does
a good deed for the citizens of the city. He can either respond to cries for help
or wander around until a random incident occurs, with the only difference being
that responding to a call will result in an icon to replenish his health after
assisting and the other just provides the hero points and nothing more. The points
go towards completing the objective and buying moves, but they are also independent
- using points to buy a new level of slinging or for a new combo won't take away
from the total needed to complete the chapter. In-between chapter objectives,
the player is free to roam around and assist the citizens to gather points, check
out helpful icons (which are voiced by Bruce Campbell), compete in timed races
to specific spots in the city, deliver pizzas, or compete in some simple games
in the city's arcade - which, oddly enough, isn't on the map and is hard to find
after the player can finally roam free, but it also serves as a basic tutorial
on fighting, making it less-than-useful as a tutorial and more of an oddity. The
system is stretched pretty thin to offer more incentives than merely fighting
crime, though they are optional and don't really differ from going from point
A to B as quickly as possible.
The hero points are the main way
the game progresses. It's a conventional method, and it works, but it's also a
little strange in its implementation: should Spider-Man have to learn to kick
someone as he comes out of a swing? I would assume gravity would do that for him.
Helping the pedestrians to get the points is fun at first, but it quickly
becomes a chore. Since the game is so massive, the developers had to skimp on
details, which means that Spidey will fight the same goons (a variety of maybe
three different types) over and over again. The tasks will always be the same,
too. It will either be an ambush, people shooting at the cops, an armored car
heist (with a getaway sequence thrown in for good measure), stopping a thief,
bringing a man to a doctor, getting people off a sinking boat, or getting someone
before they fall off the side of a building. Again, these are nice to do for the
first few chapters, but going on Chapter 12, the fact that the same city worker
was on yet another manhole crying for help and needing to go to the hospital again,
well, I would've just have preferred to leave him there so he would learn a lesson
about on-the-job safety. The fighting isn't even that fun, either. Despite the
fact that the player can buy combos and sling thugs around, it tends to devolve
into either button mashing or using Spidey's super speed to slow down time and
either do the same air juggle or wrap them all up in web and pummel until satisfied.
This particular aspect borders on mediocre, and ends up coming off even worse
because of the exploration aspect, and it really makes me wonder why our hero
didn't quit years ago.
When it's time to get involved in the storyline
- 15-20% of which consists of chasing Black Cat around the city - the game never
really takes off. There is the Rhino, the Shocker, Doctor Octopus, Mysterio, robots,
and all that good stuff, but the boss battles are kind of lackluster. The spider
sense will be instrumental in beating all of the bad guys, and once you combine
it with his ability to move quicker than his opponents, it's about simply learning
the timing of the attacks (and most often other problems, like pulsating shields).
One thing that annoyed me to no end was that the villains only have two or three
vocal phrases, and often there are others around whenever the battles occur, so
on top of the usual sound effects were also two voices talking over each other
and repeating the same things - very irritating. And on a non-technical note,
ragdoll physics make many fights look silly.
The game, for all the awe
its openness inspires, lacks polish. Aside from the fact that the character models
only vaguely resemble the actors (check out Peter's shoulders and Spidey's ankles
and feet), the voices, which are actually voiced by the actors, don't even sound
like them. And that problem of bosses and people talking over each other is amplified
in the city as there is considerable audio cross-over between the regular citizens,
the citizens in need, and Spider-Man, who all attempt to fire off their tiny handful
of sayings as you make your way across town. The humor of the comic is also missing,
unless you count Spider-Man's reply of "you da wo-man" to "you da man" funny.
There were also quite a few glitches: when speaking to a citizen, others would
actually walk through them and either twitch back and forth or just go about their
way; I fell through several objects, including a train car when I was fighting
Doctor Octopus; and the constant presence of polygon seams had some portions resembling
a PS1 title.
A shame it's that way, because the webslinging is so good.
Sadly, I beat the game at 50% completion (there are two more chapters after beating
it, which easily take up the rest since the 2,000-5,000 hero points needed in
most chapters is dwarfed by the 50,000 needed in the chapter following the credits),
and the slinging only got really good at around 20%. But when it was good, it
was real good. With so many upgrades, I was running alongside buildings, swinging
over others, going around skyscrapers, and having a ball. And the controls, while
a little troublesome at slower speeds, handled the higher-level swinging like
a charm. A cool effect to help give the sensation of speed was the blurring of
the screen whenever falling from a high distance or traveling fast, accompanied
by heavy wind sounds, both of which were effective and really got the blood pumping…ah,
good times. This portion is so good that I have to recommend it to fans of the
series; it's that fantastic.
As the initial encounters are fun, the game
is generally pretty good in the beginning. However, the game only took me just
over six hours to beat, and with the repetitive missions and lackluster campaign,
I see myself enjoying the leisure chapters, with swinging around and just enjoying
the sights, more than the game itself. If the linear levels of the first movie-based
game could meld with the openness of the second, then I think we would see the
perfect Spider-Man game.
Overall:
6.5/10
Open-ended environments are all
the rage these days, and Spider-Man 2 shows just how tricky it can be tackling
such a design. Despite the fact that it would seem natural to have a huge area
for Spider-Man to traverse and protect, it just didn't pan out as well as it should
have. There has to be enough solid content to fill in such a massive playing field,
and I didn't find that to be the case here. The tasks quickly become tiresome,
and the overall lack of polish takes its toll after a while. The game starts off
strong, but is carried in the end solely on the strength of the webslinging, which
is a rush and a unique experience, but only highlights the disappointing hero-oriented
aspects. Despite the fact that I beat the game in six hours, there are tons of
little things to do around the city to make completionists happy. Even when you
consider the ability to go after all the hero points, deliver all the pizzas,
and do all the timed courses, the fact remains that this is a game maxing out
at nine or so hours, making it a solid rental but nothing more.
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