Spider-Man  

by Activision  Reviewed by: Tom La Bolle  

Overview

Listen up, true believers! Once again trouble has entered the life of Spider-Man. A Spidey imposter has robbed a high-tech expo, Venom is on the warpath again, and an unknown villain is plotting to take over the world! Just a typical day for our web-swinging hero.

In this game from Activision, Stan Lee himself promises non-stop, web-slinging, wall-crawling action and just about delivers. The game is definitely heavier on action than plot, though it does stay reasonably true to the comic books and features Spider-Man fighting a cast of characters any fan will recognize. The plot is reminiscent of some of the older issues of Spider-Man, but the villains are all current (hard to believe that Doc Oc is still around).

Gameplay, Controls, Interface

The game can be played at one of four difficulty levels: easy, normal hard, and kid. Overall, I liked the how the game played. I enjoyed being able to walk on walls, swing on webs, and in general, do whatever a spider can. I've always liked 3D games where you can 'get off the ground' and this game is no exception. Tremendous jumping ability combined with several web-swinging options makes for a game with high mobility that is a lot of fun to move through.

Once you get the hang of the controls, moving around is easy. The point of view (POV), however, has a couple of problems. Generally, the POV is from behind Spider-Man; the main problem results from the fact that the POV correction lags slightly when you are doing a lot of maneuvering and it can be rather disorienting. The directional controls also get a little cranky when crawling from one surface to another. The final scene features a chase where the perspective is fixed from one direction, which can lead to control difficulties while in side view. But this is only for one scene and does make it look more dramatic.

Combat is varied enough to keep it interesting with a variety of punch-, kick- and web-based attacks. When you are within range of an enemy, attacks will automatically target the nearest bad guy, making the basic combat interface very simple. This makes fighting easy for novices, though more experienced action game players might find it irritating. In general, fighting was straightforward, though I found some of the combinations impossible to get consistently. On the other hand, I was only able to use the Dragon Punch in Street Fighter by accident.

The basic game itself features Spider-Man alternately swinging through the city and crawling around inside various complexes while fighting "flavor-of-the-week" bad guys. There are usually only one or two types of bad guy per scene, with about half a dozen types overall. The end of each major section has Spidey facing off with a main boss, such as Venom or Rhino. I found these fights to be the most fun, though I thought they were needlessly restricted in fighting area, such as when you fight Venom in an enclosed alley as opposed to across the rooftops.

As far as the ending goes, they say getting there is half the fun. Well, in this case, getting there was ALL the fun, so don't expect anything fancy once the last Boss goes down. I also felt that the end sequence was the one place where the game drifted significantly from the genre.

Outside of saving the world, the game has a number of other interesting features. There is a training mode where you can practice beating on bad guys, swinging through the city, and maneuvering around inside a building. There is a records area where you can see how you did in the training area. You can view the cut-scenes and 3D images and bios of characters you have seen in the game. You can also jump to scenes in the game that you have completed and you can even view the credits without having to win. (Woo-Hoo!)

Lastly, there are couple of options that will appeal to the die-hard Spider-Man fans. The first is the Comic Collection -- in the course of the game, you can pick up items that look like comic books. Each of these lets you access one of 32 Spider-Man comic book covers, along with a brief synopsis of the issue. There are also a number of ways in the game and training to access what appears to be all of Spidey's costumes! Some of these even have special abilities, such as the Black costume, which has unlimited webbing.

Graphics & Audio

Overall, the graphics in the game are satisfactory. The characters move smoothly and have a fair amount of detail, though the scenery is a little sparse. The static comic book sequences at the beginning of each scene look a little grainy and can get tedious to scroll through. However, comic book fans will like the feel it adds to the game and you can always skip them. The best thing I can say about the sound effects is that they are thorough. You can hear everything from Spidey's pithy, wisecracking comments to the 'thwip' of the webline. Plus, Stan Lee does his own voiceovers! The music reminds me of the theme to the old Spider-Man cartoons and added to the feel of the game for me. Unfortunately, I can't get the song out of my head now.

Bottom Line

Though this game had several good points and was fun to play, it lacked long term entertainment value unless you are a die-hard Spider-Man fan. Swinging around the city loses its thrill and one can only beat up the same six bad guy so many times. It also didn't take that long to beat on normal mode and the differences in difficulty pretty much amount to how many hits it takes to drop your opponent. So, buy it if you really like Spider-Man; otherwise rent, win, and move on.

Review Posted On 21 February 2001.