See, you’d do all this amazing combat while working your way towards fighting symbiote (alien controlled and super powered) versions of heroes and villains from the Marvel universe. And it was going to be really awesome seeing these incredibly beefed-up and mean versions of good friends like Wolverine.
But then you get down to it, and that’s when the game falls apart. First of all, what’s the most important facet of anything involving Spider-man? Web swinging! So why is it that this game feels like very little was done in order to make the web swinging more dynamic? There isn’t much variation in animations as far as your character model is concerned. You can run along walls, but it looks like your feet are a good 6 inches away from any surface. You’ll feel as if you’re stuck going in circles at times, you won’t be able to control where you’re going so much as the general direction you’re headed. I actually found it useful to just swing towards something, land on the ground and walk the distance I missed by.
The fighting in between swinging isn’t much better. You’ve got your standard fare of beat em’ up tactics. You’ll be rewarded for timing; the better your timing the more damage you deal. It’s like this… you don’t enjoy fighting so you work to beat people faster. The reward system in the fights is that the fights don’t last as long. Exactly. That’s the ground combat; face an enemy and mash the hell out of the X button and you win. You do have the black suit available by clicking the left stick, but all it does is provide a new skin and a few extra and different combos.
Oh, and boss fights completely suck. Two examples: When fighting Wolverine, he’ll take a pause in the action to quiz you on random Spider-man facts. Stuff like, who did Spidey and Wolvey go to Europe to hunt down? Or, who cooked Spider-man and Wolverine a pot roast. Yeah, stuff that’s not even in the game. Ridiculous.
Then there’s my fight with Electro. He zaps around the city during the combat, and I had his health all the way down. No joke, because I beat him too soon the health bar locked into one position until Electro reached his final destination. It’s like the game wouldn’t let me beat him until we reached wherever he needed to go. He was completely invincible. How obnoxious is that shit?
Then there’s the sky stuff I mentioned before. You’ll lock onto an enemy, press Y to zip towards him and Y again as you hit him… damage dealt. Repeat, over and over and over again. This epic sky combat system that has been labeled as more than engaging by the developers sort of works itself into being another repetitive part in the overall scheme of things. I promise, you will grow tired of the combat long before anything else happens to you. Which is a shame… because the story is actually pretty good.
That’s right… solid voice acting (for the most part; I’m looking at you Luke Cage) coupled with a good plot that feels like it was ripped from the comic pages actually make this game bearable. Sure, I was reviewing the title so I had to plow through it. But the story was rewarding enough to keep me going. Venom and the symbiote have invaded New York. They are claiming citizens and heroes alike. Eventually, the city gets shut down. Spider-man has to team up with Luke Cage, Black Cat, Black Widow, Wolverine, Electro and Kingpin in order to bring Venom down. You’ve also got the black suit version of Spidey at your fingertips here. A tangle with Venom at the start of the game brings the black suit back. It’s compelling, in a way, and I applaud the writers for coming up with such a decent plot amidst a game that would have fallen completely by the wayside otherwise.
Fans of Spidey will almost feel welcome. They will love the story but hate the package. Tireless upgrading and collecting await you in between “Go Beat Up 6 Guys” missions. Hey, at least you can turn on automatic upgrade purchasing…
This game is nothing new or inventive at all. In fact, I’d feel safe to say that if this had come out last generation it would have been a hit. I loved Ultimate Spider-man, and this is damn close to it. But, unfortunately, now this game feels tired and used. Buy the game if you’re a web-head. Actually, check that, this one’s only worth a rental. Everyone else may want to stay away. It’s frustrating at times.
