. But the final act brings everything together in a sequence of boss fights and story beats that rival anything in the superhero game genre.
How Does It Look and Run?
There are two graphics modes: Fidelity (4K, 30fps, full ray tracing) and Performance (dynamic resolution, 60fps, limited ray tracing). The Performance mode is the way to play. At 60fps, the web-swinging and combat feel noticeably better, and the visual difference between modes is minimal during actual gameplay. You’ll notice it in photo mode comparisons, not while you’re mid-combat.
The DualSense implementation deserves a mention. Adaptive triggers provide subtle resistance during web-swinging, the speaker plays phone calls and ambient sounds, and the haptic feedback during symbiote attacks adds a satisfying weight to every hit. It’s one of the better uses of the PS5 controller outside of Astro’s Playroom.
Is It worth claiming?
This is an easy yes, and honestly one of the biggest games Sony has ever added to the Extra catalog. Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 still retails for $50+ digitally. It’s a polished, content-rich action game that does almost everything well and a few things brilliantly.
If you liked the first Spider-Man or Miles Morales, this is a straight upgrade in every department. If you’re new to the series, you can jump in here — there’s a story recap at the beginning, though you’ll get more out of the emotional beats if you’ve played the previous games.
If you don’t have a PS5, this obviously isn’t for you. And if you’re not a PS Plus Extra subscriber, you’ll need to weigh whether the $14/month subscription is worth it for this alone. (It probably is, given the rest of the February lineup includes Test Drive Unlimited Solar Crown and Neva.)
Who Is This Game For?
You’ll love it if: You enjoy open-world action games, you liked the Arkham Batman games, you want a visually stunning PS5 showcase, or you just want to swing through New York City at 60fps. It’s also one of the more accessible action games out there, with extensive difficulty and accessibility options.
You might skip it if: You’re burned out on open-world collect-a-thons, you have no interest in superhero stories, or you’re looking for something with deep RPG mechanics. This is a linear action game wearing an open-world costume — the exploration is fun but shallow.
The Bottom Line
Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 landing on PS Plus Extra is a genuinely big deal. This was a $70 PS5 exclusive less than two and a half years ago, and it’s now available to anyone with a $14/month subscription. The combat is tight, the traversal is exhilarating, and the story delivers when it counts. It’s not flawless — the pacing sags in the middle and some side content is forgettable — but the highs are among the best in the genre.
claim it on February 17. You won’t regret it.
Quick Facts
- Platform: PS5 only
- Available: February 17, 2026 via PS Plus Extra/Premium
- Metacritic Score: 90
- Main Story Length: 15-20 hours
- Completionist Length: 35-40 hours
- Developer: Insomniac Games
- Normal Retail Price: $49.99
