Spider-Man: Web of Shadows

Published on: 4th June, 2009

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Can we trust Spider-Man? Or, to put the question more accurately, can we trust his games? The superhero’s franchise has been unpredictable at best and frustratingly inconsistent at worst. While 2004’s Spider-Man 2 and 2005’s Ultimate Spider-Man were both faithful and fun, 2007’s Spider-Man 3 and Spider-Man: Friend or Foe were either painfully mediocre or absolutely terrible, depending on which console you had.

So, which extreme should you expect with the release of Spider-Man: Web of Shadows later this year, the friendly neighborhood web slinger or the emo dancing asshole? We recently got our first look at the new game and, for now, are surprisingly optimistic. Here are five big reasons why.

Web of Shadows’ developer, Shaba, has never made a Spider-Man game before. What they have produced are seven extreme sports titles, including three Tony Hawk games. Before you start panicking, think about those two worlds – are they really that dissimilar?

We witnessed the webhead smoothly chaining punches, kicks, swings and throws off a large group of thugs, just as if he was a skateboarder doing tricks on a series of ramps and pipes. During a boss fight with the Vulture, in fact, the hero and villain were connecting so many moves in a row that they literally never touched the ground.

The action seemed wildly over-the-top, but that’s a comic book for you. That’s Spider-Man. Speaking of which…

In Web of Shadows, he’s who you make him. If you’re a fan of classic red and blue spandex, choose that suit. If you’re a fan of symbiotic black, choose that one. The game enables you to switch between the two outfits at any time, which doesn’t make complete canonical sense, but should create some diverse combat.

Each version of Spider-Man has thematically different fighting styles. Wrap a baddie in web with the “good” suit and then – a second later – pound him into the ground with the “bad” suit. Or switch the order, choking him with dark goo before acrobatically swinging in for an old-fashioned kick. The more you play with one suit over the other, the more moves you’ll unlock for that suit.

Even the citizens of New York will notice which style you prefer, treating you with adoration or fear accordingly. Speaking of which…

You’re not the only hero in town anymore. When Venom attempts to take over New York by cloning himself into an army of aliens, a huge swath of the Marvel universe shows up to either defend the city or take advantage of the chaos. SHIELD covers the skies with ships and quarantines the population. During our demo, Peter accepted a mission from Luke Cage.

The developers worked on Marvel: Ultimate Alliance’s downloadable content, so they’re familiar with the famous cast of characters and are eager to have Spider-Man interact with them again. Speaking of which…

Your interactions matter. Your preference for red suit or black suit matters. Your choices matter. At multiple points, in fact, you will be faced with a game-changing decision that can affect not only what ending you see, but which fellow heroes are still standing with you at the end… and which villains are still lurking.

More intriguing is the transformation of the city itself. As the story progresses and the alien invasion spreads, you’ll explore several variations on the familiar Manhattan setting (which is still free roaming, by the way). Watch the trailer below to get an idea of how much destruction is in store.
The first thing we noticed about the setting in Web of Shadows was the color – it was back. Freed from the movie license, this game is also liberated from the drab, real world palette used in Spider-Man 3. The universe is more vibrant, more pop-off-the-page. You can almost imagine a dialogue balloon materializing in this version of Manhattan.

Plus, no more bored, listless voice acting from Tobey Maguire or Kirsten Dunst. We’ll give the Spider-Man franchise another chance just because of that…

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