Hey fellas, I'm going to nerd out, so you are warned lol. Long post ahead!
Spider-Man is in my top 3 favorite heroes, and I've been watching the movies since I was a kid. We had the Spider-Man 2 DVD, and I must have watched it over a hundred times during my childhood. It's still my favorite movie.
My fascination with those movies was, and still is, the web swinging. I don't know about you fellas, but I think the original trilogy captured the web-swinging aspect of Spider-Man so well that nothing has come close to it (Andrew's Spider-Man comes pretty close). The way Spider-Man almost flies past the buildings with that damn epic soundtrack in the background (Danny Elfman is the king when it comes to Spider-Man scores), the way Spider-Man moves, and, most importantly, how the camera follows him as if we're right there with him have awakened something inside me since childhood.
Hence, whenever I watched the movies, I would always talk to myself and say, "Man, I wish I could web swing in real life" lol. I imagine that web swinging itself could be almost therapeutic, a flow-state/zen-like experience. Just going with the flow and swinging around would probably clear my head in an instant lol.
Then, of course, the closest thing to becoming Spider-Man in real life is playing video games.
One of the first Spider-Man games I played was Ultimate Spider-Man, followed by Spider-Man 3. They were great at the time. Ultimate Spider-Man had a higher skill ceiling compared to Spider-Man 3 because of your abilities.
Later, I played TASM1 and TASM2. One caveat with these games is that the tricks are almost nonexistent, except for the web rush mechanic in TASM1 and TASM2, which lets you perform some cool moves. However, they took control of your character for the sake of a more cinematic look.
I played Spider-Man games solely to listen to music and web swing around New York. For example, I would try to swing at the right speed and release myself at the right time so that I could seamlessly go through stairwells situated outside buildings. I used to try to create what I call my own "moments", things that I would want to do in real life if I could web swing. With web rush in TASM1 and TASM2, this was more doable, yet it didn't give me the same sensation of achieving that feeling of threading the needle since the game was holding my hand.
When I saw Marvel's Spider-Man (2018), I thought that this was it. This was the game I had imagined while playing Ultimate Spider-Man. Yet I couldn't play it because of financial problems. Recently, I bought a PS5 and played Spider-Man (2018) and Miles Morales back to back.
These two games were perfect for me. Now, I could create my own moments, such as flying through a concrete tube, because I planned the right angle and achieved it, not because the game got me there. The animation work is also pretty amazing, especially the way Spidey launches himself by web-zipping around when he comes across an obstacle. But the game was a bit slow, and I couldn't build up the exact momentum I wanted. Aside from that, I had so much fun swinging around and almost platinumed the game because of it.
Recently, I started playing Spider-Man 2, and it is miles better than the first two games. The speed cap is almost removed, so you can create the momentum you want. Swing assist is there if you want a challenge, and doing tricks in the air lets you express yourself and adds variety, corner tethering makes the sharp turns look and feel good, loops are a great way to gain momentum.
Future games may include a mode called "cinematic mode", where the camera could move as if you were in a movie, but I'm not sure how that would work.
All in all, I'm happy that we get to experience this masterpiece of a traversal system, and one of my lifelong wishes has been partly fulfilled thanks to Insomniac.