Ultimate Spider-Man

"What could have been a great game is marred by some incredibly annoying decisions by the developers."

When I played through Spider-Man 2 for the PS2, I was super excited at the prospect of a sequel. I was hoping that they would make another game, but not let it get too stagnant. There were a lot of stories that could be told in a Spider-Man game and I was hopeful that we would get them in game form. However the last thing I wanted was a game in the ungodly Marvel Ultimates universe. Well that is what I got, but sadly, this little jaunt into this other universe kills this game for me.

The story for this game follows Spider-Man's first encounter with the Venom symbiote in this alternate universe. In this world, the symbiote was created by the fathers of Peter Parker and Eddie Brock. Oddly enough, these two are friends to begin with in this universe, but that is not to stay the case. The story twists and turns and the next thing you know, you will be controlling both Spider-Man and Venom in alternating levels. It's hard to say anything without giving away spoilers, but suffice it to say, you will hunt down a variety of super villains as Spidey and get to pummel the crud out of lots of police and other law enforcement as Venom. This good news.

This game plays almost exactly like the last game, Spider-Man 2. Much of the combat feels exactly the same, as well as the wall-crawling and web-swinging. There are a number of improvements to the system that make it much more responsive than the previous game. Beating up punks and thugs is just as responsive as ever and some of the special moves are actually easier to do. This is yet another good thing.

Venom controls incredibly well just like Spider-Man. However there are key differences between the two characters. Spider-Man is more about speed and rapid movement. Venom is a huge bruiser who pummels enemies down, flings cars at his foes and devours his enemies into his body. He does this to steal their health to offset the fact that his health slowly drains away. Due to the fact that the symbiote steals the health of its wearer, Venom must constantly steal the health from his foes. But his game plays more like a GTA game, complete with a wanted star rating. The worse it gets, he will start being attacked by helicopters and heavily armed enemies. This is an awesomely good thing.

However, the biggest flaw with the game is a seriously huge problem. None of the boss fights are simple fights, there is always something annoying to be done. A good 75% of them start off with you doing a chase scene. This isn't all that bad at first, but by the time you reach the fourth one, you are going to be absolutely sick of them. To make it worse, they aren't just for Spider-Man, they sometimes make Venom do them as well. Since he doesn't really web-swing, you must use his super jumps and wall-crawling to chase enemies down. This is not easy and it is really annoying.

Top it off with the fact that when you do finally catch up to the enemies, there is usually some sort of reason that you cannot just fight them. You must usually wait until they either tire themselves out trying to kill your or they do a particular attack where they leave themselves open. Then you can finally attack them. This is a really boring and tiresome way to handle boss fights and it is most certainly not challenging. It's really annoying and borders on absolutely frustrating. I hated these fights and I will likely never play the game again, simply to avoid these fights.

I don't know why people are so fond of cel-shading, and I am not particularly fond of it, but it really does work in this game. The comic book feel to it is really awesome and it gives a really awesome feel to the cutscenes. This actually works far better than in the last game as the simple cel-shaded graphics make for some incredible graphics for the all of the characters, enemies and the city itself. Everything has a cartoony but seriously vibrant feel to it that I really liked.

The audio is just about as good as it was in the last game. So while you wont be listening to the actors from the movies, the voice actors are still really good. The sound effects for the fighting are really good as well and I never really found myself falling out of being immersed in the game because of it. Many of the attacks are accompanied by comical POW! and BAM! exclamations inside of word bubbles, much like in the old Batman show or in comic books. This adds a great feel to the game.

Overall, with Ultimate Spider-Man, you have a game that is technically sound in every way, except for the most important part, gameplay. Sure it all controls really well, it looks great and it sounds just as good, but it's a shallow experience. There is no real depth to the story and it honestly feels as if the developers were too lazy to make a good excuse to get to these boss fights, so they fell into a one trick pony mindset. If a chase scene works for one boss, why cant it work for all of them? Genuis!

Pros: You get to play as Venom and the story is written by Brian Michael-Bendis.

Cons: The Venom portions were bland, too many chase levels, bosses were annoying and I really don't like Brian Michael-Bendis' stories.

Score: 5

Recommendation: Even if you are a big spider-man fan, pass on this game.

Reviewer's Score: 5/10, Originally Posted: 02/28/07