Spider-Man 3

"Beautiful, yet marred with a slight blemish"

I picked up this game on my way back from class today. I, like every other Spider-Man fanatic, was hotly anticipating this day, the day that both the movie and the game Spider-Man 3 were released. Eager to lose myself in Manhattan, I rushed home, popped in the disc, and sat down, completely submitting myself to the game. When I came out of my gaming stupor several hours later, I found out to my surprise that the game that I was waiting for was better than I could have imagined. Read on to see my opinions on the five things that matter the most in any game.

Controls
Fluid and functional. If any of you have played SM2, (I know most of you have) you'll feel right at home with the controls. Right from the beginning of the game you're introduced to the control scheme, and after a couple of brawls with some local thugs, you're thrust out into the wide expanse of Manhattan Island with none other than Mr. Bruce Campbell guiding you through some of the more intricate maneuvers you'll be undertaking. Web swinging, web zipping, dashing, wall crawling, wall running, and more, are all very easily preformed. Once you get the hang of things, (within approximately 10 minutes or less,) you'll be flying around The Big Apple as gracefully as... well... Spider-Man. The controls easily get a deserving 10/10 from me.

Graphics
I'm not a graphics whore at all, but I have to say, these graphics aren't really that bad. I mean, as some people state, they're definitely no Gears of War, but they're efficient and get the job done. A little bit of pop-up and noticeable framerate hiccups here and there, (especially in fog/smoke ridden areas,) prevent this from getting any higher than a 8/10. I do play on an SDTV though, so I can't really imagine the detail you HD buffs get.

Sound
Again, something that doesn't really make much difference to me, the sound in this game is pretty average to say the least. There are the standard affairs of grunts, yells, and thuds during combat, random one-liners from Spider-Man himself, and the thwip thwipping of Spider-Man's weblines as they, (sometimes futilely,) try to attach themselves to buildings. The music is pretty interesting though. You'll be swinging around Manhattan listening to absolutely nothing, when all of a sudden you'll start hearing sinister music playing. So you activate your spider senses, (covered last,) and what do you see behind a building to your right? A gang fight. So you quickly and effortlessly dispatch them, raising your ranking in the general area, (again, covered last.) Keep in mind, it was the MUSIC that alerted you to the thugs. That and the random opera music that plays during the skydive missions (*sigh* last last last) give this category a nice 8/10.

Story
What's a game without a story? Sports... (badum dum pish...) *ahem* Anyway, right when you gain total control of Spider-Man you're open to about 10 different storylines in the game. Obviously one of them is going to be the movie storyline... you know... the New Goblin, Sandman and Venom. But the creators decided to get a little bit more creative and throw in a lot more story so you get more bang for your buck. One minute you'll be fighting Harry Osborne over the streets of New York, and the next you'll be fighting lizards in the vast sewer system. The fun about this is that you can pick and choose how you want to play. Wanna be a purist and play only the movie storyline? Go ahead. Hated the movie storyline and want to play something different? Why don't you tackle Kraven the Hunter? There are so many storylines that if you happen to choose a mission that's not related to the story, you'll immediately start getting confused as to what the heck is going on. Also the fact that you have no idea which missions advance the story keep the score for this section at 9/10. Because you do not want to end up confused in this massive undertaking of a game.

Gameplay
Finally, the gameplay. You may have been reading this whole thing wondering "Well I know what the graphics look like, but how does it PLAY?" Wonder no further my friends. As soon as you finish the tutorial mission(s) you're basically free to do what you want in the whole city of Manhattan. Spider-Man now comes equipped with more powers than ever before, two versions of spider sense, charged and double jumping, dual web swinging, Superman style slingshotting and of course the symbiote suit, the latter granting him extra speed, power, and moves. The random crime in the game has also been improved, gone are the tedious reckless drivers, sinking boats, and armored car robberies. Say hello to organized crime. I was swinging around the city when I happened upon two thugs on top of a building, after taking them out I saw that they had a telescope set up and were apparently looking at something. When I glanced through the scope, I found some thugs assaulting a home and threatening a homeowner. So being the superhero that I was, I leaped into action, and swung my way over to the robbery in progress only to find that the house was infested with thugs. After taking them all out I managed to free the homeowner, which ended the random crime mission. The upgrade system has been completely revamped as well. Completing random crime missions grant you a greater rank in that general vicinity while also increasing your health and spidey senses after a while, whereas completing story missions nabs you combat upgrades. Swinging upgrades, on the other hand, are handled by just that, swinging. So swing around the city and your swinging speed will go up, you'll be granted the ability to perform tricks in midair, etc etc. The brilliant gameplay mechanics of SM3 earn this category a 10/10 from me.

Approximate Averaged Total = 9/10

Well there you have it folks, my take on Marvel's latest venture into the movie/game market. I thoroughly enjoyed what little time I spent with the game, and am hoping that tomorrow will bring me something new in the vast sprawl of Manhattan Island. I hope that this humble Gamer's review helps you all more than those bigwigs that review games only for money. Cheers!

~DeniedGamer

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 05/07/07