Spider-Man 2 Review

Developer	Treyarch
Publisher	Activision
Genre	Action

Video games based on comic book characters. Oh man how I hate reviewing these damn things. Just look at the misery that has been caused over the years just by Batman and Superman games. Not to mention even more obscure characters like Drake that have been tainted by the cruel minds of game developers. And as bad as these games usually are, the thought of a game based on a movie based on a comic book character makes my bowels quiver with fright.

Luckily for me – and my bowels – what Treyarch has accomplished here is what I am not afraid to dub “The Greatest Comic Book Video Game Ever”. Period. It’s not without its rough spots, but considering its soiled lineage, calling it the best of its kind is a no-brainer.

Gameplay - While some may make the obvious comparisons between Spiderman 2 and Grand Theft Auto, I’m more inclined to say that Spiderman 2 is the Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater of comic book games. After all, GTA didn’t invent open-ended gameplay, and I like to keep things in the family. But perhaps I’m merely splitting hairs. Either way, the open-endedness of Spiderman 2 is indeed its most compelling characteristic. You don’t feel like nabbing that purse-snatcher or delivering a pizza? Don’t! Feel free to spend all day swinging around the huge environment, flitting from one skyscraper to the next. The sense of scope is overwhelming as you quickly get the feeling that you can essentially explore the entire Big Apple from top to bottom.

When you’re done experiencing the wonder of the city, there is business to attend to. I mentioned the tasks that Spiderman inevitably must undertake, and these are the meat and potatoes of the game. Earning Hero Points takes you from chapter to chapter, and taking on missions and errands earns you these points. Not only do you get Hero Points to advance chapters, but you also earn experience points to buy new moves at the Spidey Store. Lame? Kinda. But effective nonetheless.

The tasks range from the tedious (delivering pizzas, chasing down petty thieves, rescuing old ladies) to the epic comic book variety like battling Shocker, Mysterio, and of course Doc Oc. Unfortunately, the tedium tends to outbalance these colossal encounters, and you may find yourself annoyed to discover you have to deliver yet another pizza.

As I stated earlier, half the thrill of this game is the incredibly well designed web-slinging mechanics. It takes a bit of practice as it involves some tricky button combinations, once you get the hang of it you’ll be swinging from a rooftop into a somersault, latching onto the side of a building, and springing up twenty stories. The only thing they’re missing is a Tony Hawk-like trick/combo system.

The actual combat is a little stickier, however, and feels a bit clumsy at times. Fortunately, unlike those hideous Batman games, this superhero isn’t relegated to simple punch and kick nonsense. Spidey has an arsenal of moves that allow him to grab enemies out of mid-air, tie them up with your webbing, and chain together multiple combos.

And what Treyarch game would be complete without scads of unlockables? Yes, finishing Spiderman 2 isn’t exactly “finishing” Spiderman 2, if you know what I mean. After you think you’ve beaten the story mode, there are still hours of gameplay and loads of challenges left for you to discover in the city streets. It’ll take you ages to finish this game, giving you plenty of bang for your buck.

Graphics - As mentioned, the scope of this game is a sight to behold. The skyline appears to stretch for miles and graphically the game has an incredibly clean, comic book style to it. Although rarely noticeable, there is a bit of pop-up in the GameCube version that we evaluated. While we never experienced an entire building appearing out of nowhere, certain finer details would spring up out of nowhere from time to time. Nevertheless, what Treyarch has accomplished with the environments is incredibly impressive.

The character modeling, however, is a bit more varied. Citizens on the street didn’t appear to move their mouths when they talked and some didn’t appear to be very highly detailed. Granted, this problem generally occurred when speaking to the generic folks on the street and petty criminals. Main characters and enemies didn’t seem to suffer from this at all.

Sound - The soundtrack, while appropriate, is mostly unnoticeable. Much of it comes straight from the flick and overall it comes off as generic superhero grandeur.

There’s a lot of voice acting going on in Spiderman 2, and for the most part it’s quite good. Bruce Campbell is back as the narrator, giving you tips on gameplay laced with sarcasm. Tobey Maguire also does a fairly decent job of delivering his lines. The voices for everyone else have that kooky comic book flavor of the old 70s superhero cartoons. It’s a bit goofy and overdone at times, but in general it works.

Bottom Line - Spiderman 2 had me breathing a huge sigh of relief. I’ve been force-fed my fair share of comic-book-to-video-game crap over the past couple of years, but luckily Treyarch came slamming home with a winner. Yeah, some of the missions are a tad on the repetitive side, and the voice acting can be pretty lame, but no game has made me feel as close to playing the comic as this one.

A big part of its success is just how well Spiderman springs through the air with relative ease, just like a superhero should. Other developers need to take note: this is how to make a superhero video game.

Review by John Luedtke