G-pinions

Despite my mind being in a gaming frenzy after picking up sixteen new games for $5 a piece at Circuit City today (thanks, CAG), I'll try and talk about Spiderman 2 cohesively (the game, not the celluloidal disgrace of a film that shares the same name). I played a good three hours of it yesterday at Dan's place, and an hour or so the day before; I've gotta say, it's pretty great. It's very different from the first game, and fairly different from anything else on the market. It's closest comparison is indeed GTA, but Spiderman has a very different sense of freedom.

And freedom is indeed what it's all about here. In GTA, you had the freedom to do what you wanted to do, to whomever or whatever you wanted to do it to. In Spiderman, it's about going wherever you want to go, and exploring the realms of 3D to an extent I've never experienced in a game before. The actual missions and story and combat all have their own pros and cons, which I'll discuss in a bit. However, even if you never play a single mission, the game is probably worth a purchase just for the ability to explore the city to the extent in which you can, and the ways in which you can do it. As far as I'm concerned, the controls and camera and near perfect, considering what you're doing. Once you get a hang of the variety of button presses it takes to webswing around in the most efficient manner possible (and it's fairly intuitive, unless you're a go-tard of some sort), whizzing through city streets and spinning around lamp posts feels heavenly. You can climb the tallest building in a few tall leaps, swan dive off of it with the whole city spread out before you, and plummet hundreds of stories down, only to shoot a web to save yourself mere feet above the ground. It's really spectacular to watch, and tons of fun to play.

As I said, the rest of the game has it's share of debatable problems. The side missions which you'll end up stopping by to take part in while swinging around are pretty damn repetitive - save a falling person, help the police with a shootout, fight some bad guys, or stop a car, or a combination of several of them. Even the story missions, which are indeed unique some of the time, usually follow the same mold as the side missions, only with more city traversing. But, y'know, as similar as they all are, I never got bored. They rotate pretty nicely, so I'd save a falling construction worker, then have to save another one five missions later. In-between those mission though, I'd learn several new moves or maneuvers, which just made me want to do it even better than the last time. The game is constantly encouraging you to try new things, however subtly. Just when you think you're swinging along at a brilliant speed, you'll burst out from two buildings and find yourself over a park, forcing you to webzip from tree to tree to get over it, and without hesitation at that.

The combat feels sloppy for the first ten fights or so until you learn to dodge and focus, and then the fights quickly become fast and fun, whipping fools around on webs and kicking their dead bodies off of buildings (only to jump down after them, landing on their head, then kicking them in front of a moving car). It never really feels tight, especially in comparison to the flight controls, but once you get the hang of it it's still fun. The game actually has a surprisingly steeping learning curve, in terms of being relative to your enjoyment level. Until you're completely comfortable with the controls, little things are consistently frustrating, but once you've learn them, oh boy...

Story-wise, it's definitely a mixed bag. It roughly follows the movie, sometimes mixing it up to throw Aunt Mae in front of a speeding train, and incorporating several other major villains from the comic series. A lot of the dialogue sounds cheesy when spoken by the stiff characters (and is badly or boringly acted for the most part), but is actually much closer to comic book dialogue than I think most people realize. Some of the cast, like J. Jonah Jameson, actually resemble the characters they're based on more accurately than the film versions, which is nice too. Basically, if you know Spiderman best from the films, you'll find a lot of the missions silly and out-of-place, but if you've actually read the comic books, they'll feel right at home.

So I'd definitely recommend it to anyone who likes fun. If not, well, you can continue to knit barbwire socks in your free time. The game isn't perfect by any means, but after a couple hours of play you'll soon forget you ever bitched about the controls or the fights or the fact that Spiderman can't swim.