If like me you're a big Spider-Man fan, then you would have been straining at the leash awaiting the arrival of THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN™ video game, developed and published by BEENOX and ACTIVISIION. To be honest, it wasn't an anti-climax as such. OK, maybe it's a bit repetitive, and some elements look like they have been lifted from ARKHAM CITY, but for me as a spidey fan, it has everything you would want from a Spider-Man game.
The game takes place after the latest Spider-Man movie, where plans to create more cross breed species goes a bit PETE TONG, and we have MANHATTAN over run with these mad looking critters,. So to combat the problem ALISTAIR SMYTHE, a nano technology expert, decides to build some hunter/killer robots to sort the problem. Which doesn't work out too well and makes the situation worse. So enter Spider-Man to save the day and kick some robot/lizard bottom's!
THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN™ is a third person, open world type of game with plenty of web slinging to be had. Especially in MANHATTAN where you can travel freely, sorting out many side missions, which to be honest can get a touch repetitive after a while. Let's face it, when you've saved one infected victim or caught an escaped criminal, you've saved them all. These missions are more or less all the same, right down to the dialogue.
The campaign in THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN™ is fun with plenty to do. It's not particularly hard either. With the choice of three difficulty settings, there is plenty of variety from crawling around in air ducts, to swinging through town taking down bad guys and robots.
A big feature of this game is the "Web rush" element which involves a touch of the right trigger and time slows down, giving you options as to where you would like to send spidey next. This is great for getting around quickly. Along with the"web retreat "option , it's easy enough to get in and out of trouble at the touch of a button. Which is all well and good, but can be a bit dull as the challenge is removed.
I like being able to target a dumpster or gas bottle, and sling into a group of bad guys. The fight moves aren't too bad and you can upgrade with some nice combo's available. The graphics aren't too bad either. OK, so they're not the greatest, and there are a few glitches, but the character movement and game mechanics are pretty fluid. Not up to BATMAN: ARKHAM CITY's graphics or game mechanics, but good enough not to be distracting.
There are over twenty missions available, most of which are fairly short. The whole game can be completed in around 8 hours, so don't expect any mammoth gaming sessions. Many of Spider-Man's enemies are here, except of course THE GREEN GOBLIN and my favourite THE VULTURE. Mind you, the LIZARD does make an appearance eventually, THE RHINO being the most well-known of all of them, and the introduction of a new piranha type villain called NATTIE (bit of a lame name for a bad guy), With the addition of IGUANA, FELICIA HARDY, VERMIN and SCORPION, Spider-Man has plenty on his hands what with the boss battles being a reasonable challenge, but nothing spectacular
The stealth takedown was one of my favourite moves, very similar to the BATMAN version. The only fault being it wasn't as smooth as ARKHAM CITY, and the camera starts to get a bit disorientating when you are up on the ceiling.
There's some great action sequence/ cut scenes and plenty of upgrades to be had, especially in the open world sections of the game. One of my favourites was collecting comic pages, which open up as real comic strips in the EXTRAS section of the game.
Summary
As a Spider-Man fan from way back, I was pleasantly surprised by this game. OK it's not "Game of the Year" but it sure is fun to play and shouldn't disappoint spidey fans! There is a certain expectation with SPIDER-MAN™ games… you know they are not going to be over exciting like the comics and films, it's just that uniqueness and humour that Spider-Man brings to the superhero table that sets him apart from all the others
I give THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN™ 8.5 out of 10 because it does have its moments, but it still feels like BATMAN: ARKHAM CITY's poorer cousin.
- THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN™
- Developers: Beenox
- Publishers: Activision
- Xbox 360
- Playstation 3
- PC
- Nintendo 3Ds
- Wii
- IOS
- Android
- Genre: Open world, action-adventure
- Release Date: June 29, 2012
