Game Review: The Amazing Spiderman

Platform: Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, 3DS


Price Range: £29 - £39


Age Rating: 16


Genre: Action/ Adventure




Design:


Spiderman returns to our consoles this summer in the new game The Amazing Spiderman, which goes along quite nicely with the hit movie that has just been released. We all know the story by now, Peter Parker is an unpopular kid at school gets bitten by a radioactive spider and then wakes up with amazing abilities. The game presumes you know all this however and doesn't waste any time in throwing you into the action, in the first few minutes you are already rescuing Gwen Stacey from the claws of a mutant lizard. The basic story is that Curt Connors or The Lizard as he is otherwise known has been locked up in an asylum and now a mystery infection is running through the city and its up to spidey to find out how to cure and stop it. The game is primarily set in Manhattan so fans of the original Spiderman games such as myself will find themselves disappointed when you try to get other districts in the city and Peter gives you a brush off by saying 'I really love Manhattan' or 'I love Manhattan too much' and then turns around, its slightly annoying however I suppose if they wish to stay on the same course as the movie setting then they have made the right choice because Manhattan is still free roamable between missions with plenty of items to collect as well as petty crimes to be stopped.


Gameplay:


So after the disaster that was 'Spiderman: Edge of Time' Beenox really needed to step up their ideas in the gameplay department and I am pleased to say they have done just that. The game plays out brilliantly with free roaming between missions and plenty of collectables to find it really makes for pleasant gaming it even has you overlooking the fact that you can't free roam anywhere else other than Manhattan. The simple fighting controls can at times make it seem slightly similar as you go through each mission and the button prompts that appear on screen make it feel like you are not entirely in control of the game. On the plus side however there are plenty of upgrades to be unlocked as you level up which in turn makes Spidey stronger enabling you to defeat his enemies with increased simplicity. A new feature that has been added is the 'Web Rush' basically it is just a glorified 'Web Zip' from the previous Spiderman titles, players find themselves pressing the RB button to slow time and enable Spiderman to either web zip out of the way of an oncoming bad guy or using it to get form one point in the city to another, at times it can be quicker than web swinging. Petty crimes are back, however they don't take up a massive portion of the game if you don't want them to they are simply there if you want a break from the main story of the game.


Presentation:

For me I think the game looks great, graphically it really blows the other Spiderman titles out of the water, at times it can just be simple things such as the rips in Spidey's costume when he gets hurt or the substantially bigger things such as Manhattan itself which looks brilliant as you swing from building to building, the only downside being, as is always the case with these type of games the citizens of Manhattan all sound the same, near enough every female has the same voice and the same applies to the males. The background music swells at dramatic points in the game and the cut scenes look brilliant especially at the beginning where you see things from Peter's point of view. Web rush also lets you look through a first person view which looks great because you are looking through the actual eye section of Spiderman's costume. The voice acting is also brilliant with the traditional Spiderman one liners thrown in when fighting bad guys it really makes for a great gaming experience when you can understand the character's sense of humour.


Summary:

To be honest i was quite pleased with this game as i played through it, it mixes up the missions quite nicely so that you don't feel like you are doing the same thing over and over again, the only thing i would say to Beenox is to give the game a bit more free roam room, give us the whole city to explore rather than just one district, if they could do it five years ago for the old Spiderman games then I'm sure you can do it now.


Ratings:


Design: 8.1


Gameplay: 8.5


Presentation: 8.9


Overall: 8.5