Marvel’s Spider-Man vs. Red Dead Redemption 2: Which Is The Better Sandbox Experience?

Author compares two of the biggest open-world games of this generation to see which is the better sandbox experience. "Despite the smaller size and more streamlined experience, it’s in this frank simplicity that Spider-Man may have an edge over Red Dead Redemption 2."

[ApocalypseShadow]

Why is this a question? I can play both on PS4.

[NarutoFox]

I agree. But what about the gamers that don't have a PS4

[NecrumOddBoy]

Well based on the question then it's got to be Spider-Man since that is a sandbox game and Red Dead Redemption is an open world game.

[roadkillers]

^ maybe I don't understand Sandbox vs Openworld...

I'm pretty sure in a sandbox you create your own creations with the tools and catshit they give you. In open-world I believe your just free to roam..Am I wrong? Was I funny?

[SierraGuy]

Who cares about them!

[InTheZoneAC]

SUCKS TO BE THEM! their choice

[russo121]

Sell the console they own and buy a PS4?

[Seraphim]

I'll add to that saying why is this a question when both are so different and entertaining in their own rights. Spidermans & it's sandbox was an absolute blast. So was Red Deads. But respectfully great. And as someone else pointed out, Sand box, Open World... Both were absolutely classics imho and I had equal fun playing them both. From getting the Platinum in Spiderman to having over a 90% total completion of RDR2 having done all the Legendary Hunts, Fish, and many other side objectives...

[nowitzki2004]

Which is better? to be honest seems like an ok question to me to be honest

[Antnee534]

Spiderman imo

[Rambokind]

Uh, no.

[Brave_Losers_Unite]

Literally one your comments:
"Yeah, you can go f*ck yourself, dude. Ppl have a right to their opinion, deal with it."
This is like a Donald Trump level of hypocrisy

[russo121]

@Rambo

You've the right to be in silence, LoL.

[UltraNova]

Purely as a sandbox? Its RDR2 due to its sheer size, stuff to do and see in the game but I find Spiderman a lot more satisfying and fun to play (controls and traversal) than RDR2.

The reality is these two games cannot be compared, RDR2 was in development for far longer, with several hundred, if not thousands of devs working on it and with an unlimited budget...the inly sire thing is that both are great games in their own right, end of story.

[RememberThe357]

These are the two games I bought for fall and I can't get over how different they are. I was just saying last night that they're like to different mediums. Spider-Man is such a "gamey" experience, It's without a doubt more fun to play. Yet I keep picking up RDR2 instead, theres something about the way the game draws you in. The immersion is just on a completely different level. There's an escapism in RDR2 that just isn't in Spider-Man. Still Spider-Man is just packed with more fun. You can just do more with an hour in Spider-Man than you can do in RDR2, plus swinging through NY is amazingly fun. Both are fantastic games.

[bloop]

Agreed on all points. Both games do something completely different. Spider-Man is an absolute blast and RDR 2 is a game that you can get lost in for hours and hours. Both amazing games. It's like comparing apples and oranges, and to ask which is the better experience as a sandbox is a pointless question.

[stupidusername]

Was about to comment something similar, but you put it way better.
They are vastly different experiences and it’s really hard to compare them. It’s a bit like comparing a episode of the office with a episode of game of thrones and then asking which show was the most entertaining.

[TheSaint]

If only it was quicker to traverse the Red Dead sandbox. The limited fast travel hurts the game IMO.

[KickSpinFilter]

I really loved Spider-Man and have yet to play RDR2 but its RDR2

[ClayRules2012]

Lol, you haven’t played it. So how can you make that claim?

I mean, I personally find RDR2 to be the better game/more fun experience. What Rockstar crafted & delivered with RDR2 is remarkable. It’s not without its flaws, but no game is. But I wouldn’t say that unless I played the game. Spider-Man is a great game in its own right tho.

[KickSpinFilter]

It's pretty easy to say.
Now God of War vs RDR2 I can not make no such claim till I play RDR2

[DerekFlint007]

The game that provided me with the most smiles and entertainment was Spiderman. Red Dead, for me, really began to outstay it's welcome and ended up becoming a trudge and chore fest. Right up until the very end and my final shootout, after playing the title diligently, for almost a month, I was still finding myself tripping up over the awfully implemented, broken controls and clusterfu(k interface.

It was a genuine relief, as well as a breath of fresh air to get the game over and done with and get back to the Spidey dlc. On a final note, I'm glad God Of War pipped Red Dead to goty at last night's ceremony. The (GOW) development team were brave enough to take the series in a different direction with an entirely new play style and it was a gamble that really payed off. For cr@p controls, lousy combat, repetitive gameplay, bloated story and bugger!ng the ps4 Pro version, Rockstar deserve that accolade.

[EmperorDalek]

I wouldn't call it brave, if they made another God of War in the style of the older games, it would have been panned. This was the only way it could have been made. Red Dead's controls were fine, they were just weighty. Bloated story? It probably had the best story told in a game this generation.

Both RDR2 and GoW deserve it. If either of them was released in any other year this generation, either of them would have won. These are the top two games of the generation, as far as GOTY capability is concerned.

[DerekFlint007]

When I refer to the development team being brave, I mentioned about how they took the series in a different direction, this is referencing how they took the bold decision, to go with the Norse mythology setting, as well as the changes from fixed camera and combat mechanics.

You mention, if they went with the original gameplay of the previous titles, the game would have been panned. That may have been the case for some, but as they never went down that route, there is no way to conclusively determine & say either way what would have been the outcome, so that's a presumption on your part. You also say, that was the only way that the game could have been made. I'm sure that's a matter up to the developers themselves, to make whatever game style they want.

You also mention, that Red Dead's controls were fine, cleary this is not the case, as a simple search on the internet will take you to forums filled with complaints about the cumbersome controls. I have completed the game and I hated the controls. Spidey and GOW are buttery smooth to play, whereas Red Dead makes you feel like you are drowning in quicksand at times.

Yes bloated story. For me the game eventually dragged on for far too long and could have done with a decent bit of editing, to trim some content that added nothing of value.

It may seem like I'm panning the game, when in actual fact I'd score Red Dead between 9 to 9.5. Both Spidey & GOW gave me loads more enjoyment and ultimately I found Red Dead a slightly dour experience.

[stupidusername]

I’d honestly argue that Rockstar was brave aswell. People expected rdr 1 and gta 5 in the wild west. Instead they slowed the pace all the way down and focused on small interactions instead of the 'big bangs'.
I LOVED God of War, but I also LOVED Red Dead 2. I don’t like the thought in the comment sections that you have to hate the other to like the other. They are so different anyway so I don’t get why one needs to be better than the other. By which metric anyway? It’s only personal experiences, and we all experience games differently. Especially games like rdr 2 and botw where the experience is so different and not hand tailored like story driven games like last if us and god of war.

[UNCHARTED2FANATIC]

I really enjoyed spiderman far better if I'm being honest

[bluefox755]

So far I enjoyed Spiderman more. I'm only about 5 hours into RDR2, and it's not really pulling me in. I'm hoping that changes as I play more.

[gangsta_red]

I haven't played RDR2, but I am currently playing Spider-Man and at first it was fun but after while, it's now becoming tedious.

Having to swing around an open world and doing the same side missions over and over again has now become a chore instead of fun.

It's basically that open world fatigue that kicks in with these types of games with me.

Spider-Man also seemed it was aware of this and broke this up with some missions where you play as MJ or Miles, unfortunately those too consisted of just sneaking around and that was even more boring.

I'll have to play RDR2 on the faaaar future to even make this type of comparison, but I'll probably feel the same about that game knowing it's bigger than Spider-Man.

[NarutoFox]

RDR2 is a chore too but a lot more and the controls are outdated. The story can be slow and out of place sometimes too, I actually fell asleep sometimes like literally. But I still like the game.

[DrumBeat]

That's exactly why I decided to ultimately skip Spider-Man. Watching Spider-Man game play reminded me of Infamous Second Son, which was OK. It was a beautiful take on Seattle, and although the gameplay was fun and amusing, there wasn't a lot of variety in the city. This is exactly how Spider-Man looks to me. It looks like a small sandbox with great production quality, fun traversal and combat, but little variation task/gameplay-wise. Very limited and ultimately shallow.

[rainslacker]

All games have a set structure to the side missions. Some of them weren't that fun in Spider-Man though. The research stations in particular got old fast. I liked the ones that Las to combat, like the different bases, and felt they should have had more. What I hated most was the challenges though. Lucily I only had to get spectacular for the trophy. The dlc challenges were better.

Not really sure how i feel about rdr2 side missions. What I have done I haven't felt much motivation to do, and overall my OCD to complete everything isn't kicking in with the game, because it seems so tedious to go and do stuff.

[gangsta_red]

The only thing in Spider-Man I felt I had to do as a side mission was the Black Cat photos, and only because I wanted something close to the Black Venom Spider-Man suit.

But even that was a little disappointing since it didn't have any special unique abilities, which was strange. It looked good though, but I just went with the Spider-Man 2099 original suit.

"All games have a set structure to the side missions"

Open world games seem to have these tedious tasks more than anything else. I understand the design decision is to have the player explore every area, but having that player do the same thing on the other side of the map that he was doing on the opposite side has worn thin. Especially with the amount of open world games we have had this generation.

There needs to be a better design made for these open world games. The world for these games are only getting bigger, it's time to start trying different things for gamers to do in these worlds.

[rainslacker]

I didn't mind the photos so much. I just did them while i was passing through areas. I found that to be the best way to handle side missions in general instead of doing all of them as they became available, because it cut down on wasted time.

But in general, I do agree with you on the side missions of open world games. It's typically why I'm not a big fan of them. Although there have been better ones more in the past 5 odd years which have held my interest better.

[SierraGuy]

You bash PlayStation all day and at night go home and play Spiderman on PS4.

Good job.

Hypocrite.

[gangsta_red]

How else can I get a good understanding of PlayStation games so I can bash them?

[SierraGuy]

Your only lying to yourself red.

[GamingSinceForever]

The only thing that Spider Man does better is in traversal. Outside of that they aren’t comparable.

[rainslacker]

Actual combat is a lot more fun in spiderman in my opinion. The combat stuff was probably the best side mission stuff in the game. It was too easy to be overpowered by the end though. Then in turf wars they ramped up the difficulty to stupid levels if you were playing on ultimate difficulty. I could land in a combat situation and have 5 enemies take away most of my health before I even had a chance to recover from the landing.

[GamingSinceForever]

You’re right about the combat. I wasn’t thinking in terms of gameplay. I was thinking more about the world design and getting atound it.

[pyroxxx]

I love Read dead 2,.. after I started role-playing it,.. and got used of controls(kinda) and got a really fast horse,..but it is still damn slow,..

Still think I have just way more fun in Spider-Man,.. combat is just so much fun and is actually way more dynamic as Arkham games,.. Also traversal is just damn fun as hell,.. Sometimes RDR2 almost feels too big for it's own good,.. (I basically ran out of random events in the middle of the game,.. so travel got kinda boring) got the 100% trophy,.. ,.. only need 70 gold medals in sp missions,.. but kinda don't think I have an urge to replay missions 10 times each for the medals,.. almost feel I'd rather restart the whole game,.. because I really loved the story and dealing with camp,.. etc,.. Spider Man is just fun on so many levels.,..I think it is more fun as a game.

[TheColbertinator]

Different games in feel and combat entirely.

RDR2 is better

[loadstone007]

RDR2 is better as a sandbox game but Spider-Man is so much more fun. God of War, Spider-Man and only then (maybe) RDR2 for me.

[SCW1982]

Better Experience Red Dead, Better Video Game Spider-Man.

[Tross]

It depends what you're looking for as both offer a different experience, and both are great on PS4.

[Rambokind]

RDR2 by a mile. Kind of a stupid question.

[TheGrimReaper]

Spider-man by a landslide. Kind of a stupid question.

To be honest, both games are great but I don't know how to compare them...
I could compare (just as examples)
Spider-Man vs. Arkham vs. Infamous
and
RDR vs. GTA vs. Saints Row
but Spider-Man vs RDR? They are trying to achieve totally different things with the worlds they've created IMHO.

[pietro1212]

I liked the swinging around the city in Spider-Man, but that's all it really offered imo. The sidequest and collectables got really boring rather quick. RDR 2 travelling could be rather slow at times, but I enjoyed interacting with it's world more so.

[sampsonon]

spider-man because, well, it's a freaking spider-man openworld. nuff said

[AK91]

RDR 2 has a more detailed open world but Spider-Man is more fun to play because well you get to play as Spider-Man.

[ziggurcat]

Red Dead Redemption 2 is more of a sandbox than Spider-Man.

[Profchaos]

I loved Spiderman I platinumed it and brought the dlc but undoubtedly the better sandbox experience is rdr2.

The world of rdr2 constantly throws new things and random events that you haven't seen before at you while Spiderman repeats it's random events over and over for each district.

Rdr2 lets you with randoms on the street while Spiderman lets you say hello and that's about it.

Spiderman and rdr2 both had giant well detailed worlds but I think the slower pace of rdr2 let rockstar up the details a little more so graphically it's better.

Traversal is apples to oranges but both let you live out childhood fantasy's.

Spiderman had a really great narrative but rdr2 actually had me pretty emotional at points.

Things to do well a sandbox is only as good as what you can do in it and unfortunately once the district's are clear and the story is over in Spiderman you've run out of things to do but rdr2 well I could spend days still seeing new things and hunting, fishing playing around in the world.

Both are spectacular but it's rdr in my opinion

[feenix-5]

Spiderman, Next question?

[kindkinesis]

I have played both and RDR2 seems like way better open world experience than anything else. Spiderman's open world felt it lacked depth.

[rainslacker]

Spider man isn't really sandbox. Sure, you can pretty much go anywhere any time, but you can only do things after rather rigid points in the story. Spiderman is open world, where you can go anywhere and do whatever is available in any order, but there is more structure to it.

[Yi-Long]

I liked Spider-Man, but its world (NY) was pretty boring and to be honest it was a bit of a shallow experience. I think I'd rate it a 7/10, now that I've finished it, and there is very little incentive to go back to it.

Currently playing RDR2, and loving the experience. It feels like you're part of a living breathing world, and you can pretty much set your own pace. I think if you're trying to rush through it, you might feel frustrated by the slower pace, but if you take your time with it, take it all in, it's great.

[ClayRules2012]

I agree with you, in the fact that RDR2 really offers players this feeling like you’re part of this living breathing world, where people actually go about daily chores etc... and the random dynamic events & side missions really offer unique story moments that are just so entertaining “in my opinion”

I really respect the level of detail Insomniac put into the city of Spider-Man. But yeah, I was bummed with (regardless of the city streets being very well populated, which helps make the world feel alive) nobody really does anything. I mean, the NPC’s don’t really do much of anything. I would’ve liked to have seen people actually getting out’ve their vehicles, parking their cars, just those little details would’ve helped keep me more immersed in the world. But that’s what sequels are for. Can’t get all of your ideas into a game.

On the gameplay front, Spider-Man is so much fun. It’s a blast to not only swing through NYC (which just feels so smooth & fluid) but I really feel like Spidey. It’s great. But I would’ve liked a lot more of a variety in terms of moves while in combat etc..It’s a great game & very solid foundation for Insomniac to offer an absolutely amazing sequel in the future. I can’t wait.

Side note - The story of both games was very entertaining “in my opinion” Loved Red Dead’s story more, with all the characters in the game just being so different & the missions were well done. Spider-Man has a very Enjoyable story on hand. Minus the MJ & Miles. Rather boring.

[Yi-Long]

Totally agreed. That was one of the main things I took away from Spider-Man: They nailed the basics, now there's a huge potential for a sequel to improve on all its shortcomings. Like you said, the web-slinging was good, and I also really liked the combat.

Also agree about MJ and Miles. I love both character, although I didn't like the design of MJ in this game (I like the happy big smiles, curvy girl we know from the original comics, instead of the whinier thin version we have seen in recent years...). Liked the design of Miles, and looking forward to seeing him star in his own game, TBH.

I didn't think the story was all that special though. It just didn't feel 'epic' or important, and Mister Negative isn't a very interesting villain. But again, it seems to set it all up for something special (Venom? Goblin(s)?, etc.

Also, they made a really impressive rendition of New York, but these are the creators that made Sunset Overdrive, a colourful funny game which was set in a city built to admire and have fun in. I understand New York is a grid-based city full of grey and brown boring buildings, but I would have liked to have seen them take a bit more creative liberties with that, cause everything about the Spider-Man game was played a bit too safe for my liking. From character-design to world-design, etc.

Anyway, huge potential for a great sequel. Like I said, I had a lot of fun with the game while I was playing it. But once finished, I just didn't feel any need to jump back in.

[ninsigma]

Red dead 2 for me. Loved spiderman but it's open world is pretty standard. Rdr2 had so much random stuff to find going it was just a more believable world that was more enjoyable to explore.

[James Vanderbeek]

the best game this gen is God of war hands down. Red dead is fun but can get boring. I havent touched it in weeks. God of war was on my mind 24/7 when I was playing it. I wish that game was longer haha. I would still be playing it. BOOOOOYYYYY. im not a big fan of sandbox games though. i get bored of them quickly.

[Traecy]

Spiderman!!!

[PhantomS42]

Spider-man hands down. Getting around is actually fun and not unbearably slow. I can zip around the city at the rate I want to go and still appreciate the detail.

[porkChop]

These are two totally different games. They're not so easy to compare. They focus on very different things, both in gameplay and in narrative.

This would be like comparing GTA V to Arkham City, they're just too different to compare in any meaningful way.

[RabbitFly]

I am sorry, but both the author and a majority of people commenting seem to be ignoring the Question being asked.

Spider-man has no sandbox elements. It is effectively a theme park game.

I mean the arguments and conclusions being made seems entirely irrelevant to the topic of conversation bein proposed.

Which has the more enjoyable movement mechanics? How is that related to which is the better sandbox?

Spider-man was great. I Love it, but it is not a sandbox it is barely open world.

There is really no need to try to come up with badly thought through reasons to compare the two. U

[chris235]

rdr2s world is the better one. insomniacs spiderman suffers from the typical insomnia syndrome: great engine but the game gets tedious and boring pretty quickly when you are not following the main campaign. like it happens with many insomniac games.

[milohighclub]

Red dead was amazing but it dragged on. There was no need for a 6hr epilogue. Spider man was short and sweet but had no endgame. Both had flaws but I would have to go with red dead just for the sheer amount of things to do. I boot spidey up and all I can do is either start it again or complete some repetitive thug missions. I boot red dead up and I can do pretty much whatever I want and still get to see so much that I didn't whilst playing through the 60hr campaign. Speaks volumes really.

[81BX]

RD2

[P_Bomb]

Yikes. Poor choices for a head to head imo. It’s like a VS between a 2 hour movie and a 24 episode season. Both play to different strengths and compress/decompress accordingly.

Spider-Man is an open world city in the same way as Arkham City, Arkham Knight. Keyword: city. They’re not trying to be sandbox states with fishing, hunting, plains, mountains, economies, with half an hour left over to watch can-can girls and press square to “Lenny!”

Red Dead is much closer to AC Origins/Odyssey if you had to compare.

[sampsonon]

i bought read dead 2 and for the life of me i am trying to finish it. but i just think it's boring. anyone else think this, or is it just me? and i am not trolling, i really want to like it.