people that played this game. Is it really an upgrade from the first?

[Meow]

1) tell me how combat changed
2) Open world quests
3) Don't care for story I know its prob good
4) overall how much is this a step up from the first?

[F U Z I O N]

I will say this, the web swinging and increase traversal speed alone makes SM2 better than SM1. I played SM2 first and SM1 after and I wish i didn't because SM1 felt so freaking slow compared to the second game. My answer will always be yes to this question.

[XbninjaXIV]

combat and web swinging are leagues better, but story wise it is a huge letdown soon as you get halfway in

[EvilCowNinja]

It's an improvement in almost every aspect imo. The new combos make it more interesting and they revamped the gadget/ability system. My only complaint is that it's harder to heal yourself in this game during combat. In the first one, you could activate a health regen as long as your meter was filled at any amount but in this one, you can't activate a heal until your meter is full. It's more challenging because it makes you wonder if you should use a finisher or play safe and go for a heal.

Also, everyone is entitled to their own opinion but I had no problem with the main story. I absolutely enjoyed it and I even liked it more than the first one. It could be that I'm not as critical as other reviewers are but It was good enough for me to buy it again on pc, so...

[Shock_&_Awe]

1. The combat is what I would call a side-step. You lose the gadget wheel from the first two games and instead get 4 gadgets slots and 4 ability slots. The gadgets don't change, but as the story progresses you get an additional ability for each of the 4 slots (still can only have 4 equipped). There's some really great new combat mechanics/skills like the ability to disarm enemies with your webs, but outside of that nothing spectacular. There's also a new parry system which is pretty meh overall (it just feels so unsatisfying).

2. I personally think the quests are worse for the most part. There's a couple gems, but most of them were not great.

3. Story will vary. I was not a fan of how they handled the symbiote storyline, but you may love it.

4. The swinging/traversal really is the biggest improvement here. It IS better than the first game and is a lot of fun.