scigamer's Full Review: SpiderMan for PlayStation 2
-INTRO-
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Comic book characters just seem to have a natural progression into the realm of games because of the intrigue of taking the 2d form into 3D environment that a player can control. There have been several of characters from multiple comics that have made there way to the various classic and next generations of systems alike and Spiderman is no different.
Spiderman has made it’s way from 8 and 16 bit platforms and with the recently released live action movie based on the web wonder, the hero in red and blue has finally made it’s way to PS2. Spiderman captures the whole essence of what makes this silk swinger appealing with perfect movements and great gameplay that hasn’t been accomplished fully until now.
-GAMEPLAY: 9.0-
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Spiderman PS2 is rather loosely based on the motion picture that reflects the actors cast for the roles and are incorporated into the game. The game’s setup is in a linear approach style that is already established and triggered as you progress throughout the game. There several numerous different levels that make up the game and the player has the ability to choose between four levels of difficultly: easy, normal, hero and super hero. There is about two modes to choose from, standard play and a rather effective training mode to hone your spider attack skills.
The settings of these levels contain a wide variety of indoor closed arenas to the more interesting open air high in the sky affairs which gives ton of variety. The types of missions are just as dynamic and vary from search and destroy, defend and protect and all out battle fury in the skies.
After each level completed your are awarded points based on your overall performance in that particular level that are used to unlock certain hidden levels and features. You are judged on how quickly you progress through the level, secrets attained and your overall fighting technique. The main playing screen presents a open layout that gives the player useful info. The top left provides you with your red bar for your health and a blue one for your available web fluid( organic not included).
The only other display is located on the bottom right where it displays the height meter and spidey compass. The high meter shows exactly how high spidey and his enemies are in the aerial missions in red and blue bars. The compass is in a red circular form with the spidey logo in a flat horizontal position that points in the direction of the targets and it even turns white when an enemy is right on top of you.
Since the web crawler can do everything a spider can, responsive movement is literary the key ingredient to this kind of game environment that either going to make or break the game. Spiderman doesn’t disappoint here and presents and effective range of moves for dynamic range of atttack. Obviously the web wonder can stick to any surface he chooses but has a broad range of abilities from swinging in any direction, swing into a building without sticking by hitting the opposite direction, bring enemies toward you with your web and using your web as a line to zip from one location to the next in a blink of a eye.
Since controls are the heart of this game and one’s skills might have a cover of rust, Activision has incorporated a rather detailed training course broken into different sections from the basic to advanced skills that are needed to complete the game. To keep you company during the numerous training missions you are aided by the witty and sarcastic Bruce Campbell and despite the hilarious commentary, Campbell manages to provide some key pointers. The basic control interface is a simple setup and you have the ability to customize the controller in standard and advanced layout and the ability to switch between the analog and D-pad control for movement at any time during the game.
Along with his basic attacks, Spiderman has a huge arsenal of at least 20 different punch and kick combos that combine into jump kicks back flips and power punches. These combos have to be unlocked by collecting gold spider icons throughout the game that are in various open and secret areas to be found.
During the game a player can do well with just using a couple of combos on a regular basis since many of them experience a massive time delay trying to pull them off. Basic moves seem the most effective in taking out opponents quickly especially the use of Web dome which is a shield around you to protect a swarm of enemies and Web gloves which gives you a more powerful impact that are keys skills to use in the game.
Another key technique used in the air missions in the use of the camera lock command that keeps your enemy in your sight the whole time without losing your sense of direction. The player has the ability to pan the camera all around using the right analog button which is useful to look around surroundings but pointless during combat
-GRAPHICS: 8.5-
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While the game provides a mixture of indoor and outdoor levels and it’s apparent where all the attention went to regarding the visual standpoint. Up high in the sky is where the player gets to fully appreciate the detail and depth in creating the rather large vast skyscraper cityscape. Spiderman definitely gives you the sense of being the web wonder himself rushing passed the vast variety of buildings and environment. Each building has it’s own identity and textures applied to them bring out many of the crisp details.
The reflection mapping applied to the windows is quite amazing as completely shows the environment that encompasses the buildings. The environmental effects created add variety of different settings from full day,dusk and night along with some realistic weather effects added to some of the levels that constantly provides different tones and interest. The closed indoor arenas on the other hand accomplish a solid design but there seems to be less quality that applied to some of the textures and environment that make some elements look bland at times.
The lighting effects applied to the game also intensify the colors and shadows applied to everything as well as the great lens flare effects created by the sun when you direct the camera upward. The character design in a strong affair and despite the fact that most are made up of simple low polygon models and limited facial qualities the textures and maps applied to them make up for the limitations
The strongest aspects in Spiderman in the realistic and near perfect fluid qualities in the animation. Every kind of movement that Spiderman does it one basic smooth motion after the other from just regular punch and kicks to the more elaborate flips and jumps that really focus on realism. The frame rate also has a constant balance that runs at a high frame count especially in aerial battles but experiences some minor slow time during the mass confusion of enemies
-SOUND:9.5-
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The audio qualities are a solid effort straight down the board from the background tunes, effects, and dialogue. Spiderman provides clean crisp sounds that will keep your ears ringing in enjoyment as the music come alive during the battle sequences. The sound effects are top notch from the sound of the web shooters to the explosions of pumpkin bombs that will definitely keep your senses on your toes. Since the game follows the live action movie in some regards the dialogue in supplied by the actual actors that brought the characters to life on screen. Maguire supplies the same sarcastic humor jabs to his enemies that have become a trademark in the comics and are kept intact
-PROBLEMS-
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-Camera system…. why is the room spinning
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The view of this game is really hindered and it greatly flawed by the cumbersome camera angles. The problem arises when spidey happens to be crawling around corners or hanging from above that players start to lose a sense of direction with your surroundings. The right analog stick only allows limited movement on sides of buildings and virtual none hanging from above. Combat is even more frustrating since the camera is rather slow to adjust and you are forced to become reliant on the camera lock command to target enemies.
-Loading time-.. My look at the crack on the wall
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Waiting for any game to load has just become a regular feature with the CD based system but Spiderman takes it into the next level with some erratic lengthy pauses. Getting a drink or snack may help the waiting since the game requires between 15 to 20 seconds just to get the main menu up and running. Maybe I’m impatience but I can only at look at the hanging spider and text for so long.
-Short game-.. Where’s the beef
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While this is a fun entertaining and challenging game to play, is 10 plus some hours worth. shelling out the 50 clams for. The amount of play here just isn’t enough to pay the full price sticker despite the good qualities contain in this game. Although Rental status alone may not be enough time to absorb everything the game offers depending on interest and time played. Personally Spiderman is worth purchasing at your used video game store of your choice for about half of the original price.
-Minor issues-..Why can’t I do that
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There’s a couple little discrepancies I found in the game, one being the fact that hanging on the side of the window you see the reflections of the environment in the window but any evidence of spidey being there is totally invisible. Next, as you swing closer to the ground in the aerial stages spidey gets close to the mass population down below but you are restricted from swinging completely down to ground level, felt sort of cheated when you can’t even go down to scare anyone.
Spiderman PS2 is definitely probably the best wall crawler version to date with the solid gameplay and smooth controls that literary create a realistic feel that captures the essence of this superhero. Spiderman has it’s issues but the good qualities out weigh the apparent problems and with the mini-games, training mode and the actual missions the game keep you involved.
Treyarch and Activision tag team did a great job enhancing the game and releasing it around the same time as the live action movie, after seeing the movie your definitely going to want to grab a copy and start playing.
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