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2018
Without a doubt the Best Spider-Man game to this day, you don't just play Spider-Man, you are Spider-Man.
Insomniac Games took a dead franchise which was nailed and buried into the ground because of passionless developing from corporate slobs, and gave it new life, the story is fantastic and beats just about every Spider-Man story from the movies, it's a love letter to every form of Spider-Man because you can tell that this was made with effort, and clear love for the Character. It takes butchered elements such as web swinging and turns it on it's head in a way that feels fun, and satisfying, and takes the Combat to new levels by adding gadgets and another stats that make the Combat more engaging, and exciting to play with but you can easily choose your own style of Combat whether you'd fight with or without gadgets, you don't feel too powerful, neither do you feel to weak, it's just the right amount of balance that doesn't make the game terribly hard or a breeze to play through depending on your style, and difficulty.
But with every great feat this game manages to reach, it falls flatter than my chances of ever getting a girlfriend in the Side missions, and other tasks you can attend to when you're done which seems to be a staple of every game. Gone are the days of playing as Spider-Man's greatest foes, you now play as "riveting" and "exciting" characters as powerless Miles Morales, and MJ, which makes me wonder why they didn't just use cutscenes to show them sneaking around... huh, and the Boss fights could've been much better.
But this game does so much more right than it does wrong, the Characters, and villains feel as they should be but with the only exception being Mr. Negative because he's just another mustache twirling villain in my opinion, but the other villains are great, especially Dr. Octopus because when he falls to villainy, you really do feel him fall to the path of Darkness, and the final Boss fight is so so good and being the best one of the entire game with the emotional baggage it carries through the fight.
This game makes me absolutely excited for all things Spider-Man again, it revives my dying love for the character, and brings us to a more familiar time in the character of Peter Parker that is undeniably enjoyable all through out the game, the main Characters feel human and they're really relatable! This game does something fresh, new and exciting while also not being afraid to do so, which makes me so much more excited for the future of Insomniac's Spider-Man franchise.
Insomniac Games took a dead franchise which was nailed and buried into the ground because of passionless developing from corporate slobs, and gave it new life, the story is fantastic and beats just about every Spider-Man story from the movies, it's a love letter to every form of Spider-Man because you can tell that this was made with effort, and clear love for the Character. It takes butchered elements such as web swinging and turns it on it's head in a way that feels fun, and satisfying, and takes the Combat to new levels by adding gadgets and another stats that make the Combat more engaging, and exciting to play with but you can easily choose your own style of Combat whether you'd fight with or without gadgets, you don't feel too powerful, neither do you feel to weak, it's just the right amount of balance that doesn't make the game terribly hard or a breeze to play through depending on your style, and difficulty.
But with every great feat this game manages to reach, it falls flatter than my chances of ever getting a girlfriend in the Side missions, and other tasks you can attend to when you're done which seems to be a staple of every game. Gone are the days of playing as Spider-Man's greatest foes, you now play as "riveting" and "exciting" characters as powerless Miles Morales, and MJ, which makes me wonder why they didn't just use cutscenes to show them sneaking around... huh, and the Boss fights could've been much better.
But this game does so much more right than it does wrong, the Characters, and villains feel as they should be but with the only exception being Mr. Negative because he's just another mustache twirling villain in my opinion, but the other villains are great, especially Dr. Octopus because when he falls to villainy, you really do feel him fall to the path of Darkness, and the final Boss fight is so so good and being the best one of the entire game with the emotional baggage it carries through the fight.
This game makes me absolutely excited for all things Spider-Man again, it revives my dying love for the character, and brings us to a more familiar time in the character of Peter Parker that is undeniably enjoyable all through out the game, the main Characters feel human and they're really relatable! This game does something fresh, new and exciting while also not being afraid to do so, which makes me so much more excited for the future of Insomniac's Spider-Man franchise.
2007
It is a crime for a company that made one of the best Spider-Man games to fall absolutely flat in this installment of the game, Spider-Man 3 is bound by shackles and weights because of the addition of being a movie tie in game but the game is overly ambitious by forcing you to go through 10 storylines, and none of them remotely connect to each other or pay off in a satisfying way.
The city looks gorgeous, and you can tell they tried a lot here but I can't take this god damn game seriously due to it's graphics and absolutely dull voice acting from everybody in the cast, there aren't many things I like about this game since everything that they did right with Ultimate Spider-Man, and Spider-Man 2 was thrown out the Window but you can tell they really tried, but sometimes it isn't enough, especially in situations like this.
In what was a shining game franchise with an overall good reputation from Gamers, and critics a like, begins to decay here with lackluster gameplay, and story, and unneeded difficulty, this movie takes the shining reputation of Spider-Man, and begins to dig it's grave, for worse.
The city looks gorgeous, and you can tell they tried a lot here but I can't take this god damn game seriously due to it's graphics and absolutely dull voice acting from everybody in the cast, there aren't many things I like about this game since everything that they did right with Ultimate Spider-Man, and Spider-Man 2 was thrown out the Window but you can tell they really tried, but sometimes it isn't enough, especially in situations like this.
In what was a shining game franchise with an overall good reputation from Gamers, and critics a like, begins to decay here with lackluster gameplay, and story, and unneeded difficulty, this movie takes the shining reputation of Spider-Man, and begins to dig it's grave, for worse.
2004
Spider-Man 2 is arguably the best Spider-Man game before Spider-Man PS4 came out, this is a movie tie in game but at the same time, it does so many things right such as the web swinging, combat and even to the Story itself!
Web swinging is fun, and fluid, and easily the best part of what made this game so memorable, it's not as easy as Ultimate Spider-Man's or Spider-Man PS4's but when you do get the hang of it, you'll feel just like Spider-Man, the Combat is also fast and fluid, and you can do so many neat things such as a web rodeo or tossing your enemies off buildings, tho the possibilities aren't endless, and the Story gets Spider-Man just about as much as the movie did when it first came out, this is an absolute joy to play, but does it still hold up today by modern standards?
The web swinging system feels kind of janky by today's modern standards, and the Combat despite being fast and extremely fluid lacks fun after a few more hours into the game, most of the voice actors here feel as if they've phoned in a performance for a simple paycheck with the exception of Josh Keaton, and cutscenes have such a hard time of giving the feeling of surprise or any emotion at all except complete comedy due to the way the Graphics are, and the voice acting, and Side Missions are so repetetive which are a staple of every Spider-Man game, sometimes you'll find yourself doing the same missions with the same NPC's, and the Graphics are so emberassing if you think about it because Spider-Man (2002) had better graphics than this!
So I answer my question, does this hold up against modern standards? Yes... but no sadly, it's still a fun game and it doesn't take away from my overall enjoyment of what was done here in fact.
Web swinging is fun, and fluid, and easily the best part of what made this game so memorable, it's not as easy as Ultimate Spider-Man's or Spider-Man PS4's but when you do get the hang of it, you'll feel just like Spider-Man, the Combat is also fast and fluid, and you can do so many neat things such as a web rodeo or tossing your enemies off buildings, tho the possibilities aren't endless, and the Story gets Spider-Man just about as much as the movie did when it first came out, this is an absolute joy to play, but does it still hold up today by modern standards?
The web swinging system feels kind of janky by today's modern standards, and the Combat despite being fast and extremely fluid lacks fun after a few more hours into the game, most of the voice actors here feel as if they've phoned in a performance for a simple paycheck with the exception of Josh Keaton, and cutscenes have such a hard time of giving the feeling of surprise or any emotion at all except complete comedy due to the way the Graphics are, and the voice acting, and Side Missions are so repetetive which are a staple of every Spider-Man game, sometimes you'll find yourself doing the same missions with the same NPC's, and the Graphics are so emberassing if you think about it because Spider-Man (2002) had better graphics than this!
So I answer my question, does this hold up against modern standards? Yes... but no sadly, it's still a fun game and it doesn't take away from my overall enjoyment of what was done here in fact.
2005
Ultimate Spider-Man is based off the Ultimate series by Brian Michael Bendis, and drawn by Mark Bagley, the video game takes its own unique twists and turns with the character of Spider-Man, and since it's not tied to any Spider-Man movie, it goes all out by adding characters such as Nick Fury, Silver Sable and even a boss fight with Wolverine, not only do you get to play as Spider-Man, but you get to play as Venom.
Starting off with things I like about this game, I like the presentation, and music of this game because unlike Spider-Man 2, you can tell when it's absolutely serious and easily conveys how it feels, and how you're supposed to feel whenever intense moments happen like the cutscene before Venom, and Silver Sable fight, this game takes it's own route with the story and does somethings I like much better here ultimately rather than what they did with the Comics.
But the game suffers from feeling undercooked, and rushed, it replaces the semi automated physics system with a Spider-Man traversal system that doesn't have any real weight to it no matter how many twists and turns he does while web swinging around, and it's not as fun as Spider-Man 2's, and this game came out a year after. The game also goes back to tired Combat systems and uses two attack buttons, and replaces the dodge button by jumping around like a fucking Gorilla all ovee the god damn place, but the Punches feel powerful none the less, I can just never feel satisfied with this combat that was executed in the game, I'm also not a big fan of playing as Venom because he doesn't feel well utilized and he's just an angry brute with no real characterization or any personality, he just eats people and then eats more people then wants to eat Spider-Man, then he wants to eat another person, and it goes on for so long that you can conclude that this is entire story is just a bad excuse for Spider-Man things to happen, I guess, and the City feels so dead, and I could care less about protecting it, I could care less about web swinging cause it's not even half as fun as Spider-Man 2's web swinging.
Tho for all the faults that the game has, the contradictions that Web of Shadows has with it's own plot are completely absent in this game, I'd absolutely recommend this game if you haven't tried it already since this is a must try for any Spider-Man fan out there.
Starting off with things I like about this game, I like the presentation, and music of this game because unlike Spider-Man 2, you can tell when it's absolutely serious and easily conveys how it feels, and how you're supposed to feel whenever intense moments happen like the cutscene before Venom, and Silver Sable fight, this game takes it's own route with the story and does somethings I like much better here ultimately rather than what they did with the Comics.
But the game suffers from feeling undercooked, and rushed, it replaces the semi automated physics system with a Spider-Man traversal system that doesn't have any real weight to it no matter how many twists and turns he does while web swinging around, and it's not as fun as Spider-Man 2's, and this game came out a year after. The game also goes back to tired Combat systems and uses two attack buttons, and replaces the dodge button by jumping around like a fucking Gorilla all ovee the god damn place, but the Punches feel powerful none the less, I can just never feel satisfied with this combat that was executed in the game, I'm also not a big fan of playing as Venom because he doesn't feel well utilized and he's just an angry brute with no real characterization or any personality, he just eats people and then eats more people then wants to eat Spider-Man, then he wants to eat another person, and it goes on for so long that you can conclude that this is entire story is just a bad excuse for Spider-Man things to happen, I guess, and the City feels so dead, and I could care less about protecting it, I could care less about web swinging cause it's not even half as fun as Spider-Man 2's web swinging.
Tho for all the faults that the game has, the contradictions that Web of Shadows has with it's own plot are completely absent in this game, I'd absolutely recommend this game if you haven't tried it already since this is a must try for any Spider-Man fan out there.
Spider-Man: Web Of Shadows is a game released in 2008 that was made after the movie tie in game of Spider-Man 3, and I guess you could say this served as an apology for that piece of shit. This game makes up for it with the best combat on any Spider-Man before Spider-Man PS4 without having to worry to about providing realistic looking attacks. Gone are the days of Spider-Man feeling insufferable, and fat to control in SM3!, this game certainly delivers on the combat, but I can't say so much about the swinging since it's way too fast for my taste.
But what it doesn't deliver on is it's story, technichally the plot of this game is impossible provided with the lore from the Comics, in Venom:Lethal Protector #4, it's stated that a Symbiote can only spawn 6 offsprings all at random intervals with years in difference which means Venom cannot mass produce at such a rate, it's also out of character for Venom, or Eddie Brock to take in mass destruction, it's revealed in Spider-Man: Planet of the Symbiotes #3 that the Venom symbiote was locked away because it wanted to bond with it's host rather than consume it, and take complete control, and the final Venom boss fight is also impossible because in order for Venom to achieve such a feat, he'e have to consume another thousand symbiotes and this takes place after the device that eliminated the Symbiotes worked if you follow the Good path, so using the lore provided by the Comics and the lore the game should follow, none of this should happen at all.
The fact that this game offers you the choice to choosw your own path is very weird to me because it should've been where if you use the Symbiote suit way too much, you lead yourself down the path of darkness and the same should work for the classic suit, but maybe they were limited by the technology of their time, and you shouldn't be able to choose what outcome under following the game's choice system, you should just be the regular Spider-Man, not this purple bastard with tendrils, this game got the Combat right, and a little bit of the webswinging, but it never got Spider-Man for me.
But what it doesn't deliver on is it's story, technichally the plot of this game is impossible provided with the lore from the Comics, in Venom:Lethal Protector #4, it's stated that a Symbiote can only spawn 6 offsprings all at random intervals with years in difference which means Venom cannot mass produce at such a rate, it's also out of character for Venom, or Eddie Brock to take in mass destruction, it's revealed in Spider-Man: Planet of the Symbiotes #3 that the Venom symbiote was locked away because it wanted to bond with it's host rather than consume it, and take complete control, and the final Venom boss fight is also impossible because in order for Venom to achieve such a feat, he'e have to consume another thousand symbiotes and this takes place after the device that eliminated the Symbiotes worked if you follow the Good path, so using the lore provided by the Comics and the lore the game should follow, none of this should happen at all.
The fact that this game offers you the choice to choosw your own path is very weird to me because it should've been where if you use the Symbiote suit way too much, you lead yourself down the path of darkness and the same should work for the classic suit, but maybe they were limited by the technology of their time, and you shouldn't be able to choose what outcome under following the game's choice system, you should just be the regular Spider-Man, not this purple bastard with tendrils, this game got the Combat right, and a little bit of the webswinging, but it never got Spider-Man for me.