There's no need for public transport when you're Spider-Man, as Scot finds out when he checks out the Xbox, PS2 and GameCube versions of the game.
This, right here, is proof that it can be done. Proof that videogames designed around movie licenses can work. Proof that they can be fun. After all of the unnecessary cash-ins, the countless licenses, the wasted potential, we finally have a game that is not only highly enjoyable to play, but one that manages to beat many of those currently out there designed without the tight limitations of the movie license. Here we have Spider-Man 2, a game that could well be one of the best superhero games ever made.
Spider-Man 2, rather unsurprisingly, loosely follows the plot of the movie where we see our friendly neighbourhood Spider-Man take on the evil genius Dr. Octopus. Rather than completely focus on the movie though, the game frequently throws up random challenges and side-missions to make up for its relative lack of story - after all, the movie wraps it all up neatly in two hours - not nearly long enough for your average video game.
The random missions will take up a large chunk of your time and are triggered by talking to pedestrians on the street. Unfortunately, these random events take up a little too much of your time and the process is made all the more monotonous due to the overt lack of variety in the missions. It's frustrating, since when Spider-Man 2 does follow the storyline, it's extremely enjoyable. The missions are a lot more diverse, challenging and gratifying than the game's random counterparts and it soon becomes obvious that these "sandbox" missions would have benefited from increased focus in the development stages.
It's hard to fault them when you first start playing the game - after all, everything is fresh and you've no idea what to expect from them. However, by the time you've reached the halfway point, you'll be pleading for more instances of the core missions - missions with a different objective, ones you've not had to complete over and over again twenty or so times previously in the game. There's only so much enjoyment to be found in repetition, and unfortunately even a game with as much undeniable appeal as Spider-Man 2 can do little to change that.
Unlike previous titles to bear the Spider-Man moniker, Spider-Man 2 lets you roam free in Manhattan - your playground, if you will. The key to moving around the sprawling city is by utilising the new swinging mechanic, upgraded extensively from the last Spider-Man game and put to a much better use here. In fact, it's not just been implemented better - it's all kinds of out-and-out cool. It's easily the most apparent, appealing reason for playing the game and while there's a lot more to experience than swinging around the city, there's a lot to like about it.
As well as scaling skyscrapers and swinging through the city, you'll be involved in a fair amount of combat. The combat system is initially mapped to one button, so you can't help but engage in some unwholesome button-bashing but further attack methods can be purchased as you progress throughout the game. It's perhaps unfortunate then that most of the adversaries you'll encounter rarely ever put up much of a fight, eradicating the need for complicated combos and strategic fight patterns, allowing you to just fall back on prior button-bashing tactics.
The production values in Spider-Man 2 are strong, as you'd expect from the official game of the film. The city looks fantastic, as does the leading man himself - especially in-between leaps and swings from the towering buildings. The cut-scenes aren't quite as exciting though, lacking decent direction and featuring some relatively wooden voice acting (yeah but the training level is voiced by Bruce Campbell, and he rocks! - Ed). It's not horrible - certainly better than a lot of games - but you'd expect more from the same cast as the blockbuster movie currently scoring great reviews worldwide.
As a complete package though, Spider-Man 2 is a tremendous effort at bringing the high-flying action and excitement of the movie to home consoles. In many respects, it succeeds - web-slinging through the city is an absolute blast, especially once you've boosted your abilities and are able to perform a whole range of acrobatic manoeuvres on the end of swings, as are the core story-based mission objectives - but the repetitive and unfulfilling nature of the hero missions hurt the overall experience. Still, the good easily outweighs the bad and while it does occasionally suffer from being a little too ambitious, Spider-Man 2 is ultimately a worthy complement to the summer blockbuster.