Spider-Man 3 (Xbox 360) Review
Posted by Chris McCarver on 05.22.2007
Could Chris Nolan hurry up and "Batman Begins" this franchise? PLEASE?!
Publisher: Activision
Developer: Treyarch
Platform: Xbox 360 (also available for Playstation 2, Playstation 3, PSP, Nintendo DS, Wii, PC, and Game Boy Advance)
ESRB Rating: T (animated blood, mild language, violence)
Release Date: May 4, 2007
Review by CHRIS McCARVER
I'm one of the few people who hasn't yet seen Spider-Man 3 on the big screen. Truth be told, I'm in an even larger minority who, despite the fact that I'm a huge Spidey fan, is pretty lukewarm on the entire franchise. I'll spare you any commentary as to my reasons why someone should just scrap it all and start over fresh, since we are here to discuss the video game. Activision and developer Treyarch did their level-best to knock it out of the park with their tie-in to the previous film, with a fully mapped-out Manhattan Island and lots of gameplay elements, even if the variety of those elements were a bit lacking. Let's now turn our attention to Treyarch's newest effort to see if the seams have been patched...
"C'mon, I know that Carl's Jr.'s around here somewhere..."
Graphics
I honestly didn't know if it were possible for Treyarch to come close to expanding the gameworld from the sheer scope of that in Spider-Man 2. Consider me happily wrong, because the city looks several shades bigger and better than the last game. The bright lights look brighter at night, the building textures are more detailed and look a lot less like just nicely Lightwaved boxes, and the daytime sun really plays off the reflective window glass.
Unfortunately, the cityscape is rife with pop-in glitches; cars and entire buildings seem to fade in out of thin air all too frequently. While the city looks impressive at night, the light beaming out of the buildings is almost too bright in places, enough to actually obscure your view while swinging through it.
Pete and Harry fight over who gets a cameo in the next SSX game.
Treyarch has also repeated one of the game's most glaring problems: namely the abysmally small level of variety in the people-on-the-street character models. And the character models, particularly in the cutscenes, are so horribly animated they look almost like PS1 graphics. Watching the CGI interpretations of Tobey Maguire and the gang was migraine-inducing due their stiffness and grotesque lip-synch animation.
One final slight nitpick here: the monospaced font they decided to use for the on-screen text? In the words of Blaine and Antoine (there's a dated reference)... "Hated it."
Gameplay
Much like the previous games, essentially you take on the role of beleaguered college student and photographer Peter Parker, who juggles saving the city as his arachnid alter-ego with work, school, and his lovelife with aspiring actress Mary Jane Watson, who only recently became aware of his dual identity at the end of the last movie (and game, naturally). Also like the previous games, the level structure is basically the plot of the movie with numerous side missions drawn from plot elements from the Spider-Man comics and out of the developers' own collective brainpans. Following a level in which game narrator (and movie franchise cameo three-peater) Bruce Campbell sarcastically talks you through the game's controls, you're given a (badly animated) cutscene detailing what to expect out of the game. Namely, that means dealing with the fact that Pete's best bud Harry Osborn is on a vengeance tear for the mistaken belief Pete killed off his supervillain dad and a black-Jell-O alien lifeform that's grafted itself to his superhero costume.
Oh, quit showing off.
While the controls don't differ greatly from the last game, Treyarch's added a few new wrinkles, particularly the revamped Spider-Sense. While Pete's inherent danger-alarm still allows him to dodge incoming attacks, you can now click an analog stick and go into a "Spider-Sense view" that drops the gamescape into black-and-white while highlighting enemies and hidden items and entrances. Web-slinging through the Big Apple is still as freeform and fun as it ever was, but sadly combat once again is largely reduced to button-jamming despite the fact the game offers a few combos and counterattacks as rewards for clearing missions. Thankfully, the missions aren't all about combat; a lot of them involve puzzle-solving and precision swinging, many of which involve timed-button minigames.
The mission structure is a lot like the previous game's, though the emphasis this time is more on the missions that on the random crimes that pop up during your swing-throughs (though thankfully, those damnable balloon-chases are gone). In fact, the random-crime element has been reduced a bit for this title, and the bit where citizens who need Spidey's help are clearly pointed out with icons has been utterly eliminated. The challenge of defeating these side missions is upped a bit since sometimes you have to locate exactly where the threat is, and it isn't made all that clear on the game's mini-map. What is an improvement about the side missions is that they're not there just for filler. Three gangs, the Apocalypse (Mad-Max wannabes), the Order of the Dragon Tail (Asian martial artists), and Arsenic Candy (Gothic Lolitas), are in the process of tearing the hell out of the city, and the game tracks your progress whenever you foil one of their nefarious plots, rewarding you with character upgrades for cleaning up the streets.
Now for the bad news. As in-depth as the core gameplay sounds, actually going fist-to-face with the various enemies is cripplingly imprecise and altogether a bit of a trial-and-error grind. The game's targeting system is very buggy, and Spidey's combo animations are so unforgivably unbreakable that you'll often get stuck in a combo fighting one guy while another foe whittles down your health bar. Another glaring problem is, as much as this game hyped itself in terms of being able to make use of Spider-Man's black costume, which upgrades his abilities, you have to basically blow an afternoon grinding through the game's missions before you even get to use the thing. Considering that the symbiote is seen grafting itself to Peter very early in the game, this oversight is nearly unforgivable consider how much the game's marketing had ridden on this gameplay feature.
"No, seriously, this works, I saw somebody do it at a Jiffy Lube!"
This game also has some of the cheapest boss characters ever. And not just the Spidey big-bads like the Lizard and the Kingpin, even the criminal-gang minibosses are a pain to fight, mainly since you can't even hope to take them out without making heavy use of the dodge-counterattack combos. Add to it useless side-missions like races, skydiving off skyscrapers, and the "MJ thrillrides" where you swing around with a giggly Mary Jane while she gives you directions and (I'm not kidding here) have to collect enough heart icons before hitting the finish line, and "mixed bag" doesn't begin to cover my opinion of this title.
Sound
Remember Spider-Man 2's audio? For that matter, remember Ultimate Spider-Man's? The streets of New York City were alive with abundant bystander audio, car horns, and ambient sound (even if the balloon girl got on my nerves more than once). Well, sorry to burst the bubble here, folks, but Spider-Man 3's New York is comatose. The background audio is severely reduced, and anyone who actually has spent time in New York (I admittedly haven't) will wonder why the city's so quiet.
Surprisingly, Spider-Man 3 has the largest assemblage of talent from the movie cast doing voice work for the game. Tobey Maguire (Spider-Man), Thomas Haden Church (Sandman), Topher Grace (Venom), J.K. Simmons (J. Jonah Jameson), and James Franco (voicing Harry Osborn for the first time in the game franchise) all make appearances here and all do a serviceable job. Depending on how one feels about Kirsten Dunst, her absence in the game is dissuaded quite a bit by the casting of voiceover powerhouse Kari Wahlgren (of "Samurai Champloo" and "Legion of Super-Heroes") as Mary Jane Watson; the MJ thrillride missions (which I still hated) weren't entirely that bad with Wahlgren subbing for Dunst.
Lasting Appeal
Spider-Man 3 has a sizeable amount of gameplay, what with the main story missions, the random-crime side missions, and skill-challenge sidequests. Unfortunately, with the game's inherently buggy controls and trial-and-error mission structure, whether gamers will actually want to play through this title is debatable. Add in the complete lack of Xbox Live support or multiplayer, and this title will be sure to be a shelf-sitter far before completion.
"No! No! Let me g... dude. Visible panty-line. Sick."
Fun Factor
I loved the last game. Despite the fact that the mission variety was a bit strained, it was a fun sandbox game and the story was much more enjoyable than the actual film on which it was based. Spider-Man 3 definitely took care of the mission variety problems, but by focusing on gameplay variety, things such as playability and actual fun get kicked into the corner. This game is little more than Spider-Man 2 with an additional mission pack and most of the ease of control stripped out, which heavily hampers its entertainment value.
The 411
As a major-league Spider-Man fan that has stuck by this character for a quarter-century (yeah, I'm old), this game was a sad kick in the spinnerets. While I applaud Treyarch for ramping things up in terms of giving us more missions and more gameplay options, the core gameplay is nowhere near as polished as its previous-gen predecessor, and saying that about any game is certifiably damning. I severely wanted to like this game, and it's sad that, like the previous movie and things going on in the Spider-Man comics, the developer of the Spider-Man 3 game seem to be doing everything they can to make me want to walk away from this character for good.
Graphics
7.0
Much more vibrant backgrounds than the last game, major pop-in issues, cutscene animation below average, background characters lack visual variety
Gameplay
6.5
Wider variety of missions than the last game, new features like the revamped Spider-Sense, new side missions nothing to write home about, combat mechanics are horribly basic and buggy, very cheap level bosses
Sound
6.5
More movie cast members than any game in the franchise and all do well in their VO, background noise in the city nearly nonexistent
Lasting Appeal
6.0
Lost of gameplay options, but the majority of them are less than overly enjoyable and somewhat frustrating, no online or multiplayer capability
Fun Factor
5.0
Disappointing on the whole, merely the last game with new features, new levels, and less handy of a control interface
