Tangled in a web of mediocrity

By Yusuf Abdol Hamid · UrbanWire
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Following the release of the highly anticipated Spider-Man 2 movie, Spider-Man 2 The Game, the sequel to the first Spider-Man game released here in 2001, is fast filling up the shelves of local game stores. Although Spider-Man 2 isn’t a terribly good one in itself, the huge success the movie enjoyed here in Singapore will almost guarantee good sales for it. Released by Activision, known for the popular Tony Hawk series and most recently Doom 3, you’d expect Spider-Man 2 to be of decent quality, yet it looks as though they’ve put their best developers on other games and left this one to the rookies.

Overview

You get to swing Spiderman through New York City’s bright but featureless streets, fighting petty crime and making your way through the levels until you face the big boss of the game: Doc Ock.

Storyline

Interestingly enough, Spider-Man 2’s is a non-linear game, emulating the popular Grand Theft Auto by Rockstar games. You’ll be able to roam the streets freely and choose which missions to accept along the way. But there is, of course, a storyline that runs through the game, which involves knocking the stuffing out of some nasty villains such as Rhino, an armor-plated superhuman. These main missions are peppered with plenty of interesting side-missions, ranging from extinguishing supermarket fires to clobbering crooks.

If you’re a fan of the movie, you’ll probably look forward to the levels that are almost complete replicas of some major scenes in the movies, such as the Statue of Liberty and the Daily Bugle office.

Gameplay

The game begins in tutorial mode letting you learn the basic web slinging and combat moves. There’re some pretty nifty moves Spidey can execute, such as the Air Juggle in which Spidey tosses a baddie into the air and unleashes a flurry of punches and kicks onto the poor soul’s body before it hits the ground. Sometimes, though, the game takes unusually long to react to the controls, like when Spidey is surrounded by thugs and there is an urgent necessity to knock as many of them out as possible.

There’s also a good mix of indoor and outdoor missions, with the indoor missions being considerably harder as Spidey has a bad habit of sticking onto walls and ceilings. This drastically changes the camera angles, and will confuse you as to where exactly all the baddies are positioned.

In the movie, Spider-Man slings his way through the streets and jumps from rooftop to rooftop like an Olympic hurdler on steroids. In the 2001 Spider-Man game, Spidey could sling around anywhere by shooting webs into the sky and hooking onto well, nothing! This time round, the game is more realistic as Spidey’s webs stick to buildings, lampposts and even helicopters.

Another interesting feature in the game is the availability of ‘sling-points’ between buildings, which make it much easier for Spidey to swing through the streets without having to concentrate too hard on not slamming into the sides of buildings.

Controls

The default W/S/A/D keyboard controls apply here, which is pretty much the norm for many games and makes Spider-Man 2 extremely easy to play. The combo moves take some time to learn but you’ll be extremely satisfied once you’re able to tie a masked robber up in spider webs.

Graphics and Sound

Spider-Man 2 features the original voices of the movie actors, so you’ll actually hear Peter Parker(Toby Maguire) saying “Ouch!” when the virtual Spidey takes a fall. The combat sounds are pretty much the standard comic book “Kapow” effects and are sometimes rather humorous.

The graphics on the other hand are a big disappointment. The city is bright and featureless, making it a rather drab and uninteresting environment for Spidey to be running around in. Up close, the rendering of the characters is quite poor and leaves much to be desired, given the high standards of animation these days.

Verdict

Spider-Man 2 is one easy game to play and should definitely appeal to young children. However for the more discerning gamer, this is probably a game to ignore, especially with the release of more exciting titles such as Doom 3. Why beat up a poorly animated burglar when you can slice the bowels out of brilliantly rendered demons in the Doom 3 universe?

Rating: 2.5 out of 5 stars