Where's Randy Savage?

Spiderman may have movies that made millions at box office but all I remember about the dude in red and blue PJ's is that most of his games sucked. For example: has anyone ever played Spiderman Return of the Sinister Six before? Fortunately, that didn't happen because Spiderman 2 for the Xbox is not only one fine looking game but it's actually pretty fun to play here too. I'm as shocked as you are and once you see the huge virtual New York City and cool move at your disposal you'll be impressed too.

Yeah, there is a lot people that already know the story but here it is anyway to fill in the 3 of you to what the heck is going on here. In Spiderman 2 you play a conflicted super hero that can shoot webs and climbs walls with ease just like a real spider but his powers also means he must protect New York City from crime while balancing his normal life as College student Peter Parker. His problems get a whole lot worse when his idol Dr. Octopus goes insane after a failed scientific experiment. If Spiderman doesn't stop the mad Doctor he could destroy the entire city.

What makes Spiderman 2 so much better then the last game is that you have the entire virtual 3D city just like other popular sandbox titles like Grand Theft Auto or Crackdown. Imagine being able to explore a huge city while you can scale any building and swing away from or into danger with a simple press of a button. It's not only cool to have full control of the web swinging super hero here but the game gives you a lot to do as well.

So what can you do here you say? You can either go on various side quests in order to help citizens from local criminals or other crazy stuff like delivery pizzas so Peter doesn't get fired from his job. Doing these tasks helps Spidey get Hero Points these can be use to unlock new moves or you can just go on other more important missions so you can prevent a huge disaster from the evil mastermind Doc Oct himself.

All this sounds great but Spiderman 2 has its share of problems too. The big complaint I have is that the game is almost too big since it's way too easy to get lost or lose something just because this enemy or thing you have to track down may be up in a massive 50 story plus building and not the ground. Another problem is the main quest is only about 10 hours long so if doesn't take too long to finish the game.

Although the main game isn't too long, at least it looks pretty damn good. Spiderman himself is well animated and seeing him swing, jump, and fight around high rise buildings to busy streets is just awesome. It really helps separate it from other games on the market especially when you let Spidey fall 100 feet in the air straight to the ground just to see what happens heh heh. This game has a lot in common with the PS2 and GameCube versions but the Xbox edition is definitely the clear winner when it comes to graphics. The buildings have better detail (especially the windows) and the draw distance has been pushed back a bit so there is less things popping up out of nowhere.

Activision even got most of real actors from the movie reprising their famous roles again here in the game. That means Peter Parker is actually played by Tobey Maguire, the hot Mary Jane is played by Kirsten Dunst, and many more. The game even has Evil Dead star (and the French dude in the third film) Bruce Campbell doing the narrator voice that guide the players with the game's controls in beginning and he can be pretty funny too. It's a shame there is hardly any background music during most of the game but at least it kicks in on an important mission or pizza delivery.

OK, the game is a bit on the short side and the spidey sense radar can be a bit off at times too, still there is no denying Spiderman 2 is one impressive looking and playing game here. It not only controls well with two different modes for beginners or experts but the game has a lot of replay value since the game is so big. If you want to finally play a good Spiderman game or maybe you're like me and you wonder what a 3D Bionic Commando would look like then you have to check out Spiderman 2.

SPIDERMAN 2 overall rating: 78/100

For 1 player only
Rated (E) for Everyone
graphics: 9/10
sound: 7/10
gameplay: 8/10
replay: 8/10

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-StarSoldier1
(Ryan Genno) 2007