Ultimate Spider-Man

"Ultimate Let Down"

It doesn't seem so long ago that Spider-Man 2, the first free roam Spidey game, was released to the excitement of fans. One couldn't help but imagine how great the game could have been if not for the movie license tie-in and such a strict release date. Gamers were treated to the prospect of two future titles; one based on the Amazing Spider-Man (616) universe, and one on the Ultimate Spider-Man timeline, essentially a restart of the Spidey we all grew up with, in a modern time setting. Aunt May is a tough modern woman, Uncle Ben a former hippie, Mary Jane the brainy best friend, and Peter a computer whiz that works as a web designer for the Bugle. The comic started off great, capturing the modern angst of teen-dom with a new spin on villains as well as heroes. However, the 616 game was cancelled and USM given the go ahead. Having been created to bring in a new audience, USM the game is essentially a game made to bring in new gamers to the Spider-Man universe. Or for that matter, new gamers in general.

Presentation (8.5/10): The main selling point of this game, the graphics and cutscenes simulate a moving comic book with the art of USM mainstays Mark Bagley and Art Thiebert. And in this, the game excels. The whole world unfolds in cell shaded graphics; simplistic, minimalist, and visually unique. However, the game's graphics can also capture the dark and gritty world of New York alleyways in the gloom of night, so rest assured. This game isn't “kiddie”, at least not visually.

Voice acting in this game is superb. All the voices fit, and more importantly, they read and emote the characters well. While boss fights often get caught in annoyingly repetitive loops, it's a small price to pay for good quality voice acting. The sound and music are serviceable, but the music will often cut out in odd places. Sound effects are all appropriate, but nothing that stands out as beyond ordinary.

So you might wonder why only an 8.5/10 rating for a game with such great visuals and solid sound? Well, the pop up in this game is, quite frankly, terrible. Nothing that affects the gameplay, but seeing buildings load only a few blocks away can really take you out of the experience. Furthermore, buildings look flat and plain. Reflective surfaces are gone, as are the great transitions from day to night found in Treyarch's last title, Spider-Man 2. But no one will argue that USM's presentation is a great step forward.

Gameplay (7/10): The good stuff that kept us coming back to Spider-Man 2, this game's designers decided to follow Thoreau's approach and “simplify, simplify.” Which, for a newcomer, is great. For the rest of us that have been anxiously waiting for this title since Spider-Man 2, it's a slap in the face. Gone are the incredible feelings of speed, height, and aerial freedom. Also gone is swinging on streetlights and flagpoles, and the double webbing sling shot. While many claim these skills to be merely cosmetic, there is no denying that having options is nice. After all, isn't this game about freedom and free roaming?

Combat has also been streamlined; some for the better, some for worse. This game simplifies the combo system down to two attack buttons that can string together combos of varying damage. Simple, right? But they've also added a “bounce-attack” skill, so you can dodge and counterattack by springing off walls, or anything stationary, to attack your enemy. Easily the best addition to combat, it really captures Spidey's agility in combat. So what's been changed? The classic “Spidey Sense” only comes up occasionally, mostly during boss fights, and there's no longer counter attacking from Danger Sense dodging (as “dodging” in this game is simplified to “jumping”). Apparently an enemy about to stab you from behind is no longer a danger to little Peter Parker. Throws and slams have been severely limited to exactly two throws, and hurling an enemy with your webbing into other enemies for some reason doesn't hurt them anymore. Crowd control combat has been stripped down to alternating attacks, stunning your enemies, and webbing them while they're on the ground. Luckily, though, the enemies have been severely dumbed down in the early parts of this game. Goons with guns will for some reason think it's a better idea to charge at you rather than stay away and fire at will. Later on, expect to fight enemies who use the annoying “ultimate block” from Spider-Man 2. Really, how this game improves combat the most (besides the bounce attack) is by changing the enemy AI to block less often.

Value (6/10): What anyone reading a review really wants to know: is this game worth my hard earned dollars? In a word, NO. This game is not worth $50. I like to savor the flavor of my games, so I did not rush through this game for the sake of beating it. There are several short games in my collection that I still find value in to this day, some of which can be beaten in under half an hour. But this game has very little to come back to after beating it. Unlockables are released by completing races, finding hidden tokens, doing combat tours, and preventing random city crimes. Free roam is hindered by the speed and freedom of the web swinging, as is the race challenges. They throw nearly impossible timed events at us, yet slow down the swinging to make them annoyingly frustrating. After a point, you just have to ask yourself if purely cosmetic costume changes are worth it, especially since you can only use them in free roam and not a new game. While the last one is easily the best looking one, it requires an obscene amount of dedication that 99% of gamers won't complete. Definitely a challenge for the hardcore, but in this reviewer's opinion, it boils down to a lot of annoying things that will frustrate you. But let me put it this way: if you did every challenge in Spider-Man 2, then you might be able to handle this one. I say “might” because the web swinging is so different.

Tilt (5/10): It might seem like I've made a lot of comparisons to Spider-Man 2, but let's face it. That game gave us gamers all hope that Spider-Man was finally getting the treatment he deserved. I don't care what universe the storyline is set in, I just want a game that makes me FEEL like Spidey. Hulk: Ultimate Destruction accomplished this with a truly interactive environment. The city in USM looks great, yet there's almost no interaction with it. Especially when you play with Spider-Man. Venom has decent interaction with the cityscape, in that he can hurl cars at enemies and kill civilians, but that's about it.

Which brings me to my next point of contention: Venom. A great villain in his own right, probably Spidey's most famous and popular enemy of all time. His style of combat is more bruiser-like, bashing and snapping enemies in two. He cannot web swing, so he's relegated to power leaping as his main method of transit. Devouring people for energy and snapping enemies in half are amusing, but like the rest of this game, it wears thin after a few minutes.

This game was dubbed on the boards as “Spider-Man 2 for Dummies”, and that is absolutely true. It's not meant as an insult to this game's fans, but the game itself assumes the audience for this game is either under the age of 15 or just started playing video games. In which case, many long-time gamers such as myself felt insulted. You can't help but feel this game was made to cater to the casual gamer, someone into pretty graphics and simple gameplay without much depth. Then the designers would throw in impossible challenges to keep us “hardcore” gamers satisfied, adding a sort of imaginary difficulty to the overall game.

Overall (7/10): I really, really wanted to love this game. I heard a lot of the comments against it, but insisted on trying it for myself. Let me just say, the negative comments are almost all true. This game is rental material at best. To summarize a few points and toss out some new ones:

Pros:
-incredible visual presentation
-good voice acting
-nice storyline based on the USM comics, penned by its writer Bendis
-new addition to combat, the bounce attack
-a good camera, especially when wall crawling
-combat tours are fun
-slight twists to old random crimes
-free roam with either character
-early boss fights require thinking on your feet
-finally, unlockables!

Cons:
-lots of visual miscues, like pop up
-altered web swinging
-fewer combos in combat
-no buyable moves
-Spider Sense is spotty
-Venom gets tedious and boring
-camera is often spotty fighting bosses in enclosed areas
-boss fights towards the end boil down to button mashing
-events in the city are for the most part repetitive
-mini villains have no voice acting and fighting them feels no different than fighting normal thugs (Spidey doesn't even make jokes when fighting them)

Overall, this game does many things right, but nothing that will make you want to come back months down the road. The most devout of Spider-Man fans might find something worthwhile, but for the majority of gamers, this game is a let down in the worst way.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 09/26/05