PC Review: The Amazing Spider-Man 2 Is A Suprisingly Fun Swing
Fri, May 9, 2014
The Amazing Spider-Man 2 is Beenox's latest foray into the world of Spider-Man. It features a storyline adjacent to the one of Marc Webb's feature film while keeping in continuity to Beenox's previous Spider-Man movie tie-in. This game features some classic Spider-Man villains that have yet to show up on film - such as Shocker and Kraven - but also features the ones from the film as well. Beenox's take on The Amazing Spider-Man 2 is very interesting, and they've obviously poured a lot more into this than their previous attempts at bringing Spidey's world at life, which people feel have been very repetitive and boring. However, is this game worthy of buying, or is it another lame cash-grab?
The gameplay in The Amazing Spider-Man 2 is not bad at all, hell, it's actually quite fun and even though it takes a bit to learn and can feel unpolished on the get-go, Beenox has finally perfected the swinging mechanic and made combat something I look forward to doing in this game. Also returning to the game from the previous installment is the "web Rush" system, which allows you to specify targets in the immediate view and, well, rush to them by shooting web.
This system is similar to Arkham City's grapnel gun, except the web rush system allows complete freedom in the destination, including the air. I didn't play much of the previous installment of the franchise, but in that game I hated the Web Rush system. However, in The Amazing Spider-Man 2, it feels much, much more defined and polsihed, even when you aren't in targeting mode. It's incredibly useful when you're high in the sky, prancing around skyscraper to skyscraper. You can graciously go from one end of the map to the other just by strategically web-rushing, and very quickly. I honestly use this system more than the swinging, which has been perfected for maximum fun and travel. Speaking of web slinging, Spidey's webs now connect to buildings, and the swings can be boosted. Also, another cool feature within the web slinging mechanic is the slingshot, which has an excellently fluid animation and shoots you far through a street for expedited travel. Overall, The Amazing Spider-Man 2's web swinging mechanic is all-out fun. There's multiple ways to travel throughout the city to find objectives and such.
The combat, however, isn't as polished but it's still fun and that's really all that matters to me -- the fun factor. The system is basic, X to punch, A to jump, LB to web-pull, RB to web-rush and B to seismic blast/web shoot your enemies. You can string together a couple of basic combos, but there's no real depth to it. However, shooting huge blasts to giant foes to knock them down somewhat feels satisfying, especially after web-rushing towards them and beating them down. It's a combo that feels fluid even though there's no real depth to it, and that's what I like about the combat in this game - it's not deep but it's fluid and elegant, and can almost feel like poetry in the right position such as Kingpin's boss battle. Admittedly, at times, it does feel broken at times, however that may simply be due to user error. In addition, the player can practice the combat system in Challenge Maps available in an Arcade Machine located in a comic shop owned by Stan Lee. In the end, The Amazing Spider-Man 2's combat is incredibly fun and mostly fluid, but head-to-head combat isn't the only way of playing the game.
The game also boasts stealth combat, similar to that of many other superhero games. And to be quite honest with you, I feel as though The Amazing Spider-Man 2's stealth is more fun than the Arkham series'. In The Amazing Spider-Man 2, you can sneak behind enemies and "Stealth Takedown" them by pulling them towards you and Spidey knocks them out and ties them to the floor. Alternatively, you can sneak onto poles, walls, roofs, chandaliers and many other things and pull thugs towards you and tie them up into webbed-coccoons. The system could definitely use work by adding a lot more of a variety in animations and takedowns, but surprisingly it works for a Spider-Man game and the execution fits the character. I love it because it allows freedom. I can web-zip to a whole new side of the wall in an instant instead of trying to circle around multiple gargoyles like a trapeze act. I can crawl on the roof and slide slowly down and take out and enemy before he knows it, instead of having to wait for the enemy to get in the perfect position below me. The stealth isn't perfect, and could definitely use some refining but I've played games with worse.
Admittedly, one of my favorite aspects however is the voice acting. Sam Riegel reprises his role as Peter Parker and although his lines can get repetitive quickly, the delivery is fantastic and he brings some true emotion to the role of Peter Parker - as if he were playing the character in a feature film. Steve Blum does a fantastic job as Kraven The Hunter, capturing the character well. However, my favorite definitely had to be JB Blanc as the Kingpin/Wilson Fisk whose voice was just excellent. It was dark, brooding but also wise and scary and I had to look at the credits to see who the actor was. It was an all-around powerful performance and I can't wait until the next game to hear him in the role again. Speaking of which, The Amazing Spider-Man 2 has an important post-credits scene setting up Beenox's next movie tie-in that also features the Kingpin. Overall, The Amazing Spider-Man 2's voice direction and casting is superb.
To summarize, The Amazing Spider-Man 2 feels like the game that Beenox has been trying to make for years. It incorporates all the best features of their previous attempts at Spider-Man whilst polishing and refining them. Additionally, a few more months of development time and The Amazing Spider-Man 2 would've been the perfect Spider-Man game. It ranks high in my list of favorites along with Spider-Man for the Playstation and Web of Shadows. We know that Beenox is working on some non-film Spider-Man games, so I look forward to playing and reviewing their next entry.
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