It’s worth saying now that none of the Spider-Man games that came out before the 2010’s came near perfect.
Almost all of them had unique qualities that worked so well and really made the play through experiences fun. The problem is that while each had some sort of uniqueness, they also had their own standard set of issues.
Ultimate Spider-Man nailed the visual style for the year it was released. The cel shaded art popped, and the exaggerated character designs finally gave fans like myself what they wanted from a Spider-Man game. There was no longer bland, ugly textures in an effort of achieving some sense of realism like the Raimi Spider-Man games did.
The music in the game is also a lot of fun. Not quite on par with Elfman’s theme, yet it’s still utilized at all of the points it should be. So the music about evens out with the Spider-Man 2 game. Thank goodness for that because Spider-Man 3 was so awkward and quiet. The story is easily the best of all of the Spider-Man games of this era and that’s because it is literally ripped out of the Ultimate Comics line (my favorite of the spider Canon).
The voice acting is fantastic, and the cameos from familiar faces is sooo much fun. You can even occasionally race Johnny Storm of the Fantastic 4. One thing I wish this game had more of, is side missions. While the main story is really good, the rest could have benefited from giving players more to do than just combat tasks and races. It gets repetitive and boring after a while. I do like the inclusion of picking up different tokens for unlockables, and one thing this game nailed that is still included in Spider-Man games today is the costumes variations you can wear.
As for other things this game gets right, we are able to play as Venom for almost half of the missions. And once you beat the game as a whole, you can unlock him as a playable character in the open world. The gameplay feels distinguishable and natural enough to really have fun.
I also liked that I was now able to climb up my web. It was a feature that really came in handy when I needed it and made web swinging more enjoyable. The level designs were also great; especially when stacked against Spider-Man 3. The level design in that game was so bland and underdeveloped. Here you can actually interact more with the environments and levels that you play throughout the game can effect the look of the open world.
It’s amazing how much regression happened from this to Spider-Man 3. As for things that rubbed me the wrong way, I didn’t like how many foot chases there were. They became tedious and a bit obnoxious after a while. I don’t understand why they were such a fundamental part of almost every mission.
I also didn’t love the difficulty spike that happens about halfway through the game. It feels like the entire game goes from being overly easy to incredibly difficult in the matter of seconds. Especially the fight with goblin. That one felt like it was designed with the soul purpose of pissing me off. The combat could’ve used some more work as well, as I’d say even Spider-Man 3 had a bit of an edge over it considering you could choose what you wanted to upgrade.
The choice of removing the upgrade system kind of hurt the gameplay here. It would’ve been nice to have the options of what to work on. I also miss the charged jump from Spider-Man 2. The jumping here is pretty okay, but it doesn’t work quite as well.
A small detail that kept bothering me was when I would try to jump near a building, it would instead push me off of the building away from where I was trying to go. Luckily the web zip came in handy for moments like that despite how shotty it could be.
Overall it’s a really fun game with a lot of promise… but it doesn’t quite reach the heights I think it had the potential to. Between this and Spider-Man 3, I’ve also grown a stronger appreciation for Spider-Man 2, which is why I also think it’s worth 3 and a half stars now. But if I’m being honest, both games are on the lower half of the 3 and a half star range and just squeak in.
Almost all of them had unique qualities that worked so well and really made the play through experiences fun. The problem is that while each had some sort of uniqueness, they also had their own standard set of issues.
Ultimate Spider-Man nailed the visual style for the year it was released. The cel shaded art popped, and the exaggerated character designs finally gave fans like myself what they wanted from a Spider-Man game. There was no longer bland, ugly textures in an effort of achieving some sense of realism like the Raimi Spider-Man games did.
The music in the game is also a lot of fun. Not quite on par with Elfman’s theme, yet it’s still utilized at all of the points it should be. So the music about evens out with the Spider-Man 2 game. Thank goodness for that because Spider-Man 3 was so awkward and quiet. The story is easily the best of all of the Spider-Man games of this era and that’s because it is literally ripped out of the Ultimate Comics line (my favorite of the spider Canon).
The voice acting is fantastic, and the cameos from familiar faces is sooo much fun. You can even occasionally race Johnny Storm of the Fantastic 4. One thing I wish this game had more of, is side missions. While the main story is really good, the rest could have benefited from giving players more to do than just combat tasks and races. It gets repetitive and boring after a while. I do like the inclusion of picking up different tokens for unlockables, and one thing this game nailed that is still included in Spider-Man games today is the costumes variations you can wear.
As for other things this game gets right, we are able to play as Venom for almost half of the missions. And once you beat the game as a whole, you can unlock him as a playable character in the open world. The gameplay feels distinguishable and natural enough to really have fun.
I also liked that I was now able to climb up my web. It was a feature that really came in handy when I needed it and made web swinging more enjoyable. The level designs were also great; especially when stacked against Spider-Man 3. The level design in that game was so bland and underdeveloped. Here you can actually interact more with the environments and levels that you play throughout the game can effect the look of the open world.
It’s amazing how much regression happened from this to Spider-Man 3. As for things that rubbed me the wrong way, I didn’t like how many foot chases there were. They became tedious and a bit obnoxious after a while. I don’t understand why they were such a fundamental part of almost every mission.
I also didn’t love the difficulty spike that happens about halfway through the game. It feels like the entire game goes from being overly easy to incredibly difficult in the matter of seconds. Especially the fight with goblin. That one felt like it was designed with the soul purpose of pissing me off. The combat could’ve used some more work as well, as I’d say even Spider-Man 3 had a bit of an edge over it considering you could choose what you wanted to upgrade.
The choice of removing the upgrade system kind of hurt the gameplay here. It would’ve been nice to have the options of what to work on. I also miss the charged jump from Spider-Man 2. The jumping here is pretty okay, but it doesn’t work quite as well.
A small detail that kept bothering me was when I would try to jump near a building, it would instead push me off of the building away from where I was trying to go. Luckily the web zip came in handy for moments like that despite how shotty it could be.
Overall it’s a really fun game with a lot of promise… but it doesn’t quite reach the heights I think it had the potential to. Between this and Spider-Man 3, I’ve also grown a stronger appreciation for Spider-Man 2, which is why I also think it’s worth 3 and a half stars now. But if I’m being honest, both games are on the lower half of the 3 and a half star range and just squeak in.