The Amazing Spider-Man Review (360)

With great power comes great responsibility…

Spiderman, Spiderman, does whatever Batman can…well at least he tries to in this movie tie-in. The influence from the Arkham series is clear throughout Spidey’s latest adventure. Set after the events of its titular film (heads up if you are looking forward to it do NOT play this before seeing it, major plot spoilers present!), we finally see the web head return to the streets of Manhattan. This is developer Beenox’s first attempt at cracking an open world in a Spiderman game. The good news is that they have managed to pull it off thanks to the great web swinging system. One of the first things you will notice when you start up The Amazing Spider Man is how the camera is closer to the web slinger than ever before (a la Arkham City). This makes for an exhilarating point of view while swinging through New York, buildings whizz by in a beautiful blur as you leap into the air crying out “WOO-HOO!”. It really makes you feel like you are Spider Man like no other game has done before. The game’s main new feature however is the ‘Web Rush’ system. This basically involves you slowing down time in first person view and allows you to pick your target accordingly. It’s more than just a target selection system for fighting off bad guys, it also is a new way to navigate yourself around the game, each ‘landing’ area possible in web rush mode will be highlighted with a yellow Spider Man silhouette. Overall it is easy to use and a surprisingly fun addition, more than just a mere gimmick I thought it was going to turn out to be. If you are anything like me you will agree that when it comes to superhero games you have simply got to get your hero looking great. There is no doubt in my mind you will be jazzed with how great the graphics are on Spidey’s suit in this, the new look taken from the film simply dazzles through the game. Paired with the damage retention on it, he’s never looked better…even when covered in bloody cuts. In fact he almost looks too good, as the rest of the game doesn’t hit the same visual heights that he does. The graphics around Manhattan don’t look as good as they really should, and the disappointing level design for indoor parts will leave you cursing the image of Oscorp’s labs in your mind. Seriously, it will feel like half the time you are in some kind of science lab.

You will be pulling off spectacular combos in no time

This feeling of repetition is ultimately where this adventure falls flat, and the story is the main reason behind this. I understand that Beenox had their hands tied by Sony Pictures over who they could feature in their tale due to continuity errors with future films, but the villains present are really from Spidey’s B-list. The problem is that there is not really any major peril from your more classic villains such as Doc Ock, Venom or the Green Goblin. Instead we get Rhino, Scorpion and Vermin. I appreciate they tried to jazz it up with new back stories and looks (they are all full on failed test subjects of their animal) but they all lead back to Oscorp and the rehashing of the film’s cross species premise. Even the main villain Alistair Smythe, animated series regular, is a poor choice as it results in annoying robot battles throughout the game. Speaking of fighting robots, the combat system isn’t bad to be fair. Despite being completely lifted from the Batman Arkham series, it is still fun. Why not copy something that has proven successful? I actually feel that this style of combat system is better applied to Spiderman than Batman, and you will be pulling off spectacular combos in no time. It is just a shame that you will spend it either fighting a robot or an animal mutant. In terms of boss battles, the early ones are not as fun as the later ones for sure; they can all suffer from a bad case of button mashing to beat them. There is also a new stealth system for you to take down bad guys. It is totally optional and works great but just feels like they are trying to fit Spidey in a Batman shaped hole. I don’t want to be sitting and waiting on a stealth attack, I want to be wisecracking and webbing up thugs! A special mention does have to go to the voice acting present in the game. You will not find Andrew Garfield of any other stars from the film present but their substitutes do a fantastic job in this. Sam Riegal’s performance as Spider Man really did capture his smart ass side well and was genuinely funny at points. You will easily get through the main story of the game in about 8 hours. Outside of this there are some side missions for you to tackle, most of which we have seen before such as car chases and can help mix up things between the story. There is also an abundance of collectables for you to gather, on the open streets of Manhattan there are 500 comic book pages for you to find which will unlock full digital comics for you to read and there is even more to find during the inner levels of the game. All of which add some more game play time to you 100% purists out there. For any of you Spider Man fans out there who like myself was eagerly awaiting this title as the true successor to the incredible Spiderman 2 as ‘Best Spider Man game ever!” you might find yourself ultimately disappointed. The game is good, but the timid story does leave you a little underwhelmed by its end. It does have a great combat system and new additions such as web rush which I hope will make a return. If however you want to simply web swing your way about New York again as your favourite wall crawling hero then look no further, buy this and enjoy. I know I will be.