Bryan Intihar, the senior creative director of Insomniac Games, has responded to the once-again divisive stealth missions of Mary Jane Watson in Marvel’s Spider-Man 2.
In an interview with IGN, Intihar explained why Insomniac Games brought back the MJ stealth missions from the first PlayStation Spider-Man game after their poor reception from critics and fans. “We had two choices,” Intihar said. “We could say, ‘All right, we’ll make it easy and just not do it.’ And everybody would go, ‘Great. No MJ missions.’ Or we could say, ‘Hey, we’ve talked about showing the world from all different angles. We’re going to make her moments better.”
As a response to the negative feedback on the MJ stealth missions, Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 makes the controversial decision to equip the red-headed supermodel with a stun gun to knock out unsuspecting enemies. The weapon, as some players see it, is more powerful than the two Spider-Mans (Peter Parker and Miles Morales) combined. Intihar argues the stun gun addition was made to make MJ a “proactive, capable person” in the game and “if she’s a little OP, I don’t give a sh**. She’s fine. I don’t care.”
Intihar also opened up about an early gameplay concept for the original Marvel’s Spider-Man game involving MJ. “In Spider-Man 1, there was a really, really early, super-early in development, we never made it, but it was part of a story treatment where Pete was going to be injured, and he could barely walk,” Intihar said. “She was going to actually try to get him to safety, and she was going to grab one of his web-shooters and she was going to put it on, actually fire at enemies that were trying to get to them but that never happens. I think that’s where the web-shooter idea came from, because I was like, ‘Let’s give her the ability to stun enemies in the first mission.'”
Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 is now available on the PlayStation 5 and PlayStation 4 consoles. It features numerous nods to the Marvel comic book franchise while also paying tribute to the late Black Panther actor Chadwick Boseman. New Game Plus Mode is expected to be released before the end of the year.
Insomniac Games is also working on a PlayStation-exclusive Wolverine game. The PS5 Wolverine game will take place in the same universe as Marvel’s Spider-Man.
Source: IGN
