very person has different gaming memories that they will cherish for a lifetime, whether it be concocting a strategy to take down a difficult boss or achieving the highest score in an arcade game. There are some experiences, however, that transcend individual taste and must be seen by the entire gaming populace. Battling Psycho Mantis in Metal Gear Solid; staring wide-eyed as you call forth your first summoned monster in Final Fantasy VII; scoring a massive combo in Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3; jacking your first car in Grand Theft Auto III; and now…web swinging in Spider-Man 2.
Although this gameplay mechanic has been featured in previous Spider-Man games, it has always been confined and not very true to the wall crawler’s potential. With this release, developer Treyarch has removed the restraints and let the spider loose, making web swinging the primary component. With visually arresting, groundbreaking gameplay at your fingertips, an expansive New York skyline as your playground, and an arsenal of acrobatic maneuvers that would make even Mary Lou Retton blush, you can lose countless hours of your life just swinging across the city, flipping around poles, and crawling up walls. With realistic physics accompanying your every move, you’ll encounter fear-induced stomach knotting when you leap off of skyscrapers, and shortness of breath as you tighten your line to avoid crashing into the side of a building. It’s an amazing sensation to say the very least, and the closest a game has come to accurately conveying the incredible powers and supernatural abilities of a superhero.
Although the remainder of the game shows signs of being just as graceful and compelling with its combo-intensive combat, assortment of random missions, and bevy of hidden items, the majority of this content just doesn’t sit well. Outside of the interactive spider sense (which allows players to dodge bullets and attacks with a well-timed button press), combat can best be summed up as mindless button mashing. There are some decent boss fights, but there really is no need for strategy against your typical thugs. Even worse yet, missions are equally as simple. Just swing to an area denoted on the map to take out a pocket of enemies, and move on to the next mission.
The random objectives that you can take on for townsfolk hold a bit more interest, yet each of these tasks only lasts for a few seconds and are repeated way too often throughout the course of the game. In an afternoon, there’s a good chance that you’ll prevent an armored car robbery at least 15 times and stop someone from falling off of a building at least 20. It’s a great idea to give players freedom to do other things outside of the critical path, but without a heavy injection of variety, you’ll lose interest in these diversions very quickly.
I am a fan, however, of the timed ring races– which are very similar in design to the bonus goals in SSX 3. They really force players to hone their web swinging skills. Oddly, other than achieving a rank (like Silver or Gold Medalist), there is no reason to complete these difficult tasks. On this same note, players can scour the city for 150 Skyscraper Tokens and complete feats like helping 250 citizens. What is the end result of these time-consuming feats? Another rank. If I wanted a rank, I would have joined the Boy Scouts. Rewards and unlockables are noticeably absent. If you avoid these goals (which I would assume most people will do when they realize that there is no payoff), you can whip through the game in a day if you are determined.
So it’s short; Stevie Wonder could probably rock the combat engine like nobody’s business; and most of the missions get as old as Rob Liefeld’s comics. Even with these flaws, this is one of those games that you will continually go back to and have the time of your life in. Once you get a taste of web swinging, there really is no going back, you just won’t be able to live without it.
The Edge
Simply put, the PS2 version got beat by the ugly stick, and the GameCube incarnation was grazed by it. The effects, fluidity of play, and detailing in the Xbox version are far superior.