We’re about a month out from the release of Marvel’s Spider-Man 2, a PlayStation 5 exclusive that developer Insomniac Games promises will be the ultimate derring-do in superhero gaming.
If that sounds like pure hype, remember that Insomniac’s previous two titles in the series — Marvel’s Spider-Man (2018) and Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales (2020) — were well-received by critics and fans, who appreciated the freedom Insomniac granted players to swing around Manhattan, complete missions in their preferred order, and take selfies in Battery Park while passersby either high-five Spidey or glitch into a nearby bush.
All jokes aside, there were relatively few performance issues after the day-one patches for the previous chapters, which is a miracle considering how fast you can progress through the map and how much information the console has to process in order for players’ webs to catch the next building.
For the new sequel, throw in an expanded map that includes Queens and Brooklyn, the ability to switch between playing as Peter Parker and Miles Morales, an even deeper combat system encouraged by your sticky symbiote buddy, and legendary baddies Kraven the Hunter and Venom.
You can see why people are excited. In fact, we’d wager that Insomiac’s work on this series might one day be comparable to Rocksteady’s near-perfect adaptation of Batman for the Arkham trilogy, one of the most celebrated superhero gaming series of all time.
But which version of Spider-Man 2 should you preorder? Besides the regular version, there’s a more expensive Deluxe Edition that comes with a set of exclusive costumes.
What suits are only available with the Deluxe Edition?
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Some of these suits look pretty wild, but many are subtle references to previous moments across Marvel comics, movies, and games, per Game Rant.
For example, the Tactical Suit’s white and red motif might be a nod to the 2018 Spider-Man‘s Advanced Armored Suit, the Track Suit in 2020’s Miles Morales, or even Miguel O’Hara’s Parker Industries Suit that featured in the Spider-Man 2099 comics.
How about the Aurantia Suit? The yellow detailing definitely serves Iron Spider vibes (from the MCU films), but it appears to be a deeper cut than that: The black undersuit matched with the red padding and yellow accents seems to be based on the Integrated Suit from Spider-Man: No Way Home, where Tom Holland’s Iron Spider nanites assimilate with Doc Ock’s tentacles and create an updated costume.
The hood on the Red Spectre Suit recalls Spider-Gwen’s (or Spider-Woman’s) costume in the animated Spider-Verse films, while the Apunkalyptic Suit is a clear reference to Spider-Punk, AKA Hobie Brown, from this year’s Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse. And hey, doesn’t the Encoded Suit look a lot like Yellowjacket in the Ant-Man films?
We won’t spoil all the references. Just know that the Deluxe Edition will only make you nerdier, which is a great reason to select that version of the game if you have enough funds. If not, we guess you’re stuck with the core version of what promises to be a really great game. Win-win.
Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 arrives on Oct. 20 for the PlayStation 5.
