After finishing the game last night, I thought the story mode was more thought out, dramatic and climatic than I imagined it would be. I loved it. They made good use of the opportunity, perhaps an option, to set it after the movie.
I heard complaints about the villains lacking any personality. I agree with that. Even with Rhino, who was previously announced to be a human mixed with a rhinoceros DNA, was treated as an irrational brute. They said in his bio that he is someone struggling with his identity. He is always trying to figure out something that he can't remember, but he was just like all the others villains, besides Smythe, who was a more interesting villain here than he was in other medias I saw him. Rhino's boss fight in the sewer was fun, though, but I also agree on the complaints that, overall, the battles lacked criativity.
I loved the boss fights in Shattered Dimensions which, for the most part, felt diverse, were bigger in scale and there were more in that game than in this one. Here it was basically a matter of dodge and punch. It didn't help that the villains only groaned at me.
At least the combat was confortable. Spidey was really acrobatic and articulated. I felt like him while fighting.
The Web-Rush is something that should be in all Spidey games from now on. It added a lot to the gameplay. Same for the Web-Strike. As for the dodge system, I miss being able to dodge bullets in the most Spidey-like manner while jumping, rotating in the air, or on the wall, moving to the sides, or even on the floor, without Spidey's feet leaving the same place. Just dodging the bullets in the most articulated manner. I don't want to just go away and hide. I want to dodge it. Spidey does that. Stealth is also something that should always be present in a Spidey game from now on.
The web-swing, which I initially didn't like, indeed has grow on me. I feel like it is the most appropriated kind of movement when you're fighting in the air (and the battle against the S0 bots and the hunters are the most fun battles in the game). The close and almost-over-the-shoulder camera added that rush, that vertigo that Spidey probably feels. But that's pretty much it. It's a web-swing system appropriated to fight against opponents in the air. It wasn't the kind of system that made me feel like Spidey, because the game basically does it for me. The challenge of swinging in the right way was lacking.
Reading some commentaries, before the game was released, about the web not attaching to buildings and some fans raging about it, I always thought to myself that it would end up being just a silly complaint. But it's not. It's a HUGE difference. Add to that the detail that the game doesn't let me fully swing and decides when to release the web. After getting used to it, it felt natural to let go of the web before the character did it, but that's because the game forces me to learn it. It shouldn't feel natural, it should let me handle it. Having the webs attaching to buildings and full control of where I'll shoot them and when I'll let go it's part of the challenge and fun of being Spider-Man, of being a web-slinger, which is one of the most interesting aspects about his abilities. Spidey doesn't have someone doing it for him like the game does it for me. He has to pay attention to what he is doing. He has to pay attention to where he is shooting the web. He has to force his body to the left, to the right, or boost his speed with his legs almost in a jump to go higher, longer or a combination of both. It doesn't help that we also can't run or go faster. A speed button is missing. Not only to go faster, but to propel my jump more forward, instead of just upward. If he is swinging in a pole and wants to do a 180º, he doesn't let go of his web to turn around, he awaits until he does the spin, while keeping the speed, then he lets go.
The crane scene in the movie is an exemple. It matters a lot where he is shooting his webs, where it attaches and how he moves. It makes the difference. In the game, I basically decide just if I'll go right or left. I took many recommendations I read online to the heart. Ideas to use both web-swing and Web-Rush to go to my destination. I've done it all. The challenge of being Spider-Man, at least to me, is to move like he does and with as much effort as he does. When I'm using Web-Rush to run through a wall, jumping in a water tower, web-ziping to the street, running on top of a bus and end up perfectly landing on a lamp post, then it's more of an achievement of the game then it is mine. I just need to aim where I'm going and press the respective button for the feature and watch while the game does the rest. I love the feature, but it doesn't make the web-swing less poor.
I want to fully control the character while I'm holding the web. I want to be able to swing so fast that, when I reach a crane or a lamp post, I want to make a 360º on it and release when I'm on top to go higher or to just change my route. When I'm swinging in an antenna, I want to make a complete spin and change the direction of where I'm going. I want to swing so fast that I'll go to the statistics menu, see how many km/h I did and say "damn, I'm fast", and we can only achieve a high speed if we swing efficiently - that is, not hiting buildings on the way. That requires skill if we're going too fast. I want the game to limit my reach of the web, making me choose where I'll try to attach it so I can make the most accurate and efficient use of my abilities. I tried to increase the speed of my web-swing in TASM but without success. Although we begin the game with the skill already in its maximum, it never picks up. It's too limited, even changing to Web-Rush midway through the swing.
Notice I didn't specifically mention SM2 so far, but it is all there. There are times when, depending on the speed we're going, we can swing even diagonally. We can do everything.
This is not a case of wearing "nostalgic goggles". The reason is because the mechanics are completely different, so comparisons can be made without seeming biased. And I'm not just saying, I'm giving motives.
It was challenging to appropriately web-swing in SM2 with efficiency and that challenge was one of the things that made me feel like Spider-Man, because I tried to be as good a swinger as he is.
Even though, imo, SM2's system is much better, it's not a "total win" situation in comparison with TASM. Like I said before, the web-swing here is great to have air battles. I can't picture the same kind of fights I had with SM2's system.
My ideal TASM2 game would have SM2's web-swing mechanics, but keeping the close camera, and it would change to TASM's mechanics when we needed to fight against big enemies in the air, like the S0 Spider-Slayers. I wouldn't change that. I'd bring the combat back, but with SM2's dodge system. In that game, it felt great to dodge any kind of attack and projectiles, specially bullets, just moving the body, without even leaving the place I was standing. Even in the air we could totaly dodge a projectile. Something I also missed in all of the other games, but was present in SM2, was the slow motion sense, where we could even see the trajectory of the bullets and more efficiently dodge them and pull out special attacks that we couldn't in the normal state. Grabbing even 4 enemies at once with webs or taking their guns away at the tap of a button is also something that should come back.
Details like that are what made my experience controling Spidey in SM2 so enjoyable. No game made a better job at making me feel as much like the character as that one did, which is surprising, since that was the first free-roam game for Spidey. In their first try, the gave me the most accurate experience of a web-slinger. The challenge of that game's web-swing mechanics was essential to make me feel like the hero.
So, SM2's web-swing, speed button, dodge system and slow motion sense + TASM's Web-Rush, camera, stealth and combat. This is what I think would be ideal for the perfect Spider-Man game.
Beenox gave me a really enjoyable experience. I had a lot of fun and I still have a lot to do, like beating the remaining side missions, take the remaining photos (which was also a cool addition for the game), discovering new suits and beating it on the hardest difficulty to trash my suit even more times, which was also another great idea, giving me the sense that I had rough battles and a tiresome day. I'm trusting them to give me an even better sequel, because we know they take feedback from fans. There's a lot of room to improve besides the web-swing. Like having more interesting foes, with actual personalities (it is much more fun beating a cocky Hammerhead senseless, for example, then fighting against irrational creatures through the entire game who just roar at me) and more diverse battles that aren't limited to just dodge and punch. I look forward to what they'll do next.
8/10
) but I bought it anyway. They ripped off so much from the Arkham games but there's no denying it's really fun (so far). When I found out there were colelctabel comics like in the 2000 self-titled Spidey game (probably one of my fav games ever) I had to get it. But 700 pages you say? Is it worth going for it? Whats the point of getting cool costumes if you've already 100 percented everything. To look cool while doing nothing? XD
