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Peter Parker’s alter-ago adds another kick-ass game to his repertoire. Spider-Man 3, while not a radical departure from the excellent foundation laid by its prequel, will amaze Spider-Man and action games fans alike. The sequel fixes the major complaints of the first game (generally the repetitive nature of side missions) and polishes everything up. The PC version of the game is based on the Xbox 360/PS3 versions of the game.
Spider-Man 3 follows the movie’s plot. It begins right after the prequel ended with Peter finally getting his life in order. Of course, this cheery mood doesn’t last very long. In Spider-Man 3, the game, you’ll be able to relive the movie and classic action sequences against Sandman, Green Goblin and Venom but Treyarch also added a lot of additional plot lines not based directly on the movie. Some of these involve additional villains (Scorpion) while others task you with doing something like protecting New York City.
Of course, the main reason to pick up Spider-Man 2 was the swinging mechanics. The Xbox 360 controller works very well with Spider-Man 3 on PC. Using that, you get all of the benefits of the improved swinging mechanics: Spider-Man is faster and more acrobatic in this game. After a few moments, you’ll be swinging around, going around corners, around light posts, and running up walls with ease. Combat has also been improved in the game so there is more to do and a larger variety in the move set. It is also faster-paced and more fulfilling thanks to a quicker Spider-Man and a greater variety of moves. Dodging and counter-attacking is emphasized in the game since Spider-Man’s spider sense goes off before he’s going to be attacked, which gives you opportunity to dodge or counterattack. The game also includes a new spider sense system (which works similar to the goggle filters in the Splinter Cell games) to detect hidden items and enemies.
You can also play the game using a keyboard, but as I mentioned above, this should be a last resort. You can swing around using a combination of the scroll wheel button, keyboard keys and the space bar. Expectedly, this isn’t entirely intuitive but possible to get used to. Combat is considerably easier to do with the keyboard since you’re using it to move Spider-Man and fight the enemies.
With all of the basics down, SP3 also introduces some gameplay wrinkles. The most notable is the addition of the black suit. When you’re donning the black suit, Spider-Man is more powerful and fills up a rage meter as he attacks. When this meter is full, Spider-Man basically loses it but becomes incredibly powerful—something very helpful for boss fights. When playing in the standard red-and-blue suit, attacking also fills up a different meter that enables you to use stronger attacks. But Treyarch also added a lot more variety to the random missions so you’re doing a whole lot more on that end, as well as trying to keep three gangs under control. Lastly, the game includes “cineractives” similar to those found in Call of Duty 3 or God of War. As with those games, SP3 will move into a cinematic and require button presses at specific moments. If you hit the buttons at the right time everything moves smoothly and works well. These interactive cinematics provided some of the demo’s biggest “wow” moments such as struggling in the air against the Green Goblin (while playing as Peter) and jumping through lasers as Spider-Man.
Visually, Spider-Man 3 is a looker on a reasonably modern PC. The highlight of the graphics is undoubtedly the recreation of Manhattan. While it was impressive in Spider-Man 2, this sequel takes it to unprecedented heights. All of the buildings have realistic textures and lighting effects and the game’s draw distance seems to go on forever. Swinging to the top of a building and free falling is quite a sight. Spider-Man’s character model is also more detailed, shinier, and nimbler than he has ever been. The same applies to Sandman and Scorpion, who is unbelievably detailed in this iteration. While the other enemies don’t share the same level of detail, they look quite good overall.
The audio in the game is also very impressive. The audio component is led by the actual movie’s cast so you’ll hear Tobey as Spider-Man, Topher Grace as Venom, Thomas Haden Church as Sandman and James Franco as the New Goblin. The dialogue is spot-on and helps draw you into the game. The game’s sound effects are generally great, too, although the actual combat sounds are a touch too repetitive. The orchestrated score sounds it was ripped directly from a big-name Hollywood blockbuster.
As I mentioned above, Spider-Man 3 doesn’t reinvent the Spider-Man games or action games in general. But it’s hard to beat the feeling of swinging across Times Square, free diving down, and then saving yourself at the last minute. One of the best games of the summer has arrived. Spider-Man 3 is a definite must buy if you’re even remotely interested in the license. If you're playing on the PC, though, make sure you're using a game pad. -- Jose Liz, PGNx Media
---- May 5, 2007
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