This game is dope but the camera angles can get anoying. I only got it cause it was25 bucks @ walmart
The Amazing Spider-Man Review
Game Emblems
The Good
The Bad
Better than most movie tie-ins, The Amazing Spider-Man is a fun, but predictably rough, game.
The Amazing Spider-Man is a fun and funny romp through a big, colorful city.
The Good
- It's a blast to swing about the city
- Clever, laid-back sense of humor
- Some boss fights look very exciting
- Nice mix of combat and stealth.
The Bad
- Indoor missions aren't as fun as outdoor ones
- Combat and boss fights are too easy.
In The Amazing Spider-Man, the webslinger dispenses quick wit almost as fast as he dispenses justice. More importantly, he gets room to show off his high-flying acrobatics with a freedom his last two outings were lacking. This time, Spidey has the whole of Manhattan as his playground. As you fling yourself above the city, swinging past skyscrapers and vaulting from towers, you get a dizzying sense of what it would be like to slip into the famous red and blue costume.
It's a joy when The Amazing Spider-Man thrusts you into this wide-open world. By holding down a single trigger, you propel webbing from your wrists, swinging in whichever direction you choose. Expectedly, you don't necessarily see the webbing attach to anything nearby, which is fine: the joyous locomotion is all in the name of fun. Yet the game does a great job of providing the illusion that the laws of physics still vaguely apply. When you swish through a park that isn't near tall buildings, you stay near the ground, practically brushing the grass underneath you. When surrounded by stately superstructures, you rise toward the heavens, from where you can look upon the entire city and admire its vibrancy.
Out here in the concrete wilds, The Amazing Spider-Man is at its best, simply because moving around is so much fun. Hundreds of collectible comic pages twinkle on rooftops and flutter in the air. They are simple but nice rewards for the act of locomotion. Come near a page, and you hear and see its telltale glimmer, and note the button prompt inviting you to fling toward it. These signs are enough to have you scanning the screen, searching for the elusive paper. But there's more to the game than webswinging, of course: most of the story-based missions take you off the streets and send you into the sewers and other such interiors. Out in Manhattan, most tasks are optional and involve picking up asylum escapees and returning them to their institution, beating up muggers, and so forth.
With a couple of exceptions, most of these tasks don't evolve in any way, and they become stale if you focus on them for too long. One minigame has you hovering a circle over Spidey as he flies through the air automatically; you're meant to keep him in view of the video camera that follows him. It isn't very challenging or fun, and in fact, on medium (Hero) difficulty, The Amazing Spider-Man is rarely challenging. Other tasks--rescuing sickly citizens and rushing them to a nearby makeshift hospital--are more enjoyable, in part because of the banter between Spider-Man and his poor passengers. ("No drooling on the suit, please!") But eventually, the voice samples repeat, and playing paramedic loses some of its appeal. Nevertheless, there are enough things to do that you'll be thrilled to have the chance to zoom through the air at top speed.
The missions that lead you through the story aren't as delightful as the open-world hijinks, though the story itself is as wonderfully absurd as any Spidey tale to come before it. The game begins (apparently) after the events of the upcoming The Amazing Spider-Man film, with a tour of the Oscorp facility, where the corporation is winding down some unusual experiments. Well, not everything is on the up-and-up, and soon a viral outbreak has the city in turmoil. Peter/Spider-Man's response? Break out an asylum inmate who holds the key to a cure. With so many variables, it's no wonder that Spidey's plans don't follow their intended script, though he stays pretty upbeat throughout. Spider-Man is as funny here as he's ever been, cracking wise in even the most stressful situations. The dialogue is a good mix of seriousness and ridiculousness, making it easy to stick with the plot even when it goes so far over the top it spills into bizarre territory.
Story-driven chapters are notably more confining than the free-form gameplay that surrounds them. You investigate dull-looking sewers, where you notice technical drawbacks like heavy aliasing that go overlooked in Manhattan, which is saturated with color and personality. In the indoor spaces, you confront hazards like steam valves (clog them up with your web shots!) and pools of acid (navigate around them!). You must take a more cautious approach, holding down a button to slow down time, choosing a proper perch, and then releasing the button to leap to that spot. You can tap the button should you prefer a more fluid pace, but you risk zipping into the wrong position if you aren't careful.
By
Kevin VanOrd, Senior Editor
Kevin VanOrd is a lifelong RPG lover and violin player. When he isn't busy building PCs and composing symphonies, he watches American Dad reruns with his fat cat, Ollie.
141 comments
I think we need Iron Man, Spider-Man, Hulk games just like Batman Arkham Asylum-City. Oh man it would be great !!! I wish web swinging was more realistic and optimization was better in Amazing Spider-Man, still good though.
1 Like hmmmm. i have to say spiderman2 for gamecube was surprisingly fun for me. The missions were lame. But running around the city after being fully upgraded was such a blast. This looks like it could be just as fun, but the fact that your webs dont actually attache to buildings like they did in spiderman 2 worries me a bit. Swinging around in the game was just.... so much fun. I dont see how it can still be with the change.
this is the best spidey game yet... not close enough to batman arkham city or asylum but a decent game at last for spidey...
@brainlord A LOT of Spidey games are better than this one: Web of Shadows, Ultimate Spider-Man, Shatered Dimensions, Spider-Man 2, Spider-Man (2000).....
All of them are better.
Bottom line:
If you want to play the role of a superhero, go for Batman arkham games nothing will ever beat em
1 Like not even close to our friendly neighborhood spiderman. badly ported to PC, the combat system is a cheap rip off. dull city not colorful at all. spiderman movements feel artificial and not fluid.
After playing Batman Arkham Asylum and Arkham City, my expectations have been increased. This game is really good for spider-man fans, but it didn't impress me. Just one question, why spider-man just throws web to the empty air and how does he swing with that way ? I think he uses clouds to swing, right ? lol
BEST SPIDEY GAME EVER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I enjoyed the hell out of this game. I felt like the next generation "Web of Shadows", which is a Spiderman game I loved.
3 Like Beeonox: "why does everyone hold Spiderman 2 in such high regard? OH WAIT, THE OPEN WORLD!"
That's part of it Beenox, but not quite. The reason why I love spiderman 2 so much is because you FELT like you were doing everything that Spiderman was doing just a minute ago in the cutscenes. You could control how high you jumped, the arch of your swing, how many webs you shot out, how high you jumped off a web, slide along a building and leap off, sprint and dive off a building, and spin 2 webs and use them to slingshot yourself! (and that's not even everything!). This new game dumbs everything down and just makes it look prettier, and that's why this game fails. If I wanted to watch Spiderman swing around, I'd go watch the freaking movie.
Question: Just got a 360 ( the 1st system I've owned since the original Nintendo..) and I'm wondering if I should get this or the older, Spiderman: Web of Shadows. That seemed to get better reviews.
@DCUnionGuy Both are good games. But Web of Shadows feels a bit dated now. But, if you can get it on the cheap it's worth it for the storyline. The newer one is fun for the story as well, but the stealth and web-zipping action is what makes it a blast.
1 Like Yikes. Maybe I'm just too hard on games. Or maybe my expectations were too high. Either way... I just wasn't impressed. I feel bad about it... but I'm just not enjoying this game as much as everyone else. I wanted to...
SERIOUSLY. 7.5??? Where is the game that these people are playing? Ugh. Wish I'd saved my money. Check out my thoughts before you buy this one: http://www.media-feed.com/amazing-spiderman-game-review/
1 Like I absolutely love this game, best spiderman game since spiderman 2, free roam elements are great and i like that it is not the movies story line rather the after story of the movie. My score, 8.5.
1 Like I think this is a fair and balanced review.
I have not quite finished the game yet, but I've played 10 hours so far, and while I'd be tempted to give the game an 8, it's really splitting hairs a bit. I
The game is a lot of fun, especially the web-slinging parts outdoors and it's extremely stylish overall, but the boss fights (or the boss fights I've had) have been mostly anticlimactic and too easy.
No justice was done to poor Rhino at all, imo.
But still, I think the core elements are in place for Beenox to really do something great with a sequel. This is much more in line with what a Spider-Man game should be than the previous two releases.
1 Like I guess all movie games are like this, being balanced rated. Even if i havent play it but kevins Review saz it all. This Game Deserves an 8.5, Period :)
I don't get it: it says right there that 7.5 translates to "Good". How can some complain that 7 is too low, when this game obviously isn't anything near GOTY material? Pretty good, but not even that great. Lack of negative points doesn't mean a game is perfect or even great.
Like some have said there still aren't that much improvements. I can't believe Spiderman 2 is almost 10 year old game and very little has changed. How hard it actually is to do a proper Spiderman simulation with a living NYC GTAIV style, all the major villains (the robots are just boring) and actually good gameplay that doesn't just rely on fun webswinging?
Oh right but Activision doesn't want to go the extra mile. The game has to be cheap to make and leave a lot to improve for the future, so they can improve babysteps or kill the series midway. Atleast it's a huge comeback after the EoT disaster.
2 Like I agree with what quite a few are saying here: That the small negatives portrayed in the review don't really seem like enough to warrant knocking it down to 7.5.
Well it isn't "as expected" that the webs wouldn't cling to any visible structure cause in that Ultimate Spiderman game of years back, you couldn't shoot your webs to swing if there wast a building near to swing from. They should have kept that. It worked fine. I'm still annoyed that Activision started with a fine Spiderman game concept nearly ten years ago and never really improved on it much other than graphically like they should have. If they did instead of getting he expected 7 or 7.5, their spiderman games would get a 9.
Even though you cant see where the web attaches just like the review said the game does an excellent job at making it believeable. Even though all you have to do is hold the button down to swing, if you are in an open area or you are higher in the air than any of the rooftops spiderman will just go into a dive until there is a structure close enough to swing from still making it feel like it is latched on to something even though you cant see it. That and the new webrush (takes a little getting used to) changes things up pretty nicely and collecting those comic pages is addictive. I found myself swinging around just to find them and I still had plenty of the story to play.
Needless to say i like this comeback for spidey.
1 Like I really don't get how those 2 minor 'niggles' justify a score of 7.5
At least an 8 or 8.5 should be awarded... if a repetitive game like Web of Shadows managed to get an 8.5, I don't understand why a genuinely good Spidey game shouldn't get a higher score. Many people go ahead with purchases after viewing these reviews, and I really think ASM deserves a lot of profit so they can polish up the possible sequel game.
Like I said, these minor 'niggles' can easily be looked past: if it's too easy, bump up the difficulty to 'Superhero' - if you don't like the indoor levels, just go around swinging outside and do side missions... it really isn't that big of an issue to pull this good game down to a 7.5
I agree the game could have been an easy 8 for me. Spider man looks bad ass with the more realistic and less comic design.
I'd also like to add how the positives of this game surely outweight the smaller issues: the new combat is pretty damn fun (although could be a bit repetitive until you unlock all the different moves), the boss fights are genuinely fun (e.g. that huge Spider reaper thing just gave a hugh sense of what it feels like to be Spidey, with this huge vertigo effect and endless destruction around him), the voice acting is actually good (*cough*WebOfShadows*cough*), DLC is pretty cool (how come they never though of introducing Stan Lee as a playable character in previous games?), graphics are really good (especially for a Spidey game). There's a lot of good stuff going for this and it just bugs me (no pun intended) that this game is generally receiving above average reviews and not the 'great' reviews it deserves for being a polished experience.
1 Like I just bought this yesterday and have enjoyed it so far :) Granted the last Spiderman game I played in depth was "Spiderman" for Playstation 1. lol
so not just a movie tie?
and and the Dev. took lessons for Batman if i rad all of this right,mmm may have to check this out.
Pretty big spidey fan but not real excited about the coming movie,so was not too excited for the game but may give it a chance now
I THINK IT WAS BETTER TO GIVE 8 TO THIS GAME BECAUSE
"Indoor missions aren't as fun as outdoor ones Combat and boss fights are too easy."AND WEBBING SOURCE PLACE IN SCENE
PROBLEMS ARE NOT TOO BIG ISSUES!!!!!!!!!
i think it is better than batman arkham series in some aspects and in some not like:
1-experiencing colorful scenes and city (not black and so much dark theme colors) in day
2-webing is so much fun even when it comes to compete with grappling that we can use it in specific edges(specially in asylum but it got better not completely in arkham city)
3-combat is batman like but spidy animation is more like catwoman not batman because he is not as muscular as bruce
4-side missions is far far away better in batman arkham city
5- this is the most exciting spidy of all time
i still doesnt play it does it have comic books guys like batman or not and if it have how many of them would become manifest.
2 Like Well I'll be damned! The game doesn't suck! :D
Me being a huge Spidey fan, this is very good news indeed!
I prefer the style of boss fights in Amazing Spider-Man over Arkham City, where in most boss fights Batman is forced to abandon the awesome hand-to-hand combat mechanics and turn into a wuss who runs around and has to rely on the environment to do the damage for him.
@Ishiban Agreed. Except when he reviews Kinect-based games, but hey, that's the exception that proves the rule. ;) Usually I get any RPG Kevin deems as 'good' or better, for example, and so far I've been pleased. Keep up the good work, Mr. VanOrd!
3 Like Kevin is the best reviewer ive found in a long time,very fair and seems to hit it just right in his good vs bad judgement.Great review pretty much bang on from my point of view.
1 Like http://thisgengamereviews.blogspot.com/2012/06/amazing-spiderman-video-game-review-is_27.html
My review if you would like to read.
1 Like Good review i think you covered everything pretty well and highlighted the plus and negatives,my only criticism is in my opinion 8.5 is a little generious 7.5-8.0 for me,but hay what do i know lol ;).
Conversation powered by Livefyre
The Amazing Spider-Man
Not Following
- Publisher(s): Activision
- Developer(s): Beenox
- Genre: Action
- Release:
- ESRB: T
The Amazing Spider-Man Navigation
