This game could have been great! Instead, it's below average. Still good enough to satisfy a hungry Spiderman fan. 

You're fired! Kidding Smile

I need to make a confession - I haven't seen the new movie yet (Spiderman 3). So I kind of hoped this game wouldn't be much of a spoiler. If you are in my position, then you're in luck. The game doesn't have solid references to the movie scenario. Except, of course, Spidy, Mary Jane, and some of the bad guys of course. Then again, this may not be so good for the ones that watched the movie and bought this game just to relive some of the moments there.

Not many superhero movies experience so much success as Spiderman. Let's think for a second: Superman, because he's godlike; Batman, because he's basically a human with no superpowers, but gadgets; and Spiderman. Where does Spidy fit in all this? Well, somewhere in the middle in my opinion. He has some superpowers, sure. He is also very human, and he struggles with teenage problems, love issues, and conscience choices. No choice is pure good or evil. Everything is a shade of white or black. This is probably the main reason he is such a loved superhero. People feel a connection to him and that certain aspect “hey, this could happen to me” (- well at least it's more likely to become Spiderman than Superman).
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I will not claim I saw every episode of Spiderman or read every comic book, but I saw some, and I really like his story. Although you cannot detail a giant story into a film (or even three), the good actors and the interesting story made them a success. So let's see how much of that success this game will gather...


 

 

 

 

Know this: even if I will be harsh and criticize a lot of things, please be aware that there are a lot of wonderful ideas that make this game the best Spiderman game ever.

First thing that you notice is that it's big. The developers managed to literally build an entire city, that is “living and breathing” without your interaction. Sure, most of the buildings look like skyscrapers, and the textures may seem sometime very simplistic (contrary to some popular belief, there are textures everywhere actually, but some of them are really blend or low res) and the roads look all the same... nevertheless, it's a whole city. The feeling you may get is that of GTA 3 if you played that game.

Second, the characters and some effects. Really good looking. Motion capture on everything, and the filtering on some textures makes the game look really good sometimes. Especially in closed spaces during missions. Spiderman looks good too, his suit shines and you can clearly see his muscles. I can't say the same about the other characters: they still move great, but they could of improved the graphics on some main characters at least (Mary Jane comes to mind first - her ponytail never moves! Not to mention the skin texture... ewwww!).
And the third thing I like is the “real” way you “swing it”. You have absolute control over the direction where you're going, and this is the first Spiderman game to actually require you to be close to a building to be able to stick your web to. In previous games you were just swinging forward automatically, and the web stuck somewhere “in the sky”. One tiny problem would be that you are moving the camera a lot because the default “swing” button is middle mouse. I'm sure that this wasn't a problem if you used a controller but you get that “shaky cam picture” a lot on the PC. You'll get used to it eventually...

{pagebreak}42 main Missions await you, and the producers have added two more ways to spend time: the “so called” Activities and Crime Fighting modes. There's plenty of game time involved into those if you choose to do them all.

Crime Fighting marks certain areas where thugs like to gather, and you just have to “swing” over there and kick some butt... Not much to think, and “fast and furious” action. The only problem is the combat system. I admit, it's dynamic, and it even has bullet time implemented. But at least on the PC it involves a lot of keys that are not that handy. For example, you can do combos while pressing Caps Lock, with E or R, a direction and a mouse button (can be middle click). Which brings another problem: the keyboard limitations. Most of today's keyboards only support 3 keys pressed at once. You see the problem now? If I hold a diagonal (that means W and D for example) and I try to start a combo with Caps Lock and E, while using bullet time mode (or spider sense - how they call it - default is Q) something won't work. Frustrating. Not to mention so many combinations make the user enter a “button mashing” mode, with no brains to the attacks whatsoever.

Activities involve killing certain groups of thugs as fast as possible. You have a timer, and you also have your personal record to beat. The “activities” can be repeated to get more and more efficient. But they are no different than Crime Fighting mode (except the timer).

Finally, the Missions. Missions vary and some are better than the others. But generally they all go around the same principle: follow a guy and beat the crap out of him, while taking care of the other “problems” that come up during that process... They include fights and “decision moments” if I may call them so, where you have to press a certain key, like space or left mouse button, and Spidy will do the appropriate action (if you are quick enough). The general feeling is that they are short however, and it may take longer to get there than to actually do it.

There are a lot more things not said here and more criticizing to do, but I'll stick with a conclusion instead. Although this is by far the best Spiderman game I played, I got the feeling it was done in a haste. The game has great potential, and a lot of focus was put on the main character and on the fighting techniques, but you can see clearly that the missions are repetitive and childish. The city is a big, living and breathing one, but again, it could have been much more if more attention was put to some details like buildings and secondary play modes (ie: Crime Fighting and Activities). It's just an average game, unfortunately...

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Gameplay: 68
Some great ideas, the city at your fingertips, and Spidy feels great to play. It's great to swing freely, and good to know you actually need buildings near you to grab on to something. Too bad the missions are done in a hurry, the other play modes are all the same and don't satisfy you too much...

Graphics: 66
Your character looks great. Some textures are really worked and some effects are nice. Animations use motion capture. But that's about it. Repetitive or low quality textures all over; thugs, buildings and cars look the same: it's like there are only 3 models in the whole game; and even Mary Jane looks ugly... Come on!

Multiplayer: N/A
Could have been interesting, but it doesn't have support for it...

Sound: 67
Most main characters (except maybe Mary Jane ie: Kirsten Dunst, who was too busy) are played by the film actors. Rest... i won't even mention... Except the spider web sounds, and some random phone rings you hear as you pass near phone booths, there's really not much going on. Music isn't anything special, and it has glitches (won't start all the time).

Hardware: 57
Although it has nothing spectacular, the game performs really bad on most systems. This is a direct consequence from being ported to all of the major consoles, with no optimizations whatsoever. You can see the choppy gameplay even in the videos I've recorder. Camera has the bad habit of changing angles when you least expect, and the fact that you have to think in 3D and walk on buildings or upside down doesn't help your orientation.

Well, until next time, me and your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man bid you

Farewell... 

Save her they say! I'd rather be sailing!