 Overview
The story begins as any classic Spider-Man comic would. Peter Parker is
taking pictures for the Daily Bugle at a science expo hosted by Dr. Otto
Octavius, a.k.a. Doctor Octopus. Everything seems to be progressing
normally, when out of nowhere Spider-Man appears, taking out the guards and
stealing Dr. Octavius' new technological wonder. This of course surprises
Peter -- the real Spider-Man -- and sends him hunting for a place to change
into his alter ego. It's at this point that Peter bumps into Eddie Brock,
the human half of Venom, who is also taking pictures. Peter realizes this
situation is going from bad to worse. Now it's up to Spider-Man to discover
who impersonated him and clear his name as he fights against Venom, Dr.
Octopus and various other villains.
Spider-Man is a direct port from the PlayStation, and it shows.
Activision has done little to improve the game, taking no advantage of the
PC's abilities, and certain parts of the game are plain pathetic. As you'll
see, although the game has some redeeming qualities, Spider-Man for
the PC is only a cheap attempt to create more cash flow from a previously
released product.
Gameplay, Controls, Interface
Your first introduction to Spider-Man is a remarkably pitiful cut
scene that appears to have been completed with ten-year-old technology. (The
cut scenes throughout the game have pixels the size of pencil erasers. It's
difficult even to see what's happening at times.) Once this is over,
however, you'll at least have a basic understanding of the goal you are
attempting to accomplish. Anything is better than watching it again.
After the introduction, get ready for your first wall-climbing experience
as you get comfortable with the controls and movement. This is one of the
few areas where Activision seems to redeem itself, as crawling up walls and
swinging from building to building is actually entertaining to a degree.
Spider-Man actually appears to look natural and graceful crawling across the
ceiling or through a ventilation shaft, which can't be simple to accomplish.
The controls themselves are also fairly quick to grasp and offer a wide
range of options. Using a keyboard or joystick, you can perform punches,
kicks, and jumps effectively in a short period of time; however, there are
more complicated moves that take longer to master. Though most are not
necessary to complete a level, they do offer a variety of different
techniques for attacking enemies and a few creative uses for webbing. For
instance, Spider-Man can perform a jumping kick and punch, he can grab and
punch or kick, throw web spikes, leave a web trap and create a web dome for
protection. He can also swing from building to building, make a zip-line for
climbing directly to the ceiling, and even has a web target mode with
crosshairs for accurate firing. All these options make it more fun to
control Spider-Man and give this game a small measure of saving grace.
So aside from the pathetic cut scenes, what is the problem with this
game? To start, let's look at the AI and in particular how an enemy reacts
to Spider-Man. All the enemies appear to be surrounded by an invisible
soundproof barrier. None of them give the impression that they notice
Spider-Man unless he happens to be right in their line of vision. Spidey
could be beating the tar out of some guy five feet away, but if the enemy is
looking at the wall like most appear to be doing, he won't even react.
Another issue crops up when the enemies fire weapons; oddly enough, when
Spider-Man is directly in front of them, they'll fire into the air at a
45-degree angle. This occurs about 50 percent of the time and is a sad sight
to behold. In previous games like Oni,
enemies react to you in more than one or two different ways. These games
force you to plan an attack instead of charging in, punching and kicking
until everybody is taken out.
Through general gameplay, you'll see power-ups and other items that help
Spider-Man on his current mission. There are basically only four different
items available to help -- life, web packet, armor, and a question mark. The
question mark in particular is useful as it gives tips and advice for
tackling the problem at hand; it can be ignored if you'd rather figure it
out on your own.
 The
missions themselves are extremely easy and can be completed without
difficulty. You'll have missions like saving hostages, disarming bombs, or
coming to the rescue of the ungrateful Jameson. If you think increasing the
difficulty will help make the game more challenging, you're correct -- but
not in a way you might like. When the difficulty is increased, Spider-Man
only gets weaker while his enemies become stronger. This creates an
environment that only requires more kicking and punching to resolve without
increasing the AI one bit. The enemies are just as dumb as before, only now
they can take more of a beating and cause more boredom than strategy
planning.
With a simple game structure, you'd expect a simple interface.
Thankfully, that is what you get. Spider-Man doesn't attempt to get
confusing with an overly complicated screen; it amounts to four simple
displays consisting of Spider-Man's health, number of web cartridges left,
level of web fluid in web, and a Spidey-compass to point you toward your
goal. All are useful and uncomplicated, never crowding the screen or causing
confusion.
The developers also threw in a number of extras in an attempt to make the
game more entertaining. For instance, you can view the different costumes
worn by Spider-Man, and read bios and analyses of different characters. You
can also view the comics you collect during the game and read about events
in the life of Spider-Man. This section includes a brief summary of the
comic. You can also see storyboards, viewing the original art used in
the creation of the game.
Graphics
Not much about the graphics is spectacular, and some parts like the cut
scenes are pretty dismal. I don't know how anyone can justify releasing a PC
game with cut scenes this poor -- it's beyond common sense, but not overly
shocking in a PC port. The developers might actually have to spend extra
time and money creating respectable cut scenes; most games ported from other
systems have only a trivial amount of effort put into them.
The rest of the graphics aren't as bad, but are definitely below average.
Spider-Man's web is represented by straight lines, looking more like pieces
of wire; exploding objects or breaking glass come apart in geometric chunks.
Overall, the graphics fall far short of anything released for the PC in the
last five to seven years. If you enjoy games with stellar graphics, be
cautious of this one.
Audio
Unlike the graphics, the audio is quite acceptable and shouldn't cause
any heartburn. The music clips fit with Spider-Man's image, and sound
similar to the old Spider-Man cartoons. The voiceovers give
believable voices to Spider-Man, the Black Cat, even Jameson. The sound
effects, while not incredible, didn't distract from the game and even helped
it along at times. If the graphics were of a quality similar to the audio,
this game would be much more enjoyable.
System Requirements
PII-266, Windows 95/98/ME/2000, 64 MB RAM, 200 MB hard disk space
(minimum), 4X CD-ROM drive, DirectX-compatible 3D video card with 4MB RAM
(8MB recommended), 16-bit sound card, DirectX 8.0 or higher (included),
Microsoft-compatible mouse/keyboard/joystick/gamepad.
 Bottom Line
To sum it up in one word, this game is disappointing. With poor gameplay
and embarrassing graphics, Spider-Man definitely looks better on the
shelf than on your computer. Why the cut scenes were left in such a
miserable state is puzzling, but the developers must know what they're
doing. Unless you run around in a Spider-Man outfit at night, jumping across
your neighbor's roofs, you might want to wait for the next installment and
hope it gets better attention.
Review Posted On 22 October 2001.
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