Spiderman : Web of Shadows : An original Spiderman action-adventure game…essentially what we’re getting in the absence of a Spiderman movie for Activision to try to cash in on. They even managed to shoehorn Wolverine in the game (right on the front box) to squeeze out some extra dollars.
Story : In what could very well be filed under the most typical form of fan-fiction, Venom is unleashing an army of self-produced symbiotes. There’s a really melodramatic sequence at the beginning of the game where Spiderman walks in slow-motion all depressed-like while explosions, chaos and somber piano music play in the background. The story is…far from spectacular, and serves more as a vehicle to justify the numerous weird enemies that litter New York City. At least Spidery has a few clever lines to brighten the mood but boy does this game fail at being serious. And if don’t already have some degree of familiarity with the Spiderman mythos (comics, cartoons…more to go by than just the movie) then you’re going to be lost and confused.
An aside: As a Spiderman fan, it strikes me as perplexing that a game about symbiotes lacks Carnage.
Web of Shadows is some kind of butchering of what is otherwise the most popular aspect of the Spiderman universe, the symbiotes and Venom. Once upon a time, it was considered a unique and exciting event when we thought there was only one symbiote that made people powerful and corrupt, and it was special because we either only saw it on Spiderman or somebody that wanted to kill Spiderman. And here we have an entire army of symbiotes infecting normal people and running roughshod over New York. I guess part of the reason for this symbiomadness, to continue the running theme of fan-fiction gone bad, is to answer to the question of “what would Wolverine (among others) look like with a symbiote?” (The answer is “like crap.”)
Also running with the black living ooze theme of the game, Spiderman has the famous black suit (the straight black one from the comics, not the lame duck black suit from the movie) and the players can switch between traditional red costume and the more emo attire with the press of a button. Each one has their own slightly different moveset (which can be upgraded at your whim using points earned from…doing stuff), and the suit you wear the most may as well be left up to personal preference. Likewise, the different suits are connected to a Fable-like morality system where you can choose to be good or bad…on paper. What actually happens in the game is that after a major battle, the game asks you to choose between “red suit” and “black suit”, often giving you no hint as to what the repercussions of either option will yield. This all supposedly adds “red points” or “black points” to some kind of score that isn’t immediately visible and only affects which of two endings the game gives you, and the moral compass doesn’t quite stretch far enough in the actual game component; more often than not, the only opportunity to do good and earn red points presents itself when a civilian flies out of a car that exploded because you threw it at the bad guys.
So the developers at Treyarch have been making Spiderman games for as long as people have been making Spiderman movies, and it’s finally starting to show here. Unlike superhero games that are usually just generic beat-em-ups where whatever superhero you play as punches and kicks a lot of bad guys regardless of what his or her superpowers actually are, this right here is definitely a Spiderman game; it can only be a Spiderman game, and the main character model could be dressed as a nun and you would still think you were playing a Spiderman game. You’ll fight enemies on the ground, fight enemies while web swinging and even fight enemies while climbing walls. And for the first time, you’ll be left with the impression that every single plane of existence that Spiderman can navigate has been polished and fully realized. You are given more agility and options to beat up on opponents that are also crawling on walls. You can kick enemies while swinging on webs (which is hard for Spidey to nail, but action is his reward), and in an ingenious coup from Devil May Cry 4, Spidey can instantly pull himself towards an enemy and attack, provided the enemy doesn’t counter with an even more awesome attack animation. What otherwise seems like a small new ability becomes a big deal in practice, as you can now leap from enemy to enemy without hitting the ground. When you get down to it, the combat is far from deep (it’s around God of War levels of shallowness) but it’s hard to not find the spectacle of some battles.
Just brace yourself for a lot of battling.
Like most recent web-swinging games, the bulk of the gameplay in Spiderman: Web of Shadows takes place in a virtual New York City. This approach has become popular in that it gives players the freedom to web-swing their little hearts out all over New York. However, the challenge that so-called open world games face is to actually have their open world filled with enough interesting content to keep the player captivated once they grow tired of tinkering with their virtual city. Often, these kinds of games succumb to the pressure and just fill most of the content with missions where you deal with respawning armies of minions, and Web of Shadows not only does this, but it does this without shame.
It feels like an understatement for me to say that the vast majority of missions in the game comprise of you going to an area and clearing out all baddies. I’ll try to give a few examples.
In the opening missions, Spiderman is being taught the web pulling attack that I mentioned above. So the game makes you do this move three times on a still target. The next mission will ask you to use that move on ten criminals on the street. Then the game will ask you to defeat twenty more criminals.
This is not an isolated incident, either, the game will frequently force you repeat the same missions back to back, and they’ll almost always consist of the same idea of defeating lots and lots of enemies. Even more baffling is that the game’s idea of an optional side-quest is the same thing; defeat 20 enemies…50 enemies…200 enemies.
Another example, a later game mission asks me to escort a truck around the city and protect survivors. No one really like escort missions in games but I’ll deal with it, I thought. The truck will make about 3-5 stops in which the civilians who need rescuing will take their sweet, sweet time making their way to the van. After you finally complete this headache of a mission, the game forces you to search the city for 3 more trucks that are looking for survivors.
Every time the game introduces a new enemy type, you’ll probably have to do two or three missions that comprise of killing X number of that enemy. By the time I was nearing the game’s end, I was told I had just unlocked an Achievement stating that I had defeated 1000 enemies. That is not an achievement I wear with pride. This is game-lengthening of the worst kind, a flagrant attempt to stretch out the number of hours it takes to beat a game to avoid being labeled as “short” in game reviews. The reality of the matter is that more people will wind up putting a lot more time into a game a third the length of Web of Shadows, like Call of Duty 4, from said game being more replayable because of the decided lack of filler.
It’s a shame, too, because the game does show the occasional flash of brilliance. Almost every boss battle has a unique hook to it, whether it’s Vulture forcing you to jump from one enemy to another to reach him, or Wolverine stopping mid-fight to…ask you some Spiderman trivia. This game does something monumental in that it presents the first ever instance where I thought Electro wasn’t lame. But these moments of bliss are brief, and lost in the hours and hours of tedium that is the regular story quests.
Web of Shadows is a game that players are going to try really hard to like, but the game will try even harder to make you hate it. The core mechanics are great, and the makings of a potentially great Spiderman game are here, but everything that surrounds Spiderman is dull and repetitive. Perhaps the developers can now focus on creating interesting levels and set-pieces for the next game and provide a more stimulating experience, but for now, you’d best pass.
Pros : Swinging through a war-torn New York is at least a treat on the eyes. Depending on your moral alignment and whether or not the game engine is in the right mood, you can sometimes summon an ally to help battle.
Cons : Camera occasionally buggers out of control. Some missions will start to glitch up should you fail…which at best simply means that the marker indicating where to go will be slightly off-place, and at worst, will prevent you from triggering a necessary quick-time event and force you to restart the console.
3 stars
So far, Treyarch have been responsible for this and the below-reviewed Quantum of Solace game. And they’ve got one more big holiday release in Call of Duty : World at War…which I just may review next!
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