A little disappointed with my replay of Ultimate Spider-Man, but I still like this game.
The best part about it is definitely the art direction. The comic book style is so nice to look at and made this game age much better in comparison to other open world games that released at around the same time period. The soundtrack is great too, it's got this electronic dnb feel that I kinda wish was used more in Spider-Man media.
Spider-Man as a game character is a mixed bag for me. Despite it being somewhat cut down from Spider-Man 2, the swinging in this game is still very fun. It's momentum-based and you can die if you fall too high, so I'm very much a fan. It also has some nice additions like web climbing, which is a mechanic that I wish more Spider-Man games used. However, the combat is where it starts to fall apart for me. It's very mindless and button mashy. There being fewer moves is not a problem on its own; plenty of action games still manage to be incredibly fun and engaging with as many or even less options to use (For example, Aces Wild: Manic Brawling Action!). It's not about how many buttons you press or how many moves you can do, but what you do with those moves. And unfortunately, Spidey's combat really falls short on this regard. You essentially punch and kick until the enemy starts blocking or attack, and then you jump and punch and kick. Even if there are cool things like being able to bounce off walls or hanging bad guys off street lamps with your webbing, it's not enough to give it more actual depth. Although one thing I'll give credit is how you make sure the enemies you fight stay down; once they're knocked out, you have to web them up to make sure they don't get back up. I think that is a really nice mechanic that fits Spidey!
The other playable character in this game, Venom, is actually pretty fun to play as! It's essentially [PROTOTYPE] before [PROTOTYPE] came out, where you go around destroying cars and eating people. Even if again, you don't have that many moves to use (With the light punch also being pretty much useless compared to the tendril attacks), it's still a pretty good time overall! When it comes to combat, I actually much prefer Venom than Spider-Man in this game. What can I say, throwing cars at helicopters and breaking people's backs is much more fun than what Spidey's got going on in this game.
The main missions are another mixed bag for me, unfortunately. There are some really good highlights, like the Rhino mission early on in the game that has you switching from chasing him, saving the civilians caught in the crossfire, and even kicking some thugs' asses until you eventually get to fight him. It's pretty much the best of this game's main missions in one. However, not all missions of this game are like that. Some are incredibly repetitive and shallow, others are strangely short. There is one Venom mission in particular that has such an annoying lack of checkpoints that made it more irritating than fun to beat.
The Boss fights can range from pretty good to really lame. The best bosses of this game are probably Rhino and Carnage, with how much they keep spicing things up. On the other hand, the worst bosses have very repetitive attacks and don't really bother to have proper phases, so you just punch and kick them until they go down. The first Beetle and Silver Sable fights are particularly bad instances of this. You just pretty much mash the attack button until they go down, maybe dodge every now and then, without any interesting change.
The side missions are actually pretty fun! The race missions are great, especially the ones with Johnny Storm. The combat tours are fine, and the crime events are a ton of fun! They can range from purse snatching, car chases, someone about to fall off a building, and even a fight with the Shocker! Even if some of this content is held back by the mediocre combat, it's still very commendable! As for the collectable... They're fine I suppose? I never really cared much for that sorta stuff in these games, so...
The story is overall very nice. I'm not the biggest fan of Brian Michael Bendis' Ultimate Spider-Man run, but his work here was quite solid. How he handled Venom was shockingly good. He pretty much had a whole arc of going from a terrifying starving monster to something more akin to the Lethal Protector we all know and love. In fact, this Venom is so good that it really makes you wonder just why the actual Ultimate comics' Venom had such an intense downfall, but I digress.
Overall, I respect this game. I think it did a lot of interesting and cool stuff, but there are some really big flaws that I just can't look past. I wish Treyarch got more time to develop this game, cause if they did this could've been an amazing (Dare I say Ultimate hahahahaha) Spider-Man experience, but as it stands right now? It's alright.
The best part about it is definitely the art direction. The comic book style is so nice to look at and made this game age much better in comparison to other open world games that released at around the same time period. The soundtrack is great too, it's got this electronic dnb feel that I kinda wish was used more in Spider-Man media.
Spider-Man as a game character is a mixed bag for me. Despite it being somewhat cut down from Spider-Man 2, the swinging in this game is still very fun. It's momentum-based and you can die if you fall too high, so I'm very much a fan. It also has some nice additions like web climbing, which is a mechanic that I wish more Spider-Man games used. However, the combat is where it starts to fall apart for me. It's very mindless and button mashy. There being fewer moves is not a problem on its own; plenty of action games still manage to be incredibly fun and engaging with as many or even less options to use (For example, Aces Wild: Manic Brawling Action!). It's not about how many buttons you press or how many moves you can do, but what you do with those moves. And unfortunately, Spidey's combat really falls short on this regard. You essentially punch and kick until the enemy starts blocking or attack, and then you jump and punch and kick. Even if there are cool things like being able to bounce off walls or hanging bad guys off street lamps with your webbing, it's not enough to give it more actual depth. Although one thing I'll give credit is how you make sure the enemies you fight stay down; once they're knocked out, you have to web them up to make sure they don't get back up. I think that is a really nice mechanic that fits Spidey!
The other playable character in this game, Venom, is actually pretty fun to play as! It's essentially [PROTOTYPE] before [PROTOTYPE] came out, where you go around destroying cars and eating people. Even if again, you don't have that many moves to use (With the light punch also being pretty much useless compared to the tendril attacks), it's still a pretty good time overall! When it comes to combat, I actually much prefer Venom than Spider-Man in this game. What can I say, throwing cars at helicopters and breaking people's backs is much more fun than what Spidey's got going on in this game.
The main missions are another mixed bag for me, unfortunately. There are some really good highlights, like the Rhino mission early on in the game that has you switching from chasing him, saving the civilians caught in the crossfire, and even kicking some thugs' asses until you eventually get to fight him. It's pretty much the best of this game's main missions in one. However, not all missions of this game are like that. Some are incredibly repetitive and shallow, others are strangely short. There is one Venom mission in particular that has such an annoying lack of checkpoints that made it more irritating than fun to beat.
The Boss fights can range from pretty good to really lame. The best bosses of this game are probably Rhino and Carnage, with how much they keep spicing things up. On the other hand, the worst bosses have very repetitive attacks and don't really bother to have proper phases, so you just punch and kick them until they go down. The first Beetle and Silver Sable fights are particularly bad instances of this. You just pretty much mash the attack button until they go down, maybe dodge every now and then, without any interesting change.
The side missions are actually pretty fun! The race missions are great, especially the ones with Johnny Storm. The combat tours are fine, and the crime events are a ton of fun! They can range from purse snatching, car chases, someone about to fall off a building, and even a fight with the Shocker! Even if some of this content is held back by the mediocre combat, it's still very commendable! As for the collectable... They're fine I suppose? I never really cared much for that sorta stuff in these games, so...
The story is overall very nice. I'm not the biggest fan of Brian Michael Bendis' Ultimate Spider-Man run, but his work here was quite solid. How he handled Venom was shockingly good. He pretty much had a whole arc of going from a terrifying starving monster to something more akin to the Lethal Protector we all know and love. In fact, this Venom is so good that it really makes you wonder just why the actual Ultimate comics' Venom had such an intense downfall, but I digress.
Overall, I respect this game. I think it did a lot of interesting and cool stuff, but there are some really big flaws that I just can't look past. I wish Treyarch got more time to develop this game, cause if they did this could've been an amazing (Dare I say Ultimate hahahahaha) Spider-Man experience, but as it stands right now? It's alright.