Spiderman: Web of Shadows (Xbox 360) Review

Posted by Natalie Shoemaker on 11.21.2008

Spiderman games have had a long history of being extremely mediocre, so will this latest addition exceed its predecessors? Or fall flat?



Title: Spiderman: Web of Shadows
Publisher: Activision
Developer: Shaba Games
Genre: Action
Players: 1
Rated: T for Teen

Spiderman walks solemnly toward the screen across the top of a building—Beethoven’s “Moonlight Sonata” plays softly in the background. The camera dollies out to show us the incoming plane crashing close to our hero. S.H.I.E.L.D and symbiotes clash. The chaos around him grows and he runs to the edge of the building and jumps.

And Web of Shadows begins.


Gameplay

The highlight of this game was the combat system. Players start out with basic skills in various combat types that are broken up into several groups: Wall, aerial, ground, special, and web. By taking out enemies, completing missions, and finding spider tokens to level up players can gain experience to beef-up their moves.

There is also a system of “choice” in this game. From the start Spiderman has access to the black suit. The more you use the black suit the “badder” you are. One can choose where they want to put their experience—the blue and red spidey-suit or the symbiote-suit.

While some might want to play as either good or evil it’s recommended to put some XP into both. The black Venom suit grants the power to lift cars and throw them at enemies as well as grabbing enemies from a significant distance, rounding them over your head, and slamming them to the ground. The regular suit allows players to web-sling from enemy to enemy avoiding being hit, but dealing out damage to multiple baddies.




Certain missions may be easier to complete with the black suit or the spidey suit, but that all depends on you.


The missions vary between side quests to gain XP that may require players to take-out 50 gang guys or ask a character about his/her history. The story missions are fairly repetitive using a formula: Check out the scene, take-out the bad guys, chase the main guy down, and beat him up. Even when the missions become expected and lose their flare the story adds color to lure players back in.

As the story progresses Spiderman gains more allies to help him out in times of need these characters include the Vulture, Wolverine, Moon Knight, and more.



Some noticeable issues with the game play were things like falling from any height without penalty and quick-time events. You’ll be beating up a boss and all of a sudden—quick press A, press B, now press A. If done wrong the animation starts from the beginning and may make you press a random button up to 5 time in order to determine if you’ve won a boss battle.


Sound

The soundtrack brings a nostalgic tone to the scenes it helps set. Familiar overtures from the movies and music helps warn when gangs are near.

Explosion noises are usually off by milliseconds and will go unnoticed if not mentioned (sorry). Sounds that go along with Spiderman’s actions are most likely attached to the animation that he is carrying out, so they can seem artificial.

The voice-acting department provides us with some gems. For instance the tantalizing “Black Cat” is played by non-other than Battlestar Galactica’s Tricia Helfer. The lead of Spiderman; however, is Resistance 2’s “Guy that plays Zombie # 3” and boy do you hear it! Put on the mute button and enable the subtitles, because listening to him whine is the worst anyone could do to their ears.


Graphics

Occasionally while Spiderman is web-slinging his way through the city the thought, “What is his web attaching to?” may cross the player’s mind. This point is a mystery, but at least Spidey isn’t web-slinging above the city itself like in the first Spiderman Movie game.

Otherwise the cut scenes are clean there are few frame-rate issues. Sadly, toward the end of the game loading scenes can get a bit clunky, but nothing to cause frustration.

The environment is fairly interactive. For example: When pounding a baddie to the ground near a shop or building the glass may break and fire hydrants explode. The only problem, the water is an animation only and can be walked through as if it wasn’t there.



Lasting Appeal
This game is good for one round of play and then ready for trade-in at your local game store. The only reason to keep it around might be to go through the game again as good or evil to see the different outcomes.

Otherwise there’s no multiplayer to give it any replay value and there’s nothing terribly unique about it to keep it on the shelf.


Fun Factor

The combat is engaging, but can be repetitive when the player figures out that the bag of moves you accumulate can essentially be boiled down to pressing the Y button. It’s not to say it isn’t a lot of fun, but it’s easy to get old.

The story is well done and feels like another episode in the Spiderman series.

Overall it keeps the attention for the first few hours, but gets a might tedious towards the middle with the same missions, battles, and bosses.


The 411

A bump up from its predecessors, Spiderman: Web of Shadows has broken free of its chains of mediocrity. It has set the precedent for improvement in the series of Spiderman games, but still has a ways to go before it reaches its full potential. This game is a good start towards a better future.

Graphics	7.0	Smooth, but towards the end there were small frame-rate issues
Gameplay	8.0	Awesome combat, engaging story
Sound	6.0	Soundtrack good, sound effects ok, voice acting by the secondary characters was good, but by Spiderman could have been better
Lasting Appeal	5.0	No reason to replay unless you want to go through it as good/evil
Fun Factor	6.0	Good fun, but at the end of the day may get a little tired of the repetition
Overall	6.5   [ Average ]

Screenshots
All 13 Spider-Man: Web of Shadows Screenshots