Fight crime and explore New York in this great action game.
Spider-Man 2 takes place in New York City, and, of course, you assume the role of city superhero Spider-Man. As the web-slinger, you can explore the huge city of New York. There are literally an endless amount of citizens in distress who have missions for you to take on. These missions can have you fighting criminals, saving falling citizens, rescuing people from sinking ships, and even retrieving balloons for children. These missions really do never stop, so this can have you swinging around looking for someone calling your name for as long as you like. Completing missions earn you Hero Points, which you can spend on upgrades at your local Superhero store. These include melee combos, which let you spice up your combat life. When you fight people, you basically just punch them and tie them up with webs until they fall down. This is a lot more repetitive than I'm making it, and that's saying something. The enemies usually go down with 6 punches and a shot of web, but they come in numbers, so it can get difficult at times. Bosses, on the other hand, are another story.
You can't be a Superhero if you don't have 20 supervillains who always try to kill you. Staying faithful to the film, the main antagonist in Spider-Man 2 is Doctor Octopus: A pissed off scientist who has 4 robot arms that kill people. Aside from the main story, you have side stories as well. Black Cat, the seductive Anti-Hero of the game teams up with you to fight the big bad Shocker (I really don't know who this is). There's also Quentin Beck, Aka Mysterio: A guy that puts a fishbowl on his head and thinks he's an alien (Again, I'm just guessing with this). Unfortunately, you have to fight all of these guys (Except for Mysterio: you have to fight his robots). Surprisingly, all of this fits together quite nicely in the story. You also have a narrator, who can be really funny at times. All of these characters add the life to Spider-Man 2 (As if New York City wasn't lively enough). Now to the ups and downs of the game.
Though it's a fantastic game, Spider-Man 2 has some glaring flaws. As with all open-ended games, S-Man 2 is a bit on the glitchy side. Sometimes citizens are floating in mid-air like they're Superman. Also, as I said before, the combat can get repetitive. Punch, shoot your web, kick, punch, Oh look, he's dead. I don't know if I would consider this game a sandbox or not. It has a Grand Theft Auto feel to it, but you can't beat up innocent people (You know you want to, Spidey). There are some minigames included, such as taking pictures for the Daily Bugle, meeting Mary Jane at the movies, and there's an arcade where you can get trophies when you get a high score. If Spider-Man was at my town's arcade getting the high score on Street Fighter, I'd freak out.
Spider-Man 2 is a fun but slightly flawed game that I think anyone can enjoy: Especially fans of the movie or series. Now that this game has opened my mind to comic books, I think I'll try Iron Man for my 360 (No I won't).