Ultimate Spider-Man

"It is worth a rent, if you love it or are a Spidey fan, buy it, just don´t play Spider-Man 2 beforehand or it´ll be ruined."

After the amazing feat which was Spider-Man 2, the only actual really good Spider-Man game in ages, how could Treyarch hope to live up to the feat? With Ultimate Spider-Man, the game based on the famous comics with the modern update of the same name, this partially works. With a compelling story and fresh type of comic book look, but it fails with little to do in the actual game and reduced difficulty.

If you have played Spider-Man 2, you'll know what to expect here. The game follows the same principal of free-roaming and doing what you please or undertaking story missions except there's some new additions to keep it fresh. The usual trick races are back in, except there's a new type of race with a famous marvel character which I won't spoil for you.

There's a new type of side-event as well: Combat Tours. Basically, what these are is a certain gang is causing havoc in the city, and Spider-Man has to travel to (usually) four different spots to stop them. These events can be pretty addicting to say the least. However, with the new additions, there's even less to do. The random crimes in SM2 have been reduced to rarely happening, they may have more variety in the crimes but there is not enough to actually keep it interesting.

The graphics have improved marginally, with the new 'comic book inking' look there is alot less bland models for the civilians then there was in the last game, but the draw distance takes a hit here. When looking on the city from a high building such as say...the ESB, it dosen't feel as exhilarating as SM2 and Change of Night/Day is gone except at set points.

The free-roaming seems to be severly limited also, while New York is still fully exploreable, Queens, the new area they added is severly limited in free-roaming terms. (lots of Area Unavailables around Queens)

Webswinging and fighting have been simplified also, if you've played Easy Web swinging format in SM2 it is very similar to the format in that game. You have to web swing by pressing the L Trigger once more, and this time you have to hold it to keep on your webline. Let go to break Spidey free, press X to boost and Y to climb the webline. This works in terms of making the system easier, but SM2 gave you fast, fluent webswinging that allowed you to travel the city at breakneck speeds. Here it dosen't give you that. Fighting has been simplied also to various punch/kick combos, reducing the 'cool' factor that SM2 had but it works in making the fighting less complex.

The biggest addition to Ultimate that wasn't in previous Spider-Man games is the ability to play as the bad guy. Venom, the main villian of the story IS playable in Ultimate Spider-Man. His gameplay is a great variance and a break from playing as Spidey, but sadly he's essentially doing the same missions. He may have extremely difference to Spider-Man (feeding on people to stay alive, jumping huge distances etc) but his missions are not any different from Spider-Man's. This could have been a huge contribution on the different characters. But Venom fans may get a suprise when they beat the game. I won't spoil it

The story mode delivers a very complex and involving story, the boss battles within it are epic and fresh. You actually have to think to defeat a few of them in this game.

The story maintains the feeling of the comics but however it does kind of take a disjointed filler at a couple of points. Apart from that, great. Sadly, the story won't take you that long to complete. Most of the missions aren't that difficult to do and you'll only really get frustrated at a couple of instances.

The audio delivers a superb job voice acting wise. Whoever voices Spider-Man does a perfect job at creating the 15 year old wisecracking superhero he is supposed to be and many of the voice actors do superb jobs. Much of the music suits the mood of the various missions they're in, but sadly much of the background in free-roaming, like in Spider-Man 2 is often repetitive so you'll get annoyed rather quickly.

There isn't much reason to come back to Ultimate after you've beaten the story mode, if you're that desperate on getting every single unlockable it offers it will have alot to keep you coming back to the game. If you're not, then you're pretty much done with the game as many of the unlockables aren't worth getting.

All in all, Ultimate Spider-Man is at least worth a rent if you're interested. If you love it, buy it, or if you like the Spider-Man franchise, buy it. Just please, do not play Spider-Man 2 before this. That game will ruin this one for you.

Reviewer's Score: 6/10, Originally Posted: 02/27/06