Chaos Raiden
Avid Gamer & Reviewer
NOTE: This review contains spoilers from The Amazing Spider-Man movie itself, because it takes place after the events of the movie. Avoid reading this review if you have not watched the movie.
Story
The story is good, and simple to understand without much confusion. However, since this game takes place after the events of the movie, players will be getting major spoilers from the movie itself, especially if they have not watch it. The only thing I can say about the storyline is that it lacks good plot twists to make the story more interesting. There are a few plot twists in the game, but it is not enough.
The characters in this game are pretty good, such as Spider-Man, Alistaire Smythe, etc. Unfortunately, this game does not have much popular villains included, which is to say that it is possible that the popular villains are reserved for future Spider-Man movies. It is a shame really, since I really like Beenox's characterisation on villains in their previous work on Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions.
Gameplay
This game is open-world and action adventure. You can always explore outdoors in Manhattan to get collectibles, and to proceed to the next chapter in the game.
Spider-Man has a number of cool moves, such as Web Swing, Web Rush, Web Strike, and etc. Web. The biggest highlight of Spider-Man's moves is Web Rush, which allows you to travel from one place to another quickly. It can be used as an offensive move called Web Strike, or can be used to escape from enemy attacks. Web Rush is also vital in chasing targets, such as the Car Chase side missions.
The combat is similar to previous Beenox's Spider-Man games and Rocksteady's Batman games. You can attack enemies from multiple directions, counter or dodge enemy attacks, as well as using your Web Shooters to stop enemies from moving. You can also use a grab attack to throw the off, or even using Web Strike for quick attack. After you have executed a combo with lots of hits, you can use Spider-Man's Signature Move to defeat enemies quickly. Also, when enemies are stunned, they are also vulnerable for Signature Moves for quick defeat.
Unaware enemies can be taken out by stealth moves. You can take them out stealthily from above their heads, or behind them. Stealth is recommended to take out armed enemies, since Spider-Man can be killed by firearms easily.
Like other Spider-Man games, there are boss fights included in the game, such as Vermin, Rhino, etc. Few of the boss fights require strategy to defeat them, since they cannot be approached head-on, such as Rhino. Proper strategy is needed to defeat some of the toughest bosses, namely Rhino and Felicia Hardy.
Unlike other Spider-Man games, your health is recovered by health regeneration. Your health will regenerate if you stand still, and will not recover if you are still in combat. Using Web Retreat allows you to escape from a combat momentarily to recover your health.
Some Chapters take place in outdoors, and others take place in indoor levels. For indoor level chapters, you can find collectibles to obtain experience points (XP), such as magazines, Oscorp security manuals, etc.
There are two upgrading sections for Spider-Man, one is for combat and one for his techs. For combat section, you can purchase a combat upgrade by spending an Upgrade point. Upgrade point is obtained by collecting enough XP. For example, 1000 XP is needed to get an Upgrade Point. Like the namesake implies, spending Upgrade points on Combat allows you to have access to new combat moves, such as Web Punch. XP is obtained by defeating human enemies and bosses, or by completing side missions. As for the techs section, you need to collect enough Tech Points to upgrade Spider-Man's techs, such as upgrading his Web Shooters or Spider Tracers. Tech Points are obtained by defeating mechanical enemies such as Hunters, Seekers, and other mechanical enemies, or by getting Tech Pieces scattered in indoor levels.
Overall, the gameplay is solid, but repetitive in many ways. Many of the boss fights are very similar to each other, such as Vermin's, Iguana's, and Scorpion's boss fights. Only a handful boss fights are exhilarating and fun, such as Rhino and Felicia Hardy. Although the combat is fun, it is also repetitive since many enemies in this game are very similar to each other in terms of attack patterns, other than their appearances. Stealth is fun in this game, but I felt that it isn't implemented well like the stealth sections by Spider-Man Noir in Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions. Another thing I should not in this game is the extremely easy nature of combat in the game, including boss fights. I highly suggest players to choose Super Hero difficulty for better challenge in the game since Normal difficulty in this game feels too easy for me.
Graphics
The main characters are well-detailed and pretty looking, such as Spider-Man, Felicia Hardy, and other villains. However, NPCs in outdoors in Manhattan is not detailed looking, and felt really outdated in current generation graphics. For indoor levels, the levels are pretty nicely designed, but outdoors environment such as the city bulidings are not well detailed, and again, feel outdated. Glitches are present in the game, such as freezing, and buildings not loading up while travelling outdoors in Manhattan. Screen tearing is also noticeable while playing in outdoors. Personally, I felt that this game's graphics is not up to par with Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions, but this game is still pretty decent looking.
Sound
Despite none of the movie actors reprising their roles in this game, the voice acting is pretty great, by Sam Riegel (Spider-Man), Kari Wahlgren (Gwen Stacy), Steven Blum (Dr. Connors), Nolan North (Alistaire Smythe), and others. They did great job in voicing their characters, especially Sam Riegel as Spider-Man. Although, after watching the movie yesterday, I felt that the movie actors could fit their roles in the game much better because the actors are pretty good, such as Andrew Garfield as Peter Parker/Spider-Man, Emma Stone as Gwen Stacy and Rhys Ifan as Dr. Connors. Another reason why I preferred the movie actors to reprise their roles in the game is to create a continuity between the movie and the game itself.
Replay Value
The game has great replay value, provided if you can endure the repetitiveness nature of the side missions' nature itself. You can collect magazine pages scattered in Manhattan, collect collectibles scattered in indoor levels, help polices in car chases, take pictures of Oscorp's conspiracy in indoor levels, participating XTreme challenges, saving infected civilians, and etc. There is a lot of side activities to be done in this game, although all of it feels extremely repetitive. If you have completed everything in this game, you can always web swinging in the city for some fun.
It is to be noted that by collecting certain number of magazine pages scattered in Manhattan, you will unlock digital version of early Spider-Man comics in the game's Extras section. The comics are quite fascinating to read, and it is nice to see how Spider-Man and other villains drawn in the early comic releases.
Conclusion
This game is solid in many areas, but also felt unpolished in many areas, such as the outdated looking Manhattan outdoor environment, easy combat difficulty, repetition in combat and stealth, etc. Another thing I should noted that this game lacks of powerful and popular villains. I don't recognise most of the villains in this game other than Felicia Hardy and Rhino, sadly. Also, most of the villains lack characterisation, because they are cross-species and unable to speak, which makes them uninteresting. If you are looking into which Beenox's Spider-Man game is the best at the moment, I will say Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions is the best one because it has a lot of variety and graphically looks better than this game. Despite the game's major flaws, this game is still fun to play since it has open-roaming world, fun combat, great dialogue, and high replay value. For one thing, I personally feel that this game lacks Beenox's creativity in many areas, such as boss designs. I hope that Beenox will create another Spider-Man game that will make us Spider-Man fans impressed, without unnecessary bounds and limitations made because of a movie's release.
- Spider-Man looks awesome in this game.
Story
The game takes place after the events of the movie.
After the events of the Lizard's attack on the city, Peter Parker went to Oscorp after hours with Gwen. While having an uninvited tour there, they stumbled against multiple cross-species creatures made by Alistaire Smythe. A cross-species named Scorpion reacts to Peter, and started to break out of the building, along with other dangerous cross-species like Vermin and Rhino. It is up to Spider-Man to get back the escaped cross-species, and to save Gwen as well as other scientists from the cross-species virus.The story is good, and simple to understand without much confusion. However, since this game takes place after the events of the movie, players will be getting major spoilers from the movie itself, especially if they have not watch it. The only thing I can say about the storyline is that it lacks good plot twists to make the story more interesting. There are a few plot twists in the game, but it is not enough.
The characters in this game are pretty good, such as Spider-Man, Alistaire Smythe, etc. Unfortunately, this game does not have much popular villains included, which is to say that it is possible that the popular villains are reserved for future Spider-Man movies. It is a shame really, since I really like Beenox's characterisation on villains in their previous work on Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions.
Gameplay
The game plays a bit like recent Batman games by Rocksteady, and like Spider-Man 2 movie game tie-in.
This game is open-world and action adventure. You can always explore outdoors in Manhattan to get collectibles, and to proceed to the next chapter in the game.
Spider-Man has a number of cool moves, such as Web Swing, Web Rush, Web Strike, and etc. Web. The biggest highlight of Spider-Man's moves is Web Rush, which allows you to travel from one place to another quickly. It can be used as an offensive move called Web Strike, or can be used to escape from enemy attacks. Web Rush is also vital in chasing targets, such as the Car Chase side missions.
The combat is similar to previous Beenox's Spider-Man games and Rocksteady's Batman games. You can attack enemies from multiple directions, counter or dodge enemy attacks, as well as using your Web Shooters to stop enemies from moving. You can also use a grab attack to throw the off, or even using Web Strike for quick attack. After you have executed a combo with lots of hits, you can use Spider-Man's Signature Move to defeat enemies quickly. Also, when enemies are stunned, they are also vulnerable for Signature Moves for quick defeat.
Unaware enemies can be taken out by stealth moves. You can take them out stealthily from above their heads, or behind them. Stealth is recommended to take out armed enemies, since Spider-Man can be killed by firearms easily.
Like other Spider-Man games, there are boss fights included in the game, such as Vermin, Rhino, etc. Few of the boss fights require strategy to defeat them, since they cannot be approached head-on, such as Rhino. Proper strategy is needed to defeat some of the toughest bosses, namely Rhino and Felicia Hardy.
Unlike other Spider-Man games, your health is recovered by health regeneration. Your health will regenerate if you stand still, and will not recover if you are still in combat. Using Web Retreat allows you to escape from a combat momentarily to recover your health.
Some Chapters take place in outdoors, and others take place in indoor levels. For indoor level chapters, you can find collectibles to obtain experience points (XP), such as magazines, Oscorp security manuals, etc.
There are two upgrading sections for Spider-Man, one is for combat and one for his techs. For combat section, you can purchase a combat upgrade by spending an Upgrade point. Upgrade point is obtained by collecting enough XP. For example, 1000 XP is needed to get an Upgrade Point. Like the namesake implies, spending Upgrade points on Combat allows you to have access to new combat moves, such as Web Punch. XP is obtained by defeating human enemies and bosses, or by completing side missions. As for the techs section, you need to collect enough Tech Points to upgrade Spider-Man's techs, such as upgrading his Web Shooters or Spider Tracers. Tech Points are obtained by defeating mechanical enemies such as Hunters, Seekers, and other mechanical enemies, or by getting Tech Pieces scattered in indoor levels.
Overall, the gameplay is solid, but repetitive in many ways. Many of the boss fights are very similar to each other, such as Vermin's, Iguana's, and Scorpion's boss fights. Only a handful boss fights are exhilarating and fun, such as Rhino and Felicia Hardy. Although the combat is fun, it is also repetitive since many enemies in this game are very similar to each other in terms of attack patterns, other than their appearances. Stealth is fun in this game, but I felt that it isn't implemented well like the stealth sections by Spider-Man Noir in Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions. Another thing I should not in this game is the extremely easy nature of combat in the game, including boss fights. I highly suggest players to choose Super Hero difficulty for better challenge in the game since Normal difficulty in this game feels too easy for me.
Graphics
Nice looking main characters such as Spider-Man as well as villains like Felicia Hardy, but NPCs and the Manhattan city are not well detailed. Glitches are present as well.
The main characters are well-detailed and pretty looking, such as Spider-Man, Felicia Hardy, and other villains. However, NPCs in outdoors in Manhattan is not detailed looking, and felt really outdated in current generation graphics. For indoor levels, the levels are pretty nicely designed, but outdoors environment such as the city bulidings are not well detailed, and again, feel outdated. Glitches are present in the game, such as freezing, and buildings not loading up while travelling outdoors in Manhattan. Screen tearing is also noticeable while playing in outdoors. Personally, I felt that this game's graphics is not up to par with Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions, but this game is still pretty decent looking.
Sound
Great voice acting and nice music.
Despite none of the movie actors reprising their roles in this game, the voice acting is pretty great, by Sam Riegel (Spider-Man), Kari Wahlgren (Gwen Stacy), Steven Blum (Dr. Connors), Nolan North (Alistaire Smythe), and others. They did great job in voicing their characters, especially Sam Riegel as Spider-Man. Although, after watching the movie yesterday, I felt that the movie actors could fit their roles in the game much better because the actors are pretty good, such as Andrew Garfield as Peter Parker/Spider-Man, Emma Stone as Gwen Stacy and Rhys Ifan as Dr. Connors. Another reason why I preferred the movie actors to reprise their roles in the game is to create a continuity between the movie and the game itself.
Replay Value
Great replay value, if you can endure the repetitiveness of doing side missions.
The game has great replay value, provided if you can endure the repetitiveness nature of the side missions' nature itself. You can collect magazine pages scattered in Manhattan, collect collectibles scattered in indoor levels, help polices in car chases, take pictures of Oscorp's conspiracy in indoor levels, participating XTreme challenges, saving infected civilians, and etc. There is a lot of side activities to be done in this game, although all of it feels extremely repetitive. If you have completed everything in this game, you can always web swinging in the city for some fun.
It is to be noted that by collecting certain number of magazine pages scattered in Manhattan, you will unlock digital version of early Spider-Man comics in the game's Extras section. The comics are quite fascinating to read, and it is nice to see how Spider-Man and other villains drawn in the early comic releases.
Conclusion
The game could have been so much more if Beenox doesn't restrict themselves from implementing more creative ideas and making the outdoor environments more detailed looking.
This game is solid in many areas, but also felt unpolished in many areas, such as the outdated looking Manhattan outdoor environment, easy combat difficulty, repetition in combat and stealth, etc. Another thing I should noted that this game lacks of powerful and popular villains. I don't recognise most of the villains in this game other than Felicia Hardy and Rhino, sadly. Also, most of the villains lack characterisation, because they are cross-species and unable to speak, which makes them uninteresting. If you are looking into which Beenox's Spider-Man game is the best at the moment, I will say Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions is the best one because it has a lot of variety and graphically looks better than this game. Despite the game's major flaws, this game is still fun to play since it has open-roaming world, fun combat, great dialogue, and high replay value. For one thing, I personally feel that this game lacks Beenox's creativity in many areas, such as boss designs. I hope that Beenox will create another Spider-Man game that will make us Spider-Man fans impressed, without unnecessary bounds and limitations made because of a movie's release.
Score
Story - 7/10
Gameplay - 7/10
Graphics - 7/10
Sound - 9/10
Final Score: 30/40 or 7.5/10.0.
Pros and Cons
Pros
- Spider-Man looks awesome in this game.
- Simple and effective storyline.
- Free roaming in open world as Spider-Man is fun.
- Fun combat.
- Web Rush is a great new gameplay feature.
- Many side activities to be done in the game.
- Great voice acting.
- Good soundtrack.
- High replay value.
- Rhino and Felicia Hardy's boss fights are great.Cons
- Repetitive combat and stealth.
- Repetitive side activities' nature and objectives.
- Many of the cross-species boss fights felt similar to each other. (e.g. Vermin, Scorpion, Iguana)
- Glitches are present, such as freezing.
- Noticeable screen tearings.
- Storyline lacks good plot twists.
- Too easy difficulty in combat.
- Lacks popular and imaginable villains such as Electro, Green Goblin, etc.
- None of the movie actors reprise their roles in this game to create an official continuity between the game and the movie.
and im going to see the movie tomorrow...yayy
