Finally, I can be Spiderman.

Author's Rating:

Pros: Being Spiderman, going anywhere.

Cons: Music. Underappreciated battle system. Main story quick.

The Bottom Line: 
Is awesome but I wish there was more to do after the main game is beaten. Has fulfilled my fantasy.

Author's Review
I was flipping through my video game magazine one day and saw a preview for Spiderman 2. The main attraction was to be open ended gameplay, something that I really like. I said to myself that I'd have to check it out. I never dreamed I would buy it right after it came out. This is one of the first games I have ever bought for $50. Was it worth it? Read on.

First off, the awesomeness of the game. You're in New York City and you're Spiderman. Spiderman. Free to roam anywhere you want. This has been a dream of mine for years since I started reading the comics ages ago. This game fulfilled a fantasy that I have always dreamt about and for that, it is worth the price of admission. Webslinging is fun as hell and fluid. Yes, there are limitations but mainly you can do anything. You can crawl/climb to the highest building, such as Empire State Building, and just fall. You can hit the ground from there and watch a funny death or at the last moment shoot a web line out, catch a building, and float 5 feet above ground until you swing up into the air again and shoot another web. Wow. The ingame New York is huge. It takes awhile to cross and there are no load times. In fact, you can go to all of Manhatten, Roosevelt Island, Liberty Island and Ellis Island. Everything is represented acurately as can be in a videogame.

The graphics are a bit of another story. While nice, they're not amazing, especially when I've just played Xenosaga. Everything is clear and you know what you're doing, so that's nice enough. The character models, such as the people on the streets are bland but so were the ones in GTA. Spiderman himself looks awesome but Peter Parker looks like he gain about 50 pounds when he takes the costume off, Mary Jane looks like she's having an anerism and physically showing it on her face, and Jonah Jameson sometimes doesn't have eyes. But, they are rarely in the game, so it's okay. Everything else looks just fine so that it wont' really bother someone but won't really impress either.

The gameplay-there is a story line that has to be followed. This mirrors the movie but goes beyond and include such characters as Mysterio, Shocker, and the Black Cat. The game is broken up into Chapters that need so many things to be done, such as A. Go to warehouse (where Mysterio will be) B. Buy webswing upgrade and C.Get 4000 hero points.
There are people on the street (green circles on your inscreen map) that will give you random missions such as stopping a bank robbery, saving a person who's about to fall off a building, stopping a wild driver, and stopping a mugging. There will also be random crimes or situations that happen without you activating them that are purple on your inscreen map. They could be a robbery in progress, a child's missing balloon, or a mugging. All this freedom, but these missions will get repetitive, especially once the game is beaten. Which brings me to another point. The game is fairly short if you go through the story mostly. It can be about 10-12 hours. This is mainly the movie plot (Doc Ock) and a big chunk of Mysterio battles which include a crazy Statue of Liberty battle. There are ingame movies or cinematics that are either love em or hate em. They look pretty nice but the models of Tobey Maguire and Alfred Molina look totally distorted next to the real thing where other games have achieved better when based off a real person. Once the game is finished (and during the game) there are challenges to complete that can be found all over the city. I think that there are around 200 and they have two different times to beat. They are mostly races where you have to hit a check point or wallrunning check points or wall jumping and other things. Many can be pretty hard and require practice while others are fairly easy. They are represented by a blue star and are activated by a press of the Square button. When standing on the star, the level of the challenge will be told (easy, medium, hard, or insane), the best time, the normal time to beat, and the mega time to beat. There are also photo missions, Mary Jane race missions, and pizza delivery missions. There are also hint markers to be found that give information on the game or gameplay hints. Each one is voiced by Bruce Campbell, so they are dripping with sarcasm. There are like 185 of them to be found and activated and can be fun and addictive to find them all. Finally, there are many tokens to be found such as skyscraper tokens, secret tokens, and hideout tokens. It could take someone forever to beat the game and you will always know how far you are cause there is a percentage completed screen, a game stat screen, and a award screen.

The combat is simplistic and seems that it could have been improved upon. There is one attack button (Square) yet a person can string combos together, web someone up or pull them up into the air and knock the crap out of them in mid-air, and end it with tying them to a lamp post. Granted, you must buy upgrades to get some of these moves. Upgrades are purchased with hero points which are gotten by completing missions and defeating enemies. The upgrades can be swing speed, combat upgrades, or air trick upgrades. During battle, Spidey's head will flash when an attack is coming (this is his Spider-sense). At this point you can press circle to dodge an attack and then counterattack with something really nasty. Aside from this, there is a Spidey Reflex meter. By the simple tap of L1, everything will slow down Matrix-style and Spidey will move normally, giving him a great advantage. This can run out quick so be careful, but it is easily filled by fighting people, webswinging nicely, or doing air tricks. Spidey's health is the same meter throughout the game and can be a pain when some of the bosses get tough, such as Doc Ock. After a mission is completed or a balloon retrieved, a health power-up comes falling out of the sky and lands for you to retrieve. For the amateur, combat can be repetive and dull, but for the more skilled, technique can be used to create some pretty cool combos and attack patterns. Oh yeah, and you can run on walls.

Music-almost nonexistent. During fighting there is combat music and during boss battles there is rushing music that goes well with the game. But while in the city, there is nothing except the sounds of the city and you rushing towards the ground (which sounds awesome). Every once in a while, there will be this really cool music come on that sounds like an adventure score. I felt that it should be on more often but, o well. The sounds are very convincing except for some of the battle sounds that sound a bit too much like POW, ZAM, KABOW. Maybe that was what they were going for.

Camera-the R stick. It works great, there aren't any problems and you can adjust it whenever. Though, the camera alone does no problem in capturing your every move. There is also a button that snaps the camera to right behind you. One thing that is camera related and also combat related is a lock-on button but it is unrealized and almost unused even though it can be used on areas you are trying to reach. In battle, normally, you aren't fighting just one enemy at a time so it can be useless.

While the main game ends pretty quickly, there is so much to do that everything is okay. This game has fulfilled my fantasy and I love it for that. I still go back and play it all the time just to be Spiderman. The only problem is that it probably isn't worth $50. If I were you, I'd wait till it goes down a bit, but then definately buy it.