Customer Reviews

Spider-Man 3

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(10)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

Don't ask me why, but I kind of had high hopes for the Spider-Man 3 video game. Considering how much I loved the surprisingly great Spider-Man 2 game, I figured that Spider-Man 3 would just expand on what the previous title explored with it's immersive environments. Sadly, what we get with Spider-Man 3 is more of the same, only this time around it just comes off as boring and is only fun in small spurts. Once again you play as the wall crawler as you swing through a huge rendering of New York City, which once again is designed wonderfully and just aches to be explored. Sadly though, for such a huge city, not much seems to be going on, and the repetitive missions and choices placed throughout the game are just more grating than anything else. For a late in life PS2 game, Spider-Man 3 looks pretty good, and the controls are pretty responsive as well, and there's still fun to be had in swinging around the city, though depending on how often you've played previous Spider-Man games, that fun's lasting effect will vary. Not to mention that the game's hook: playing in the black Venom costume, never really goes anywhere either. Tobey Maguire once again lends his voice as Spidey, while other cast members from the film like James Franco, Topher Grace, Thomas Haden Church, and J.K. Simmons are all here as well along with a returning Bruce Campbell as the game's guide/narrator. All in all, Spider-Man 3 is worth a look, but much like the film itself, this game will leave you a bit disappointed because there was a boatload of potential here to make something really memorable.

After playing Spiderman 2, several times, and having a blast every time (Sometimes I just like to swing around the city, exploring but not actually doing anything), I eagerly awaited Spidy 3. What a let down. There is still a full city to swing around, but the graphics are some of the worst I have seen since PS1. They not only lack detail, but are often shakey, like the system's processor is being overloaded. The stats are largely removed, and you can no longer check fun things like how fast you have swung, or how far you have fallen. The missions are a bit repetitive, but that was a flaw with Spidy 2, so I can't complain about that.

My biggest disappointment was the control of Spidy. the number of moves he can do is extremely limited. There are very few fighting combos to chose from. and his web abilities are almost non-existent. Forget about ever shooting more than one web, even when swinging (No more slingshotting yourself from between two buildings). My favorite move, the lamp post hanging, has been eliminated in this game, as well as many other great moves. Also, there is no longer a spider-sense mode, only the chance to dodge when his head gets a ring around it. And it becomes very annoying when you have to go anywhere quick, as there is no run mode. Wall crawling is very slow, and so is Spidy's regular movement. You need to swing to go anywhere fast, and it can become annoying when you are trying to cross a building's roof, you end up swinging off the roof.

Had this game just been a reprogrammed version of Spidy 2, with a new story line and villians, but everything else the same, it would have been repetitive, but fun. Instead, they tried to add new "features" like gang wars and photo taking, while greatly increasing the loading times and dumbing down the rest of the game, making it playable by even the most inexperienced of gamers. Spidy 2's hero mode was a chalenge for me. I beat this story mode on superhero, in under 5 hours of play time, with very little difficulty. I looked into doing the gang wars, but they became repetitive too quick, and I went back to the story. Even the swinging around the city was boring. Rent it if you're a fan, but not worth the buy.

I bet you were wondering when there would be a perfect super-hero game. If you were thinking it was now you were gravely mistaken. About three or so months before the release of the game, I was reading all of the hype and saying this is totally going to whoop the Superman Returns game. When the movie came out, I saw it on the first weekend. It was cool. I was hoping the PS2 version would be just as cool. When I finally bought the game, I found out they put most of their work into the next generation consoles. Let me start with the good things. In the previous game, you could go around a huge open-world New York City. You can do the same here. In the game there are different groups of gangs which rule different parts of the city. You can try to make the crime rate drop, or you can decide to do story mode missions. Later in the game, you acquire the symbiote which is really awesome. You are like ten times powerful in that. After a while though you have to take it off before it kills you. Comic book fans will be pleased to see New Goblin, Sandman and Venom, along with Carlyle, Lizard, Kraven, Morbius, and Shriek. Also, Bruce Campbell's voice is a nice touch. Now the bad things. The graphics are horrible!! They are really just plain horrid. I think they are even ten times worse than Spiderman 2 (or the first Spiderman game for that matter)! And recently, I just discovered that Kingpin, Rhino, and Scorpion are only in the next-generation games. AARRRRRRRGHH!!!!! Also, you can't go into buildings like you could the last time. Basically, if you ask me, they never really improved with this game. If anything they made it worse. Personally though, I like it. But I still wish it could be better. Overall, it's just average...

This game was bad the story was too short the game got boring quickly, the graphic was ugh, this was a really bad game part1 and2 is way better. I liked part1 the most it was real fun and exiteing, part2 was real great the quality was great the graphic was great and the storymode was great to kinda weird but it was great. I beat all the spiderman games and this was the worst game id ever played, this was just a little upgrade from part2 but this had bad quality and graphic, this game sucked i got ried of it long time ago boring and terrible game.

After playing other Spiderman games I figured this one would be about the same with new missions. It isn't - in fact it is astoundingly bad.
There are some major issues:
First the bad plot that has almost nothing to do with the movie. Do you remember Brock getting fired because he dressed up like black Spiderman and mugged people? How about MJ breaking up with Peter because he got nasty and knocked over a wine glass? What about Sandman's kid locked in the trunk of the taxi that MJ was dangling from at the end? I would like to know if Activision was simply not told the majority of the plot or if they just decided to kind of made it up as they went along?
Second the short length. After long side missions I beat the game in 7 hours. I bet you could finish the game in less than 5 without the side missions. They also cut several storylines from the PS2 version like Kingpin, Rhino, and Scorpion.
Third, it looks like they replaced the actors with zombies. Mary Jane looks the worst. Seriously though, this game is a textbook example of the uncanny valley.
Fourth the controls suck. There is a slight delay in your attacks, so combat is hard to get used to. Also they removed many of the fun moves from Spider-Man 2.
There are also tons of glitches. I loved it when in a mission a guy decided to stand on my shoulders, or get carried in the air slightly to the left of me. Also you can frequently fail a mission because all of these glitches.
Finally the amount of loading is ridiculous. For example if you have just completed a mission this is what will happen. First loading, then text says "Mission passed!" followed by more loading. You get a few XP then loading...again. Five second cut scene. You guessed it - more loading.

There is some good in the game. Bruce Cambell as usual is a top notch narrator. Also the gang wars are an improvement on 2 and actually makes it seem like what you do positively affects the city.

In the end this is a depressingly bad game. Spider-Man 2 was infinitely better. Even the average Ultimate Spider-Man was better than this. Buy virtually any other Spiderman product and you'll be better off.

This game is pretty good.It has fun fighting,and the missions are not half bad.But I would say that the graphics are not as good as i would expect.They are OK,but nothing as good as PS3,or 360.Overall you can do many missions.You can fight bad guys,take photos,and you can unlock alot of new moves.You get to go all around Manhattan doing missions.Also this game does not stick to the movies storyline.You get to go and do anything you want to do but some of the missions are related to the movie.Overall this is a good Game

I purchased this game after reading reviews about how HORRIBLE the graphics were, and how the camera just ruins everything, and the controls were terrible.

I have to say that i experienced minimal problems with the controls, little to no trouble with the camera angles, and the graphics, while not ground-breaking, were nothing to be ashamed of.

This game is quite fun, and i particularly liked the black suit feature, how you have to fight it to remove it. I also liked the fact that the controls and setup are exactly like that of 'Ultimate Spiderman'. The city is bigger than ever, and theres tons to roam and do. Theres 5 different gangs to beat up on, so im never all that bored. However, i beat the story mode in less than 7 hours. It was fun while it lasted, but it jsut flew by. Now, i have nothing to do but start over, or just roam and beat random thugs for fun. This to me is disappointing, because thats the majority of the replay value gone.

Anyways, fun game, DECENT graphics - a little rushed to meet movie deadlines and a little short. A nice addition to any spiderman fans collection, but probably not a super-defining piece.

Good game though it does tend to get monotonous after a while. Plus some the cool combos from pt. 2 are gone, and it takes long to earn the upgrades! Bought a used copy from Amazon's Warehouse deals, so no biggie.

Spiderman 3 is excellent. It is a definite inprovement from its predecessors, most notably because of an all-new and improved combat system, more intuitive swinging controls, and better boss fights. While it is not perfect - the graphics are not as good as Spiderman 2, the game doesn't do a good job of following the story of the movie, etc. - it is still the best Spiderman game I have ever played, even compared to the next-generation Spidey games.

Okay, first of all - I would have got the PS3 version, but I didn't have a PS3 at the time. So, this review is of the PS2 version.

First of all, let's do the bad:

1. The story has too many bonus Marvel villians (Morbius, Shriek, Kraven) that it doesn't focus barely at all on the villians of the movie (Sandman, Venom, and New Goblin).

2. The graphics are very sub-par. The character models of the civilians and Spiderman are well done, but the city itself looks mediocre. Pop-in is very noticable throughout the game, and when you get up on a high building, you can look down and see all the buildings without any textures. It's still at least passable, but the games graphics is brought down by a few glaring flaws.

Now on to the good (which there is much of):

1. The swinging is much improved from SM2. There is no more of Spidey swinging and then suddenly letting go of the web he was swinging on, only to fall to his death because he couldn't swing another web for some reason. Everything is simple and fun. Press and hold R2 = swing out a web. Press R1: Web sprint. It's that easy.

2. The game has the best combat system I've ever seen in a Spidey game. The game is far from button-mashing, as these combos require skill and timing to perform. As you earn XP, you get to unlock more combos via the upgrade system. The upgrade menu has tons of new skills to buy, ranging from a new combo to an upgrade allowing Spidey to jump higher. Although you don't need all these combos to beat the game, there are enough of them that every player has a choice on what combos to primarily use.

Besides the upgrade system, the street fights in the game are fun, and can be a bit challenging. The Spider-Sense from the last game has been replace with a dodge move. By pressing L2, Spidey can hop over an enemy, and suprise them with a well-placed kick to the back. When overwhelmed with enemies, it is necessary to use this feature to get the upper hand in a fight.

Overall, the combat system is better than in any other Spiderman game, and is easily one of the games strongest points.

3. The mission structure is much better than SM2. Instead of having missions pop up all over New York at random, you now have four gangs in the city. If you pop up the map, you can see 30+ dots, with a symbol for each gang on each. See, go to this area in the city, and there's a mysterious guy that lookes like a pirate. He sends you on a mission to, for example, "Go save the professor getting roughed up by thugs!" You swing into action, beat up the bad guys, then talk to the professor. He thanks you for saving him, and tells you to go scrounge up evidence of the gangs crimes. You deliver this evidence to a police officer, and he tells you to go save civilians that the gang has hostage in an electric force-field. It goes on for a few more objectives, then you've completed the mission. In my opinion, a bit more realistic than SM2s set-up.

Also in the game is the new gang dominance feature. See, next to the map is where it shows you gang dominance. There is a percentage next to each gang. If you finish a mission, the percentage goes down for the gang you just roughed up in the mission. Finish all the missions for a gang, and that gang is out of comission. Then you can take out the remaining three gangs. This takes a while to do, adding to replayability. There is also more variety than in SM2. There are about 20 objective types in the game, and the combat system keeps things fresh, and free of repetition.

4. The boss fights are varied, fun, and free of frustration. One has you beating up thugs on a rooftop, while also being ready to counter the bosses rockets that he fires at you, sending them back in his face. Another has you riding the back of a giant lizard creature, trying to ram him into malfunctioning electric devices. No one boss fight is the same, adding to the variety.

Now for the mixed feelings:

1. I wish the story was longer. The story will last you around 6-7 hours. You can still hunt down Spider emblems, meteorite fragments, and missions after the story is done (there is plenty of reason to do so, since it's so fun), but I still wish the story lasted longer.

2. The audio in the game is both good and bad. All of the voice work for the main characters are solid, but the voices for the civilians are simply okay, mostly due to their weird Asian accents. How many Asians live in New York? No one truly sounds like they're from the Big Apple. However, the music is very good, and supports the movies (and therefore, the games) darker tone.

So, that basically wraps it up. Spiderman 3 is a great movie game that keeps you hands glued to the controller the entire ride. Don't let a few problems turn you off. Any fan of the web-slinger should pick this one up.

PS: If you're turned off by this being a PS2 game, feel free to pick up the PS3 or 360 version. Refer to the reviews for those versions, for there might be differences between the PS2 and PS3/360 versions.

Overall Score: 8.5 or 4 1/4 stars

it was good, but dissapointing. you have to wait forty five seconds after you change out of the black suit to get back in the black suit, you have to press a random array of buttons to get out of the black suit and the deeper you get into the game the longer it is of random and useless buttons and for children of ages three or under the transformation from the black suit to the red suit may be scary when you're deep in the game, this game is kind of dark so i recommend ultimate spiderman, it's not nearly as dark. write yah next time


p.s. i'm not vivian, i'm her nine year old son dimitri