Spider-Man's gaming voyage has taken a far less impressive journey than what he had in the early 21st century. Mocked by clunky controls, annoying glitches, and bland story lines, Spider-Man Shattered Dimensions is the latest Spider-Man game to try to give the Web-Head the justice he so very well deserves. 

But ultimately, this game fails to bring Spider-Man out of the gaming rut he's been in since the Spider-Man 3 game back in 2007. Let's start off with the story aspect of the game. Mysterio breaks into a museum with an objective of stealing the Tablet of Order and Chaos. Spider-Man swoops down to stop the fish bowl villain and during a witty banter and fight, he accidently breaks the tablet into pieces, which cause some of the pieces to get scattered in other dimensions. These fragments then get into the hands of different villains of these universes and Madame Webb calls upon four different Spider-Men, Amazing, 2099, Noir, and Ultimate to save the fabric of reality. 

The story sounds pretty good, written on paper that is. It falls short of being what it could be. Once the game play starts, the player just selects what universe they want to go to next. This is nothing what I expected. I was hoping for the universes to intertwine with each other in the story, not just be there in a level selection. 

Not only that, but the levels offer no challenge to player, save the boss fights if even that. Each level consists of fighting random opponents and saving helpless civilians until the player gets to the boss fight. Nothing great. The in-game dialog is just awful with the Spider-Men making corny puns through out the game. At one point during the boss fight with Kraven, Spider-Man actually had the nerve to say, "That's so Kraven!" Granted, it's not all bad as I did get a few chuckles out of some of it, but to sum it up, it's just plain bad.

Each Spider-Man is granted their own unique abilities and art styles. Amazing Spider-Man is web combat based with stylish comic book style graphics. 2099 Spider-Man is set in a possible futuristic New York City with Spider-Man's ability to gracefully execute free falling halo jumps. Spider-Man Noir is stealth based having to hide in the shadows with a saturated color scheme, which can be bothersome when trying to take down foes because trying to differentiate the color and the shadows poses a challenge. And finally Ultimate Spider-Man's graphical style isn't much different from his 2005 video game. He wears the black suit under Madam Webb's guidance to fight.

During pivotal moments in gameplay, the third-person view will switch to a first-person view. This is a hit and miss, as it's not a big problem, but the game can definitely go without it. 

The biggest complaint I have about this game is that it is so glitchy. I'm playing through an Ultimate level, during the Electro level, trying to save power plant workers from certain doom. I swing to one and the moment Spider-Man's feet touches solid, dry ground, I get the red screen of death and I have to do it over again. This happened more than once, at least ten times. Then I'm saving civilians as 2099 Spider-Man during the Scorpion level, I grab a person and he wildly spins out of control in Spider-Man's arms. 

Does this game have it's good points? Yes. Despite the flaws as mentioned above this game does have it's fun moments. Particularly trying to do all 180 challenges the game presents, which only a die-hard gamer will attempt to do. 

The game is well polished and the voice acting is great for all the Spider-Men despite their corny dialog. Shattered Dimensions is definitely the best Spider-Man game since Ultimate Spider-Man back in 2005. Is this the Holy Grail of Spider-Man games? Oh my no, but it does improve upon the mistakes the last Spider-Man games have. 

So as of now, it seems that Spider-Man's broken journey is being fixed, as Shattered Dimensions is the best game in recent Spider-Man history.