Available on: PS3, Xbox 360, Wii, PC
Price: Varies online
I played on: PS3
Notes: N/A
Shattered Dimensions gets so much right about the wall-crawler that it instantly proves that not every Spider-man game needs to have an open world.
We start with Mysterio breaking into a museum looking for the mystical Tablet of Order and Chaos. Spider-man drops by to stop him but instead ends up breaking the Tablet into pieces causing a strange explosion. Madame Web then appears to explain how powerful the Tablet is seeing as with all the pieces it could be used to destroy the universe. It’s up to four versions of Spider-man from different dimensions to collect the broken tablet and stop the universe being destroyed.
You play as either the Amazing Spider-man who we know mostly from the comic books, Ultimate Spider-man from the Ultimate Marvel universe, Noir Spider-man from a past universe and lastly Spider-man 2099 from a future universe. The game is a beat-them-up with light and heavy attacks but the subgenre changes between each Spider-man. The Amazing Spider-man is your basic combo based beat-them-up. The Ultimate Spider-man has been given the Black suit. His levels play more like a hoard based beat-them-up with a rage mode allowing you to take on large numbers of enemies at once. Noir Spider-man has to rely more on stealth and special take-downs. Lastly, 2099 Spider-man is a more set-piece and 3D platformer beat-them-up. I love this as although the gameplay feels similar between all Spider-men there is enough variation to keep the game feeling fresh the whole way through.
Each level will focus on a specific Spider-man and villain from their universe. This works really well as it presents plenty of variety between levels with different looks, enemies and scripted events. You also have the Web of Destiny which allows you to complete little gameplay challenges for each level. The more of these challenges you complete the more you can upgrade your combat moves and Spider-men. I had most of these completed on my first play-through as they felt natural and fun. My only complaint about them is they can spoil some of the bigger moments in the level with their descriptions. For the most part, though I enjoyed them and found they added another fun layer to the simple gameplay.
The presentation is astounding with each Spider-man having a distinct artist style reflecting the comics they’re from. The levels are beautiful with lots of detail and the art design on the villains is stunning with Mysterio being my personal favorite. The voice acting is also top notch, each Spider-man has his own voice actor and all give great performances. The music while not amazing was not terrible, most the time I didn’t notice it one way or the other.
The story here is the weakest part of this game as it’s pretty much just magical Mcguffin gets broken and now you must find it. The smaller stories told within each level is where this game shines as we get to see how a number of the webhead’s villains handle getting a power upgrade thanks to the Mcguffin. The lead up to each boss feels epic and high stakes with you sometimes having to face off against said boss more than once. Shattered Dimensions doesn’t try to do too much like a lot of other Spidey games and instead it focuses on being a fun beat-them-up and it pays off. This may be my favourite liner Spider-man game.
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