Developers: Treyarch/Shaba Games Publisher: Activision Release Date: 10/21/2008

A SPIDER-MAN GAME YOU ACTUALLY WANT TO PLAY…WHO KNEW?!

Wow. As Spider-Man swings through the cityscape of NYC, you can actually hear the wind whistling past him – sometimes no music at all is the most exhilarating thing to experience in Spider-Man: Web of Shadows.

Then again, if it was, it would have a whole lot to contend with in the game. No movie license, an original story, and some RPG elements are just what the doctor ordered for the series. I was as excited as I ever was when I heard this was coming out (except for Spider-Man 3…ewwww). But the moment I got the game’s acrobatic and intense style wrapped around my head, it was Spider-Man bliss.

This is what the past games should have been, folks. Let’s jump on in.

I’ll start this off by saying that the game is beautiful. NYC is not as detailed as say GTA IV, but it’s really well done nonetheless. Character models are spot-on and if you have any kind of HDTV, things get that much better. Animations are on par with the rest of the game’s looks – especially Spidey’s web-swinging and his Black Suit’s tendrils. In fact, all the moves have a certain comic flair to them. When you’re in the middle of a combo, you get motion-blurring and flames off of your fists. The black suit’s moves look like they hurt like hell. Cutscenes are of course slightly better looking, but flow seamlessly into the rest of the game. And the camera angles of various attacks are done with full dramatic flair in mind.

Sound ranges from on-par to pretty damn good. As I first said, little touches have made a big difference in Web of Shadows and really draw you in to what’s happening around you. Music scores are appropriately placed during scenes of calm and calamity raising and lowering the tension as they should, so no worries there. And the voice acting is better than I had anticipated (I find that in movie licensed game, the actors try waaay too hard and sound like a bad vaudeville act).

Now, here’s the difference between this Spider-Man game and the others. The gameplay and story. No more of those “swing through the series of hoops” stuff. The game plops you in the middle of a full-scale symbiote invasion (that’s not going well, by the way) and there you are. MJ shows up with Luke Cage and berates you for using your symbiote suit (which piss off MJ), and then you get dragged away by a dark figure with tendrils. Oooh, spooky. You end up in a flashback of four days earlier to where you’re fighting Venom. His symbiote weaves itself into your suit and *BANG* the black suit’s back on!

And it’s all downhill from there.

The only slow point in the game is your training with Luke Cage. But with that you learn the basics that you’ll need to get you through the rest of the game. The controls seem kind of awkward at first but they become as smooth as butter after a few minutes. The biggest superstar in the moves department is by far the Web-Strike. At first, it seems awesome but rudimentary – but then you get up in the sky several hundred feet with no buildings around and you realize that this is the game. You’re swinging around and bouncing off of enemies’ heads as you zip to the next one. Seriously, you can be in mid air for what seems like a half-hour. It really never gets old. The improved zip-line and the ability to run up buildings are welcomed additions from past games as well.

Along with your basic array of attacks and combos (which you can link between suits by the way), there are upgrades like different moves with added power/combo strings. And there are a ton. You earn these through gaining experience points.  This and the leveling-up system feel a tad clunky, but towards the middle of the game, you’re feeling like the biggest bad-ass in the world. I don’t even mind rescuing civilians this time around. It might take some work seeing as how they’re getting dragged away by symbiotes (or worse), but it’s still a good time. Don’t let them die, though. You get a big FAIL on your screen making you feel bad. No good.

And don’t forget you’re not alone in all this. No sir.

As you progress through the story, you’ll meet various heroes and villains who will be willing to assist you along your way (and their help is almost a necessity as you progress). There is one catch though: how good or bad are you? If your alignment is more towards the red suit, then you’ll have help from the likes of Luke Cage, Moon Knight, Wolverine, etc. But if you lean more towards the black suit, then you’ll get help from the Vulture, Black Cat, Electro, and so on. Various story choices can be made with good or evil in mind also. With a prompt, you can go down either path – though it doesn’t seem to make a huge difference in the game. There are several different endings to unlock giving Web of Shadows some replay value. It’s not all cut and dry, though. Sometime you’ll need the other suits to get through certain areas (cars can be lifted and thrown only with the black suit, for instance). And god forbid if one of your hero or villain buddies get hijacked by a symbiote – not gonna say anymore about that.

The only complaints I really have begin and end with the camera. From time to time, it freaks out and starts just whipping around like a cracked-out rubber band. It doesn’t happen often, but when it does, it’s annoying as hell. Thank god Treyarch implemented a camera-reset button. That really is the only thing that drags the score down.

So yeah. If you’re a fan of action games, Web of Shadows is right up your alley. If you’re a Spider-Man fan, this is just about a must have. So have it already.

That’s it.

Overall: 8.5 out of 10

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