Spider-Man 2

"Great game, only let down by the fourth dimension"

Spider-Man 2

Spider-Man 2. Sequel to Spider-Man The Movie (which I haven't played). Loose tie-in to Spider-Man 2 the film (which I haven't seen yet). So I guess this review is pretty good as a guide for people who, like me, haven't played the first game - I've no idea how closely it follows in gameplay from the first, I'm coming to this as a new game. But I've been looking forwards to it, been following the Webbed One for 20 years now.

Story
Peter Parker. Nerd. Bitten by genetically enhanced spider and becomes faster and stronger and stickier (as you would). Uncle dead. Great power = great responsibility. Becomes Spider-Man. Fights crime. You know, I don't think that could have been said any quicker. Anyway, this is Spider-Man 2 and you pick up where the first game/film left off - the Green Goblin is dead, Harry Osborn now runs Oscorp, and Peter Parker is a budding photojournalist who is trying to date Mary Jane. His life is pretty busy really, and that's kind of the 'story' - it's a story about having to balance being Spider-Man with being Peter Parker and being torn both ways. There's also the tentacled Doctor Octopus, who becomes the game's most serious threat to Spidey.

I don't play games for stories really, but Spider-Man 2 does a pretty good job in this respect. It's a well-told tale of being overburdened with responsibilities, and the Doc Ock sections are well told (as you'd expect, seeing as they mirror the film storyline I would imagine).

Story: 9/10

Gameplay
Let's get started on the review properly shall we? You start and a tutorial leads you through the basics - obviously this was in the first game as well, although I wouldn't know it. You do a simple jump, you stick to a wall, you climb around... and then it tells you to jump off a building and swing a web... and wooooooooooaaaahaaaahaaa! this game suddenly becomes amazing! I can honestly say that I've never had more fun just actually moving around a play area in over 20 years of playing computer games. Webslinging is a true joy, if we're comparing to Vice City it's like a Turbo Sabre and PCG 600 combined with a helicopter... and THEN some. Webslinging can be tricky to master which is why the game comes with an 'Easy Swinging' option that simplifies things a bit, and very soon you find yourself wooshing through the streets, quite literally by the seats of your spandex - and this is a big city, I'd say EASILY 5 or 6 times the size of Vice City. But thanks to webslinging coverng the vast distances between Point A and Point B has never been so much fun.

Unfortunately that's where it starts to go wrong. You get to Point B and the chances are you're going to have to fight somebody. How do you do that? Well the combat system is based around dodging their attacks (which you get advanced warning of thanks to your Spidey-Sense) and then counterattacking. Unfortunately you can usually totally ignore this and simply mash the Attack button frantically, then jump into the air to line your next victim up and simply mash Attack again. Sure, there's loads of things you CAN do, loads of combos to learn or special attacks to perform (you can web opponents, smash opponents into each other, pull guns from their hands, even hang them from lampposts) but when the going gets tough... you mash Attack and you win. The combat system gets better when you come up against one of the superpowered villains, but pretty soon you learn their limited attack patterns and it becomes once again a case of dodging and then running in and mashing Attack. Yeah, you can activate your Spidey sense and go into a bit of Matrix-style bullet time, but while you're in that Spidey-sense mode, you get to... you guessed it... mash Attack.

Wandering around the city gives you plenty of things to do - the area is HUGE, there's hundreds of secrets and hints and challenges to collect or complete, not to mention an endless number of randomly occuring crimes to stop, from Armed Robbery to a child's lost balloon floating away. Unfortunately, in almost every case it's either "Get to Point A, then get to Point B within a time limit" or "Get to Point A then mash Attack". Disappointing really - it reminded me of just how great a job GTA: Vice City did of keeping the gameplay varied between missions, and it's something Spider-Man 2 doesn't manage to do.

Gameplay:
Webslinging: 10/10
The rest: 6/10

Graphics
Well, first of all I have to say that graphics aren't really why I buy/play a game (which is why I still have a PS2 not an X-Box) but Spider-Man 2 I'd have to say looks pretty good. Well, what to compare it to - it's certainly better than the drab and dreary Tony Hawks Underground, and while it doesn't benefit from GTA:Vice City's nifty blurring effect that softened all the hard edges the draw distance is FAR more impressive. Remember in GTA:VC the draw distance was so short that vehicles would appear, just appear like *BAM!* from nowhere, halfway down the street? Well in Spider-Man 2 that doesn't happen, sure all the details are added on as you get closer but everything is there for you to see. Stand on top of the Empire State or something, and you can see EVERYTHING. Not only can you see to the edges of this enormous play area, but looking down you can see all the individual cars tootling along the streets half a mile below you... and you can also see all the Secrets and Challenges icons littered across the rooftops of surrounding skyscrapers.

Graphically, I'd say Spider-Man 2 does a pretty good job - it hasn't made me go 'urgh' but it also hasn't made me go 'wow'. But in terms of draw distance it does a phenomal job. I mean - the map is just the game engine zoomed out even further, not a seperate map (and you can STILL see the cars driving around). Impressive.

Graphics: 8/10

Sound
Does anyone really care about the sounds? I mean, do you really stand there in the shop going 'hmm, this looks like a great game but... I dunno... the sound of the shotgun just doesn't quite sound right? Well, anyway... Spiderman 2 definately does the job in sound. There's some stirring soundtrack music in the background that I would guess comes direct from the film. All the actors voice their own parts, and Tobey Maguire does a great job as he pitches in for more than just the cutscenes, providing a whole host of Spidey-quotes for just swinging around the city to (come on, where would Spidey be without his comebacks?) and there's a guest appearance from Futurama's 'Bender' voice actor, as one of the super-villains. And it's not all about the stars, as Spidey hurtles through the streets of New York, passers by yell things at him, both good and bad - really adding to the feel of a living breathing city.

"Hey Spidey! You da man!" a woman shouts as you swing past, and the Tobey Maguire voiced Spidey quips back "Thanks! Er... you the woman?". It's just nice.

Sounds: 9/10

Lastability
You know I said in my caption it was let down by the fourth dimension? Well the fourth dimension is time. This game is short. Uber-short. By the time you finish your training missions you're about 20% through the game. It took me 8 hours of playing to get to the final encounter with Doc Ock, and 8 hours didn't seem like much. The game continues once you beat him, but in an open-ended way that really just hammers home how limited the random missions and challenges are by making you repeat them dozens of times to unlock hidden extras. There's just not enough of this game - it seems ridiculous that having spent SO long making New York SO big and SO explorable that they then fill it with a main game that wouldn't feel cramped on a map a tenth the size. I'd say that easily 95% of the map you don't go anywhere near during the main storyline, it's just there for filler. And for a game that is at it's most exciting in battles with supervillains, there's depressingly few you have to tussle with (4 including Doc Ock). If this game had another bank of supervillains, and so had a main story maybe twice the length then I think you'd be looking at something that would be hot on Vice City's heels as a great game.

I guess it depends on how you feel about laboriously tracking down every challenge and extra to reach 100% completion. If that's the sort of thing you enjoy then Spider-Man 2 will keep you occupied for a LONG time collecting the Skyscraper Markers, Hint Tokens, Challenges, Secrets, Exploration Markers, and Hideouts. But if varied gameplay is what keeps your attention, then I'm afraid Spider-Man 2 might be more lacking.

Lastability:
Completist: 8/10
Storyline: 4/10

Overall
Definately play it. Don't let my final rating of a 7 put you off - it's great. But if you think you're going to want to play it through and then not go after the 100% completion score, then I think set aside a couple of days and rent it. But regardless of whether you buy or rent, this game is a big THWIPP! in the right direction. I just have to mark it down on how short it is.

7/10
(Sorry Spidey!)

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 07/19/04