PS2 Reviews
Spiderman: The Movie
Reviewed by: DementedEffect.com
The highest praise you can give Spider-Man: The Movie game is that it feels like it's being directed by the auteur behind the film, Sam Raimi. That's to say it's full of flashy, often disorientating camerawork, fluid fight scenes and hockey dialogue. Perfect for the popcorn blockbuster crowd, and almost - but not quite - ideal for a game.
Like the film there's an original story at work here, which basically follows weedy reporter Peter Parker discovering his aracnid powers. Although it's not long before spandex emerges from the wardrobe and you're in full flow as Spider-Man, you can collect gold-colored spider icons to unlock joypad combinations for new, more complex moves right up to the last few levels. It's at least an attempt at character progression, and also anincentive for thwack-happy gamers to play through the game again.
Other than the basics like jumping and web swinging, every move is executive by combining at least a couple of buttons or directions which can be a bit difficult at times to concentrate when your fighting against an enemy.
There's an excellent tutorial for the basics of swinging and swooping, as well as advanced challenges and courses that are effective as sub-games. Your guide is the ubiquitious Bruce Campbell, who does his best work yet for a game in his usual laconic style. Maguire and Dafoe also come off well, despite the laboured wisecracks they're handed.
World wide web right from the start it's apparent how much this resembles Spider-Man, last year's belated PlayStation One port. The hand-to-hand and aerial combat is roughly the same, bar some fine-tuning, and even villains such as Scorpion are wheeled back out for more Spidey action. Thankfully there's no PSone in sight for this coversion (just PS2, Xbox, Gamecube and PC) and it's all the better for it; the animation is noticeably smoother and more effort has clearly been ploughed into the outdoor levels.
These are truly exhilarating, not quite on a par with scenes from the movie but by far the best thing about the game. The well-proportioned skyscrapers, traffic darting below and excellent distance draw combine to convey an importance sense of scale and danger, although the action does get somewhat choppy on lower-end machines when the Green Goblin starts throwing explosives at you or Vulture casts lightning strikes.
While web swinging you can perform instant turns, accelerateand reach distant destinations by zip-lining, and cling onto any building and proceed to crawl in any direction. Locking the camera also allows you to keep an enemy in your sights and is one of the few times where the camera doesn't become a problem. It's now also made clearer as to where you've supposed to be heading thanks to a vertical bar that indicates your height in relation to your target.
Far from marvellous Indoors the action is less successful. Our main criticism (and one which plagued the aforementioned Spider-Man) is the camera. You can select an active or passive view, though neither really makes a jot of difference. Third-person games are notorious for dodgy positioning, but here the perspective rarely adjusts back from behind Spidey, and when it does it's far too slow. On the few occasions stealth is necessary or at least an option, for example sneaking along ceilings, your cover is usually blown by the controls inverting as the camera fails to keep up with the action.
Spider-man is one of the best film license games in years, taking full advantage of the movie's standout scenes. The outdoor levels are inspired, so it's a shame the familiar third-person camera problems crop up in indoor locations. Fortunately the missions are just about varied enough and the combat slick enough to make you overlook most of Spidey's shortcomings.
Overall 4/5
