Ultimate
Spider-Man
Publisher:
Activision
Developer: Treyarch
Platform: Xbox, PS2 & Gamecube
Players: 1
Genre: Action
Reviewed: Xbox Edition
With Spider-Man
3, the movie, still a ways off, Activision needed to
capitalize on the video game success of Spider-Man 2.
Since Spider-Man 2 2 sounded ridiculous they wisely
shifted their source material to the outstanding Ultimate
Spider-Man comic book. Brian Michael Bendis and Mark
Bagley's modern take on the 40 year old character is a natural
fit for video game fans. It's hip, funny, well written and
appeals to a young audience. Combine that with the recent
string of comic based games being superior to their movie
based counterparts, the game looked like a sure fire hit,
on paper.
Unfortunately,
Ultimate Spider-Man the video game fails to live
up to its name.
Cut
scenes get the game going with a brief explanation of the
origin of Spider-Man just in case the game fell into the
hands of some hypothetical kid who didn't know. A second
set of cut scenes catches the player up on the events of
Ultimate Spider-Man #33-39 where Peter Parker meets
up with his old friend Eddie Brock and together they begin
investigating the research started by their fathers. Not
much time is spent going into plot detail in either set
of scenes. It's just enough to get the ball rolling.
After
a quick tutorial, the action gets swinging. Similar to Spider-Man
2, you can move Spidey through a scaled down version
of New York with ease. Fight thugs, stop robberies, compete
in races against yourself and run general rescue missions.
Stopping these run of the mill crooks leads to story missions
and cut scenes that advance the main plot. This part of
the game is almost identical to Spider-Man 2
To
spice things up, you'll not only get to play as Spider-Man,
but also as his archenemy Venom. The all too few Venom sequences
are fun rampage missions a la Hulk: Destruction that
are a welcome change from the Spider-Man missions. Venom
leaps around town feeding on people to replenish his ever
draining life force.
While
fun, it may not be appropriate for younger players since
Venom is essentially murdering people. That point is really
driven home when Venom's first mission is to drain the life
out of the annoying "I lost my balloon" kid from the Spider-Man
2 game. I understand what they were going for with that
joke, but some parent somewhere is going to freak out over
it and their kid may, too.
The first thing
you'll notice is that the graphics are fittingly far more
comic booky than the previous games. Treyarch uses cel-shading
and animated story panels to give the game its graphic novel
feel. The animation is crisp and nicely emulates the source
material. I liked the art and graphics more than I thought
I would when I saw the original concept work.
The controls
for Ultimate Spider-Man are dumbed down from the
previous games either because the developers were targeting
a younger audience or because the previous controls were
a bit awkward at times. Combos are kept very simple and
can be executed through little more than button mashing.
Swinging through the city still has a reckless falling quality
to it but maybe that's what swinging from one building to
the next on a thread at 50 miles an hour feels like.
True to the
USM comic, Peter Parker is about 15 years old and
is filled with both angst and sass. The difference between
the voice of Peter Parker here vs. the voice of Toby Maguire
is huge. The absence of Maguire's nasally narration is a
welcome change although Bruce Campbell's voice over contribution
is sorely missed.
The
dialogue also remains true to the comic. Brian Michael Bendis'
sense of snarkiness carries over with some snappy dialogue
and funny one-liners. Treyarch must have not paid Bendis
very much for his contribution to the project because the
usually verbose Bendis delivers a minimal amount of dialogue.
The plot is rich enough, but the few quips Spidey has as
he fights and moves around town are repeated ad-nauseam.
What is funny the 1st time is not so funny the 31st time.
The
game begins to lose its luster after the first hour of play.
Around then you'll begin to notice that although the world
Peter Parker lives in is large and beautifully rendered,
there is not that much to do. Instead of roaming the city
fighting crime at your leisure GTA style, the city
missions are mandatory in order to advance the main plot.
You'll rescue the same citizen a dozen times and race through
the same check points in order to unlock the next cut scene.
It
would become tedious if the story missions weren't so short.
The main story only takes about 5-6 hours from start to
finish putting it in the "rent me" rather than the "buy
me" category.
What little
plot there is is a winner. Bendis manages to keep the story
interesting while also working in gratuitous cameos including
Shocker, Boomerang, Rhino, Silver Sable, Human Torch, Wolverine,
Carnage, Electro and Green Goblin. The boss battles are
the most enjoyable parts of the game, but each one starts
off with a chase through the city. *Yawn*
Ultimately Ultimate
Spider-Man is a great concept with high production values
that falls short of its potential. The repetitive game play
is repetitive and also repetitive. Story mode is too short
and less satisfying than reading the actual comic.
That said there
is still a solid foundation here to build upon for a sequel.
The graphics and sound are top notch and the story is well
told. Adding a greater variety of things to do, places to
visit and bosses to fight would help flesh out the game.
A refined yet more robust control scheme would help immensely
and a two player mode with one person playing Venom and
another playing Spider-Man would rock the house.
The
Spider-Man 3 movie is still a few years off, so here's
hoping Ultimate Spider-Man 2 is already in production.
As for this game, rent it and spend the money you save on
a trade paperback.
