PC, PS3, Reviews, Xbox 360 — September 5, 2012 at 11:19 am

Review: The Amazing Spider-Man

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There are have been many Spider-Man games made over the years, and the latest one by Beenox is The Amazing Spider-Man.  The game takes place a few months after the movie setting, which means there are some major spoilers to the film.  The story is decent throughout most of the game and picks up a little towards the end but it’s nothing incredible.  As usual, Oscorp is behind some sketchy experiments involving mutants.  These mutants escape the laboratory and carry a highly contagious virus which could wipe out the entire city of Manhattan.  To make matters worse, robots were released to eliminate all the cross-species, and of course, Spider-Man is technically a cross-species.  Nevertheless, it’s up to the friendly neighborhood Spider-Man to save the day.

The Amazing Spider-Man is an open world sandbox that allows you to swing freely in the large city.  This is by far the greatest part of the entire game.  There is a great intensity in each swing that gives a realistic feel from the rush of wind and physics of gravity.  The camera zooms in close behind Spider-Man, which works well to increase the overall intense vibe.  Swinging around is extremely easy to navigate.  Within minutes you’ll be running up the side of buildings, jumping off rooftops, and swinging swiftly to your next destination.  One downside is that the web shoots straight up into space, which isn’t exactly a problem, but seeing the web attach to buildings would’ve been a nice touch.

You gain experience points to level up abilities or gain new ones. Even though this is a nice touch, apart from a couple of them, the newfound abilities don’t seem all that worthwhile.  It would be very easy to go from start to finish in this game without leveling up once.  A more dramatic difference in levels is needed. The actual combat system will draw obvious comparisons to Arkham City.  There is one attack button and when your spidey-senses tingle (icon flash above your head) you press the counter button to counter.  Spider-Man’s agility is evident and fun to watch as he crawls over his enemies in acrobatic finishing moves.  It matches the overall flashy dramatic feel this game encompasses.   The problem is the combat is too simplified, too easy, and too effortless, even on hard difficulty.  Since there is no penalty for pressing the counter button at the wrong time, you can mash both the attack and counter button together.  Doing this will allow you to attack enemies and the game will ignore the counter button since there is no enemy attacking.  When an enemy does attack, even though you’re still hitting the attack button along with the counter button, the game gives priority to the correct button, allowing you to counter.  This makes it extremely difficult to actually lose any hand-to-hand fighting.  This, along with the fact that the flashy finishing moves get old eventually, gives a very monotonous and repetitive feel to the combat system.

You don’t have to fist-fight your way through the entire game.  Stealth is highly advised throughout, as you will be able to drop down from the ceiling to stealth kill an enemy, and shoot back up to safety.  Again, the comparison to Arkham City is going to be made.  The problem with this part of the combat is how utterly idiotic the enemy A.I. is.  Once you drop down and take out an enemy, there is a chance the rest of the enemies nearby will spot you.  To hide from them, you press a retreat button to automatically web sling away.  Almost always it will make the enemies lose sight of you.  This can be comical because even if you only move over two feet to the left, the enemies will lose sight of you.  However, if you don’t press this button and try and crawl into hiding, they will know exactly where you are.  This basically forces you to press the retreat button to lose pursuers even if you don’t really move at all.

As stated earlier, the free swinging in the open city is extremely well done.  This is why it’s curious to find out most of the game will be played either in science labs or the sewers, which severely restricts Spider-Man’s movements.  They’re narrow, boxy, bland, and all around uncreative.  The levels look identical to one another and it makes the game feel cheap.  A couple times the game shows amazing promise when you have boss fights in the open city.  You swing, jump, dive, and dodge around incredibly big bosses without being restricted at all.  This was an amazing feeling and extremely fun.  Sadly, almost every other boss in this game is in a square room making the fight a boring drag.

Open world means there are plenty of things to do, and that’s definitely true.  You can save people from muggers, stop car thieves, bring sick people to care centers, take pictures, and do some extreme challenges.  This is all done in the city where the true gameplay shines making these rather enjoyable…at first.  Each side quest feels exactly like the last with almost no outstanding differences.  Again, this causes the game to feel repetitive.  Saving someone is fun, but not the twentieth time you do it.  Luckily that isn’t the end of the replay value.  You can replay any mission you wish, and there are hundreds of comic book pages to collect.  Once collected, you can actually read a real Spider-Man comic from the extras menu.  This will undoubtedly keep completionists busy and it adds some longer life to this incredibly short game, however, it does feel like padding.

What Spider-Man excels in is the way the game is done.  It’s very flashy, dramatic, and cinematic.  Swinging, fighting, and the cutscenes, all come with a level of intensity that will keep you watching the screen.  The voice acting is well done, especially Peter Parker, who’s as nerdy and witty as the day he was created.  Many of his remarks will make you chuckle, even if they’re bad puns.  However, the graphics are nothing to brag about, they look bland and unpolished.  Same goes for the soundtrack, it’s not bad by any means, but it doesn’t stand out, it simply gets the job done.

This may sound like a lot of nitpicking, but don’t worry, this game definitely isn’t bad.  It simply could’ve been much better when the glimpses of potential shine out among the other subpar factors that drag it down.  There are good ideas, for example the web rush mode slows down time so you can get an exact location to swing too.  It’s perfect for narrow corridors and tight spots to land on.  The combat may be slightly repetitive, but it’s still fun to try and see how high of a combo you can achieve.  Also, being able to proceed through a level with either stealth or action gives more options to the player.  The game is only about six hours long, but the plethora of side-quests will definitely keep you busy after the main story line is complete.  Most importantly, it’s incredibly fun to swing around the city, that can’t be stated enough.

Final Verdict: It’s short and has flaws, but it’s still a fun and entertaining game to play.  However, unless you’re a true Spider-Man fan, it’s not recommended to buy this game at full price.

Rating: ★★★★★★★☆☆☆ 

This review is based off a retail copy of the Playstation 3 version of The Amazing Spider-Man developed by Beenox and distributed by Activision. 

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