Available on: Xbox, PS2, Gamecube, PC
Price: Varies second hand
I played on: PS2
Notes: Not related to the review but I beat half this game then turned off my PS2 without saving and lost all the progress. Remember kids, PS2 games don’t autosave! (This was the second half so it didn’t affect my opinion of the game as I had written the review before I knew this happened)
Ultimate Spider-Man is based around Spider-Man from the Ultimate Marvel comic universe. I used to play this game when I was a teenager while reading the comics so I could bring the universe to life a bit more.
The graphics are the best part of this game with the visual style matching the Ultimate comics perfectly. The voice acting is top notch, I remember using these voices in my head when reading the comics as a kid. The presentation overall is amazing and by far the best aspect of the game, it just looks, sounds and moves like the comics. This is what made me fall in love with this game as a teenager but I found coming back as an adult it was not enough.
The gameplay works best when free roaming as Spidey as the random crimes and sightseeing are what I enjoyed most about this game. I found the missions really repetitive, chase a boss with the odd stop to save civilians caught up in the crossfire then stop and fight the boss. This just repeats itself until the game ends. You can play as Venom in an attempt to mix up the gameplay but it’s still the same formula just with a new character.
Spider-Man is able to web swing, web zip, punch, kick and web up his enemies. I love that Spider-Man will jump off walls while doing combos however this only adds to the presentation and not the gameplay as you have zero control over this. Venom is unable to web swing instead he is able to jump large distances, he will also need to feed on people to recover health which is constantly draining. This is awful as certain boss fights will be one on one meaning even without being hit you’re slowly losing health and that’s just terrible game design. I hated playing as Venom. It’s a nice idea done badly which is a shame as a sandbox with both Spider-Man 2 and Hulk Ultimate destruction gameplay mixed together would have been awesome.
The story is interesting but not great, there are a lot of parts where popular villains will be brought in for no reason other than padding the game with more bosses. An example is when the Green Goblin turns up for like no reason at all. The plot has a good core idea but most of it is pointless filler just to avoid the game being too short. It follows the creation of the Venom suit as a hopeful cure for cancer which goes wrong. We then follow both Peter Parker and Eddie Broke as Trask and Shield both fail to maintain the situation.
Ultimate Spider-Man is disappointing as it fails at everything besides its presentation, even the web swinging feels a little too slow. This game is not terrible but it has a lot of issues and I enjoyed it less than Web of Shadows which I think shows just how it’s aged badly. Fans of open world Spidey games and the Ultimate universe should pick it up but more casual players should give it a miss.
No comments:
Post a Comment