What did you think of Spider-Man PS4's take on Octavius?

[Hybrid]

Just in case:

Spoilers below.

One of the key aspects that highlights Spider-Man PS4 being Insomniac's take on the Marvel Universe and not just a straight adaptation of the comics is how they portrayed Otto Octavius. In this game, Dr. Otto Octavius is the mentor to the young Peter Parker, who Peter works for at his start-up laboratory, and Peter looks up to him as a sort of father figure. He's also the co-founder of Oscorp alongside Norman Osborn, before Osborn kicked him out, causing him to turn to bitterness and eventually, villainy. Not only that, but in the comics, and in most other version, Doc Ock is one of Spider-Man's earliest villains, but in this game, Spider-Man never encounters him until after eight years of experience in being a superhero. We all know he becomes Doctor Octopus and forms the Sinister Six, and drives the plot forward the whole way through, until Spider-Man's final showdown with him.

It was an interesting, but different take, and I honestly thought Peter's respect for Octavius was better written than the MCU version's respect for Tony Stark. Also, you can sympathize with him on a level, while still rooting against his evil actions. I felt bad for him when even after everything, Doc Ock can't even get Osborn to confess the truth and beg, who instead gives Otto a scathing speech about his inferior he is. Likewise, I legitimately felt bad when I was fighting him in the end, where you can feel Spidey's anguish in having been betrayed by the man he respects, especially upon the revelation that Otto knew he was Spider-Man the whole time and was manipulating him, which further led to the events unfolding, including Aunt May's death.

It wasn't something you normally see in a Spider-Man story, yet it felt natural.

But that's my opinion. What about you guys?

[Snoop Dogg]

Well, he was okay as a tragic villain, but I do like that he transitions into a more big brained greasy **** towards the end. The boss fight is a tad underwhelming, but that's every boss in the game. The climax's scenes are still great and it's a nice setpiece. His designs solid, I like how they integrated the yellow through the arms to go with the green. Overall, pretty good, but for a Doc Ock it seems his dignity and honor receded alongside with his hairline.

[Snoop Dogg]

Oh, and unless they're gonna do something like Superior or somethin', I don't care if he shows up again. I really wanna see the other five boys return, though.

[Lukmendes]

Oh, and unless they're gonna do something like Superior or somethin', I don't care if he shows up again. I really wanna see the other five boys return, though.

Considering that the game was building up Norman becoming Green Goblin, and Harry probably having the symbiote, I don't think the next game will really use Otto.

Since this time around it looks like Norman and Harry get along, I wonder if we'll have a Green Goblin/Venom team up...

Oh well, I don't really tend to care much about adaptations making a character tragic, but what they did with Otto was interesting, giving decent explanations on how he managed to get those arms was nice, wish he was a harder boss though, he's rather simple and slow for a character who kept overwhelming Spidey in their battles lol.

[Revolutionary_Jack]

I think the fact that PS4 Otto has the same hairstyle as Mao Zedong is telling.

The game obviously felt they needed to do Dr. Octopus and consolidate previous takes like Spider-Man 2 into an adaptation add o it worked well there. It’s great for the purposes of the game. And obviously it provided stakes at the end.

I think it’s a better approach than Spider-Man 2 to be honest, where Molina’s Otto has no personal culpability got his actions being a meat puppet to his tentacles leadings to a finale where Peter has to redeem his soul or some nosh. Here Otto has agency and culpability and he’s beyond redemption at the end.

[SuperiorIronman]

Otto is by far my favorite incarnation of the character simply because of Insomniac's approach to him being what it was. You're not quite sure when the turn to villainy occurred but we know it had been brewing to varying degrees for awhile. Peter can also have a role in his turn as well. The lab mini-games where you do the puzzles before Doctor Octopus is helping him build the tech needed for later on in the game. Doing it before Peter thinks he's helping his friend and mentor, afterwards results in Peter figuring out what Otto was up to. It's a neat touch and adds so much if you help Otto out before you beat the game. It does feel like a great dichotomy between Otto and Peter that they'd help each other out before they begin slapping each other around with the things they made for each other. It also helps that Otto's backstory is not only sympathetic, but able to be actively be involved in as the player even if it's just extra dialogue and mini-games. Basically building a relationship with the character before it all goes wrong that makes the ending hit even harder.

[Frontier]

I like that the game made him sympathetic and likeable but still made his turn into a crazed and delusional Supervillain believable and memorable, and didn't try to make apologies for him like we were getting a lot of around then.

He was a good man who turned himself into a monster.

I also think they did a great job of adapting the Ock look, and William Salyers really channeled Peter MacNicol's Ock in the best way possible.

Oh, and unless they're gonna do something like Superior or somethin', I don't care if he shows up again. I really wanna see the other five boys return, though.

They had Otto comment on Peter's body. They didn't use Superior as an alt suit. I would not be surprised if we see it happen in some form.

But with all the other villains future games will probably use, the only member of the Six I expect to return is Negative since Miles has a personal beef with him. Toomes was on his last legs anyways.

[Hybrid]

I wish we got to see more of Vulture and Electro. I really liked their dynamic as two bad guys who got along well as friends, what little we saw of them. It was a good contrast to how Rhino and Scorpion could barely stand to work together and constantly insulted each other. Sadly, we really only saw them in the Raft mission and their one fight, compared to the other two getting multiple appearances.

So I wouldn't be surprised if the other members of the Sinister Six show up again, if only because having powered goons around is always useful.

[Lukmendes]

They had Otto comment on Peter's body. They didn't use Superior as an alt suit. I would not be surprised if we see it happen in some form.

But with all the other villains future games will probably use, the only member of the Six I expect to return is Negative since Miles has a personal beef with him. Toomes was on his last legs anyways.

There's also the fact his body is dying and he's losing movement, think he'd lose the capacity to move his body in like, an year.

I think even if Superior isn't done, they'll use that weird phase where he had extra arms and his body was more covered, basically not moving.

But yeah, Superior is likely to happen, or at least Otto getting a clone body, specially since it sounds like clone saga didn't happen (Since there's some random dialogue where Peter says he wishes he could clone himself, and considering that if a clone saga happens, Peter gets sore about clones, yeah, it probably didn't happen).

Toomes having that cancer could be more of an excuse so he has a reason to work with Otto, it could've been cured off-screen, weird if so though lol.

[Jman27]

i mean it was ok we already had the similar feels during Spider-man 2 just with more time to develop. I dont think they did anything too different from what we normally get from him

[Snoop Dogg]

Toomes was on his last legs anyways.

[ChrisIII]

Too bad he was nowhere to be found in the prequel novel (Which set up Kingpin's arrest). I wonder if this was because of some last-minute change or something?

[Frontier]

Too bad he was nowhere to be found in the prequel novel (Which set up Kingpin's arrest). I wonder if this was because of some last-minute change or something?

I don't think they wanted to spoil that Peter was working with Doctor Octopus before the game came out.

i mean it was ok we already had the similar feels during Spider-man 2 just with more time to develop. I dont think they did anything too different from what we normally get from him

I don't think it needed to. In fact, I think the strength of it was how the interpretation became surprisingly more traditional the more it went along.

[Hugo Strange]

Ock is good, the problem is Peter.

Otto tried to kill an entire city (at the very least) because of a rivalry with one single person. There is no goodness in genocide.

[Revolutionary_Jack]

Ock is good, the problem is Peter.

Otto tried to kill an entire city (at the very least) because of a rivalry with one single person. There is no goodness in genocide.

And he killed Aunt May, canno tv i I mahine his redemption is possible or acceptable after that.

I honestly don’t want Superior Trash in the games. I hope they don’t do it and I think they won’t mostly because it’s extremely difficult to imagine a publisher sinking money into a game where you aren’t Peter for the majority of the game. Which is what you need to do to adapt Superior in full. Maybe a DLC campaign but not more than that. And anyway Kraven’s last hunt is more suited.

Or you could have Ock hijack Miles since an even younger Spider-Man makes more sense did the same reason it did in Life Story and that version wouldn’t work because there the story becomes Get Out...