Spidey on My PC!!!

When I was a kid, I used to watch the Spider-Man and Friends cartoons every Saturday. Spidey was, and still is, my favourite super hero. One reason I liked him so much is that his alter ego, Peter Parker, was a nerd who loved science and books more than dancing or sports, just like me. I could identify with the teasing he got from his classmates and his frustration with liking girls but never having the nerve to ask them out. I used to wish I had an alter ego that was powerful and could do cool things like Spider-Man could. I also liked the way he cared about his family and had a real job and a real life out side of being a super hero.

When I saw that they had come out with a Spider-Man game for Playstation, I thought "I sure hope it comes out for the PC". Then when I, quite by accident, found the PC version a few days ago, I was plesantly surprised.

In this review, I will share my opinion of the new Spider-Man (PC version) from Activision. As I haven't owned a game console since I had an Atari as a kid, I haven't played any of the earlier Spider-Man games so in this review, I will compare this game to other somewhat similar PC games such as Indiana Jones and the Infernal Machine, Tomb Raider the Last Revelation, and Die by the Sword in regards to graphics, sound, game-play, story, and over-all quality.

The graphics in Spider-Man are very good, even by today's high standards. They made the wise decision to make Spidey's world look animated like a Saturday Morning Cartoon which solved one of the biggest challenges in makeing a 3-D game, makeing characters and backgrounds look "real" instead of like they are made out of legos. Spidey's almost seamless, smooth, and fluid body is a big improvement over the much-vaunted "smooth skin" technology in Tomb Raider and is far superior to the character animation in Indiana Jones and Die by the Sword. The characters' movements are also very fluid, quick, and convincing. They are even better than the arcade fighting games I've seen such as Mortal Combat and the Marvel Superheroes game. The backgrounds are also well done with a lot of detail and, best of all, they don't have little "artifacts" like seams or missing pixels and they don't let the characters poke through walls like the backgrounds do in Tomb Raider, Indy, and most other third-person action games I've played.

The sound is simply amazing. Spidey's punches, kicks, even his running, sound powerful and just like in the cartoons. The voice acting is also reminicent of the cartoons and is above average for a computer game. I love the opening voice-over from Stan Lee. If Stan liked the game well enough to play a part in makeing it, it must be really good. Other sounds such as breaking glass, gun shots, and background city noise are very realistic. The music is very cool, but a bit repetative. One may recognize the opening song from the newest season of the Spiderman cartoons.

The gameplay is a bit more complicated that just running around and shooting things. There is even more variety in what you can do than there was in Tomb Raider or Indy. I could tell that Treyarch was involved with the development as the feel of the movement and independantly controlled weapons are similar to yet better than, their previous game Die by the Sword. I love the way that Spidey can attack from any direction with out a lot of complicated button pushing. This style lends itself well to using a game pad (probably a result of being originally designed for a game console) and I am glad they didn't change it for the PC version. The controls for Tomb Raider, by comparison, are clumsy making it difficult to pull off cool combination moves like jumping and kicking. There are two added elements to this game that make it unique: web slinging, and wall-crawling. The fun of being able to leap and crawl anywhere you want plus being able to use web fluid on your enemies in many different ways, just like Spidey can makes buying this game worth the very reasonable price (only $30) alone. I highly recommend practicing in the training areas as they are fun, and the new things you can do take some getting used to.

The story is worthy of Stan Lee and Steve Ditko themselves. Just like in a movie review, I won't reveal it as it will spoil the surprises. The way they play out the story with comic book covers followed by cool animated cut scenes that blend seamlessly into the game-play is really amazing.

The overall quality of the game is very high. One can tell that a lot of thought and effort was put into the whole thing by people who are real Spidey fans. Even the game manual (yes, it actually has one in print that you can look at while the game is playing just like the old days) is interesting to read. The game also has extras like storyboards, character bios, and hidden comics that tell the history of Spider Man. They even realized that not all of us have spider reflexes and added a Kid Mode that makes the game even easier to handle than the Easy mode for inexperienced little kids (and clumsy older folks like me).

As with all games, there are a few problems. One of the more frustrating ones is the third-person camera. After playing Tomb Raider, Indy, and Die by the Sword, I still have trouble with moving around and aiming when I'm basicaly looking over the character's shoulder. One good thing about this game, is that you can see through Spidey when the camera is close to him which helps. There is also an auto aim feature for the web shooting which, just like previous third person games, does not always aim at what you want it too. I prefer being able to aim a cross-hair with the mouse. Fortunatly, shooting things isn't the main thrust of this game. Finally, as cool as the music is, it is still a bit repetative for a new game.

In conclusion, Spider Man is the coolest, most innovative third person action game I've ever seen. The graphics, sound, story, and over all quality are way better than I expected. The gameplay will take some getting used to, just like Die by the Sword's innovative V-Sim sword control was, but once I do I bet I'll like it better that just running around and jumping a little bit like you do in most games. I was surprized that Spidey can't swim like most game character can these days, but that's no big deal compared with the advantages he has over all of them.

If you are a Spider-Man fan this is a must have. Those who don't care much for comics will still get a kick out of making Spidey crawl and leap everywhere and will find the game a refreshing change from the gory shoot-em up's of the recent
past (Unreal Tournament for example).