Spider-Man does everything a spider can, but in this case it isn't quite enough.
Depending on what consoles you play, you may or may not have heard of Treyarch. Over the past few years, the company has been responsible for porting Neversoft’s Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater series and the acclaimed Spider-Man to the Dreamcast. Now that Neversoft is caught up in rehashing the Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater series each year, when the opportunity came to develop a video game adaptation of Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man film, Activision passed the rights to Treyarch. While far from perfect, Spider-Man is a quality and entertaining effort.
Like most other movie-licensed games, the storyline in Spider-Man can only mimic the film it’s based upon before so long adding in new material to keep gamers interested. In this case, in addition to battling the Green Goblin, other villains from the Spider-Man universe – The Vulture and The Shocker – have made it their duty to wreck havoc on Spider-Man’s friendly city. The Vulture is a bit of a weak choice, but considering Spider-Man is centered on Peter Parker’s beginnings as a web slinging super hero, we can let it slide.
Anyone with experience with previous Spider-Man titles will feel right at home with this new creation; Treyarch has taken the successful formula from Neversoft’s games and tweaked it to incorporate some new gameplay mechanics. For example, in order to learn new moves, Spider-Man has to explore the environment for Golden Spiders. By the end of the game, Spider-Man has enough martial arts maneuvers to take on a small army with one arm tied behind his back. Some of them have some awkward timings to pull off, but otherwise learning to utilize all of Spidey’s move set will help get out of some sticky situations. And still, nothing beats the fun in standing near a building ledge, using the rope web technique to yank a baddy over Spidey’s back and laughing as he plummets to his doom.
Comic fans that have been yearning for a chance to become Spidey will find that Treyarch’s Spider-Man fits the bill quite well. The feeling of awe when the game’s first level starts with Peter Parker sitting atop a tall city skyscraper is indescribably cool. Looking down into the city’s traffic, the first few moments of open freefall before tapping R2 to start web slinging produce an incredible rush of excitement. The feeling of immersiveness into Spider-Man’s world is second to none, and spending hours just exploring the huge levels that Treyarch has designed is fun in itself. Unfortunately, Spider-Man has to frequently jolt players back to reality because of a stuttering frame rate. A constant 60 frames per second is mostly an impossibility (unlike the Xbox version, which has zero frame rate problems), but the frame rate is mostly acceptable, just disappointing.
Treyarch did a good job coming up with several gameplay types to make sure that players weren’t becoming bored jumping from roof top to roof top finding’s people’s purses and battling sky creatures. Spider-Man will have to partake in chase sequences with his enemies in the air, save a mentally shot super hero from a horde of mechanical spiders and use stealth to sneak around shady corporate areas. The variety is certainly welcome, but Treyarch ended up including far too many frustrating stealth levels. Sneaking around as Spidey is no fun at all; the AI of the enemies is completely unpredictable and the control isn’t nearly sensitive enough. Sometimes you can waltz around in the open without anyone taking notice, while other times the AI can detect your presence despite the fact that you are hiding in a dark corner on the ceiling. It does not help that there is a string of stealth levels in a row in the second half of the game, effectively killing all interest I had in the game up to that point.
If you can get past the stealth sections of Spider-Man, there is plenty to enjoy. Treyarch gives players plenty of incentive to continue playing the game long after they initially run through the adventure. Gamers are awarded points after completing each level that can be used to unlock secret gameplay modes and other goodies. You receive points for simply completing a level, but to earn enough points for the real fun, you need to execute special tasks (i.e. completing a stage under a set amount of time). Earn enough points and be rewarded with bowling mini-games, the ability to play as the Green Goblin and more.
Spider-Man is a fun game. It isn’t a great or fantastic feat of modern video game development, but it’s certifiably fun.
