Spiderman is back!

It seems like this is the year of the superhero. The Avengers, The Dark Knight Rises and, of course, The Amazing Spider-Man are all in cinemas this year. But let’s not forget the gaming side of things. Just a couple of weeks ago we had Lego Batman 2, and now The Amazing Spider-Man (henceforth referred to as ASM), released alongside the new movie, is here. With the third Spidey game from Beenox, there is one question on everyone’s minds: is it just another awful movie tie-in? Well…not quite.

Let’s get one thing cleared up first. The game isn’t just a retelling of the movie – in fact it serves as an epilogue to the film, covering the passage of time between the movie and its inevitable sequel. So whilst the game is canon, it has a totally original story. The basic plot is that Oscorp has a new person in charge, and he has created some evil robots, and there are also some weird mutant things (just watch the movie, and you’ll understand). The game is not worth playing at all if you haven’t seen the film, and contains huge spoilers regarding the movie – slightly absurd considering the fact that the game came out a week before the film! Regardless, the plot is decent, albeit a bit too convoluted. Another downside is that the storyline doesn’t really allow for a variety of locations: almost every level takes place in the modern, high-tech setting of Oscorp’s labs. Also lacking in variety are the villains: there are only three real ‘super-villains’ you fight against, and none of the boss battles were that memorable. Spider-Man’s rogue gallery is very impressive, and it was a shame to not see it fully utilized in the game. I would have liked to see a little bit more variety in both aspects, more along the lines of Arkham City, where each location had a very distinct atmosphere and style, and there was a plethora of fantastic villains. And it’s a good thing that I’ve mentioned Arkham City, because ASM takes a lot of inspiration from Arkham. A little too much inspiration, in fact.

Shot to the heart!

Basic gameplay takes on two forms: there are the stealth sections, and the action sections (sound familiar?). It’s pretty much down to you on which gameplay style you use in each level, but stealth is, 99% of the time, the best option. It’s much easier to silently take enemies out by dropping down from the ceiling and ensnaring them in your webs than it is to take them on in hand-to-hand combat.

Speaking of which, the combat system is another thing taken straight from Arkham. But that’s not a bad thing! The combat is fluid and simple, both massive positives. Unfortunately, it’s not quite as polished as Arkham. The ‘counter’ (or in this case ‘dodge’) icon is very small, and almost unnoticeable in certain situations, meaning that combos were often lost instantly. Even more annoying is that you take a huge amount of damage when hit: often being hit three or four times would cause you to die. Spider-Man is incredibly underpowered in the title, and these constant deaths border on infuriating. This frustration is further exacerbated by the auto-save system, which could save just a little more often: repeating the same 2 minute section five or ten times gets a teensy bit irritating.

The Arkham cloning isn’t just present in gameplay, though. The computer/smart phone interface is almost identical to Arkham, with upgrades for both your moves (such as a vertical takedown move) and your equipment unlockable. And the general feel of playing as Spider-Man is very similar to playing as Catwoman in Arkham City: both are very nimble and feel lightweight. Neither of these features are particularly negative, it’s just that I would have liked to see a bit more innovation and independence from the developers, instead of the current game, which almost feels like a Spider-Man themed skin for Arkham – at one point I was very confused as to why I couldn’t glide!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XYu_J_WpWjM

Sadly, it only gets worse. The gameplay itself is overly repetitive – there’s only so many times when the objective can be ‘reach this point in the labs’ whilst still remaining entertaining, and the constant need to take out robots and mutants, at almost every corridor, just isn’t fun after a while. Although the campaign is only 8 hours long, I was pretty fed up by the end. To make matters worse, the huge difficulty spike that occurs a couple hours into the game was ridiculous, and I almost reached ‘throwing the controller at the TV’ levels of anger. And that’s a lot of anger.

So far, you probably think that I hated the game, but that’s not the case at all. In fact, almost everything else in the game is handled pretty damn well.

Uh oh!

I think the moment that the game’s awesomeness hit me was when Spidey was at the top of a high sky-scraper in the glorious open-world of Manhattan. And glorious it is. Graphically, it is stunning, and I laughed with delight as I realised what was about to happen. I jumped off the building, gently pulled on the controller’s trigger, and, with ease, began to web-sling.

Oh, web-slinging. The team at Beenox have dealt with this perfectly. It is a complete joy to swing around the city, jumping between buildings with no difficulty whatsoever. And that means that navigating the open-world is incredibly fun, and practically seamless. The helpful mini-map guides you on your journeys through Manhattan, and all the while you’ll be grinning gleefully, watching Spider-Man pull off some incredible stunts as he soars through the air. Adding to the enjoyment is ‘Web Rush’, the feature that lets you slow down time, pick a target, and immediately travel there. Using a combination of web-slinging, web-rushing and acrobatics (I never knew Peter Parker could jump that high!), you’ll be wandering around the city in no time at all. Which is great, because there are a wide variety of side-missions to do once you’ve finished the game. Although some are a little tedious – basic escort missions and the like – others are more interesting, such as the photography missions where you have to photograph certain things for the Daily Bugle. These missions, along with the hidden collectibles around the city, mean that there’s a fair amount of replay value for the game.

The city graphics are gorgeous

And apart from a couple of very annoying glitches (I encountered two game-breaking ones, both of which were easily fixed by either restarting my console or reloading the mission), the rest of the game plays out just as nicely. The voice acting is great, although it would have been even better if the movie cast had voiced the characters. The script is also good, with some very funny lines, despite the fact that Peter’s wise-cracks got very annoying after hearing them a few hundred times: a little more variety would have been nice here. And other small features, such as the Twitter style ‘New York City Thoughts’ feed on loading screens, all add to your overall enjoyment.

Overall, The Amazing Spider-Man is a pretty good game. Despite feeling a bit too similar to Arkham City, the game stands on its own, with a good plot and some very strong gameplay mechanics. We mustn’t forget that the Arkham games were great, and anything similar is, by default, pretty great! The repetitive structure aside, ASM is worth a play, although I’d recommend waiting for the sequel (heavily teased at the end of the game), which will hopefully improve on a lot of this game’s flaws. Hopefully.

THE GOOD

– Lovely graphics

– Very fun to navigate Manhattan

– Similar to Arkham City

THE BAD

– Irritating and repetitive gameplay

– A little bit glitchy

– Too similar to Arkham City!

SCORE: 7.5/10

The Amazing Spider-Man is out now on Xbox 360, PS3 (reviewed), PC (Summer 2012), 3DS and DS

Review copy kindly provided by Activision.