Spider-Man The Movie

I got this game for free, and was not expecting much from it. Amazingly, I was pleasantly surprised.

Storyline
I was really worried about this part of the game. Although I like comic books, and enjoyed Spider-Man the movie in particular, I was concerned that the game would completely follow the movie’s story line and would quickly become tedious. However, that is not at all the case. Although the storyline from the movie is there, it is intertwined with other stories, making the game more detailed with many more villains for you to fight and at times, even allies. For those familiar with the comics, you get to see characters like the Vulture, Kraven the Hunter, Shocker, and Scorpion. A little FYI, the Kraven levels are X-Box exclusive, so don’t expect to find this part of the game on a different platform.

Graphics
The graphics look good most of the time. The environments look decent and the characters motions during fights are mostly fluid. The camera is usually fairly decent as well, although there have been a few times where bad guys would come out of nowhere because of a bad angle while the camera controls for some reason won’t let you change it. The fact that after you defeat an enemy or break an object it will eventually disappear instead of pile on is a bit disappointing as well. However, I would say that although they aren’t great, the graphics are good enough to get the job done and stay interesting enough to keep you playing some more. Most of the villains are drawn fairly well, and the levels and shadows are decently done.

Gameplay
The game play is great. There is a variety of missions, including plain fighting, sneaking around (although nothing really happens if you get caught other than the fact that you might have to fight a few more bad guys). You also get to do swing over the tops of skyscrapers doing different missions, which vary from fighting air-borne enemies, chasing villains between narrow buildings, or swinging through the city to disarm bombs. The levels are fairly good since most of the levels are challenging but not enough to where they are impossible to beat. So far I have only got hung up on one level. As far as the fighting part of the game goes, you get a variety of moves that you can use against your opponents. These vary from shooting web at them, to hiding behind a ball of web, to jumping on your opponents' shoulders and flipping them.

Sound
Nothing much to say about the sound. Although I had no complaints with the acting, it was nothing miraculous. Some of the voice acting was done by the original actors, including William Dafoe doing Green Goblin. The music could definitely be better, since it is just generic video game sounds instead of getting some good bands to make a soundtrack for the game.

Overall
This game is fairly decent overall. Although it has its downfalls, the game somehow still manages to be fun most of the time. It allows you to go beyond the movie of Spider-Man and find out more about the story-line. The game permits you to do that and even manages to be somewhat entertaining for people that aren’t into comics.