Ultimate Spider-Man Hands On

By Ricardo Torres, GameSpotPosted Aug 15, 2005 5:58 pm PT

Activision gives us an exclusive hands-on of the highly anticipated action game starring your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man and his archenemy, Venom.

Activision's upcoming Treyarch-developed action game based on Marvel's Ultimate Spider-Man series has been looking good since we got our first peek at it earlier this year at the Electronic Entertainment Expo in Los Angeles. The promising action game hit all the right notes for fans of the Ultimate Spider-Man comic, an updated spin on the classic webslinging Marvel Comics hero that we've all come to know and love. We've been curious to see how it handles, especially when we got word that classic Spidey foe Venom was on hand as a playable character. We finally got our chance when Activision let us spend some exclusive quality time with the game recently. We were able to try out a sampling of Spidey and Venom levels on a work-in-progress Xbox version of the game that let us get a feel for what to expect.

Regardless of what you've read in comics, Venom is alive and well.

The game's story, for those who follow the comic, picks up roughly three months after the conclusion of the Venom story arc in the comic, which saw Spidey's foe defeated. You'll discover that, surprise, Venom is in fact alive and kicking and overflowing with thoughts of vengeance, among other things. Now if you're not big on the comic book, don't be intimidated, because at the outset, the game offers a nice capsule version of the major points from the story. The sequence is a good primer for the action and a fine showcase for the motion graphics panels that will be central to the visuals.

We started out with four Spidey levels taken from the early part of the game. The first level is a flashback to the final battle between Spider-Man and Venom on the high school football field. The dramatic battle, which unfolds in the rain, doubles as a tutorial for Spidey's moves. Following that battle you'll face off against some street thugs, which will continue your education. If you've played any of Activision's previous Spider-Man games, especially those based on the film, you should be right at home with the game's combat system. You'll be able to punch and kick your foes (alternating the attacks will yield various combos) to knock them into submission. In addition, you can perform impressive aerial combos that knock your foes up in the air and let you knock them around. However, the best part of beating up baddies is using your webs on them. You'll have a variety of options when dealing with evildoers, and they're all quite satisfying. You can temporarily slow them down by webbing them, which sets them up for some nice beatings, or, once you've knocked them around enough to bring up an icon, you can permanently tie them to the ground. Our favorite web attack has to be the ability to web up a foe and string him up from any place that's handy, such as a street lamp (which is right out of the comic book).

As Spidey you will, of course, be able to swing from web lines.

The next level we tried was taken from the game's proper story and opens, as we mentioned earlier, three months after the Venom fight. The sequence continues the tutorial of Spidey's abilities and lets you get in some webslinging as you race over to Mary Jane's to collect your recently repaired outfit. The web controls, much like the combat, are similar to the previous Spidey games and are easy to pick up. You'll be able to double-jump, shoot, and swing from web lines, quickly move forward using zip lines, and boost your swing and climb your web lines to gain altitude. The system is a variation on the mechanics seen in the Spider-Man 2 movie game and are easy to pick up. The game offers a nifty sensation of speed and freedom when you're webbing around that's extremely cool to experience. Once we were up to speed and fully costumed, we had a brief fight against the Shocker--guess who won.

However, once we got through these early segments, the real work began as we played through levels that pit us against the Rhino, a much tougher foe. The series of levels are all centered on trailing and stopping the behemoth. The early part, which is kicked off by a cool motion graphics story sequence, had us following the brute as he tore through the city. Being the responsible citizens that we are, we made sure to help the various civilians who were endangered by his passing. This introduced another game element: minigame-style sequences. The first requires you to alternate the shoulder buttons in order to fill a meter. Once the meter is full you'll perform an action, such as lifting a car. The second sequence required us to grab civilians and carry them to safety.

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1 Comments

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jakeboudville
Posted Sep 2, 2006 4:44 am PT

looks awesome
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