 Review By: Andrew Joy |
Developer: | Treyarch |
| Publisher: | Activision | |
| Genre: | Action | |
| ESRB: | Teen | |
| # Of Players: | 1 | |
| Online Play: | No | |
| Accessories: | HDTV 720p | |
| Buy Now: |   |
While those playable cut-scenes are pre-scripted (meaning the button combinations don’t seem to be chosen at random), the action-to-button correlation lacks any discernible rhyme or reason, so there is no way to prepare for them. However, with the exception of a few of the more complicated maneuvers you’ll eventually unlock (along with health bonuses and the like) as you progress through Spider-Man 3, stopping crimes and completing missions, most of the controls should be fairly easy to master. First, the basics: As expected, the start button pauses the game and opens the menu (where you can save, quit, check your stats, change characters and even watch some of the special features) and the select button opens a map of the city, which you can scroll through to select missions and that sort of thing. The analog sticks are also used in the usual fashion, with the left one moving your character and the right, the game’s camera.
In order to take to the skies, as it were, you need only squeeze and hold R2 (if you simply stop holding R2 Spidey will continue to fall until you shoot a new line) and he’ll automatically jump into the air and shoot a web. When the line runs short, just release R2 and squeezing it again to shoot another at the next building; squeezing both R2 and L2 will make him shoot out two lines at once. When you’re on the ground, pushing forward on the analog stick will cause Spidey to walk or run (depending on how much you push it), squeezing L2 will cause him to sprint, pressing X will make him jump (pressing X again once he is in the air will, of course, perform a double jump), pressing Circle when he is in the air will allow him to crawl in the walls, and squeezing both L2 and Circle will allow him to run up the side of walls.
By clicking R3 (that’s the right analog stick, for those of you unfamiliar with the SIXAXIS), you can use Spider-Man’s spider sense for a short time, which flips everything into black and white, with points of interest and enemies standing out in color. And, once in combat, the buttons functions in Spider-Man 3 tend to change quite a bit. For the most part, the Triangle button performs a bunch of kicks, while the Square button throws punches (holding it will charge a power jab). The X button will still allow Spider-Man to jump, and then tapping one of the other combat buttons can cause him to shoot back down at his opponents, but you can also bring them up to you by shooting a web with the Circle button. On the ground, the Circle button can encase your foe in web, pull them towards you or swing them around, depending on how you use the analog stick. And, though I won’t go into them here, your attacks can also be chained together to unleash powerful combos depending on how fast you can tap the various buttons, meaning the game often devolves into a button mashing competition.
The graphics happen to be another area where things can suddenly change in the blink of an eye. I’ve heard a lot of talk about how the city in the PS3 version of Spider-Man 3 looks no better than the PS2 version, and, frankly, I don’t think that is true at all. Sure, sometimes the game isn’t as full and detailed as one might expect from this next level of hardware, but it certainly shows a marked improvement over the last generation...at times. When the game gets going fast, or you get too high, sometimes the graphics can lose a bit of detail or suddenly chug (especially when you get about ten enemies or so running around in one of the sudden gang wars), but I have to say that, at the very lowest of acceptable standards, I hope Grand Theft Auto IV looks this good. There are also a number of graphical glitches that can pop up from time to time, such as edges of buildings twitching where they touch, enemies suddenly becoming invisible, and, of course, The Incredible Wall-Humping Spider-Man (don’t ask).
But, while annoying, to be sure, those glitches don’t really ruin the game either. What does ruin the game, however, are the awful cut-scenes. When you play as old web head, it seems the developers invested a lot of time in just getting Spider-Man’s animations to look just right. From wall crawling to swinging from two webs, everything in Spider-Man 3 looks just as you’d expect it to, whether from reading the comics or even seeing the films. As soon as the focus is on Peter Parker or, really, any human figure, that’s when you get the impression the art may have been handled by someone who knew he was getting laid off the coming Friday. The faces in particular look like they belong to a bunch of wax museum likenesses vacationing in the Middle East, with heavy and rumpled brows flopping over their eye sockets, complemented by eyes that bulge out, all frog-like, trying to escape, and topped off with a seemingly permanent frown.
Fortunately, those same cut-scenes are voiced by the actors who played them in the Spider-Man 3 movie (where applicable), even if Tobey Maguire’s own performance is a little flat compared to some of the others. Of course, where others fail, Bruce Campbell is often there to pick up the slack, acting as the narrator throughout our little Manhattan romp, and providing some often much needed humor that can keep the player interested during some of the slower parts of the game in the beginning. I should note, however, that some of the commentary you’ll encounter on the street is less than ideal, often getting quite repetitive, in addition to sometimes being a bit out of place (though not as bad as, say, Crackdown, where your mentor might comment on the impressive view...even if you happen to be standing in a sewer). And, though they are passable as a whole, I also want to comment on one of the game’s sound effects. During the game, whether you are standing on the ground, on top of a building or swinging through the air, a whooshing noise will suddenly occur for no reason. Earlier in the game, I assumed it was a sort of ominous effect used to foreshadow the impending confrontation with the New Goblin, but even after defeating him, it continues, leading me to assume it is there for no other purpose but to drive me nuts, which it is quite good at.
Apparently, Manhattan is only big enough for one spider, because Spider-Man 3 is but a one-player game, without a single multiplayer event in site, despite the bomb defusing mini-game and even multiple costumes (which would have been perfect for two-player races through the city or skydiving). However, I didn’t really expect it to be offered in the first place, and, to be honest, there is more than enough to keep the lone gamer busy for quite some time. As I’ve said, in addition to the mini-game, races and skydiving just mentioned, players can collect a several different types of tokens – including Gang Tokens scattered throughout each gangs’ territory, the Subway Tokens littered in the underground, Skyscraper Tokens found on the tops of buildings, and the Secret Tokens you might stumble across as you do everything a spider can – as well as photo assignments that you can pick up at the Daily Bugle. Once you beat the game, you can switch from Spider-Man to the Symbiote, which makes your character faster, stronger and all around just a little bit more fun as you enjoy the freedom this game has to offer.
Bottom Line:
For any seasoned gamer, the idea of playing a licensed video game, movie or not, probably sends a shiver down their spine. If there has been one constant, since the dawn of video games until the current, it is that, with very few exceptions, they tend to suck. Although there has been a shift in recent years (with some adaptations of the older licenses, as I mentioned before), the quality that comes with a true love of the source material has yet to hit the mainstream. That said, Spider-Man 3 sort of dangles precariously between the two levels, having plenty that shows hard work and dedication on the part of the developers, but plenty more that shows big money mindset of the publishers, trying to rush out a product in time to meet the film’s release. Perhaps the biggest example of this is apparent in the graphics. While some of the animations really capture the lithe acrobatics of our friendly neighborhood Spider-Man, so much of the game just seems unpolished. And, likewise, while the main elements of the story are there, the missions are short and somewhat repetitive, but are quickly swept under the rug by the sheer number of other stories zigzagging all across the map. If the game had been given the proper time in development, and not merely raced towards the deadline, Spider-Man 3 could have been truly spectacular. As it is, this game is probably only worth picking up for true believers.
| Pros: | Cons: | Final Score: |
|---|---|---|
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| 7.5 |
Posted: 2007-06-20 19:03:41 PST