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
