Ultimate Spiderman Review

Review Platform: PlayStation 2, X-BOX, PC, GameCube

Marvel's answer to Grand Theft Auto promises to be the most exciting thing since the invention of sliced bread. Based on practically every comic geek's secret fantasy, players will be able to experience Ultimate Spiderman in all its cell-shaded glory as they roam through the bustling streets of New York, styled in true comic book fashion, as both Spiderman and Venom. There is no hot coffee mod per se, but considering the premise and undertaking (not to mention the T-rating) involved in what could be the best Treypark title based on everyone's favorite webslinger, I'm sure you'll agree that we can count it as a relatively small tradeoff.

Starting Out

You'll get your feet wet pretty quickly once you enter the game, but there's no hurry to master the mechanics. Story missions are unlocked by completing specific objectives, so in between events you'll be able to explore to your heart's content and beef up your reflexes by either rescuing helpless citizens or taking down street thugs. The same doesn't exactly go for Venom, but you'll be able to unlock his rampage mode at the end of the game.

The controls for each character are relatively simple and straightforward but are dramatically different, giving gamers a bit of balanced gameplay. Spiderman is much more agile, relying on his webshooters and spider senses, whereas Venom possesses a lot more strength along with the ability to leap over buildings and suck enemies in for health regeneration. Neither have many combo moves, so you'll primarily depend on the same attacks over and over again. This does tend to make things less complicated but somewhat less satisfying overall.

The game also pretty much assumes you know the origins of the main characters, so newcomers might be a bit confused by what goes on at times. For the most part this doesn't pose as an intrusive annoyance to your overall enjoyment of the game. Expect a learning curve of about anywhere between five minutes to half an hour.

Pros

If there's one thing the game gets right, it's the visuals and great storytelling complimented by the innovative use of animated comic panels during cutscenes. Venom is pretty much everything you could wish for. He makes a crater every time he lands from a huge jump, flings cars and tanks at helicopters, leaps over buildings, and leaves giant claw marks everywhere he climbs. He practically oozes with badass personality and the radio chatter from your enemies raving in awe at your amazing abilities does little to soften the adrenaline rush you'll get once you play him.

There certainly is some replay value to be had, especially if you beat the game and unlock Venom's rampage mode. Other unlockables include costumes, concept art, comicbook covers, landmarks, and characters.

Cons

Unfortunately, contrary to what seems like a barrage of praise, the game is far from perfect. For everything Ultimate Spiderman had going for it, you'd think the game would be this epic adventure worthy of the $50 you paid for it at your local GameStop, but sadly, it isn't. The game takes just shy of five hours to complete and a little over ten hours to get all the bonuses.

Sadly, the biggest fault of the game is the fact that the developers gave you this huge environment to play around in, but hardly bother with letting the player choose how the game falls into place. Whereas Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas gave us the opportunity to actively participate in how the game ends, Ultimate Spiderman is "ultimately" just too linear.

Boss fights are mildly entertaining, but chasing them down is frustratingly difficult at times. This coupled with twitchy camera angles, definitely makes it hard to enjoy the game as it was meant to be.

The Verdict

This will definitely divide spidey-fans, so you're going to either love it or hate it. While there are noticeable improvements over Spiderman 2, the overall reliance of having players tediously rescue citizens (who all seem to suffer from indigestion) and beat down the same thugs repeatedly to progress the story is a rather uninspired decision made by the development team.

The lack of open ended gameplay, and epic boss fights don't help the ratings either, but surprisingly, it isn't all bad (See the Pros section for proof). So if you're iffy on whether to make the purchase, try renting the game first or just bum it from a friend. Otherwise, cross your fingers and hope they do a better job next time with the sequel.