The newest Spider-man game has now been out for 10 days. Since it's a game about New York City, naturally I had to explore every inch and compare it to the real thing. There's a ton of detail in the game. Probably thousands of buildings and everything that's supposed to resemble a real place actually looks real. But of course, the developers didn't put everything into making Manhattan as real as it could be. Here's a list of everything that I found in the game that is simply wrong when it comes to the real world.

#1: FERRIES. In the spiderverse, the Staten Island Ferry is a huge plot point. Plus in the game, you see tons of SI ferries floating around the city. In addition, just south of Manhattan in the game is the Statue of Liberty and next to that is Governors Island, both have large ferry corporations and buildings that are bigger and shiner than most tourist attractions. But in the game, the giant buildings are removed and the park is extended taking its place. Here's a picture of the Staten Island Ferry and Govenors Island Ferry terminals from the water.

https://mobile.twitter.com/zanderlex/status/1041216068256186368

#2: Lexington Avenue. For the most part, the game is super accurate with building designs, street layouts, and such, but Lexington Avenue, which is one of the biggest streets just ends at 75th street and starts again at 114th street. IRL, the street just keeps going, as do most of the streets in the game, so it's weird that that one street is so different from reality.

#3: Madison Square Garden. In reality, it's located just south of 33rd street between 7th and 8th avenues. Across the street, between 8th and 9th is one of the largest post offices in the world. The game gets rid of the post office and moves MSG in it's place. Design wise, everything about the stadium is very good, even the skyscrapers that's next to it.

#4: 5th Avenue. Nearly everything about 5th Avenue is wrong because the 5th Avenue that's in the game is really 6th Avenue IRL. IRL, Rockefeller Center, Radio City Music Hall, Empire State Building, Bryant Park, and the New York Library are all on the west side of 5th and are between 5th and 6th Avenues. In the game, all these landmarks are on the east side of 5th Avenue and 6th avenue is taken out of the game. All these landmarks in game and IRL are found between 30th and 55th streets but all landmarks south of 30th street and north of 59th street along 5th avenue are correct.

#5: Trains! There are 2 main above ground train lines in the game. Both of them are in north Manhattan, one on the east along Park Avenue and one on the West along something. The Park Avenue one is the Metro North train. In game, the train has one track, goes above ground at 93rd street, and has a station called Harlem - 120th Street. IRL, the train has 4 tracks, goes above ground at around 99th street and has a station called Harlem - 125th Street. The other line is for the 1 train. It has 2 tracks but with trains going the wrong way, north on the left track and south on the right track. The game shows all above ground trains but fails to show trains that cross the bridges between Queens and Manhattan, which is 7 lines across the Williamsburg and Manhattan bridges. Here's a picture a Metro North train going underground.

https://mobile.twitter.com/zanderlex/status/1041216488965844992

#6: The Occulus. The Occulus is one of the most beautiful landmarks in all of NYC but it's missing from the game. IRL, it's right in front of the World Trade Center, but in game, there's no sign of its existence. Here's a picture of its beauty.


https://mobile.twitter.com/zanderlex/status/1041215816073732096
#7: George Washington Bridge. In game, the bridge begins its ascent one block from the river, and at the river, there's another street that goes under the bridge parallel to the river. IRL, the bridge starts half a mile or more away from the river and between the western most street and the river, there are a few blocks worth of parks and hiking trails. The eastern part of the bridge, which continues back up and goes into the Bronx is missing in the game.

#8: Colleges. IRL, there are many colleges in Manhattan but none of them exist in the game. They either do not exist at all or go by a different name. Three of the biggest colleges that simply don't appear at all are Hunter College, John Jay school of Criminal Justice, and New York Institute of Technology. There are two colleges in the game. They appear in the same locations as their IRL counterpsrts but go by different names. New York University becomes Empire State Univeristy and Colombia University becomes Morningdale University. In the spiderverse, ESU is actually it's own college is said to be located near NYU, but in the game it completely takes over for NYU.

#9: Grand Central Terminal. Grand Central could just as well be miles away because of how far away it is in game. IRL GCT is on 42nd street between Lexington Avenue to the east and Vanderbilt to the west. Right in the middle, Park Avenue cuts right through GCT above the building. In game it's on 38th street between Station street and 4th avenue. A block east of Station street is Lexington Avenue and 4th Avenue doesn't exist in 90% of Manhattan IRL. IRL, both GCT and the New York Library are on 42nd street. In the game, GCT is on 38th and the library is on 44th.

#10: Chrysler Tower. IRL, the Chrysler Tower is located just across the street from Grand Central. It's on the east side of Lexington Avenue and just north of 42nd Street. In the game, it is on the east side Lexington Avenue but in game, Lexington Avenue is a block away from GCT and the tower is located south of 38th Street.

#11: Park Avenue bridge. At Grand Central IRL Park Avenue cuts above the building and then takes a couple blocks to return to street level but in the game it takes an additional 4+ blocks to return to street level.

#12: Triborough Bridge/RFK Bridge. IRL, The current RFK bridge is a massive bridge system that connects Queens, Manhattan, and the Bronx. It starts in Queens and goes over part of the East River. Then it goes on an island where it breaks off with one bridge going to the Bronx and one going to 125th Street in Manhattan. In game, both in the world and the map, you can see the bridge and the island, but the part that goes to Manhattan doesn't exist. It goes bridge from queens to island, and then bridge from island to the Bronx and that's it. This is odd becauss every other IRL bridge that connects Manhattan with either Queens, New Jersey, or the Bronx is present. (Minus half of the GWB.) 7 car bridges and 2 train bridges in total.

#13: Union Square. In the game, Union Square Park runs from 9th street to Ross Street, which is 12th street. That's nowhere near to where the park actually is IRL because it starts at 14th street and runs to 17th street, a 5 block difference.

#14: 14th street. IRL, 14th street is one of the major streets. It's on the same tier of importance as streets that are associated with Times Square, Empire State Building, and Central Park. It does not exist in the game. It's odd because nearly every other major street, semi major street is present.

#15: Central Park. Central Park is huge in the game, which it should be, but the game excludes many features of the park which make it a real landmark. The three most notable IRL places in Central Park which are left out of the game, is the Central Park Zoo, the SummerStage music area, and the Resevoir. This is weird since the game does put in some features and gives them an insane amount of detail, such as to Belvedere Castle and Bethesda Fountain. Here's a picture of the Resevoir and a side by side between a game picture of Belvedere Castle and a real picture of the castle.

https://mobile.twitter.com/zanderlex/status/1041214999333662720

https://mobile.twitter.com/zanderlex/status/1040803283965825024

#16: Avengers Tower. Avengers Tower doesn't actually exist.

Interesting. For the most part it sounds like the game did about as much as it could to replicate the city accurately.

I wonder if there were legal reasons why some things had to be changed or excluded completely from the game. Maybe some locations didn't want to be represented or something.

Still, I'm impressed you took the time to even look at this and point these things out. I guess if there was a game made based on my city I would pay attention to those details as well.

#17 Easter egg gone wrong: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f-UwiWdQAJM