Spider-Mania is upon us in full
force. Unless you have some mystical powers, there is no way you could have missed the
massive marketing campaign for not only the movie, but the video game as well. To say that
the movie and the game based upon it were highly anticipated would be a major
understatement. The movie has more than delivered on fans expectations of
Spideys first appearance on the silver screen, but does the game manage to make as
big of a splash on the PC? Yes it does. Its a thoroughly enjoyable experience, but
it isnt flawless.As you probably already know, Peter Parker is bitten by a radioactive spider
and is mutated into the superhero we know as Spider-Man. He fights crime, beats up bad
guys such as the Green Goblin, Vulture, and Scorpion and saves Mary Jane time and again.
Calling this game Spider-Man: The Movie was based more on marketing than the fact that the
game follows the movie. They both share a similar look and a few similar moments, but the
game introduces a couple of different bosses and takes a few side trips before its
conclusion. I appreciate the fact that the developers left the storytelling to the movie
and focused instead on giving players the closest experience they are going to get to
actually being Spider-Man.
Besides the
catchy theme song, what is the first thing you think of when you hear
"Spider-Man"? Swinging from building to building, crawling on anything and
everything, and using his webbing to take on the bad guys are what I think of. Luckily for
all of the Spider-Man fans out there, Spider-Man: The Movie has all of the trademark
abilities and more. Over the last couple of years, Activision has released two Spider-Man
games that were fun and all, but seemed like Spidey-Light. You were severely limited in
what you could do, due in large part to the hardware-- and this hurt the game. In this new
game, everything seems perfect. The sheer amount of area you can cover when swinging
through the city is phenomenal. You can literally go as low as fifty feet above street
level all the way up to the top of the highest skyscraper that is a thousand feet higher.
For the first time in a Spider-Man game, there is aerial combat. You also have the ability
to shoot a web at a nearby wall or ceiling or building and zip-line over to it. You can
create protective domes made of webbing or power up your punches by putting webbing on
your fists. You can shoot webs at bad guys and drag them to you for some up close and
personal butt kicking. On top of all that, you can climb on anything you want. The ability
list is as complete as it ever has been in any Spider-Man game.
All of these
abilities are put to use in two different types of levels: outdoor and indoor. Swinging
around the city is perfectly executed. You really feel like you are Spider-Man as you zip
from building to building or climb up the walls. Occasionally, there are airborne enemies
to fight, but the camera lock-on ensures that you never lose track of your prey. The
indoor levels are a mixed bag. The first indoor level is a warehouse filled with thugs,
and even at this early point in the game it is pretty obvious that the outdoor stuff is a
lot more fun. You constantly have to baby-sit the camera as you twist through the
corridors, and it becomes rather annoying. More often than not, youll miss an enemy
or doorway simply because the camera is in the wrong position. Also, unless you pick your
way around the levels pretty carefully, Spidey will start climbing on walls or tables
simply because he got too close to them. When you are purposely climbing up the walls and
start climbing on the ceiling, the controls reverse so youll start going back down
the wall. Aggravating, to say the least. There is also some sense of stealth offered in
these indoor levels because when you enter the shadows, you become invisible to the
guards. This is indicated by the Spidey icon in the upper right corner of the screen
turning dark. A lot of the time, you have to position and reposition yourself within the
shadows in order to be fully hidden. Again, this detracts from the otherwise fast pace of
the game. When fighting thugs, there are several combo attacks you can find in addition to
your web attacks, but it becomes a bit repetitive. Luckily, there really arent all
that many enemies and the awesome boss battles happen pretty frequently. The indoor levels
are fun once you adapt to the finicky game engine, but the outdoor levels are definitely
more fun.
Worth mentioning in a separate paragraph, because of its coolness, is the Training
Mode. As you have probably heard, Bruce Campbell provides the voice of your trainer and he
is absolutely hilarious. The training missions themselves are quite useful as well. These
include web swinging, fighting, and a special bowling minigame among others. The missions
are really helpful and make the game a lot easier and more satisfying to play. Bruce is
already an exceptionally cool man, but with his help in the training mode, you too can be
cool in no time at all.
Controlling Spider-Man is easy if you have a good gamepad. There are a lot of commands
to keep track of, and some things require quite a bit of precision, so using the keyboard
and mouse setup is rather tricky. I know Im beating a dead horse here, but unless
youre playing a FPS or strategy game, get a good controller. Itll save a lot
of headaches.
Graphics and
sound are both extremely well done in this game. The outdoor levels are huge and as
detailed as building sides and rooftops can be. You can see cars driving on the streets
below, but you cant get down far enough to interact with them. The first level is
during the day and looks great, but later levels that take place during the night simply
look amazing. One major problem in the outdoor levels is that if there are too many
enemies or too many things going on, the game gets choppy and grinds to a halt for a few
seconds. This only happened once during the indoor missions, fighting a huge boss in an
enormous room with many missiles flying around, so the framerate is only a problem
outside. The indoor levels are nicely detailed as well. The first indoor level is a
warehouse filled with destructive tables and chairs and other things that you can actually
throw at your enemies. All of the indoor levels are similarly detailed and look good. The
character designs are extremely well done, for the most part. Main characters like
Spider-Man/Peter Parker and Green Goblin/Norman Osborn are very detailed and look, dare I
say, realistic. The other bosses, Scorpion and Vulture, are also very detailed. Mary Jane
doesnt look as good as everyone else for some reason, though. The low level bad guys
are typically plain faced to signify their unimportance. The music and sound effects are
good, and the voice acting is superb. Tobey Maguire and Willem Defoe provide the voice
work for their respective characters and sound especially good.
Overall, Spider-Man: The Movie is a really enjoyable game. Beautiful graphics, superb
voice work and sound, and satisfying game play are the highlights. There are some frame
rate issues during the outdoor missions, but usually the game runs fine. I would have to
say that nothing is better than swinging around the huge city, coming and going as you
please. Combat can become repetitive, but the boss battles are superb and there really
arent that many toadies to beat up anyway. All of the combo moves and web abilities
are well done and fun to use. Whether you have seen the movie or not, Spider-Man is
definitely worth playing.