Spider-Man 2: The Game is often regarded as one of the best movie tie-in games ever made – and for good reason – it’s great swinging mechanics, entertaining missions, and fun combat made it not just a great movie tie-in game, but a great game on its own standing. Beenox, the developer behind The Amazing Spider-Man game, return for a second shot at crafting a great Spider-Man game experience based on the movies with The Amazing Spider-Man 2. It’s a superior entry to their last, but far from the game Spider-Man fans desperately deserve.

If you’re worried that The Amazing Spider-Man 2 game will spoil anything from the movie it’s based upon, there’s no need to worry, as the game takes only small elements like costumes and character likenesses from the movie to spin its own tale. It’s a move that frees the game from having to build its levels and enemies from something strictly inspired by the movie story line, but Beenox never takes advantage to doing something unique and different from the movie.

ASM2_ElectroPower

To say there’s a plot in this game would be a little generous, as it seems most of it is filler to get you from point A to point B while beating up nameless henchmen in between. You’ll cross paths with Electro, Kingpin, Green Goblin, and some other classic Spider-Man foes, but none of them really take the main antagonist role, as each villain only gets a little bit of time in the spotlight.

Some main villains, especially Electro, seem completely underdeveloped and are barely in the game sans their respective boss battles. The game’s run time is just around five to seven hours without doing too many side events, so cramming in over seven main Spider-Man villains in such a short time leaves little breathing room for development or in-depth storytelling. Instead of using all of these villains to tell a well-developed story that spans a good chunk of time, they are used more as fan service rather than any benefit to the story. It seems odd that with so many villains they didn’t try some sort of Sinister Six team-up, but I digress.

Web-slinging has been nearly perfected by Beenox this time around, and it’s one of the most exhilarating experiences I’ve ever had. Unlike Beenox’s previous Spider-Man game, you actually have to attach your webs to buildings by pressing the corresponding trigger to your left or right web-shooters. Flying past the traffic of New York City is an absolute blast, and it’s the best it has been since the beloved Spider-Man 2 game from 10 years ago.

Web rush is back from Beenox’s previous Amazing Spidey game, and while it’s a little rough around the edges still, it allows for some slo-mo acrobatics that makes me feel like I’m darting around just like Spider-Man. Web rush can either be tapped for a quick jump to a specified point, or held for a slo-mo first person view that allows you to target an area for Spider-Man to go to. This, coupled with the web-slinging, makes getting around New York easy, and it also helps recreate the slo-mo and slick moves that the big screen Spider-Man displays oh so often.

ASM2_WallSlinging

Anyone familiar with the Batman: Arkham series’ freeflow combat will instantly be able to jump into The Amazing Spider-Man 2’s combat and feel comfortable, because it uses the same basic rules and controls. As Spider-Man, you can punch, kick, and shoot webs at enemies to build a combo, and counter enemies when they try to attack you. At random, enemies will have highlighted circles appear above their head, which will allow you to use a special takedown that will instantly incapacitate them.

The combat isn’t nearly as polished as any Batman: Akrham game, and at times it can feel a little clunky. Animations aren’t smooth transitions from one enemy to another, and there isn’t as much depth to the combat as I would have liked. It still works well, and some of the finishers are really awesome acrobatic moves, I just wish that I could do more of those at my own discretion to feel more like I’m Spider-Man and less like I’m watching the game be Spider-Man for me.

The missions offered are a mixed bag, and one of the biggest problems that seemingly no developer of a Spider-Man game – besides Spider-Man 2: The Game – can solve is tailoring missions around Spider-Man without taking away who the character is. For a hero that relies so much on acrobats and speed, why are so many missions inside of buildings or areas that take away arguably his best assets? Swinging around New York is great, but going to a mission area that takes away web-slinging and grounds Spider-Man seems like it’s shooting itself in the foot. This game is attempting to be a Batman game, but trying to mix Spider-Man in at the same time takes away any personal identity, and much like Ben Reilly in the comics, it becomes an less interesting clone.

Some conversations allow you to ask questions to characters that uncover more plot or details regarding your mission, but they feel so inconsequential. For most conversations, I would just press “end conversation,” because what characters had to say was either obvious or offered nothing to progress or uncover elements that I wouldn’t otherwise already find out through the story. It’s unclear whether this was implemented to allow players to decide how much they wanted to know about the subplot, or to give some sort of interactivity to conversations, but either way, it doesn’t work well.

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The Amazing Spider-Man 2 isn’t as great as it could have been if there was more polish and content. Borrowed elements like the combat from the Batman Arkham series work, but they just aren’t as good in comparison to the originators. Rather than intertwining a story with Spidey’s foes elegantly, the game feels more like a showcase for the cast of villains, and since there are so many, none really seem that menacing or important to the overarching plot, which itself seems like an afterthought.

Web slinging is at its absolute best here, and I’ve still not grown tired of it after beating the game. Every interim section of the game only made me more excited to get back to swinging around, and I had a lot of fun finding collectibles, too. Beenox does a great job of packing the game with cool costumes and some great fan service. Actually being able to read the comics you find makes collecting items worthwhile instead of just being a way to pad a game’s length, and I found myself eager to find comic pages so I could read some classic issues.

There still isn’t a truly amazing Spider-Man game, and The Amazing Spider-Man 2 takes positive steps forward and also some steps back. Anyone craving a game that puts you in the role of Spidey is sure to have a lot of fun here, but we’re still waiting for a Spider-Man game that does justice to the character like Arkham Asylum did for Batman.

 

This review is based on a review copy of the PlayStation 4 version of the game The Amazing Spider-Man 2 by Beenox and distributed by Activision.

Superior, Not Spectacular | The Amazing Spider-Man 2 Review
Overall6
Positives
  • Truly amazing swing mechanics
  • Great bonus content
Negatives
  • Clunky combat
  • Odd visuals
  • Poor story and character development
6Overall Score
Reader Rating: (3 Votes)
5.5

About The Author

Josh is a Senior Editor for New Gamer Nation. He'd love to chat with you about games on Twitter.