Wednesday, November 19, 2008

SDPS Reviews: Spider-man Web of Shadows (ps3)


Spider-man has had his fair share of shit dumped on him. If not directly on him, then perhaps just shoved in his general direction.

However, once in awhile, the friendly neighborhood web-slinger gets lucky (and not just with Mary Jane, either). Sometimes he gets to be a part of Marvel Ultimate Alliance. Sometimes he gets to feature 3rd Party Candidate Stephen Colbert in the Marvel Universe. And sometimes, but not often, he gets a decent video game that carries his name.

Spider-man is probably my favorite Super Hero. He's funny, he's a wise-ass, and he's a pretty big pussy. Not that every other Super Hero is one dimensional; however, Spider-Man's story just seems so much cooler and nonsensical than many others. I like that.

Also, if you think about it, his powers are much more of a burden. It's like "Rain-Man" with his Super-Autistic Powers!

Peter Parker has hair growing in unexpected places (and it's fucking sticky! ew!), he gets a headache anytime someone is doing something wrong around him, he's got spider-like reflexes but tends to only use it to do creepy things like hanging upside down, and he shoots stringy-web-goo out of his body!
His powers are almost the equivalent of the warnings of the dangers of masturbation.

The last Spider-Man game I played before WoS was Spider-Man 3 (wii). It was a fun game, and the web-swinging was fucking awesome with the Wiimote...
...but at some point you say: "fuck this, I want to sit down and relax while I play a game for 2 hours," and the novelty dies a horrible death.

Also, with most games based on movies (with the exception of "Aladdin" for Sega Genesis), the interest in the game dies when you know how it ends and every thing that's going to happen in between. Granted, Spider-Man 3 (wii) did have some surprises, but it was too repetative and slow.

Spider-man: Web of Shadows takes place in the future or something, and the "Venom" symbiote has taken over NYC. After a series of generic rescue missions and some pretty cool bad-guy fights, the symbiote takes over human hosts and turns people into zombies.

Spider-man + Zombies = GOTY?
Sadly, no...but it's definitely worth playing and never boring. It's not all that challenging, but in a Super-Hero game, it shouldn't be Super-Difficult. It's not Peter Parker vs The Zombies, it's fucking SPIDER-MAN vs The Zombies.
Of course, they're not "zombies," they're symbiotes, but same fucking thing.

The graphics are pretty decent. The sound and action sequences I could have done without. The voices hardly ever matched up with the lips and sometimes they didn't catch up until later (or not at all). The action seemed to pack more of a punch than my PS3 was prepared for. A lot of the cinematic scenes seemed to skip or appear in slow motion.

What was most interesting (and when I say "interesting," I mean "disturbingly subpar") about WoS was that there are multiple paths you could go down, effecting the end in a GOOD or BAD way.
The choices came in the form of selecting your dialogue with characters:
"Do you want to go save the members of S.H.I.E.L.D.?"
"Not really..."
"Okay, whatev."

Or, selecting whether to be Good Spider-man or Bad Spider-man in a boss fight.
Good Spider-man: Let the bad guy live and then ask for his help.
Bad Spider-man: Embarass the bad guy in public and then TELL him he's going to help you.

You also get to upgrade Red and Black Spider-man's abilities and combos, but there's no need to be too selective because it's IMPOSSIBLE to reach the end of the game without maxing out ALL of your upgrades.

As you can see, the choices the gamer makes are a joke and (I assume) hardly effect the outcome of the actual game all that much. But I won't spoil it for you.

If you want a decent game and don't care about being duped by a false sense of customization, then this is your ticket to FUNsville!

If you like fully customizable, super-challenging games that you could play for months and still not discover everything the game has to offer, you're in for a soul-crushing disappointment.

Unless, like me, you were excited for the third Spider-man movie...then your soul has already been substantially crushed! :-)
-@leX

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