It’s time for another game review, and this time its The Amazing Spider-Man from Activision.
This is how the game is described:
Harness Spider-Man’s powers with Manhattan as your playground! Set shortly after the events of Columbia Pictures’ new film, The Amazing Spider-Man throws New York City’s brand new hero back into free-roaming*, web-slinging action, as he protects the Big Apple from a deluge of unimaginable threats.
SPIDER-MAN’S TRIUMPHANT RETURN TO NEW YORK
Everybody’s favourite web-head is back in Manhattan with the return of the fan-favourite, free-roaming, web-slinging game play.
WEB RUSH: PLAYER CHOICE EVOLVED
Players use real-time navigational and combat choices to fight crime and pull off Spidey’s signature acrobatic moves like never before.
FIND OUT WHAT HAPPENS NEXT
Uncover the rest of Peter Parker’s untold story in the all-new epilogue story crafted by acclaimed Hollywood writer Seamus Kevin Fahey (Spartacus: Gods of the Arena, the re-imagined Battlestar Galactica).
PUSH SPIDER-MAN’S ABILITIES TO THE LIMIT
Face-off against re-imaginings of classic Marvel Super Villains as well as original, larger than life enemies – some of the biggest ever seen in a Spider-Man video game – while racing to save Manhattan.
*Free-Roam only supported in XBox 360 and Playstation 3 versions.
So the premise of the game is simple, you are Spider-Man and it’s your job to protect Manhattan from bad guys and all things not good!
There are three different levels you can play the game, so make sure that you pick the right one for you. Obviously you can go back and choose a harder level later (and you probably will want to).
The game starts off with quite a lengthy introduction – you pretty much do nothing but look around for a few minutes until “the incident” happens, then it’s time to don the old Spidey suit and get to work.
Depending on the level you are playing at, you get told exactly what to do, which to begin with is fine, but after a few minutes it kind of takes the fun out of it – so you will want to make sure those hints are not displayed!
It’s been a while since I played a Spider-Man game on the Xbox – in fact I would prefer not to think about how bad that game was!
Fortunately this game is a lot better. The graphics and sounds are good (although it’s a shame they didn’t get the actors from the film to voice their characters), and the free roaming element really makes this game worth playing. The biggest problem with games today that don’t have a free roaming element is that they are pretty much “walk over there, do something, carry on that way” and so on. It really takes the fun out, but not so here.
To be fair, the free roaming element really comes into it’s own once you are outside. When you are inside there really isn’t too many places to free roam!
One thing to note, the free roaming element to the game is only available on the Xbox and PlayStation versions of the game.
A lot of people have compared The Amazing Spider-Man to Batman Arkham City, and I can certainly see why that is. The free roaming and combat element certainly reminded me of Arkham, but there was something that wasn’t quite there for me.
Now don’t get me wrong, The Amazing Spider-Man is a fun game, and I enjoyed playing it, but I was hoping for something more. I think I was hoping for something along the lines of Arkham, but even better, and unfortunately that wasn’t to be. For example, the fighting in Spider-Man just isn’t quite as smooth.
There is an element to the game called Web Rush. What this does is slow the game down and allow Spidey to see where is can go to, and then go there. For example, there is one part where you need to quickly get up on a balcony and you use Web Rush to get you there. Trust me, it makes more sense when you play the game, but it’s fun.
During the course of the game you can collect comic book pages that you can then read. There are 700, yes 700 pages to collect, so that alone should keep you going for a while.
It’s not the hardest game to finish, and some of the missions become a little repetitive, but like I have said, it is a fun game, and you can always try at a harder level and even just play for the comic book pages.
One word of warning – this game is an epilogue to the film, so if you haven’t seen the film, and you want to see it, don’t play the game just yet otherwise you find out quite a bit!
Here is a short video of the game in action:
So overall, the game is fun and enjoyable, but it’s not the most in-depth game, and if you were hoping for the next Batman game, you may be a little disappointed. But don’t let that put you off, this is one to play and enjoy.
The Amazing Spider-Man is available now for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Nintendo Wii, Nintendo DS and Nintendo 3DS.
Have you played The Amazing Spider-Man? What do you think of it? Let us know by leaving a comment below.
