Spider-Man 3

"Spiderman webs his way into flypaper in this watered-down adaptation of the movie"

Spiderman is THE superhero that everyone talks about nowadays, spawning waves of movies, video games, toys, and Halloween costumes in his wake. Peter Parker, the kid who gets bit by a spider and contracts incredible strength and agility, has webbed his way into our hearts (and wallets). Enter Spiderman 3 (the game), an adaptation of the blockbuster film with the same name. Made by Treyarch, the developers of the previous two Spiderman games, you get the same Story/Free Roam gameplay that you've come to expect from the series, but nothing about it is really noteworthy or changed for the better.

The Spiderman games have always been about playing as the red-and-blue wonder, Spiderman, and roaming around Manhattan, just for kicks or to solve crime and subdue evildoers. The plot from the Spiderman 3 movie is loosely incorporated here as, through a series of missions, you can fight Harry (the New Goblin), Sandman, and Venom, as well as a few throwback villains, such as Scorpion and Dr. Connors. You can also explore the city, solve some crimes here and there or complete some side missions. Aside from these things, there's not a lot left in the game to do, so if you are not goal-oriented, you will lose interest quickly.

Spiderman has an arsenal of tricks at his disposal—among those, his famous web sling in which he traverses a city in mid-air. You can do this in the game and the controls are decent enough to make this activity quite fun, as this is boosted by the massive scope of the city. You can climb up buildings, tie up enemies with webs, or lay down tons of different combos. Of course, this is where the game takes a most abrupt turn. With the lone exception of web slinging, Spiderman is difficult to control. Most enemies you'll fight can be taken out by just mashing one button and by holding another button to dodge enemy attacks. Sure, you have tons of different combos, but you will find little use for them. You'll be doing this a lot in the game as you beat up a nearly endless line of cronies in just about every mission. Not to mention that the camera tends to act quirky and gets in the way of most fights, plus Spiderman's irritating sensitivity while moving is a luxury you don't have.

The mission design isn't that great either. You'll eventually encounter bosses to fight, but to add to the nausea, they literally take thousands of hits to kill as you “pound and weave” over and over again. Generally, the AI isn't very smart and you usually end up having to BS your way out of a lot of situations by doing menial tasks such as webbing up to unreachable locations for some bosses while punching a pile of pipes over and over again to defeat Venom. The game is somewhat lenient with its save spots, so when facing some tough levels, you won't have to backtrack too much if you die. Even if you do manage to make your way through the missions, they err on the short, repetitive side, which doesn't make this game any better.

Aside from the webslinging and the punching, there's a few additional action sequences to do here and there. On occasion, you'll be presented with a theatrical scene that you must push all the buttons that appear on screen, usually to assist Spiderman in webbing through close locations or jumping through hoops. Miss a button and Spidey will go splat and you'll get to try again (thankfully, you have unlimited lives). These scenes do little to mix up the monotony of the game, plus these sequences are quite easy and can be a relief from the constant fighting that you must do. You'll also have to defuse a few bombs by accomplishing a few minigames on the spot, but the game doesn't really instruct you on how to do these, so they're more frustrating than fun. You can also bust out your camera (Frank West style) and snap photos of stuff around you. There's a couple of missions based on Peter's job at the Daily Bugle that require you to take pictures of stuff, but they're not very interesting either.

It is also worth mentioning Spiderman's black suit. You unlock it later in the game and it gives Spidey a bit of a boost to speed and strength. The plot of Good/Evil Spiderman plays no role in the game, so you can use it at free will. The only catch is that you must beat the missions a second time as Black Spiderman, but it's pretty neat and worth mentioning.

The rest of the game is basically solving miscellaneous crimes as they occur. Three gangs in Manhattan cause all of the trouble—a gang of diehard, mohawk-sporting shirtless punk rockers, an organization of Chinese ninja Triads, and some fancy emo girls. Besides Soul Calibur and Dead or Alive, this is one of the few games where you can really beat the hell out of a bunch of women (it's actually quite annoying). Seldom are the crime missions goal oriented, but if they are, they're usually “Go to X-location and beat up all the people there.” You can also compete in some races around Manhattan and try to get the best time, but the loose controls make this more of a pain than it should be.

Spiderman 3's visuals are a double-edged sword. On one hand, the city of Manhattan is massive, featuring tons of detail with a huge draw distance. The interface is pretty clean and Spidey looks great in motion as he slings around town. The in-game movies are quite good, and some of the characters (particularly the loud-mouth Mr. Jameson) really get into their roles. On the other hand, almost all other NPCs look like your typical past-gen cookie-cutter clones, which don't animate very well and don't look all that great up close. The framerate is fairly good until a mob of enemies appear on screen, which will happen occasionally. Lastly, some of Spiderman's attack moves look more like flailing around rather than actually knocking someone out, which kind of stinks. As for the audio, you'll occasionally hear the movie soundtrack, though most of the game goes silent to the sound of the “shhink” of deploying a web and the “thud” of knocking some fools out. The voice overs aren't that great as Tobey MacGuire and others let out these dry, cliche lines from here to there.

Overall, Spiderman 3 is just rental fodder for most Xbox 360 goers. The core gameplay isn't that good due to the weak controls and poor mission design. Unless you are a huge fan of the previous Spiderman games, this one's worth a glance at best.

Presentation: 8/10 – Sticks to the movie intros fairly well—it feels like a Spiderman game for sure.
Gameplay: 5.5/10 – Aside from webslinging, the combat and other menial tasks are clumsy and repetitive.
Graphics: 7/10 – City of Manhattan looks good, but most animations are sub-par.
Sound: 6/10 – Voice acting is weak. Music is washed up too—not interesting enough to hold your interest.
Replay Value: 5/10 – Once you've completed all the missions, which will take a few days to do, there's nothing left to do in this game.

Reviewer's Score: 6/10, Originally Posted: 04/02/08

Game Release: Spider-Man 3 (US, 05/04/07)