Marvel's Spider-Man 2 Character Switching Explained

Following Insomniac Games' blistering Marvel's Spider-Man 2 gameplay reveal last week, the developer has addressed how the seamless switching between Peter Parker (shown in his symbiote outfit) and Miles Morales will work.

Apparently, you'll encounter sequences during which you'll switch between Peter and Miles on-the-fly, while in the open world, you'll be able to freely change whether to play as Peter or Miles at will. A little bit like the changing between Ratchet and Rivet in Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart.

“When you're playing the main story, we control when you switch between Pete and Miles... it's done in service to the story when we're making those switches, for sure,” Creative director Bryan Intihar told Eurogamer. "So, as you saw on that gameplay reveal, which is a segment of the main story, we are predetermining those based on what we want to do for how the story plays out."

Intihar explains that it's different when exploring the open expanses of New York City. “We have content designed around Peter, we have content designed around Miles and we have content where you can play either. You'll be able to - in the open world - freely switch between them with a simple button press," he added.

"Being able to switch in the open world so quickly between the two characters is really, really awesome," Intihar went on. "Just being able to pick and choose who I want to play as for a certain activity... it's been so awesome to have that feature. [It's] something we probably wouldn't have explored previously."

Character switching is no mere gimmick either, with its own shared skill tree for Peter and Miles among the three available skill trees in Spider-Man 2. “We want to make sure that when you do switch between the heroes, there's a sense of familiarity,” said Game Director Ryan Smith.

"They're both Spider Man, you know how to play the game, but you still have that flexibility in that customisation for upgrading each of them with their [skill trees]," Smith added. “We saw in the gameplay reveal where Miles has the evolved Venom powers, whereas Peter has the Symbiote abilities. And so those, those change a bit of how you play, and you can upgrade those in their respective trees as well.”

Marvel's Spider-Man 2 is slated for an autumn 2023 release for PS5, with September heavily rumoured.