The storyline of Web of Shadows is where a lot of the focus seems to be, with a brand new story being crafted for the game in a similar fashion to what was done with Ultimate Spider-Man, but this time on a slightly larger scale. The game kicks off with an event that puts Spider-Man back into the black costume, but not just the cloth version he kicks around in on occasion, but this is a re-bonding with the Venom symbiote. It was nice to see that they're going with the most current designs for the characters featured in this game, since the Venom here resembles the current universe Venom (but it's still Eddie Brock, I'm guessing for simplicity). This kicks off the main mechanic/gimmick of the title, which is the ability to switch between traditional red/blue Spidey and black costume Spidey at will, simply by clicking the left analog at any time. Each suit offers up different abilities, attacks, and combo's, allowing you to string together a variety of moves once you become proficient at switching back and forth during combat.

The Red/Black conflict isn't just within the gameplay either, at certain events in the story you'll need to make a decision that will effect the outcome of certain scenes, all of which adds points to the side you're currently most in tune with. These points add to either your Red or Black nature, or the Good / Evil conflict that Peter Parker is struggling with in the game.

The city is littered with Spider-Man icons that you can collect which will upgrade stuff like health provided you get the right amount. It's a bit like the Crackdown system, but there are way more icons to pull in here, and it doesn't really effect your jumping abilities like the orb power-ups in Crackdown. There is also an experience system in play, where by completing missions and side quests you'll gain experience points that will allow you to upgrade things like attacks, web shots, and so on. These upgrades are available for both suits, and they're shown in a tier like structure on the pause menu, allowing you to customize Spider-Man however you see fit.

The scale of Web of Shadows is much more in tune with what we saw in the movie related games than in Ultimate Spider-Man, which seemed to bring things down a notch. The city in Web of Shadows is pretty massive, offering up quite a few stellar heights to swing around and jump from, and the ability to scale walls has seen a few improvements as well. You can opt to simply push up against a wall and climb it in a crouched position like normal, or you can hit LB when close to wall and grab on, and then hold that down to literally run along the side of the wall. There are quite a few enemies in the game that can scale walls as well, and there's a small combat system in place that's just for wall fighting, which works surprisingly well.

What doesn't work, and this applies almost entirely to wall climbing, is the camera. Oftentimes when you're scaling a wall it'll get out of whack, and if you're in close proximity to another building it becomes really difficulty to figure out which way is the direction you want to go. Also, when you go over the rooftops, the camera will often lock into a weird view, and will only switch between a couple of angles instead of being free moving with the right stick like it normally is. The only way to fix it is to just reset the camera by clicking the right stick, which granted isn't hard to do, but it's still annoying when it happens, especially during combat.

The actual combat system is pretty fun too, with some interesting moves added to Spidey's repertoire. You have your standard ground combos of punches and kicks, like any other game, but using Spider-Man's webs as an offensive tactic has evolved a bit from simply binding people up in sticky goo. One big feature is using Y to toss out a string of web to an enemy, which will draw Spider-Man in to them like a reverse Scorpion get over here attack, allowing Spider-Man to punch or kick his way off of the stunned enemy. You can string together these attacks across multiple foes, and there's a boss fight with the Vulture early on that has you using this attack almost exclusively. It's not quite a fool proof way of taking enemies out, it can be countered, and there's a visual tell tale that will let you know when that's going to happen so you can cancel out, or perform a counter attack (which I found to be pretty hard by the way).

However, while this new attack is pretty cool, it's also needed far too much, and it becomes a bit of a crutch later on. It's really easy, provided you want to take the time, to just repeat the move over and over again for most enemy encounters, and it's a great way to avoid ever being hit. On certain bosses they'll counter it constantly, but on most of the smaller enemies it'll work every time. It doesn't do much in the way of damage, so it is a bit slow going if you want to use it all the time, but it does make it far too easy to cheese your way thru most of the fights.

My other complaint, and this is one that I've had for every open world superhero game since Spider-Man 2, is that the stuff you can do in the city in between the story missions is still pretty boring. Swinging around and collecting power-ups is a minor diversion, but there's also the various gang fights, cop vs. gangs, and civilians to rescue, but this is pretty much the same stuff we've seen in every single Spider-Man game to date. There's nothing new about it, and it all plays out the same way. Clear out a gang or enemy, gain some experience to power up moves, rinse and repeat. The real culprit is the story missions that have you doing the exact same thing you'd do just swinging around the city, taking out a certain number or type of enemy until you can get the next bit of info from the other heroes you talk to in the game. It gets really repetitious and a bit boring halfway thru the game, and if the swinging mechanic these games use wasn't as naturally satisfying as it is, I doubt anyone would really enjoy it.

The other big feature of Web of Shadows is the ability to use heroes and villains as temporary team-up partners. The story itself will have you use characters like Luke Cage, Moon Knight and Wolverine as missions hubs, where you'll go to them to continue the story and so on. The villains are almost entirely shown as boss fights, but once you beat them you can then opt to use them, provided your special meter is full. Once you've filled the special meter, simply hit a direction the D-Pad to bring in a hero or villain to fight alongside you for a limited amount of time. Whoever you chose to use will toss more points into the black or red side, so keep that in mind depending on which direction you're trying to go for your initial play thru.

I do think Web of Shadows is a pretty fun Spider-Man title, even if it relies on certain mechanics that are really growing old. The story line itself is pretty good, and definitely appealing to comic fans, while the web swinging around the city is still really enjoyable, and almost as fun as anything else the game provides. Combat has seen some minor improvements, but the missions you're required to play and the side-quest stuff in the city are still pretty bland encounters for the most part, and it's those areas that really need to see the most improvement for the next Spider-Man installment down the line.