Gaming Target - PlayStation 2: Spider-Man: The Movie

Written by Chris Reiter on April 29, 2002

Full Review: The best web server around...behind the great Swider-Man, of course

It's only a matter of days before the Spider-Man movie finally arrives in theaters for all the millions of webhead fans out there to see. For now, though, Activision, the publisher behind the recent Spider-Man titles across multiplatforms, and Treyarch, the developer behind the Dreamcast Spider-Man game, have joined forces once again to produce the ultimate next-generation video game experience that captures Spider-Man's grace perfectly like no other game before it could. Based on the soon to be released movie, Spider-Man's back in the swing of things, and now available for home use on your PlayStation 2!

Spider-Man's story images off of the movie's plot, which of course is reflected to a certain degree right off of the comic book background, as how Spider-Man was once bitten by a radioactive spider, who turned into a wrestler, who found out his Uncle Ben was murdered by a guy he could've stopped and didn't, and how he became the legendary web slinging hero of New York City, known to everyone as Spider-Man. Now, as Peter Parker's life is fast forwarded in time, a set of new villainous faces are introduced to him, including The Green Goblin; the glider riding maniac who won't stop terrorizing the city's citizens, and it's up to Spider-Man to put a stop to his psychotic egotistical ways.

Treyarch has captured the same controls of the previous Spider-Man games, and has upped the ante on them, sticking with the old, and introducing a lot that's original. Spider-Man is now able to do anything a spider can do, and much more with new features like being able to swing in any direction you wish around city skyscrapers or inside large building areas, entering a first person view and web zipping from one spot to another, and sticking a webline to a ceiling while lowering and raising Spider-Man from it to get a better view of the danger up ahead. To add to all the new moves, the older ones still exist, and are executed in their proper attributes. From the same old webbed hands technique, to crawling on ceiling and wall surfaces, and even the ability to tie up bad guys with a string of webbing, the moves available make you be the spider, and more.

During gameplay, you must also use Spider-Man's abilities to collect items placed in various sections of the levels, whether they are near ceilings, or floating in mid-air. Amongst them are health, web fluid, and also a combo item that allows for Spider-Man access to enhance his body movements to such acrobatic feats as flipping backward and forward once again, twisted kicking stances, and even a soaring jump dash. Despite the amazing resemblance of Spider-Man's natural movement, the same problem that has plagued the recent Spidey titles with enigmas more than anything else is the awkward camera angles. Generally in a game, when you press up on the control or analog stick you'll move the character forward. In Spider-Man, though, you must first face him in the direction you want to head for, and then you're off. Other times it's up above the floor tiles that Spidey's pasted to a wall or ceiling that whether it be the strange position the camera locks you in with the controls, or when you're upside down trying to figure out which way it was you were supposed to go in again gets confusing almost all of the time. This dilemma is only a mild nuisance, but it doesn't serve well with what could've been modulated for a much better gameplay experience.

Fortunately the new Spider-Man game places players in the position where they'll need all of their skills to survive the heat of battle. You'll get to swing through levels and tangle with multiple enemies on screen, dodging obstacles like bombs or hovering deadly devices, and of course face up against Spider-Man's greatest foes for a one on one dual between all that is good against all that is evil to save the day. Sorting through the unscrupulous characters, there's The Vulture, The Shocker, the vastly improved Scorpion, and of course everyone's favorite (or least favorite, depending on your taste in villains) The Green Goblin. Given the fact that both The Vulture and The Green Goblin are capable of flying, Spider-Man must not only face his foes on the ground, but also through an enduring assortment of aerial combat missions. Able to now lock onto moving targets, you can track an enemy's whereabouts through a newly designed aerial assault system that lets you freely kick, punch, and web bad guys whether it be on land or air, and sometimes in water (seriously).

After every mission is complete, whether it is to obtain an item from enemy forces, save civilians from immediate danger, or even to sneak your way into a heavily guarded fortress, an interval screen appears at the end of every mission, and ranks your performance based on how well you've done. Certain objectives, like how much time it took you to complete a level or how well you fought are graded, and then are used later to unlock special features such as Spider-Man bowling. That's right, Spider-Man bowling. Imagine swinging and kicking head first into a group of 10 guys already webbed up for you inside a bowling alley. Other features the game has is an art gallery of images from the upcoming film and concept art from the making of the game with the entire list of FMV movies previously viewed, and of course different sets of difficulty levels that range from Easy, Normal, Hero, and Super Hero. The higher and harder the level you choose to challenge yourself to, the more bad guys and obstacles are added, and the more points you will get for later that are then added to your game's score system.

But that's not all. For anyone who's never played a Spider-Man game before, or just needs to freshen up on their skills, a Training menu that teaches you everything there is to know about using the wallcrawler, and is narrated by the lovable and sarcastic Bruce Campbell, is present for user definition. Since there is two different types of gameplay to exercise your hands with -- Classic, which resembles the PlayStation Spider-Man controls and Enhanced, that is similar but more complicated -- this mode covers a range of both basic and advanced training, to help you be the best Spider-Man you can be.

For such a super hero title with varied gameplay comes its looks to show it all off. Spider-Man does the job well too. In motion amongst the city skyscrapers, window reflections are painted in a pretty picture mirroring the opposite buildings surrounding them. The sun glares down from up above, and touches the outside scenery perfectly, balancing out what becomes bright and dim in an excellent exhibition of light and shadowing effects. Within structured areas, the graphics continue to impress in shadowy and decorated areas complete as their real life counterparts. It's also great how Spider-Man's animations all look too perfect. Kicking, punching, webbing, jumping, flipping, swinging, soaring, falling, crawling, and more all just look like as if this is the real deal, that this IS Spider-Man.

On the flip side, however, underneath a game that could have used more polish and less chipping of the chisel when crafting its design work, Spider-Man's world isn't all it's cracked up to be. Individual character models, including even the main ones, all share a lackluster finish to their outer shells. The faces and such aren't even expressive to the point of reality, where in-game lips are pasted and don't carry on with the dialogue (most characters wear masks anyway, though). It's a question of whether or not Treyarch had enough time to finish the game, considering the fact that they wanted it to arrive in stores early enough to coincide with the movie, but obviously it's noticeable that certain areas could've been touched up on a couple of more times.

Ending on a sound note, Spider-Man's game music is anything but terrible. What sounds like could be the same music from the film...the background music pattern throughout the game's flow consists of an orchestrated score. From a silent and subtle that shifts into a pandemonium beat when danger approaches, you can expect a good enough tune to know that you're not giving away your money to make your ear drums bleed. Even better, the sound effects impress on any level. Spider-Man, in his many actions, can raise a ruckus in every area, and from the sound of its right on the money explosions, whooshes from webspinning, and bullets flying around Spidey, it's good to be able to hear the enemy defeat. Most of all, swinging Spider-Man into the side of a building and listening to the thud that follows is probably the best sound effect of all in the game.

Moving along, Spider-Man features like what most titles that are striving towards becoming a high-end title do, a cast of famous voices to star as their characters. Straight from the film, such actors as Tobey Maguire who plays as Spider-Man, Willem Dafoe who is The Green Goblin, and even Bruce Campbell, who actually plays the part of the ring announcer in the opening scene of the movie, also does the voice of the game's narrator, filling in for Stan Lee. But, it is annoying though in how the spoken dialogue within the game is shown off in a repetitious nature. Whether it is a fight between the duplicate baddies or the ultimate head villain, they'll speak the lines you'll memorize for the full duration of each battle. It's also unrealistic at how the sound effect of their voice appears as though you're standing right next to them, even though they may be a mile in distance from Spider-Man's position. The dialogue, to a certain degree, just doesn't make the cut.