Spiderman 2 Review (no fat)

Game Description

The legendary web slinger seems to be enjoying a fresh lease in life. A dream run at the box office and a few computer games have brought Spiderman back into the limelight.

The Mac game Spiderman 2: The Movie, relies heavily on the movie for it's core ingredients. The game is a celluloid to pixel translation that even incorporates the voices of actors like Tobey Maguire, Kirsten Dunst, and Alfred Molina. This time around Spidey has to pit his wits against the dastardly Dr. Octopus and a slew of old foes who get a complete makeover in this game.

As Spiderman, you have to swing from building to building, crawl walls, engage in fist fights with the bad guys, wrap them up in a cocoon and perform a wide range of acrobatics. The game has it's own share of adventures, apart from the main plot, each one having it's own share of twists and turns. The enemies range from Dr. Octopus to Electro, the Vulture, Mephisto and so on.

It's a great opportunity to step into the boots of one of the world's most favorite superheroes and do your bit to save the city from evils.

Spiderman 2 Gameplay

Translating a movie into a computer game (or vice versa) is never an easy chore and Spiderman 2 does have it's share of gameplay limitations and technical flaws. The game is also limited by the fact that the difficulty factor remains constant throughout the game making it easy to go through the levels and complete the game.

The game kicks off with some easy tutorials that help you get a hang of maneuvering Spiderman and utilizing the wide range of actions that he's capable of performing. Once you start playing the game, the plot moves along with the help of cut scenes that are pleasant but feel awkward at times.

Aside from a handful of continuity issues, the game does have it's plus points and these are mainly in the form of mini-games that are scattered all over. Playing these mini-games helps you hone your spider skills and accumulate more points. There are bonus levels and missions that you can unlock once you have enough points. The game also tests your puzzle solving skills.

The game's graphics, while practical and cute, fail to emulate the realistic feel of the movie…more of a comic book caper is on offer here. Spiderman 2 is also a fairly easy game to master and fairly easy to tame, which makes for limited repeated play capabilities.

Spiderman 2 Graphics

Decent at times, the graphics do not fully capture the cutting edge CGI that went into the Spiderman movie. Character's are rendered well but the game leans more towards the comic book style than the realism that could have been expected. Still, it works well for the game considering the fact that the game is going to appeal more to the teens than the older lot of gamers.

Spiderman 2 Sound

With voice acting by the cast of the movie and Bruce Campbell, the game does have it's moments. It does suffer from repetition in vocal phrases at times. Overall, the sound is pretty much ‘OK’.

Spiderman 2 Summary

Spiderman 2: The Movie doesn't come anywhere near the movie in technical excellence and delivery. It falls short in almost every department and suffers from continuity issues and a lack re-playability value. The action sequences are decent but the plot doesn't flow along as smoothly as it should.

Having a great template in the movie should have made the chore of building a great game much easier for the developers but they do not make use of the opportunity. The game's not bad but you can get much better for the $30 price tag that this game bears at the moment.

The game might only have value for the 10-15 year old segment of gamers and for those who have grown up watching their favorite web slinger crush bad guys within the panels of a comic book.

Spiderman 2 Cost

Spiderman-2 retails at $29.99US.