This is so close to being a decent game. So so close.
It starts the story awkwardly by showing Uncle Ben's death scene following how it was in the previous movie, then doing a time skip over some time after the previous game. Spider-Man starts out chasing after the mugger that shot Uncle Ben, again awkwardly mirroring the previous movie, but it ties into interrogating a soon to be Shocker who reveals a gang war, in combination with a serial killer that murders criminals, has all of them on edge and constantly struggling to get firepower on a level over the other gangs. Soon after, The Kingpin starts an agreement with Harry Osborn to create a new military police task force to keep crime in check, however this is obviously a plan by the Kingpin to prevent other gangs from having too much influence and keep his illegal business at the top, what's more, they also constantly pursue Spider-Man from this point on, using Jameson's narrative of the menace.
Spider-Man needs to learn how to better deal with these criminals, and Kraven the hunter takes an interest in training him. This story is initially set up at this point in an interesting way, but it seems like Sony and Activision weren't gonna let Beenox avoid adapting the movie this time and the movie plot points get thrown in. Meeting Max and Harry is done so awkwardly and their characters barely develop. There's a dialogue system that lets you choose question to ask characters during some cutscenes, but they don't really change anything and just boil down to if you want all the dialogue or not.
As the story progresses the game keeps shuffling between trying to follow the movie and its own ideas, which ends up in the story threads either being rushed or leading nowhere, including the Beenox standard of fighting Black Cat to pad out some extra story. While the story in the first Amazing Spider-Man game was pretty average it at least followed its own thread and wasn't held down by limitations imposed from the movie, except for some basic concepts, I'm wishing Beenox had been allowed to follow their own ideas again as they had potential but ultimately don't amount to much as is.
Now for the gameplay... I'm very mixed on the combat, different suits will boost different stats but they don't feel like they matter, the upgrades also barely feel like they make a difference and the combo system feels strange. While it may seem more polished, the actual combat just feels less satisfying to me and it's just diet Arkham but you can mash buttons and win 9/10 times. Boss fights are mostly average and they're usually the most interesting with their QTEs, just like the previous game. People say stealth is better in this game but I found it less satisfying too.
On the other hand web swinging is improved over Amazing Spider-Man 1, now you actually need to be aware of if there's something to swing off of, the camera will give you more space so you don't get nauseous and you have to swing each arm with a separate button, it's fun to get into a rhythm using both arms and it's also useful to focus on one arm while turning, combining all this with the Web Rush mechanic that lets you aim at a point so Spider-Man can rush over it, you can go really fast and it's really fun to swing around the city like this. Unfortunately the story missions still use the Spider-Man 2000 cloud swinging mechanic like in the previous game, except worse because many of them take place outdoors as well, so it feels very limiting.
The biggest problem though is what everyone talks about, the crime events, small crimes occur all the time during freeroam gameplay, they all have a time limit and a short cutscene upon completion which makes it feel like an even bigger waste of your time. The crimes you stop will boost your reputation positively, giving you a hero status, but if you don't stop them you'll reputation will keep dropping and you'll be considered a menace, which will give Kingpin's corrupt task force an excuse to try to take you down. The task force will install electric shields and automatic turrets, as well as send out drones and patrols against you, this makes the freeroam part of the game a constant race to keep your reputation up just so they don't attack you all the time AND it also doesn't stop even in the post game after you beat all the missions.
Overall while the core mechanics usually don't feel as satisfying, I think the enhanced controls could have made this game more fun than its predecessor but the crime and reputation system completely sour them as they're constantly taking your attention, it sucks that I actually like the visuals and unlockables in this game more but actually playing it is such a stress, if you're hurting for more Spider-Man then you could do worse but I wouldn't recommend seeking it out specifically. It saddens me how much potential Beenox's Spider-Man games had that was never fully realized due to their circumstances.
UPDATE: After going through Insomniac's first Spider-Man game and remembering what I liked about this one, I think even I was harsh on it. The combat simply isn't as flashy as I would have hoped but it is decently paced and serviceable, but generally the open world ideas are usually great despite the menace system being executed so obnoxiously. In the end, I do prefer this over the first Amazing game and even Insomniac's offering, mainly due to it having good ideas that Insomniac barely improved on, or even downgraded.
It starts the story awkwardly by showing Uncle Ben's death scene following how it was in the previous movie, then doing a time skip over some time after the previous game. Spider-Man starts out chasing after the mugger that shot Uncle Ben, again awkwardly mirroring the previous movie, but it ties into interrogating a soon to be Shocker who reveals a gang war, in combination with a serial killer that murders criminals, has all of them on edge and constantly struggling to get firepower on a level over the other gangs. Soon after, The Kingpin starts an agreement with Harry Osborn to create a new military police task force to keep crime in check, however this is obviously a plan by the Kingpin to prevent other gangs from having too much influence and keep his illegal business at the top, what's more, they also constantly pursue Spider-Man from this point on, using Jameson's narrative of the menace.
Spider-Man needs to learn how to better deal with these criminals, and Kraven the hunter takes an interest in training him. This story is initially set up at this point in an interesting way, but it seems like Sony and Activision weren't gonna let Beenox avoid adapting the movie this time and the movie plot points get thrown in. Meeting Max and Harry is done so awkwardly and their characters barely develop. There's a dialogue system that lets you choose question to ask characters during some cutscenes, but they don't really change anything and just boil down to if you want all the dialogue or not.
As the story progresses the game keeps shuffling between trying to follow the movie and its own ideas, which ends up in the story threads either being rushed or leading nowhere, including the Beenox standard of fighting Black Cat to pad out some extra story. While the story in the first Amazing Spider-Man game was pretty average it at least followed its own thread and wasn't held down by limitations imposed from the movie, except for some basic concepts, I'm wishing Beenox had been allowed to follow their own ideas again as they had potential but ultimately don't amount to much as is.
Now for the gameplay... I'm very mixed on the combat, different suits will boost different stats but they don't feel like they matter, the upgrades also barely feel like they make a difference and the combo system feels strange. While it may seem more polished, the actual combat just feels less satisfying to me and it's just diet Arkham but you can mash buttons and win 9/10 times. Boss fights are mostly average and they're usually the most interesting with their QTEs, just like the previous game. People say stealth is better in this game but I found it less satisfying too.
On the other hand web swinging is improved over Amazing Spider-Man 1, now you actually need to be aware of if there's something to swing off of, the camera will give you more space so you don't get nauseous and you have to swing each arm with a separate button, it's fun to get into a rhythm using both arms and it's also useful to focus on one arm while turning, combining all this with the Web Rush mechanic that lets you aim at a point so Spider-Man can rush over it, you can go really fast and it's really fun to swing around the city like this. Unfortunately the story missions still use the Spider-Man 2000 cloud swinging mechanic like in the previous game, except worse because many of them take place outdoors as well, so it feels very limiting.
The biggest problem though is what everyone talks about, the crime events, small crimes occur all the time during freeroam gameplay, they all have a time limit and a short cutscene upon completion which makes it feel like an even bigger waste of your time. The crimes you stop will boost your reputation positively, giving you a hero status, but if you don't stop them you'll reputation will keep dropping and you'll be considered a menace, which will give Kingpin's corrupt task force an excuse to try to take you down. The task force will install electric shields and automatic turrets, as well as send out drones and patrols against you, this makes the freeroam part of the game a constant race to keep your reputation up just so they don't attack you all the time AND it also doesn't stop even in the post game after you beat all the missions.
Overall while the core mechanics usually don't feel as satisfying, I think the enhanced controls could have made this game more fun than its predecessor but the crime and reputation system completely sour them as they're constantly taking your attention, it sucks that I actually like the visuals and unlockables in this game more but actually playing it is such a stress, if you're hurting for more Spider-Man then you could do worse but I wouldn't recommend seeking it out specifically. It saddens me how much potential Beenox's Spider-Man games had that was never fully realized due to their circumstances.
UPDATE: After going through Insomniac's first Spider-Man game and remembering what I liked about this one, I think even I was harsh on it. The combat simply isn't as flashy as I would have hoped but it is decently paced and serviceable, but generally the open world ideas are usually great despite the menace system being executed so obnoxiously. In the end, I do prefer this over the first Amazing game and even Insomniac's offering, mainly due to it having good ideas that Insomniac barely improved on, or even downgraded.