Insomniac Games‘ upcoming Spider-Man 2 PS5 game just got an unsurprising rating.
The highly anticipated sequel will see the return of both Peter Parker and Miles Morales as they take on the likes of Kraven the Hunter—a vicious killer who has come to pull off his greatest hunt yet.
Kraven isn’t the only baddie in town either. The fan-favorite Venom Symbiote will also be grabbing the spotlight. Before the Symbiote gets to be the monstrous villain fans know and love, it will first be giving Spider-Man his iconic and absolutely stunning black suit.
Peter’s struggle with the Symbiote costume is a classic Spidey story, and this time around, Insomniac “looked at addiction in people” when figuring out how to portray the hero in his struggle against the alien parasite.
Spider-Man 2 Age Rating Confirmed
A new listing on the Entertainment Software Ratings Board (ESRB) website revealed that Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 on PlayStation 5 is, unsurprisingly, rated T for Teen.
The explanation given by the ESRB teased gameplay with “special symbiote-based and electricity-based attacks” and how some of the game’s many attacks “result in small splashes of blood.”
Cutscenes will include sequences that see “a character choked to death… a dead body turned over” and “blood drops on a leaf.”
The full rating description can be read below:
“This is an action game in which players assume the roles of Peter Parker and Miles Morales/Spider-Men as they attempt to save New York City from a new threat. From a third-person perspective, players fight crime, swing around buildings, and engage in melee-style combat with enemies. Characters mostly punch, kick, and throw each other during fights; central characters can use special symbiote-based and electricity-based attacks on enemies. Some enemies use pistols and/or machine guns during combat; gunshots sometimes result in small splashes of blood. Cutscenes depict further instances of violence/blood: a character choked to death; a dead body turned over; blood drops on a leaf. In some crime missions, characters can be seen trading unnamed drugs for weapons; drug packages can be seen in a car trunk. The words ‘pr*ck’ and ‘a*s’ appear in the game.”
Spider-Man 2’s Darker Themes
While the T-rating isn’t a surprise in the slightest, and it remains unchanged from previous entries, fans should still expect Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 to be darker than the previous games.
Whenever the symbiote is involved with Spidey’s lore, the story tends to get darker. With Insomniac using addiction as inspiration for how Peter Parker acts, the hero will no doubt be in for a rough patch in his life.
It could get so bad that his relationship with Mary Jane could be seriously damaged—a constant trend for poor Peter Parker. Maybe his friendship with Harry Osborn might fare better.
Once Kraven the Hunter is added, someone who wants nothing more than to kill the Spider-Men for sport, fans will be left with a story that’s anything but light and breezy.
Of course, while things will be darker, fans should not have expected something M-rated. Spidey’s never one to have been ripping off limbs or pulling heads clean from their shoulders.
Spider-Man 2 hits PS5 on October 20, 2023.
