Mark’s Spidey Sense is tingling…
Spider-Man is exceptional. But not for the reasons you may think. Sure, he can crawl
along walls, swings between skyscrapers and get away with wearing extremely tight spandex…
but, really, that’s nothing extraordinary in the superhero world. No, Spidey is special
because, of all the heroes returning to the limelight in recent years (Superman, Batman,
The Fantastic Four, and even Ghost Rider all spring to mind), he’s the only one to star in
a series of consistently good game outings.
Spider-Man 3 is looking to continue that trend. And, promisingly for Spidey fans, it’s
intending to improve on everything that made the webslinger’s past two interactive
adventures so entertaining, whilst addressing their flaws as well.
A more complete illusion
For starters, like its forebears, Spider-Man 3 presents a 3D rendering of New York,
complete with high-rise buildings, cars, passers by and landmarks galore, fully free for
the player to explore to their heart’s content. However, as you’d expect with progresses in
technology, the gameworld is now bigger (2.5 times bigger, if you believe the developers),
the visuals increasingly polished, animation all the more convincing, and the ability to
enter certain buildings and sewer systems should give an overall more complete illusion of
being a living, breathing city.
Likewise, the story itself should give gamers an authentic Spidey experience that goes
beyond merely retelling the events of the movie. Not content with following the film script
to a tee, Spidey’s latest will go the way of great film tie-ins of the past (think
Goldeneye 007 on N64) and tie in adjoining missions, sub-plots and objectives with a
relatively open-ended approach – an idea piloted in Spider-Man 2 to limited success, but
given much more weight in the game’s overall structure this time around.
A sense of scale and slickness of production unseen in a Spidey
title so far.
Of the ten separate story strands featured in Spider-Man 3, only one is the film’s plot
itself; the others encompassing actions such as defeating famous Spidey villains who don’t
make an appearance in the film itself, and fighting gang crime on the city streets.
Of course, at certain points the player will be thrust down specific paths in order to
streamline the game’s overall sense of progression. The key point, as in the movie, will be
the introduction of Spidey’s dark suit, which will give the webbed wonder a whole new set
of superpowered over-the-top Spidey-on-Steroids-style abilities.
Cinematic flair
Besides the new gameplay engendered by Spidey’s darker persona, the other fresh feature
bolstering the action will be Shenmue and Resident Evil 4 style Quick-Time-Events, or
‘Cinteractive’ (that’s cinematic and interactive, made-up-word fans!) sequences as
Activision are calling them. The first of these sees Peter Parker battling it out with the
New Green Goblin as they soar above the Manhattan skyline, in a stretch mixing interactive,
non-interactive and real-time fighting in the game’s improved combat system.
That further cinematic flair could be that very thing that’s been missing from previous
Spider-Man offerings in the past; it’s always been a lucrative and well-done series
Activision have had on their hands, but one that’s lacked a certain spark. The move to
HD-ready formats seems like it may finally have provided the incentive for a rethink,
boasting a sense of scale and slickness of production unseen in a Spidey title so far.
Lower-powered systems, meanwhile, will still get largely the same ambition and gameplay,
albeit with a distinctly lower polygon count, but whatever format you own, it’s clear that
this should mark a step in the right direction for everyone’s favourite wall crawler.
Preview by: Mark Scott
Preview Published: 27.04.07