Spiderman: Web of Shadows

Review by Slater45

This time Spiderman has an all new story, meeting familiar friends and battling iconic foes, but with this game slipping under the radar on release does it show enough action to swing it with the best?

Gameplay

Right from the start you get sent straight into the action with an intense prelude mission fighting in a battered New York. After that battle you then start 4 days prior where the story commences. The Story is slow to begin with, leaving you to sort out petty crimes and deal with gang leaders, but around half way through it starts to really pick up. The missions are well paced with boss battles sprinkled in just as it starts to turn sour. As it is the marvel world you will be fighting against familiar foe. The likes of Wolverine and Black Cat make appearances but they seem more like cameo roles, used to help you out in battle. When you encounter these allies for the first time you will engage them in a boss fight. They are quite lengthy at times but have enough variation to last, with a not so unusual quick time event to finish it off. Also you can use the black and red suit at ease. Simply pushing the left stick in allows you to change, which in turn offers different styles and combat combos. Throughout the game it also present you with some morale choices, these choices will usually pop up around a boss battle and you can decide to be good use the red suit or turn bad with the black suit, all these choices determines different endings giving the game life and replay ability. The problem is the story feels like a sequel to game that never got released. For those who are not familiar with the comics, will struggle with certain aspects of the storyline, for example when fighting Wolverine in a boss battle he will ask you certain question which are comic related and found myself getting the questions wrong more often then not. If you press down on the D-pad you can call an allied to come and help you, which would be great for a co-op experience, but there is no offline or online co-op to be found which I found very disappointing and felt they had miss something that could have made this game much better out.

Sprinkled between the main missions are the side quests. These usual consist of taking down the enemies on the ground or saving civilians. These are fine to begin with but instead completing after the first objective and moving on, it continues in stages, which seem to never stop and just gets annoying by the end.

Throughout the game you earn Experience points for completing the main and side mission, but also for killing enemies. All these points can be used to add different combo attacks to Spiderman. In the menu you can choose from the Red or black suit and the type of attack you want to upgrade. The upgrades are well layout on screen and easy to obtain. Also you can not only buy upgrades but you can also sell them as well, which comes in very handy if your looking to get rid of unwanted moves.

The combat system on the game is the best aspect. Ground and air attacks usually consist of simply bashing on the X button. The can use the B button for a web attacks which can consist of either a web shot or web grab depending on what suit you have at the time. Pressing Y produces the web strike, this move will go into a semi slow-mo pulling you into the enemy then when you're close enough you can press another button to produce a agile move. Finally holding LB and pressing either X, Y or B produces a special move that looks devastating when pulled off. All these move look fantastic when produced, the ground and air attacks are fluid and the web grab works well in certain situation, which all together makes for a brilliant experience.

The map itself is huge and I spent a lot of time just roaming around. The iconic structures of New York are there and also the fictional ones from the comics as well such as Starks towers and kingpins Headquarters. Within the free roaming there are also collectible to obtain, which help you rank up your 'spidey level' making Spiderman more agile and stronger.

The main problem with this game is the camera. When you are swinging around it is fine but when you want to climb or you're in a small alley way it becomes a nightmare, it will start randomly flicker all over the place, leaving you disorientated. Also you're meant to be able to control the camera with the right stick but even a little flick up or down will shoot the camera off. In battle situations it can become a right pain in the backside and unplayable at times.

Graphics and Sound

The graphics don't have the WOW factor as other titles, but keeps enough to be satisfied with. Firstly New York is presented well. In the first half of the game it looks like a normal New York, but when the second half hits the city takes a dramatic change. This looks great giant webs and smoke can be seen all round and real sets the atmosphere. The lighting is good and moves with the day and night cycle. Swinging through the city is a great feeling but occasion pop and become distracting. Characters all wear there usual costumes and look great, especially Spiderman, who looks more agile and tougher then I have seen him in previous games. During the first half of the game I only experienced an occasional drop in frame rate and slow down, but after that the game becomes hard to play. The framerate and slowdown increased and felt as if it couldn't cope with the amount on the screen. The animation becomes erratic and very buggy, making the fluid combat controls seem useless at times. The animation is fine, but in sticky situation can become a hassle. On occasions the animation will seem to freeze and you will just be stuck in that position for a few seconds. There are just too many technical problem with the game to make the experience more enjoyable then it could be.

As in game music to go there is not much here. I kept hearing the same score of music over and over again, eventually finding myself putting on my own music to drown it out. The dialogue is not brilliant but just good enough to live with. The script is cheesy from start to finish. The conversation can be too drawn out and found myself skipping through them to get straight to the mission. At times Spiderman will narrate what is happening keeping you up to date with the goings on. I liked this as it reminded me of things that I have forgotten, keeping me in touch with the main story. I also found many sound glitches throughout. The music would occasionally cut out

Conclusion

Spiderman: Web of Shadows would be a fantastic action game if it wasn't for the technical problems. The story maybe slow, but soon picks up halfway through with the action paced very well. The side missions can become a chore after time, but it the camera and buggy animation that really lets this title down. The framerate and slow down is also issue and the lack of online co-op puts this as a rental game only.