Game: Spider-Man 3

Last Updated on July 27, 2021

SPIDER-MAN 3

Published by:

Activision
Developed by:

Treyarch
System:
PlayStation 3, PlayStation Portable, Nintendo DS, PlayStation 2, PC, Game Boy
Advance, Wii, Wireless

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HERE!!!

INTRODUCTION:

Have you ever
heard of Spider-Man? You know, the highest grossing movie series of all time?
The one that just had a third sequel come out this May that shattered all
opening records? Well, in case you haven’t, let me bring you up to speed.

Spider-Man is
NYC’s web-swinging hero who is always caught between the drama of the duality of
being Peter Parker and Spider-Man. He has a girlfriend, Mary-Jane, a job as a
photographer for the Daily Bugle, and quite a few enemies. Among them are his
former best friend, Harry Osborn, now known as the New Goblin, escaped convict
Flint Marko (the Sandman), and Eddie Brock, the man who will bond with the
symbiotic black suit to become Venom.

And such is the
game, as we re-enter the streets of NYC, and harness the reigns of the
webslinger himself. Of course, there are other villains to deal with to round
out the game that are not in the movie, like Rhino, Kraven, the Lizard and the
Scorpion. Can Spider-Man 3 (the game) beat out the last game in the series, a
game which set an excellent precedence, besides having a routine plot? We’ll
see- read on, true believers!

First, please
keep in mind that although this game spans several platforms, this review deals
primarily with the XBOX 360 version of the game, which is nearly identical to
the Playstation 3 version. The other versions are different enough to be
reviewed on their own merit, got me? So if you’ve got a 360 or a PS3 (you poor
guy), this review will be up your alley!

GAMEPLAY:

So, let’s get
to gameplay. The controls of this game are smooth like butter, really. The
absolute best selling point of this game, much like its predecessor, is that you
can swing about the city, roaming as free as a bird (or a tights-wearing
superhero), swinging from building to building as you please. This is very
satisfying and fun. It’s all done with a flick of the shoulder buttons, one
controlling the web blast, the other controlling the velocity of your swing.
Timing is everything, and you might slip up now and then, but after a few
minutes, you’ll be swinging around like a pro. I really enjoy the added bonus of
pulling little ‘swing tricks’, done by double tapping the L button in the air,
watching Spidey do a little acrobatics in the air was very cool.

The fighting is
a mixed bag. Yes, it is true that you’re going to be doing a ton of butt-kicking
in this game, so a lot is riding on it. I wouldn’t say the system is hard, but
it could be better. You’ll be stringing combos together without even trying,
beating the heck out of your foes with ease, and enjoying it. You’ll web-rodeo
them and toss them around, tangle them up in webs, and use power moves to juggle
your opponents and stun them. Your skills of course increase as you move along,
but button mashing will always get you through fights with lesser crooks.

The problem
with the fighting is that it all relies on your ‘Spider-Sense’ bullet time all
too often. When a foe is going to attack, you’ll get a warning, and at this time
you have to dodge the attack using this slowdown technique, and counter it. Once
or twice, this isn’t too bad. However, you have to rely on it FAR too often, and
it makes fights very long and tedious. You might not get hit if you’re patient
enough, but it is frustrating that if you just try to take them down, they’ll
block everything, including your webs. This isn’t just with bosses either, just
enemies who are stronger than the average thug. If you had unlimited
Spider-Slowdown, things wouldn’t be so bad. But no, you have to keep waiting for
your meter to regenerate before you can slow things down again to attack
enemies. This gets old, and boring, fast. Boss fights, coupled with the
context-sensitive scenes I’ll mention next, can take forever, and are not fun
(Kingpin comes to mind).

The next thing
added into the mix is context-sensitive battles, which happen often, in nearly
every semi-important mission there is. By this, I mean you’ll see a cinematic
(think Resident Evil 4), like Spider-Man swinging through the sewers through
breaking drainpipes to avoid the Lizard’s attacks. As this is happening, you’re
randomly asked to simply press a button loosely related to the action happening
on-screen. This felt sort of lame, as you feel like you’re simply pressing
buttons that aren’t really related to what’s going on, and on top of this, you
can’t really watch what’s going on, despite most of it being pretty cool.
Sometimes the sequences are really long too; to miss a button and start a 4
minute sequence over again is very frustrating and also gets old fast.

Finally, stay
away from wall-crawling. Even Spider-Man for the Playstation had done this
relatively well, and Treyarch nailed it with Spider-Man 2’s game, but this one
is rather atrocious. The second you try to climb on a ceiling, or sometimes the
side of a building, the camera flips to a bizarre angle, and you can’t tell
where you’re going or where you were; you get lost very quickly. I was
disappointed with this, because it really seemed like a step backwards.
Essentially, the only thing you can do is climb up a small wall of a building if
you want to know where you are. Ceilings, large buildings or other surfaces will
leave you disoriented and frustrated, it doesn’t really help you when fighting
enemies like you might think it would. Also, slipping on the Black Suit doesn’t
help a lot either, you get a small ‘freak out’ rage meter that makes you
stronger, and your animation is slightly different, but things don’t change a
ton.

Spider-Man 3
does try to get its hands wet in many different styles of gameplay, from
context-sensitive scenes, to web-slinging, to DDR and Logic puzzle type bomb
defusing (when did he get so good at that, anyway?) but like the movie, there’s
too much on the plate and while it’s not awful, it sure could be better. If I
had my favourite foods all cooked up on my plate but they weren’t prepared very
well, I might like the thought behind the meal, but it wouldn’t taste so hot.
This plate isn’t worth full price.

Gameplay: 6/10

GRAPHICS:

For a current
generation game, I must be honest when I say that Spider-Man 3 is okay, but
nothing spectacular. The city looks slick. In fact, almost too slick. The
windows of the buildings look like golden mirrors, which was a bit strange.
Spider-Man himself looks pretty spiffy, with decent textures and a fair amount
of detail. Most of the main characters look pretty great, with nice facial
details. The secondary characters seem to have faces that are made of putty, or
some other kind of malleable substance, and can look pretty ugly.

Also, how can a
360 game have pop-in? Textures of the city actually draw in fairly late through
a light mist as you power through the city, which was disappointing to say the
least. Civilians are a bit blocky too, and look a little silly.

Graphics: 7/10

AUDIO:

Audio in this
game is also a mixed bag, but still pretty decent. The entire original voice
cast is here (or at least, the ones who count the most), and despite what I’ve
heard from other sites, I thought the voice acting was great. Tobey Maguire has
a ton of dialogue, and delivers them as well as you’d expect. I thought the
voice acting was up to par.

The music was
decent as well, but spotty at best. You do get some of the movie’s score, at
certain times, and that sounds good, but as you swing through the city, music is
rare, and comes on seemingly when it wants to. Also, some stages have music
that’s terribly out of place (like The Scorpion’s stages- lame techno). Could be
better.

Audio: 6.5/10

FINAL VERDICT:

Much like the
film of the same name, spider-Man 3 was hugely hyped by the fans, and has not
delivered. It’s not that the game is awful, but simply mediocre. Swinging
through the city is fun, and there are quite a few varying missions you can
embark upon, but the fighting can grow tedious, and the boss battles can take
forEVER. The whole thing is really pretty easy too, if you fail once or twice,
unless you encounter a glitch (and you probably will), you’ll get it on your
next try with a bit of patience. As far as recommendations go, I’d say that huge
fans already have this game, experienced gamers will enjoy it for a couple hours
and then toss it, and kids might dig it more than anyone.

Like the flick,
Spidey 3 over-promises and under-delivers, getting caught up in its own web, and
trying to do too much at one time without focusing on key elements of gameplay.

FINAL SCORE: 6/10

BUY THIS GAME
HERE!!!