Spider-Man Hands-On

When I was at E3 I got the opportunity to spend some quality time with the latest build of Spider-Man and even got to chat with the game's producer. Here's what I found out.

The latest build of Spider-Man is only about four sub-levels and one boss more than the exclusive build we got from Activision a few months ago. Still, the game had tons of little revisions here and there to enhance the game. There's now a lot more speech in the game - from Spidey himself to the bad guys he's beating up. The graphics have been cleaned up a bit, and the animations have been smoothed out. It looks much better.

The new boss is The Rhino. He looks really good, and the level in which you play him is laid out in a smart manner. Since The Rhino is such a physically superior character, you'll have to outsmart him and make him smash himself into certain electric generators. While it's not a new concept, it's at least somewhat true to the classic comic book formula, as Spidey would never attempt to merely out-brute him.

Activision wouldn't comment about any other villains found in the game, and are trying to keep the storyline a secret. But we learned that at least Venom and Doctor Octopus will be making an appearance in the game, as the non-evil Dr. Otto Otavius was featured fully 3d modeled in the new character profile section - a section of the game that features the game's 3d models and bios of all the characters read by Stan Lee himself. While I wasn't able to see Venom in in-game form, the game's Producer showed me a brief cutscene featuring Venom threatening Mary Jane's life from a huge jumbotron-like television screen in the middle of Times Square. Venom looked really good, with a huge fang-filled jaw and a long, evil tongue hanging out of his gaping mouth.

The game's Producer couldn't reveal any other details about the game's villains or the plot, but he assured me that fans of the comic book wouldn't be let down, as he's been a Spider Man fan for more than 20 years. With the work he and Neversoft have shown so far, I think we're in for a real treat.