The 2002 "Spider-Man: The Movie" video game shocked many because of the fact that it was a licensed game based on a superhero film that actually turned out good. Of course, seeing how well they did with that game, Activision had no problem tasking Treyarch with the development of the video game adaptation of "Spider-Man 2." 'Twas a good decision, because the game is very good.
"Spider-Man 2" takes many steps forward and features some huge improvements on the first game, introducing a more realistic swinging mechanic (you can't just shoot a web into the sky now), a Spider-Man that is no longer allergic to pavement, a massive open world to explore and so much more to do. The game is fun, fast and exciting, and it captures the plot of the film well, while also showing fearlessness in the ability to deviate from the plot in many ways.
All that said, I'm not quite sure if I find the game to be leaps and bounds better than the first one. Some of the side missions can get repetitive (especially the stupid balloon sidequests), which might make you loathe seeing "Get X more Hero Points" on your To-Do List. On top of that, the controls/camera are a little bit sloppy, the voice acting is nothing special, and while the city of New York looks nice, the character models are not very pretty, even in the CGI cutscenes. In fact, I'd argue that the previous game has better character models than this one.
Either way, though, Treyarch has definitely put plenty of effort into "Spider-Man 2," and the end result is a great game that any fan of "Spider-Man," be it the films or the comics, should definitely play.
Final rating: 8 out of 10 "Great"