The Amazing Spiderman is a third-person, open world adventure game by Beenox. It’s set in the same world as the movie but starts months after the ending of the movie. So if you’re still worried about spoilers at this point you should know that the game has it’s own storyline but it does deal with the aftermath of the movie. It starts off with you as Peter Parker visiting Gwen Stacy at work at Oscorp because she has suspicions about how the research of Dr. Curt Connors aka the Lizard is being handled. And she wonders if you can investigate. As part of Dr. Connors research, experiments were done that resulted in the creation of cross-species, human-animal hybrids, and the question of what to do with them is a delicate issue. Alistair Smythe, the new head of the department, promised to undo the damage caused by Dr. Connors research and (if you’re familiar with Spider-man’s villains that name shouldn’t inspire confidence). All seems to be well until the cross-species start to react violently to your presence and all hell breaks loose. They break free of their confinements and attack and infect the staff of Oscorp. If that wasn’t enough they escape the building and now all of New York City is under threat of being infected. It’s up to you to stop this infection, defeat all of the cross-species and oh yeah, Alistair Smythe sends his robots designed to hunt cross-species and you’ll have to defeat as well. Just another day in the life of your friendly neighborhood Spider-man

Gameplay

The opening level inside Oscorp introduces you to the controls and the combat system and I loved it from the beginning. There have been many Spider-man games over the years and all have tried to capture the feel of what it would be like to be Spider-man. Some have succeeded more than others. I felt this game nailed it better than the other games to date. There’s the standard web-swing, shot, grab, swing and spider-sense dodge. This game adds new actions with the touch of one button called web-retreat and web-rush. Web-retreat is exactly as it sounds. Taking serious damage in combat? Use web-retreat to swing automatically backwards to a safe place. Now the real gem is web-rush. Once you start using it and see how useful it is it makes you wonder how you was able to play Spider-man games without it.

Web Rush isn’t a gimmick but extremely useful

It’s an upgradeable skill that pauses the action for a period of time determined by its upgrade level and allows you to see and choose through Spider-man’s eyes locations you can move to quickly, objects you can interact with or enemies you can attack. And considering Spider-man has superhuman speed, agility and perfect balance and equilibrium you feel you have that advantage over your enemies due to web-rush. And also it’s just cool to be able to do that.

Speaking of enemies, the combat is a lot of fun and one of this game’s strengths. It offers a bit more than just button mashing especially since you can’t take too many consecutive hits. You can build up a combo streak if you avoid getting hit and once you get to a certain number you can perform powerful signature moves that finish off your foes. This is nice because these signature moves are well animated and can turn the tide in a battle against a lot of enemies. You also have at your disposal web-rush, which is a very effective move in combat and can give you space and allow you to use your advantages as Spider-man as already mentioned. And don’t hesitate to use web-retreat if necessary.

Stealth takedown comes in handy

After escaping Oscorp and locating the first cross species you encounter the first Robot Hunter (or Spider Slayer) and this was an incredible battle to have at the beginning of the game and it was outdoors. This was one of the most enjoyable battles I’ve ever had in a Spider-man game. You have to use everything you just learned about the controls to defeat this massive Hunter and this bold move was perfectly done. I call it a bold move because it was so much fun it raised my expectations for the rest of the game. You can’t have a boss battle that is so epic at the beginning and a mediocre game afterward and this game was far from mediocre.

After the initial stage you’re given access to all of Manhattan and there are various things you can do in this open world as the game goes on to keep you occupied. There are side-missions, petty crimes, car chases, police deadlocks, challenges, civilian rescue missions and photo articles. Yes you have a camera and you work with a reporter who wants you to take pictures of certain scenes to use on the news. Completing these can unlock costumes to wear during the game, concept art, etc. These are shown on the map and you can choose which one to go to by web-swinging. Now, the web-swinging in this game has been simplified a lot and either you like it or you don’t. You can’t increase or decrease your speed, swing higher or lower, jump mid-swing or add in ziplines. You just swing. I can understand this from a control scheme standpoint but I was one who used to enjoy swinging around the city just for the hell of it and simplifying the web-swinging reduced that for me. It wasn’t a make or break issue for me and they added comic books scattered throughout for an extra incentive to explore for xp.

Ripped costume look is in

The city itself looks very good at the highest graphic setting and the game tries to give life to the city because the city is as much a part of the ethos of Spider-man as any character or villain. And it does achieve that. There are very few random encounters but with the activities mentioned earlier along with little things (such as a civilian you just saved taking a picture of you on a smartphone or overhearing chatter) gives a little extra personality to it. There’s also a twitter feed connected to your progress that you can scroll during loading screens and I found myself scrolling through it every single time. It was a nice touch. You do have a feel for the city throughout the game and the inhabitants of it and it was like keeping an ear to the streets. You also have an apartment to use, which serves as a base of operations and you can go there to select between costumes you’ve unlocked (costumes get ripped during fights), check on Gwen or Dr. Connors, select missions to replay or see the progress you’ve made. You can go there any time.

The story is entertaining as well. I’m glad it has its own story and not just the same events from the movie. It gives games in general more freedom to explore different characters and angles. It also has it’s fair share of villains. The premise is straightforward but it wouldn’t be a Spider-man story if everything went his way initially. (Unfortunately that’s been the case). You break out Dr. Connors from the institute to help with a cure for the infection and all seems to be ok until you make a new villain mid way through the game (or old villain depending on your knowledge of villains). And that only made things worse but entertaining for me as the player I was never bored with the main story throughout the 13 chapters. This was one of the more consistent Spider-man stories in a video game to date.

No that’s not Venom

Summary

Considering all the Spider-man games that have been disappointing over the years I can firmly state that this isn’t one of them. It gives an enjoyable open world experience that comes the closest if not equal to the standard in which all open world Spider-man games are compared and that’s Spider-man 2. The story, the combat system and the addition of web-rush made this game one of the best Spider-man games and raises the standard for all future Spider-man games. The web-swinging has been simplified but in combat with large Robot Hunter it’s very effective. There’s enough to do in the city to make it feel alive and keep you entertained for hours. If you’ve been turned off by recent Spider-man games this one might be the one to restore your faith in where the series is headed and Beenox did a great job.

Kareem Ali

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