Spiderman has
had without any doubt, the best video game showing of
any superhero character. Dating back to the SNES and
Genesis days, Marvel's biggest franchise has been in
some of the best licensed titles for each console.
Maximum Carnage by itself was one of my favorite SNES
games. The Amazing Spiderman on Genesis was no slouch
either (Sega developed, no less), several appearances in
Capcom's VS titles, and his stellar showing on the
original Playstation. So with those standards in mind,
Activision enlisted Treyarch (who were responsible for
the DC ports of THPS 1 and 2) to work on Spiderman: The
Movie for PS2. The game is, of course, based on the new
Sam Raimi film of the same name. While I can't compare
the two yet, if this game is any indication of what the
movie will be, there's nothing to worry about.
The game follows the plot of when Spiderman first
started his superhero tenure. After Ben is killed by a
member of the Skulls gang, Peter Parker dons the red
outfit and seeks to avenge his death. After doing so,
and eventually becoming a notable vigilante, he attracts
the attention of Oscorp, headed by his friend's father
(the Green Goblin, Norman Osborne). Oscorp's execs are
planning on stealing Spiderman's DNA to use for their
own purposes and Spiderman must stop them. Hence, the
main villain of the game is Goblin. Although you will
eventually run into Scorpion and Shocker, they don't
play a role in the main plot.
Movie-to-game stories usually follow the plot of the
film exactly, with small tangents to make the game
longer than the film (who would buy a 120 minute game?)
That said, the story, which, from what I've gathered, is
identical to the film's, is told through cutscenes both
CG-rendered and using the in-game engine. The character
models in the CG rival anything Square has done thus far
(including their overblown Final Fantasy movie), and the
in-game render of Spiderman is a wonder to look at.
Indoors, the game may look somewhat bland, but outdoors
the virtual model of New York comes alive. The draw
distance seems to go on forever. Buildings boast
intricate details like individually detailed windows,
and no two appear to be the same. From a vantage point
near the rooftops, you can see ambient taxi movement or
a plane slowly spelling out "CHAOS" in the
sky. However bland you might consider the indoor levels
to be, the world outdoors in Spiderman: The Movie The
Game (ick) looks amazing.
There are two types of missions - outdoor and indoor.
Indoors, you're either progressing normally and fighting
off enemies as they come along, or stealthily making
your way around by crawling on the walls and hiding. I
would have to say that I prefer the tension of some of
the indoor levels over the gameplay you'll find
outdoors, although they are both pulled off well.
Outdoors, you're basically swinging around or fighting
on the rooftops. In the air, Spiderman can use two basic
attacks - a "flying punch" and a
"cannonball kick" (which only works if you're
above the target). The aerial battles are pretty fun, if
a little too easy. Still, some of the rooftop missions
can be pretty intense, and it seems that finding secrets
outdoors is more enjoyable than hunting for them
indoors.
Further at your disposal are most of the moves from the
Playstation original and a few new features such as said
aerial attacks. I never used any webbing attack besides
the Impact Web and web dome so I won't comment on any
besides those. The former is good in only one instance,
while the latter is a last-resort when you're
surrounded. There are others, but I didn't find the game
to be hard enough that I would need to explore other
abilities. Perhaps on the Superhero difficulty
level.....
Using the bare-essential 'punch' and 'kick', Spiderman
can pull off combos using those and the other abilities.
You first have to find the icons that unlock each new
combo, though. I never bothered with more than one or
two of these combos, simply because I found the regular
"hit attack button three times" combos to be
effective enough. Although, with the ones I did try,
there was a problem with the response time and some
didn't work half the time.
Besides one annoying problem involving simultaneous
usage of the analog sticks (loss of control, basically),
you wont run into too much trouble with the controls.
You have the "Classic" control scheme and the
"Enhanced" one to choose from (Classic being
from the PSX title). Controls are simple and easy to
learn, while tough to master. They're not flawless, of
course, but close enough to it.
There are also multiple camera settings, in case you
want to change the angles at any time for a different
view of the action. I kept the camera at
"Passive", since "Active" sounds
unplayable.
Surprisingly, the game features actual voice actors from
the film. Rarely does a game get one, let alone an
entire cast of Hollywood personalities supplying voice
content for it. I guess there's a first time for
everything. Anyway, Bruce Campbell does the 'tour' of
the game (he's the obnoxious bastard in the training
missions), Tobey Maguire (who sounds terrible) as
Spiderman, Willem Dafoe voicing the Green Goblin, and a
few others. With the exception of Spiderman they sound
pretty accurate.
It may not be AS good as Neversoft's Playstation title,
you may not like the endings and the graphics indoors
aren't too great, but that doesn't make Treyarch's
Spiderman: The Movie a bad game. Despite the many
nitpicks that knock down the score considerably, you
won't be disappointed with a rental.
One last thing. Treyarch hasn't forgotten the completist/hardcore
among us. They've included the "Alex Ross
Spiderman" as a playable skin, along with 'regular'
Peter Parker, and his wrestler outfit. Novelty, but I'm
glad its in here. A gallery mode and an extra mini game
called Spiderman Bowling round out the 'omake' features
7.5
