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Your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man makes a return to consoles.
Spider-Man’s last full-fledged in Spider-Man 3 was quite polarizing: some publications (including this one) loved the game while others criticized the game heavily for a number of issues. We ultimately concluded that the game was aimed at fans of the character and movie: if you liked one (or both) then you would have a lot of fun with the game. Web of Shadows has a number of improvements but won’t drastically change your opinion of the Spider-Man franchise. With that said, if you were a fan of Spidey 3 (like us) then you’re in for a treat with Spider-Man: Web of Shadows.
In Web of Shadows, we find our hero becoming increasingly concerned with the symbiote substance that is spreading throughout New York City. The symbiote is threatening turning New York’s citizens into evil creatures and turn the city in a dirty, black and generally unhappy place to be. Throughout the game you’ll have to make a number of decisions as Spider-Man grapples with the benefits and drawbacks of using the symbiote suit.
Perhaps the most obvious change is that you can switch between suits on the fly while in Spider-Man 3 it was limited to certain missions. The actual attack and swinging mechanics are the same but the attacks are different. Red-suit Spidey uses web-based attacks while black-suit Spidey uses the symbiote’s tentacles. As with previous games, doing well in combat will allow you to collect experience points that you can use to upgrade Spider-Man’s attack power, durability, etc. The other big change is that you’re being assisted by S.H.I.E.L.D. in trying to save the city. This means that along the way you’ll meet Black Cat, Moon Knight, Wolverine and other Marvel characters.
In terms of actual gameplay, Web of Shadows plays fairly similarly to previous games. The combat mechanism has been improved to add more variety to the moves (in terms of what you see onscreen) and even on-air battles. Part of this is because of the new lock-on mechanic that allows you to lock-on to enemies (even if they’re in the air) and continues fighting and building up a massive combo. It helps you feel like you’re truly Spider-Man when fighting.
The game tosses some of the activities from previous games to focus on combat, which can be a good or bad thing depending on your preference. There are other relevant activities like protecting civilians by moving them to an area where the symbiote can’t get to them. Swinging around New York has always been a strength of the series, which is certainly true of Web of Shadows. You can still web zip, double jump, run on walls and do everything else that Spidey can.
Visually, Web of Shadows looks better than Spider-Man 3 although not drastically better. As always, the game’s recreation of New York is the visual highlight although the different characters you’ll encounter all look pretty good. The game is able to show many more characters onscreen than Spidey 3, which is pretty cool. In terms of comparisons, the Xbox 360 version runs smoother than the PS3 version and obviously looks better than the Wii version.
The sound effects and soundtrack are good, too, and help bring the game to life. The voice acting is pretty good (but not stellar), although some of the dialogue is a bit questionable.
Spider-Man: Web of Shadows plays like an enhanced version of Spider-Man 3 with a pretty cool story backing it up. The gameplay isn’t drastically different but there is still a lot of fun to be had with the game’s combat and just swinging around the city. If you were a fan of Spidey 3 or are just looking for a light-hearted, arcadey action game where you can make different decisions then this is the game for you. -- Jose Liz, PGNx Media
---- Oct 23, 2008
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