A pretty good Spidey game, but wears out its welcome fast
Gameplay
Well, the gameplay does have its merits. Not having played a Spider-Man game since the the PS ones, I was impressed by the swinging mechanic. A little glitchy and annoying, but I ended up believing the hype over why it seemed to be the game's selling point. Problem arises when you get bored of webswinging. There is NOTHING TO DO. Maybe I'm spoiled by other sandboxes like GTA, but not being able to take out frustrations on an innocent bystander or car, even in Black Suit, was a large disappointment. Ok, so its Spider-Man, and that would be a brainless addition, but races and impossible skydiving challenges just aren't fun.
The fighting was pretty cool as well, what with the finishers and humorously-named combos (Roflcopter, I kid you not). Basically, the game seems to have pushed the limits for three combat buttons (X, Y, B), making them as interesting as possible, so no complaints about that. In fact, the combos can be pretty helpful in given situations, so you won't find yourself wearing out your X button. For example, there's a move where you web up a single enemy and lay the smackdown on him in mid-air before shifting to another guy. In a situation with a roomful of enemies with no reliable projectiles (Lizards, shall we say?), its worth it to learn this trick. The quicktime events are interesting yet annoying at the same time, but it supposedly adds to the spider reflexes effect, so i can roll with that.
However, the combat gets boring about 5 hours in. You'll get used to the combo-ing, and beating up guys starts becoming a routine. Sure, each type of enemy has a somewhat different way of attacking, but you'll have pretty much seen them all by then. Bossfights are just quicktime events strung with button mashing, so satisfaction wears thin. One very annoying factor with the combo-ing is that Spidey peppers his attacks with stupid little acrobatics, so don't count on following his movements to combo, best count your button pressing (i.e. X, X, X, X, Y, Y)
Hit detection is TERRIBLE. From the start, you'll be facing small enemies, no big deal. Then when the minibosses come in, crap hits the fan. You'll find yourself missing your hits, mostly phasing through the miniboss at hand. Only super moves and Black Suit rage seem to work on them (both of which take time to charge). By then you'll be screwed over (Especially in the Dragon Tail missions and while fighting Kraven). All in all for gameplay, I can't say its not innovative, but the constant stream of repeated fights limit any further potential.
Storyline
WTF, is all i can say. Spider-Man has always been noted for its good writing, but this game was a letdown in this facet. A good writer would have focused on the movie plot (It is a movie game) with little bits that actually connect. What we have here is just a villain pile-up. They seem to be in there for nothing more than to make the game more than 2 hours long. From the eyes of a game, Spider-Man 3 was a movie focusing more on bossfights and a love story, as opposed to say, the upcoming Wolverine where he beats the hell out of everything that moves. No prizes for guessing which would make a better game. Anyway, the game throws in random villains just to extend gameplay. The least they could have done was throw in other heroes as NPCs, would've made better fanservice. All in all, the story bit is tripe, although I didn't expect much from a game based on a plot like Spidey 3.
Sound
Pretty good, but forgettable. The music works well, but can never be a selling point. Ironically, voice acting from non-movie characters shines through, while canon characters "epic phailz", especially Toby "Ritalin" Maguire. Bruce Campbell seemed like a nice addition as the narrator, but as the story wore on, he sounded more and more like a douchebag, not the chainsaw-handed badass we all know and love.
Graphics
Better part of the game. Nice New York environment, good detail on the buildings and such. In HD, you will enjoy how it makes the web-swinging more fun. However, when you take time to zoom in:
http://www.gamespot.com/pages/image_viewer/frame_lead.php?pid=932030&img=12&popup=1
Peter Parker = Martian. 'Nuff said
Overall
This game was pretty fun for a while. Had some moments, some fun with it. Eventually though, I got so pissed off with the crappy hit-detection and random plots that I just left the game and now its sitting on my shelf. The achievements are a drag btw, so if you're a gamerscore-whore, go pick up like avatar, or fight night. Spider-Fans can probably get Web of Shadows for their fix, but take this game as a bargain-bin deal that tighter budgeted fans (like me) can amuse themselves with for a while.