Marvel's Spider-Man 2 from Insomniac games has swung into stores and is now the fastest selling title from a PlayStation studio in history, slinging 2.5 million copies in the first 24 hours.
While our friendly neighborhood Spider-Man has moved from page to screen for more than six decades, his latest outing might be the most epic yet, an interactive blockbuster built for the PlayStation 5.
The game immerses players in a fully explorable version of New York city, taking advantage of the console's solid state drive to allow seamless travel throughout multiple neighborhoods and cinematic spectacle on a scale that would be impossible on older hardware.
There's also a clue in the title, as Spider-Man 2 features two spidermen, giving the players the ability to seamlessly transition between them as they swing between skyscrapers.
Returning hero Peter Parker is joined by Miles Morales, who webheads might recognise as the star of this year's smash animation hit, Across the Spider-Verse.
Game Director Ryan Smith told Newshub that Miles' story offers the chance to tell a familiar tale from a fresh perspective.
"It's definitely a huge opportunity. I know it's something that resonates with our team and Insomniac and all of the diverse people that we have on the team, and we're really proud to support that," he said.
Bringing these characters to life on modern consoles is an enormous undertaking, with the game's blockbuster budget spent capturing actors' performances through cutting edge motion capture.
"There is a huge staff of cinematic animators at Insomniac and others that are building these story moments. They go to the motion capture stage, performance capture stage," said Smith.
"They're really coaxing those performances, directing them, imagining how they're going to play out in the sets that we have in our game. After we have all that data, there's still a whole process of integrating the visual effects, the audio effects, the lighting that really sells the moment. It's a huge team effort from beginning to end."
But Smith said it was the iconic symbiote villain Venom where his team particularly felt the pressure to ensure he was captured perfectly.
"Some of the things that were really important are the tongue, the tongue and the mouth and how his face works and how expressive it is," he told Newshub.
"We wanted Venom’s size to be impressive and scary and reflect the sort of growing power. And I think that’s the other thing, Venom is pure menace and pure power. And so once Venom has a hold of the host, there are no limits anymore."
And for those non-gamer Spider-Man fans who might be tempted to experience his story in a new medium, Smith has a simple message.
"We'd love to have you play. It's an epic spider-man adventure featuring two spider heroes in Marvel's New York the way we've always imagined it. So please pick it up and join in!"
