Spider-Man

The first
Spider-man game to come out on the Playstation2 was great, although quite
limiting. The control, graphics, and gameplay were all done really well, but
there was no real exploration. Well, this time around Treyarch left what was
right and fixed the few problems the first one had.

Spider-man
2, as most can guess, is based on the new movie with the same name, although to
spice up the story and keep gamers guessing some liberties have been taken. Some
of these liberties I liked a lot, such as the periodic cameos of Black Cat and
appearances of super villains other than Doc Ock. These additions to the story
are a nice change of pace, but the changes in dialogue aren’t as fortunate. A
lot of the script seems unrealistic and a little silly at times, but at least
it’s acted well due to the voice talents of Bruce Campbell, Tobey Maguire,
Kirsten Dunst, and Alfred Molina (who, in case you didn’t know, were all in the
movie).

When you
first start up the game, you’re thrown directly into New York and the talented
and entertaining Bruce Campbell walks you through the various abilities you have
as Spider-man. He’ll also tell you about Hero Points which is basically the
game’s currency. You can earn Hero Points by doing pretty much anything heroic
at all, and as you complete more of the game more abilities open up for purchase
at the store.

The first
thing you might notice as you start playing is that your webs actually have to
attach to something when you swing around. This is new to Spider-man 2, and is a
huge improvement to the invisible floating swing points from the first. The new
swinging mechanics not only make web slinging a bit more realistic, but it gives
the player a lot more control. Now to make a 90 degree turn you can stick your
web to the corner of the building and smoothly round the corner. Other objects
like trees, flag poles, construction cranes, and even helicopters can add some
interesting variety to your web slinging. The webs even stay connected to
whatever you swung from, even after jumping off, which is a cool little detail
that sort of brings the character to life. Web slinging will take some practice,
and you’ll most likely be a little clumsy at first, but once you get it down
it’s very rewarding to swing about the city without smacking into any buildings
and pulling off cool tricks.

Of course
web slinging isn’t your only ability; Spider-man has other abilities such as
sprinting, jumping, beating up baddies, sticking to walls and ceilings, and even
Spider Reflexes. Sprinting allows Spidey to run or crawl faster, and he can now
charge his jumps allowing him to hop a short distance or leap insane distances.
When a fully charged jump is paired with a sprint you can cover close to a full
city block.

Combat has
been improved upon on many levels. When I said before that one of Spider-man’s
abilities is beating up baddies, I meant it. In the beginning you don’t have too
many combat options – press X a whole bunch and maybe figure out how to juggle
your enemies in mid-air. As you start earning Hero Points, though, you can start
purchasing combos and combat abilities. Eventually you can earn moves that allow
you to juggle enemies into the air higher and higher, tie thugs up to light
poles, or even piledrive them from the roof of a skyscraper into the streets
below. Spider-man 2 has an amazing fighting engine that allows players to
integrate fist fighting and crazy web maneuvers, as well as dodging enemy
attacks with well-timed button presses, which is not only fun to execute but fun
to watch. Plus the new ragdoll effects make it really fun to beat up on bad guys
and toss them around with your webs.

Okay, I’ve
mentioned Hero Points twice already yet haven’t told you how to earn them. There
are quite a few ways to earn Hero Points, the most obvious being the story
missions. As you progress through the game and complete the objectives assigned
to you, Hero Points are earned and new abilities become available for purchase.
However, this isn’t the only way to play the game. Spider-man 2 has a very
open-ended style of play; the next mission is marked on your map, but you don’t
have to go to it right away. Delivering pizza, finding hidden tokens, or even
racing through checkpoints in time trail of sorts are some examples of mini
games you can find while exploring the enormous city. Citizens will also request
you for help, and others won’t but will still be in trouble, and one of your
many duties of being a super hero is assisting these people. These small
distractions are a lot of fun, and they’ll all land you Hero Points, but there
isn’t much variety in them. You’ll be surprised at how many kids let go of their
balloons or at how many workers are accidentally stuck hanging from a roof. Even
with the limited variety in these side missions, it’s pretty hard to get sick of
them. Besides, you don’t HAVE to do them.

Spider-man 2
follows the movie’s plot very closely, but will sometimes take detours to add
new characters. Doctor Octopus isn’t the only villain Spidey faces in the game;
players will recognize other bad guys from the Spider-man story line. Boss
fights are handled well, with usually a pattern to follow or a specific weakness
to exploit. They’re pretty typical boss fights, but to aid you in defeating
these powerful adversaries you have Spider Reflexes. With a simple press of a
button (and given you have a full reflex meter) the world around you will slow
down, giving you more time to dodge attacks or launch a full offensive.
Spider-man’s attacks become a lot more powerful in this state, and you’ll notice
combos change a bit too.

Well, now
you’ve used up your reflex meter and you want it back. Don’t worry, there’s a
simple way to refill it: be stylish. That’s right, don’t bump into buildings as
you swing around, do flips, swing on traffic lights, and be graceful. The longer
you can swing through town without being clumsy, the more your reflex meter
fills up. As you continue through the game and purchase new abilities, you
acquire more ways to be stylish. Different tricks like running along a wall or
doing various acrobatics between web swings will fill your meter even faster.

Spider-man 2
is a huge game set in a huge city, and thanks to the graphics and sound you
actually feel it. There is a fair amount of pop in, but when you’re swinging at
150mph trying to save a woman from a group of muggers you won’t really notice
it. If you are looking for it though, you will se that cars and people tend to
pop up as you swing by. One really cool feature is that when you’re up on a
skyscraper and look down, you can see little cars driving around on the streets
below – in fact you can see just about the entire island including buildings in
the distance. If you were to jump off of this skyscraper and fall a considerable
distance a very cool blur effect kicks in, causing you to feel a believable
sense of speed. The graphics are very impressive and really bring the city to
life. The soundtrack is mostly sounds of the city: traffic, random quips from
Spider-man, and various praises or insults from pedestrians.

The passage
of night and day is pretty common for games like this, but I just have to
mention it. It’s there and everything changes around it. Windows on buildings
light up, stores that you can enter during the day are closed, and billboards
light up.

Aside from
the gameplay, there’s a cool little stats page that GTA players are used to
seeing. It tells you every little thing accomplished, from distance crawled to
how many thugs you’ve hung from a light pole to number of pizzas delivered. It’s
a fairly extensive list, and taking a gander at it can clue you in on things you
may not have known you can do.

Spider-man 2
actually makes you feel like Spider-man. From the way he moves to the way he
swings to the way he fights, it’s pretty amazing how easy he is to control. When
you watch the movie or read the comics, you see how flexible he is; how he can
go pretty much anywhere – this game lets you accomplish what you’ve seen.
Spider-man 2 is easily one of the best super hero games I’ve played, and I
recommend it to everyone.

Reviewer’s Scoring Details

Gameplay: 9.5
The web slinging
is extremely simple, but takes practice to perfect. Also the deep fighting
engine allows for some fantastic brawls and lengthy combos. Overall this game is
a blast and very hard to put down.

Graphics: 8.9
The graphics are
great, and while the Playstation2 version doesn’t look quite as good as the
other two console versions, it still looks great and does the large environment
justice. When you think about it, for the game to be this large and have no load
times as you swing through it, it looks very impressive.

Sound: 8.4
Nothing too
spectacular here. You have the typical jokes Spidey likes to spit out as he webs
bad guys, pedestrians calling “Look, it’s Spider-man” or “Get a job,” traffic
noise, and sometimes music. The voices in the game’s cut scenes are acted well,
although written not so well.

Difficulty: Medium
The depth is
there for using combos and such, but you can usually get through small fights
just by hitting X. Bosses have patterns that are fairly easy to nail, and if you
don’t ignore your dodge button you’re fine. Throughout the story, though, you
will get missions that don’t involve brawn but brains instead. It never really
gets too hard, and if a mission is hard, you can try as many times as you need
to. The game ends up very well balanced.

Concept: 9.7
Movie games have
had a bad reputation, but lately there’s been a surprising growth in quality
movie licensed titles. This doesn’t really mean anything, however, because the
first Spider-man was done really well. Spider-man is the perfect hero to base a
game on, because he’s not a boring hero at all. He’s so versatile, and with the
ability to crawl, swing, or jump anywhere you can make one of the most open
games out there.

Multiplayer: N/A

Overall: 9.2
Hats off to
Treyarch for making a game based on probably the most difficult character to
harness. They have nailed Spider-man from his animations to his abilities – this
game is nearly a perfect adaptation. If they were to make a perfect Spider-man
game, I think the controls would be almost impossible navigate. Besides all
that, Spider-man is a great game and a whole lot of fun to play. With all the
exploration to be had, mini games to conquer, and crimes to be solved it’s hard
to put down the controller.