Review

Developed by:Beenox Published by:Activision Genre(s):
  • Action Adventure
  • Platform:
  • Handhelds
  • Microsoft
  • Nintendo
  • PC
  • Sony
  • Cost:$59.99 ESRB Rating:TEEN Players:1 Release date:April 29, 2014 Reviewed on:XBox One
    3

    The Amazing Spider-Man 2

    Before we begin the review, let’s talk about the huge elephant in the room of gaming. Many movie based video game tie-ins are notoriously bad and are usually banking on the movie’s success to sell. And while the Amazing Spider-Man 2 doesn’t follow the movie’s plot, there is still a feeling of a title released solely because of its shared name counterpart. So let’s just jump into what we are, unfortunately, already expecting.

    The Amazing Spider-Man 2 (ASM2) was created by Spider-Man game veterans Beenox, who also created the previous ASM video game. With many of these titles under their belts you’d expect them to have figured out the formula for making a great title featuring the web slinger. What’s worse is that, as I played the game I could see the game’s potential to be better. The story follows the overdone narrative of early day Peter Parker; he lets a bad guy get away (because it isn’t his problem) who eventually kills Peter’s uncle. Stop me if you’ve heard this before.  This sets our friendly neighborhood web-head on the search for his uncle’s killer. This brings us to the game’s first issue in that Uncle Ben had already died in the previous game. And yet we are being sent through a similar mundane plot as if the whole world hadn’t heard this story enough.

    The narrative eventually moves on to other characters but it still feels like the past games; for some reason every Spider-Man game has to be packed with villains to pad the experience. This could’ve been over looked if the ASM2 offered up some exciting moments or compelling gameplay mechanics. Unfortunately, most of the gameplay here feels ridiculously unpolished and rushed. Take the combat, for example. Many open world video games feature simple combat that gets challenging over time; the way you attack is simple, whereas the challenge comes from what is thrown your way. There is usually one button for attack, one to dodge, and a few buttons for projectiles as well as disarming an opponent. The difficult part about making such a system is that the fighting has to flow almost perfectly or else it makes the combat no fun at all. In ASM2, the glitchy dodge mechanic makes it difficult to really get into a groove when fighting multiple enemies at once. The camera adds to the frustration as it sometimes obscures your view. As you attempt to bounce from enemy to enemy, you’ll find yourself punching at air and swinging into areas that are extremely hard to climb out of. There were times that I died on purpose just so I could respawn in an open area where I could see what’s going on.

    For those of you who don’t know, a huge part of Spider-Man’s legacy is his love for helping out everyone within the city. Whether it’s a cat stuck in a tree or a building engulfed in flames, Spider-Man will usually show up to save the day. Ironically, Peter’s boss does everything he can to spin him off as a villain. So it’s important that Spider-Man continues to complete acts of heroism so that the people of New York City don’t turn against him. Beenox attempts to achieve this piece of spidey lore by giving players small crimes/people to help around the city. The problem is that they are really repetitive and aren’t meaningful to the plot or game – beyond keeping the Oscorp cops from attacking you. With the repeated dialogues and duplicates of the same villains, I wanted to just leave the city to the cops as I enjoyed the only shining piece of the game, and that was the web swinging. The new web swinging mechanic really gives a true feeling of flying above NYC. By putting the respective web shooter’s hand on each trigger on the controller, it allows for the most realistic web swinging ever. This feels incredible until you realize that it’s not a web swinging simulator and that you have to play missions in the middle of one of the very few reasons to even turn the game on in the first place.

    Sounds harsh? What makes me so critical of this title is it’s the first “current-gen” Spider-Man game, so Beenox had a golden opportunity to show off what they could do with the power of the Xbox One and PS4. Sadly, nothing in the game has given me a reason to pick up this version over the last gen ones (or even over past Spider-Man titles). The same thing goes with the visuals. As spider-man, your costume looks absolutely outstanding as you shoot webs from generic buildings and pass sub-par looking vehicles in the streets of Manhattan. The vibrant colors of your costume are the only thing you should be focused on because if you look beyond that, you are surely to be disappointed.

    One really noticeable visual mishap is the lack of people in the city outside of the constantly copied goons that accompany almost every single act of violence or side mission. When the power of the new consoles have already demonstrated how many people can be on screen at once, there is no excuse for the lack of people walking throughout one of the most populated cities in the world. Heck, even past gen games like GTA V had a living breathing city full of people – Something as small as having pedestrians could have really added to this subpar looking game.

    Needless to say, as a big Spider-Man fan, I wouldn’t bother picking this game out of the discount bin, let alone paying $60 for it. The horrendous gameplay, terrible graphics, and a story that could have been executed so much better if it wasn’t solely made to release alongside a movie, makes you question why these games are ever allowed to release. With such an iconic character, I hope that a company can revive comic book based video games for Spider-Man as Rocksteady has done for The Dark Knight. Until then, just stay away from the movie tie-ins!

    Gameplay:

    3

    Besides the web swinging, the rest of the game isn’t very fun. The monotonous side missions and combat make the game feel like a chore.

    Graphics:

    4

    There is no excuse for how basic these graphics are in a current-gen title.

    Sound:

    3

    The poor voice work and repetitive corny dialogue makes you want to play the game on mute.

    Replay Value:

    1

    I barely could play through the game the first time.

    Final Score:

    3

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