Publisher: Activision
Developer: Treyarch/Shaba Games
Multiplayer: No
Online Multiplayer: No
Review by Predat0r + Wrecker
Everyone’s favourite ‘web-slinger’ swings back to the Wii with the release of Spider-Man: Web Of Shadows. It is the latest installment in the Spider-Man franchise on the Wii, which already includes the movie themed ‘Spider-Man 3’ and comic based ‘Spider-Man: Friend Or Foe’ games. Spider-Man: Web Of Shadows again revisits Spidey’s traditional comic book origins.
Gameplay: 7.0
The back-story of Spider-Man: Web Of Shadows draws from the myriad of heroes and villains in the ‘Marvel Comics universe’ and centres around Spider-Man’s arch enemy – Venom. The game begins with Spider-Man locked in battle with Venom, whose alien symbiote goo has again consumed Eddie Brock. Venom escapes but not before part of the alien symbiote infects Spider-Man and as we later discover, most of the city. Spidey enlists the help of other Marvel heroes (including Wolverine and Iron Man), to battle Venom and various other villains in order to cleanse the city of the alien infections.
One key feature of the game is that due to Venom’s symbiote, Spider-Man can act on his good instincts or the evil instincts of the alien infection. At various plot points in the game you can choose which path you wish to follow which in turn leads to alternate game endings.
The game follows previous Spider-Man games with a 3D rendering of Spider-Man’s native New York City. The game play is ‘story-based’ and you complete missions in a relatively linear manner, but there are also some elements of sand-box style play (like the Grand Theft Auto series) where Spider-man can freely explore the city.
The controls involve moving Spider-Man with the nunchuck control stick, jumping with the ‘A’ button and attacking with the ‘B’ button. Flicking the Wii remote forward will fire Spidey’s classic web enabling him to swing through the city, and other buttons such as ‘C’ and ‘Z’ allow variations on the webs that are fired.
First impressions of the Wii motion controls are mixed. Swinging the Wii remote to fire webs feels quite natural, however the controls for targeting enemies and switching suits (from spider-man to symbiote suit) which involves flicking the nunchuck down or side to side respectively, can be infuriating; the nunchuck controls often result in you switching suits (changing Spidey’s speed and strength) when you are trying to target enemies and vice-versa. Another strange addition to the game is the requirement to initiate gesture based controls to progress through some cut scenes, which is pointless and feels ‘tacked on’ to the Wii version of the game.
The gameplay feels a bit ‘clunky’ at first. The introductory cut-scene is rather confusing, the in-game maps and menus are somewhat difficult to navigate and the camera following the action is often quite erratic. Once you get over this initial confusion, the game comes together quite well. The current objective is displayed at the bottom of the screen along with a ‘radar’ which guides you through the in-game training and subsequent story ‘missions’.
Spider-Man: Web Of Shadows borrows from other recent Spider-Man games and features game dynamics which are quite unique and interesting. You can stick enemies together or fire webs to pull them toward you, fight on walls, jump on (and throw) cars, as well as execute trademark spider-man acrobatics.
What really saves the game however, is the often engaging plot which is reminiscent of a comic book, which contains good dialog and humor and features a plethora of Marvel character cameo’s.
Graphics: 7.0
While the Spider-Man comic books feature bright and often over exaggerated color, the graphics in Spider-Man: Web Of Shadows are quite dull in comparison. The New York City buildings and parks are plain, lack detail and are ‘washed-out’. Spidey’s home town is clearly in need of a new paint job from ‘de Blob’.
Another obvious issue with the game’s graphics is the framerate. The game struggles to keep a smooth framerate, a problem that starts with the jerky introductory cutscenes and never really disappears. The framerate also detracts from one of the games more impressive graphical features – the character animations. The animations in the game are quite clever, and the interaction between the characters and the city environment is impressive - Spidey can stick to buildings, dive off rooftops, flip off walls and execute graceful backflips between web swings – that is until the onscreen action become too congested and the framerate starts to drop.
On the positive side, the draw distance is actually quite good for a Wii game and Spider-Man can survey the city from one side to another from the top of a skyscraper. The explosions and smoke effects also are reasonably good and the landscape is more interactive than previous games in the series with explosions damaging buildings, cars and people.
Sound: 7.5
Sound is also an important feature of a ‘comic book inspired game’ and Spiderman: Web Of Shadows delivers a satisfactory performance. There is a well executed ‘cinematic style’ musical score which is almost always present during the action.
Unfortunately, much like the ‘washed out’ colour, the ambient sounds of New York City are somewhat lacking. There is an ‘open air’ feel to the sound, but for a city of 8 million people, it sounds almost lifeless – there are next to no traffic sounds (let alone sirens) or industrial noise, and the few injured people on the streets use the same repetitive effects (which curiously resemble the trademark ‘ARRRR!’ of a pirate).
Spidey’s sounds (and his enemies) are a little better with quite good effects during battles and for explosions. The web shooting and swinging noises are also good and also make use of the Wii remote to duplicate the effects.
The standout feature in this game in terms of sound is the voice acting – it is actually very good! The characters are true to form, sound believable and actually deliver a few mildly amusing jokes.
Difficulty: 7.5
The controls in the game can be difficult as they are often a bit confusing, which is partly due to poor decisions with using motion controls where a simple button press would have sufficed.
The gameplay often requires a quick succession of flicks of the Wii mote and is quite unforgiving, requiring the player to repeat a game sequence (often over and over again). This does balance out due to the fact that Spider-Man’s health is constantly rejuvenating and it is actually quite easy to stay ‘alive’.
The maps and in-game menus are definitely not intuitive and take a while to work out – especially for younger players. This also means that Spidey’s next destination can be hard to find, even if it is close by.
In short this is a game that is quite easy to pick up and play but it can be difficult to master.
Value: 7.5
Spider-Man: Web Of Shadows will definitely hold its value with comic book fans. It has back-stories of popular (and not-so-popular) heroes and villains and with the success of Iron Man and the up-coming 'Avengers' films it can be a good way for fans to brush up on their Marvel character knowledge.
Like similar ‘sandbox’ style games, there is a large playing area to explore. There are ‘side missions’ to complete and experience points gained from these can be used to upgrade Spider-Man’s moves and suits. There are also ‘spider tokens’ hidden around the city which help in upgrading your health and swinging abilities.
There is some replay value here, especially for the die-hard fans, as once you complete the game you may want to go back and see how the story pans out if you take a different path.
While it can be easy to get drawn into the game by randomly swinging around the city and the game can take a while to complete, much of the action can also be frustratingly repetitive.
Overall: 7.3
Will your spider-senses tell you to buy Spider-Man: Web of Shadows? If you are a diehard comic book fan then they will be tingling, otherwise you might find the controls and dull visuals unpalatable. With a gamestyle similar to ‘Grand Theft Auto’, fans of that series will also find that their expectations are left well short – don’t expect anywhere near the same level of emersion and atmosphere.
It is disappointing that the graphics style of previous Spider-Man games (notably the very similar ‘Ultimate Spider-Man’ on PC) was not repeated in this game. The developers could have capitalized of the Wii’s relative lack of horse power by using such simple (but creative) cell shaded cut scenes and basic graphic colours and styles, which also could have provided a more friendly frame rate.
While not without its issues, Spider-Man: Web Of Shadows features a good story, many interesting characters and some great voice acting. The game can be quite hard to stop playing once you get started and fans should note that this is the better of the Spider-Man games currently available on the Wii.