Even playing the worst version of this game was still a blast. Web of Shadows is the Eurojank Mutation of what my ideal Spider-Man game would be. Its super ambitious, its large, it innovates in spots noone thought to do so and yet it barely manages to hit any of its lofty goals. I love this game mainly for its combat, movement and moral choices. Web of Shadows actually gives you the option to be a real piece of work, the true Villain of the story while looking so damm cool. There is a real thick layer of dust on the graphics and Voice acting, but I have grown so fond of them, in a really autistic way.

So we all watched the same trailer as kids right? The “edgy” Spider-Man slowly walking with his head down as everything around him crumbles apart over bleak music.

7 year old me was screaming over how cool I thought that was. 22 year old me is screaming over how frustrating the game actually is. Spider-Man: Web of Shadows was a game that showed promise. A game that I’d say even had a ton of potential.

It was the first open world Spider-Man game that wasn’t tied to any established movie franchise or comic book series. It was a wholly new venture for game developers to come up with their own Spider-Man story, and take on the character. They succeed some of the time at making it a memorable adaptation, but pale horribly in comparison to Insomniac’s passionate outing with the webslinger.

First off, it may be a bit unfair to compare the two as they came out exactly a decade apart. Technical limitations of course play a big part in things… but my criticisms with this game extend beyond those of technical problems. The story in Web of Shadows is severely undercooked, as it’s simply just an alien invasion plot like that of “Invasion of The Body Snatchers”.

It’s really cool to see how New York transforms over time through the game play, and I think that aspect is utilized well when pertaining to the story. I just can’t help but feel like there were some missed opportunities to make the games plot more memorable. The set pieces are pretty slim, and most things take place in the bland open world. Nothing about New York is vibrant, lived in, or exciting until the Symbiote shows up.

The colors are drenched in shades of gray, and the building designs are a bit lazy. In the Spider-Man 2 game, there were locations that stuck out to me because the developers designed them in a way that allowed me to interact with them, or admire them for how visually interesting they were. Here, I can hardly think of more than 3 spots that stuck out to me.

As far as gameplay was concerned, I mostly enjoyed myself. The swinging was a bit dull, and the target lock was completely useless a lot of the time as I often had to rotate through it to lock onto the person I really wanted to fight, causing me to get my head stomped in half of the time.

But otherwise, the combat was fantastic, and I often felt like I was in total control when I was fighting. At first, things felt a bit clunky as I was playing, but almost everything felt natural about a quarter of the way through and there were so many incredible combat options that I couldn’t help but enjoy myself.

The inclusion of wall battles was really cool, and I loved how well it fit the character… although I can see why later games ditched it due to how hard it can be to control where you’re trying to go.

The inclusion of the black suit was another cool feature. One that was reminiscent of the Spider-Man 3 game. Here, it felt better, and the combat was more distinguished. I also think the black vs red inclusion in the story is a great touch, and having the option to alter the story was a lot of fun.

Otherwise, I don’t have much else to say. The biggest thing that bothered me about the game, was just how middle of the road it ended up being… expectations aside, I try to rate things as fair as I can, and give all games an equal opportunity to leave some sort of an impression on me.

The problem here, is that I don’t see myself thinking back to this one all that fondly, as there just wasn’t a lot in the story or the gameplay that stuck out to me as unique, fresh, or all that fun even. It was fine for a playthrough, but other than trying the game again in an effort to favor black suit storyline as I went for the red this time… I don’t see myself coming back to it.

Despite some of the game's minor issues, I ended up having a great time with the game overall, especially when it came to the web swinging and combat.

Story - The story overall while it isn't the most original since the idea of a symbiote invasion was already a thing in Spider-Man 2000, the execution was cool since the city actually changes overtime and it was cool to see some of the other Marvel characters, such as Moonknight and Wolverine. My biggest issue with the story is the choice system. While it is a cool idea in concept, the execution was pretty lazy, mainly since your choices really don't matter with the main exceptions being the options with Black Cat plus the final choice for the ending. I definitely would like to see two different stories play for each of the routes you go with if I was designing the game so it would actually be impactful. I also don't like how Spider-Man goes out of character during the scenes where you do pick the black suit choice but goes back to being his regular self during the story.

Gameplay - The free roaming and combat is easily the best part about this game. It feels like the web swinging formula has been perfected since I felt it was easy to get into it but it took some time to truly master it. The combat was also really great and I like how the red and black suit get their own abilities and flaws, though the black suit eventually straight up gets better when it gets more air moves but that is a fitting trait for the suit. New York is really fun to explore with the many locations you can find and I thought collecting the Spider tokens was really rewarding and addicting. I also love how New York and it's surroundings change over time along with the mission structures being very different overall. The bosses were also really fun and unique though towards the end I felt a handful of them were a little too easy, especially with the final boss.

Final rating - While the story has some somewhat serious issues when it comes to the choice system, the game becoming a little bit too easy towards the end and some rather annoying bugs and slowdowns I've come across, I've had a lot of fun with the game overall. If you're a big Spider-Man fan who hasn't played this already, I would highly recommend it if you have a way to play it. 8/10.

No he llegado a completarlo, probablemente el peor juego de spider-man. Los controles de balanceo y trepar te los explican tras una hora o dos de juego, siendo este lo más importante en un juego de spiderman no tiene ningún sentido. El mundo abierto está vacío, solo hay "coleccionables" que debes recoger si quieres subir de nivel y desbloquear habilidades. El combate es flojo te dan una habilidad que te permite matar de un golpe a cualquier enemigo, menos a los bosses, lo cual hace inútil un árbol de habilidades para el combate. Respecto a la historia, por lo que llegue a jugar es normalita, que puedas tomar alguna decisión está bien pero le falta gancho.

this was like 90% of why i wanted to play activision spider-man games because i saw a clip on twitter and thought it looked really awesome but tbh it was pretty bland and stupid. some bad voice acting didn't help but the missions are so repetitive all taking place in the open world and there are only like 3 mission types. combat seemed to be the focus but fell very flat for me, combos really didn't connect right and generally i feel like there was just a lot of missed potential. i had a fine enough time because i enjoy most spider-man games, and i will say swinging was really fun and when combat worked it was pretty satisfying! i just went in with really high hopes and let myself down.

comPLETELY carried by the combat system. swinging is honestly pretty mid and the city is a ROBLOX free-model lifted from Prototype 2.

this is the WORST peter parker voice i've ever heard in my FUCKING life

symbiote vulture is peak villain design though not gonna lie

Insanely underrated Spider-Man game. Not saying its an undiscovered masterpiece or smth, but there are many things this game did that no other Spider-Man game has attempted, and it did it well.
The combat mechanics do feel outdated, but still hold up in their own way.
The web-swinging is good, it requires time and practice to learn, but not nearly as punishing as PS2 Spider-Man 2.
The story is...inconsistent. Many cool premises, and some unforgettable money shots. But also a lot of poorly executed segments. Very up-and-down kinda experience.
If you're more of a gameplay-motivated player, give it a chance. If you're story-motivated, it might be a bit of a gamble.

I didn't expect this one to be so good.
First off, I am really glad that they used a somewhat original story instead of a movie tie-in kinda thing.
Symbiotes conquered the whole New York and they are everywhere, atmosphere is chaotic and our spidey boi is trying to stop this mess with other comic-book characters. Dialogues are entertaining, music is good and graphics are mostly fine for it's time.
Now let's talk about the delicious part, gameplay. It's damn good. Both the traversal and combat.
Web-swinging is one of the best among the other Spider-man games that are released so far. With a lil bit practice, you can get used to it really fast and execute pretty cool moves.
The combat is so damn good. You have three combat situations: on ground, on wall and on air. All of em works so well. There are plenty of moves and you can switch to black suit any time you want with a quick button press which has a different moveset and playstyle. It's not on DMC or Bayonetta level but far better than most of the other games on this genre.
Boss fights are really impressive. All of them feels different from one another (except for some symbiote versions of other bosses)
There is also a choice system, during important events you'll get to choose between good and evil choices, although they usually don't make sense.
The only bad thing about this game is the missions you do before the real important story missions. They are mostly boring chores like defeating a specific number of enemies or escorting a vehicle. They are short but real pace breakers.
All in all, give this one a try especially if you are a Spider-man fan.