Pros:
- Web-swinging through the city is a total rush
- Tons of cool combat moves
- Up-to-scale Manhattan that's a joy to explore
- City looks great
Cons:
- Limited variety of side missions
- Camera can be a pain, particularly when indoors
- Ho-hum audio
- Nasty character models
While playing Spider-Man 2, one is tempted to simply ignore the actual gameplay elements and simply explore Manhattan, web-swinging hundreds of feet above the ground and hopping across rooftops. During one such playthrough, I took off at full speed towards the highest building in the city. After climbing to the top of the Empire State Building, I proceeded to jump off and then shoot a web at the last possible second, narrowly avoiding certain death.
The freedom to just ignore everything and treat Manhattan as your personal playground is undeniably the main attraction in Spider-Man 2, and the thing that'll keep aspiring web-heads coming back for more even as the street crimes that make up the bulk of the actual gameplay become trite. No game before or since has better conveyed the feeling of being the wall-crawling hero, swinging through New York answering the calls of citizens in distress.
It helps that the new web-swinging model has been refined to better reflect how it would work in real-life. In previous games, Spidey's would shoot webs would be connected to thin air, essentially turning web-swinging into a pseudo-flight model. Here, webs would connect to a nearby building as an anchor. No buildings, no swinging. There's an easy mode in place, but it's worth taking the time to learn the more complex model, since it's easily the highlight of the game. Swinging through New York at breakneck speeds does take some getting used to, as it is easy to bump into buildings and lose momentum, but once you manage to get into a groove, you'll find that swinging above and in-between the streets of Manhattan much like in the films is an unmitigated thrill that never gets old - even if the content that makes up the actual meat of the game isn't always as compelling.
The story, as you'd probably expect, loosely follows that of the second film, with Spidey going up against his idol-turned-nemesis, Doctor Octopus. Of course, the game adds elements that weren't present in the original, in the form of villains Shocker, Rhino and Mysterio. It doesn't make for a very cohesive story, and even the scenes that do stick to the film fail to hit the same emotional beats, doing the bare minimum to introduce the characters and set up action scenes. It doesn't help that the in-engine cutscenes just aren't up to snuff visually, with ugly character models that don't look any better than the ones from the first movie game. Mary Jane in particular seems to have taken the biggest hit; she looks as though Kirsten Dunst had gotten plastic surgery.
The story is split into chapters, which are completed both through completing story sequences and earning 'hero points,' which are used to purchase upgrades at stores scattered around the city. Earning these points typically has Spidey walking up to citizens who have question marks over their heads, who will tell him of a crime taking place or someone who needs rescuing.
The problem is that there just isn't a whole lot of variety to these missions. Most of the time you'll be tasked with stopping a police shotout, stopping a speeding car, taking someone to the hospital, rescuing someone from falling, or just fighting your way out of an ambush. None of them are particularly exciting (especially the ones that task you with getting a child's balloon - great use of a hero's time!), and when you take into account the fact that you'll essentially have to do them over and over just to progress, it becomes obvious they're only there to artificially lengthen the game. Beyond these somewhat uneventful crimes, you can also partake in races, as well as pizza delivery missions which are entertaining mostly for the hilarious Italian music which plays in the background. But since you'll be doing plenty of web-swinging anyway, even these start to get old after a while.
Spider-Man 2's saving grace lies with its combat. Early encounters are simple affairs of mashing the attack button and dodging when Spider-Man's head flashes, but you can purchase new moves that add variety to what initially seems like a fairly rudimentary button-masher. Granted, the enemy AI doesn't really encourage a great deal of creativity. While there are those who are at least competent enough to block attacks, they all have a weakness to a specific web attack. What's more, the ones armed with guns won't seem to notice or care when their buddies are in the line of fire, making for some pretty cheap exploits. That said, the combat can still be decently challenging due to the sheer number of enemies you're often up against. These encounters encourage you to rely on the ever-growing repertoire of cool-looking moves, and the sheer number of ways to dispose of enemies keeps the combat interesting over the course of the game. A particular favorite of mine is the web rodeo, where Spidey swings his foe around like a lasso, which is as hilarious and addictive as it sounds. There's also Spidey Reflexes, which is basically just a bullet time mode, but you'll probably never have to use it.
When you're not on the streets stopping your hundredth shootout or webing up your upteenth thug, you'll be completing the story-specific missions. Thankfully, these are far more interesting than the repetitive crimes on the street. One mission has you completing an obstacle course to prove yourself a legit hero, while another, much sillier mission has you fending off an alien invasion before confronting the leader in a fun house. Not all of the story missions are as enjoyable. The sequences with seductive thief Black Cat typically consist of unexciting chase sequences, while the boss fights, while competently designed, strangely aren't as much fun as beating up ordinary thugs, simply because most of your hard-earned moves just aren't much use against them. Furthermore, the camera continues to be a blight on the simple fun of movement. It's not so bad outdoors, but when you find yourself in one of the game's indoor missions, which thankfully aren't near as prevalent as they were in the last movie tie-in, it'll often bump up against objects like walls or shift to a confusing angle when you're stuck to walls and ceilings. The final level suffers the most from these problems, featuring an annoying insta-fail pool of water that's difficult to avoid while wrestling with the camera, followed by a rather anti-climactic final boss.
Graphically, Spider-Man 2 is a game of highs and lows. From a technical standpoint, it looks great. The city in particular is an impressive achievement: the buildings are all nicely detailed, the streets are jam-packed with cars and pedestrians, and the draw distance allows you to get a good look at the New York skyline from just about anywhere in the game. Furthermore, the framerate is rock solid, allowing you to enjoy the whoosh of web-swinging without ever having to worry about slowing down, and it holds up even when lots of enemies are crowding the screen. From an artistic standpoint, however, the graphics underwhelm. I've already mentioned the ugliness of the cutscenes, but even worse are the character models for the random citizens you'll be speaking to. All of them are low-poly schmoes with claw-like appendages and expressionless faces that don't even move when they talk, much like something from a PS1 game. At least Spidey himself looks great and has incredibly fluid animation, as do the other main characters like Doc Ock and Black Cat. There's some texture pop-in here and there, but it's nothing particularly egregious. Overall, it's not the most stunning looking game out there, but when you're swinging at breakneck speeds and admiring all the great-looking scenery, nothing else seems to matter.
Less impressive is the game's audio. The major problem is that there just isn't enough of it. New York city is strangely silent, with Danny Elfman's fantastic score from the film only occasionally playing while you swing through the city. There's also a strange lack of the ambient noise you'd expect to hear in the city that never sleeps. Most of the time, the only voices you'll hear are the citizens crying out for help, which gets old pretty fast. As for the regular voice acting, it's fairly unimpressive. True, they brought in some of the movie's actors like Tobey Maguire, Alfred Molina and Kirsten Dunst, but while this does provide a layer of authenticity, they don't sound like they're particularly enthused with their roles. Likewise, the citizens you'll speak to all sound pretty bad, and the stand-ins do a rather poor job of matching their movie counterparts, with J Jonah Jameson being the biggest offender in this regard. The sole bright spot is Black Cat, with Holly Fields nailing her seductive, devil-may-care spirit, but one bright spot isn't enough to salvage what is otherwise a fairly unimpressive effort in regards to sound.
Even with its visual and aural gaffes, Spider-Man 2 is easily the wall crawler's most impressive foray into gaming yet. No game before or since has better conveyed the rush of swinging above the crowded streets of New York, and the thrill of tearing through the skyline and discovering all of Manhattan's hidden goodies and challenges will keep players coming back well after they finish the roughly 10-hour campaign. Well done, Spidey; you've spun a great big web of quality gaming.
Gameplay: 8
Graphics: 7
Sound: 6
Value: 8
Overall: 8/10