Written by: Rik
Date posted: January 24, 2012
I think it was nostalgia for the film that made me want to play this game (also, it was 75p in Computer Exchange). Based upon experience, my advice to anyone else in a similar situation would be: if you want to watch a film, watch a film, don’t buy a game based on that film instead. Seems pretty simple when you say it like that, doesn’t it? [Er, that’s because it is – FFG reader]
Now, I understand that the requirements of a film and those of a game are rather different, and trying to incorporate levels where you wander around the science museum, have dinner with Aunt May, or attempt awkward chit-chat with Mary-Jane would obviously be a mistake. Still, I was expecting there to be slightly more film-related content than there is.
Essentially, they’ve retained three major elements of the movie’s story: the murder of Uncle Ben, the encounter with Green Goblin at the Oscorp Unity Day festival, and the finale on the Queensboro Bridge. Most of the supporting cast – Mary-Jane, Harry, Aunt May, J. Jonah Jameson – either make brief appearances or don’t appear at all. Instead, we have seemingly random encounters with the likes of Shocker and Vulture that seem somewhat shoehorned-in. Personally, I reckon it might have been better to have Spider-Man perform some more generic acts of heroism in the city as he makes his name in the early levels, rather than bringing in these additional characters, although perhaps fans of the comic books (which I’m not) might disagree.
Elsewhere, some of the chronology of the film’s plot is messed around with for some unknown reason (Norman Osborn seems to be after Spider-Man before he even becomes the Green Goblin; he only takes the Super-Serum after he gets fired by the Oscorp board) but perhaps the most annoying thing is that the big set pieces from the film that are in the game aren’t as well-done as they might have been. During the attack at the Unity Day festival, for example, the emphasis is on fighting the Green Goblin rather than saving people’s lives – you do have to rescue Mary-Jane first, but that’s done all too easily. Equally, the finale on the bridge doesn’t include any requirement to save a cable-car full of kiddies – you just need to pick up Mary-Jane and drop her off before fighting the Green Goblin again.
Oh, and the music is a load of generic drum-and-bass techno-bollocks. That’s right: no Chad Kroeger. (Okay, so this is probably a plus for most people).
Posts