Ultimate Spider-Man

"Treyarch delivers Spider-Man for all gamers!"

Introduction

Upon playing Spider-Man The Movie (Video game) and its sequel, I have come to love those games. The graphics were great for their time, and Treyarch finally fell in love with something else than Tony Hawk. Now Treyarch upped their game and delivered us Ultimate Spider-Man (USM) and they gave us a whole new perspective on the franchise.

Story 10/10

You play as Spider-Man, and Venom both with their own stories, but to simply boil it down, both Peter Parker and Eddy Brock (Spider-Man and Venom respectfully) were child-hood friends whose fathers worked together to create a cure for cancer. Parker uses the cure to only find its more of a disease to him, and he destroys it, but Brock has a back-up and creates Venom from the mixture and has a ever-fueled hate for Parker being the first to use it and then destroy it. Venom hunts down Parker and tries to kill him, but Parker manages to subdue Venom, and the story continues 3 months after that incident.

Graphics 9/10

For USM, you either have to love or hate the graphics. They are Cel-Shaded, which is intended to give it a more comic feel. I think this is great because it draws away from all these modern games trying to make the most realistic graphics, and sometimes the more simpler the graphics are, the more easy it is to really appreciate the landscaping put into the game, because I generally find that with games more detailed you really have to look to admire the games true beauty. The only reason I didn't give it a 10 is because there are a few blocks here and there, and you can see that during the first encounter with the Torch.

Game play 9/10

AWESOME! I think that this game certainly exceeds Spider-Man the movie game, with new enemies different movies, and even getting to play as Venom, but its a trade-off compared at Spider Man 2. Some people complain that the web-slinging is slower, and I must agree on my part that it is, but it really doesn't affect game play too much. The only annoying thing I have found is when your in race mode and your trying to get the best time that you accidentally hit a wall or jump over the target. Besides the web slinging they improved on the "rescue system" from SM2, and it is much harder to get repeat missions, (so far, I have not gotten any same missions.). Being Venom is also damn cool with jumping at least a hundred feet in the air, and that he must feed on humans to stay alive! They put great enemies in the games that are but aren't limited to The Shocker, Rhino, and even WOLVERINE! Thats quite a line up of bosses crammed in one game. Also, you collect tokens from around the world map which enables you to get costumes, cover art for the comic books that USM has published, and much more!

Another downside to this game is the length. Some people have claimed to beat this game in 4 hours, and if it carries a 50 dollar price tag, are you really getting what you paid for?

Replay Value 10/10

The bright side is that it will take you quite a while to beat this game completely. There are so many unlocks, so much to explore, different scenarios, and if you want to control Venom whenever you want, you have to beat the entire game first, so that will give you some incentive to do so.

Overall....

All and all I feel that paying the 50 dollars is a bit extreme, but if your a die hard Spider Man gamer, you really won't be losing money on this ame because it is a great investment to anyone's collection. I do recommend that you do rent it first, because the unlocks are cool, but when it boils down to money, you can just pick this game up as a Greatest Hit for 20 bucks at Wal-Mart.

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 09/29/05