Conclusion:

Swinging your way through the city, hanging on a thin silk thread with no safety net and fighting bad guys in places inaccessible for the ordinary people is definitely an exciting way to spend a couple of hours, and after all this should be the main purpose of any video game. Unfortunately there is no more than meets the eye in Spider-Man: Web of Shadows, the story in underdeveloped, with missions that look and feel alike, villains and heroes that are unconvincing and combat moves that look good but are not demanding enough.

Gameplay: 71

Besides the adrenaline rush provided by all the swinging and free falling there are very few elements that rise up for the challenge of delivering a rock-solid gameplay; in fact these are only surpassed by some boss fights, while most of the quests and especially the side missions are too repetitive to be fun. Killing more and more enemies of the same type, then moving on to the next class of villains, rescuing civilians in danger or assisting the police, gets old fast and only the desire of finding out how Spider-Man's adventure ends keeps you going.

Graphics: 73

Spider-Man, most of the heroes and villains look just fine, but the other characters and the regular foes you have to defeat in large numbers look nearly identical, as well as most of the citizens in distress. Some visual effects are pretty impressive and combo moves are stunning, and this gets better as you progress with the game, facing increasingly powerful enemies with more complex skills and animations.

Sound: 68

While the music is quite appropriate and fits in nicely, especially while you roam freely above the tall buildings, creating an overwhelming sensation of liberty and leisure, the voice acting is nothing short of horrendous. Spider-Man himself and most of the characters he interacts with are constantly delivering the same one-liners, and they are not even remotely funny, although it's obvious they try hard to be.

Multiplayer: N\A

Hardware: 67

For what it has to offer visually, the game runs rather poor even on better computers, with the frame rate frequently dropping to low values, especially when you have to confront a large number of foes.