Customer Reviews

Spider-Man: Web of Shadows

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(20)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Way back when Spiderman 2: The Game was being developed, someone had the brilliant revelation that what made Spiderman fun to play as was his amazing ability to locomote. This individual decided that the best way to represent this was to basically create (God forgive me) Grand Theft Spiderman. Riffing on the first line of the movie "My city, my playground" the developers made a detailed model of Manhattan for players to swing through. And by the way, they made web swinging intuitive and awesome. Since this time, all the Spiderman games (of which this, Spiderman: Web of Shadows, is the third) have stuck with this open world formula.
This is both a good and a bad thing. The Grand Theft Auto comparison is intentional, as the Spiderman series has take the best and worst from that series. The open world, the massive amount of hidden items, the seemingly arbitrary spike in mission difficulty, the inability to find ANYTHING until you've spent hours wandering around lost until you've started to memorize the map, plus a new one that is probably a superhero exclusive- random city events like burglaries and gang shootouts. In short, the games were a blast to play- until you actually tried to play it. Now, I'm not saying that the missions were all bad- but the general impression, like running into a gang shooting for the third time when you're trying to get somewhere- it get's annoying.
While Web of Shadows continues all of these trends, it tackles an issue that the previous game ignored: in the comics, and the movies, there was often little difference between locomotion and combat. WoS tackles this in a fairly good way, making easy to go from locomotion to combat, and back again, stringing together some massive combos against multiple enemies (the first achievement I unlocked was for a 50 hit combo- and I was just screwing around in the first 5 minutes of playtime). Going from the ground to the wall to the air is easy and the transition is better represented then in any previous Spiderman game. However, this freedom of movement can lead to some difficulties as the lock-on camera just never had a chance and will occasionally spaz out. The lock- on also lead to some frustration as moving the right analog stick while locked on will change targets (or some foolishness), this lead to me spending several seconds running around in circles with a live bomb on my back.
I must admit that this is more of a first impressions then a true review, as I am only a couple of hours into the game- and I spent most of that time just screwing around. The story hasn't quite kicked of yet, but pulling from the prerelease press it seems that an invasion of Symbiotes (with a capital "S") is gripping New York. This leads anyone with a passing familiarity with the comics to Venom, and a battle that leads to Spiderman being re-infected with the Black Suit serves as a tutorial. I don't really expect anything earth shaking out of the story, so far it has followed the formula of cramming in as many Marvel super hero/villian cameos as they can while stringing together a halfway decent story. So, in short, if you liked the last three Spiderman games, you'll like Web of Shadows. It provides probably the best superhero simulation to date and is a solid game, if not an especially innovative one.

Definitely the best Spider-Man game since Spider-Man 2 for the last-gen systems, Spider-Man: Web of Shadows takes the wall-crawler and his open world New York City to a whole new level. Playing as Spidey and being able to alternate between the classic and black costumes, you swing around New York City cracking heads and saving citizens, which is pretty much what we've been doing since Spider-Man 2. However, what's different with Web of Shadows is that the game rarely becomes boring and the missions rarely become tedious to boot. Also, the game's story is a surprising blast to play through. The longer you play Web of Shadows, the more you'll get enthralled, particularly in its final acts where the symbiotes begin to wreak havoc. The ability to (somewhat) choose your own path depending on your actions is a plus, and there's plenty of appearances from familiar faces on the sides of heroes and villains as well. The only real flaws of Web of Shadows are technical ones. There are some noticeable graphical glitches and sound hiccups, plus a few issues with the in-game camera. Still, swinging around New York City has never been more fun or easy to do, and the game manages to stay entertaining from start to finish. All in all, Spider-Man: Web of Shadows is by far the best Spider-Man game in a while, and is more than worthy of your time.

The controls are seemless. You go from swinging among buildings to planting yourself smack on a wall. Visually, everything looks great. Although I personally always thought that the black suit spiderman should be a little bigger than good ol' red and blue. The boss fights are great. Particularly against the Vulture. I got tired of chasing Electro and the fight against the Blackcat was a little disorenting but those were still good.

Now the bad. Spiderman's voice is a little annoying. I see little difference between chosing a good path or the "evil" path. Your "help" is really useless, accept against the Kingpin's Mechs, as you can't call them to help you fight a boss. And as the Amazon review noted, beating up/saving 10, 25, 50 and then 100 of something does get repeditive.

Lastly, I haven't finished the game, but I would hope that Carnage would make an apperance in here somewhere. Can't really have an over run of sym's without him I would think

Smooth graphics and fluid motions. Gets a little too button-mashy after awhile, but the story is pretty decent. Swinging around the city, jumping, and climbing up buildings is very well done. Lack of online multiplayer means you'll probably just play the game once through and then replay some parts making different decisions, but eventually get bored and move to another game.

if you enjoyed Spiderman 2, Ultimate Spiderman or even Spiderman 3 then you will No Doubt love this game...as it is the Best to be released in the series. the city has Definitely Increased in Size...reminds me of the NYC in GTA4. the graphics are Very Clean for the 360. the Aerial Fighting is a pure Joy to experience once you get to the Kingpin levels where there will be LOTS of in air combat. the webswinging is about as Fun as it was in Spiderman 2 (thats saying alot) and flows almost Just as smooth as. you can switch between your red and black suit at any given time and each suit has its own strength and weaknesses. i loved the idea of having the allies fight alongside you, that Really add's alot of flavor and fun to the single player experience. the whole game is just Beautiful in every aspect.

my only Issues with the game is the number of MECHS that respawn in the free roam. the whole entire CITY is literally being torn apart by ARMYS OF ROBOTS at one single time :l not to mention the Symbiots in the latter levels. they could have been a bit more Moderate with how frequently the city is Attacked by these enemies. also, WHY IS THERE NO ONLINE? it would have been a BLAST to rip through Endless amounts of mechs, thugs and symbiots with atleast one other person Online...but calling on your Allies to fight along side you makes Completely Ruining these enemies in the streets of NYC a bit more fun..almost as fun as it would be Online :)

overall, this is a Fun game to pick up for that lonely weekend..maybe even play through it a few times since its very short yet entertaining with the choosing of good and evil paths and all. but it wont be long until your on to something else...but for Diehard Spiderman Fans, this is a Must. Great Game...

iLL .

I was extremely surprised by this one. With all of the games out for the holiday season, Spiderman Web of Shadows may fall off your radar. I have previously played part 3 and 2 of spiderman and I didnt like them, but when I saw the video of the combat of this one on XBOX Live I thought I may give it a shot. I am glad I did, in this game you really feel like Spiderman, I just completed PT 2 of the story and I have a lot of Air Combos, special moves and assistance Characters. The coolest part about this game is the new fighting system, it makes the game very enjoyable. You can fight most enemies entirely in the air once you level up. You can become evil or good at different points throughout the game and that determines which characters assist you as well as the ending (guessing) but you can still switch between the standard (good guy) red and blue and the(evil) black costumes at will, and even mid combo, which makes for some pretty interesting gameplay once you master the game (your friends will be impressed). The helper characters, which I wont spoil for you, will stay on screen so long as you keep fighting and your special meter stays full.

Overall this is a good sandbox game and there are plently of those on the XBOX 360 to choose from such as GTAIV, Hulk, God Father and etc. I have played most of these games but this is the only one of these types of games that have held my interest long enough to the point that I am on the verge of beating it. The rest of these games, although good games, gets either extremely difficult (I hate the motorcycle chase in GTAIV) or I just lose interest. I didnt find anything too negative about this game except for the graphics could have been a little better, and sometimes the camera angle gets weird when you transition from wall running, to web swinging or walking on the ground, other than that I would definitly recommend this game.

Spider-man: Web of Shadows is the quite different from 2 and 3 in the sense that it isn't based off of a movie, keeping the plot original, unexpected, and much more open. Another aspect is the fact that Spider-man interacts with a ton of other marvel super heroes throughout the game including: Luke Cage, Moon Knight, Black Cat, and Wolverine. The newest and by are the coolest aspect of Shadows is the fighting system. It is extremely fluid. Too fluid, as in "I have never seen combos like this in a game before." Awesome.

Another point of the game includes the ability to go from the red to the black suit anytime you want along with making "Good" and "Dark" decisions that affect how the story will unfold. It is obvious that this Spider-man game is heavily geared after the comic books featuring a "Teen" rating with: Animated Blood, Mild Language, and Violence.

Pros:
Combat Combo System.
Larger area to explore.
Ability to Change Suits.
Damage to the City's environment. (Including cars!)
Long Game play

Cons:
Follow camera is different from the other two games. (Not too much.)
Spider-man's voice over isn't too great.

Honestly, I was a little disappointed with the game for the first few hours, then I began to unlock the "Web Strike" combos and this changed the entire way the game is played. Soon after, I was fighting against Black Cat and free falling from a sky scraper in slow motion just like in the movies, except it was all controlled by me. This is what changed my mind.

This game has all the pluses of the past Spiderman games and then some, and a few new downsides too.
You get to play in both black and regular costumes (and are able to switch on the fly) and your fighting skills change depending on which you are. The fighting takes a bit to get used to, but is great once you do. You have plenty of side missions to play through and as you progress, they change a bit.
The downsides are that there can get to be a lot on screen that'll cause lag. You have a good/bad meter which will head to evil if you don't save citizens in danger, which gets tough when you can't target them because of all the other things happening on screen.

"Spider-Man: Web of Shadows" is the best comic book game I've played in a very long time. Most of them are based off of films and spend all of the budget on hiring the cast to do the voices, obtaining the movie license, and packing cutscenes from the movie into the game. The end result is typically a cute little souvenir for fans for the movie and a distraction for the kids. It comes and goes to the bargain bin in a matter of months. But this time there is no tie-in, just a story to be told featuring your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man and some of his best friends and foes. It's not the least bit groundbreaking as there have been many iterations of the webslinger since the Playstation classic that have used many of the same mechanics, but it is a damn good time for comic fans.

The story begins with Spidey in battle with his nemesis Venom and getting tagged when a piece of the symbiote separates from the psychotic villain. So the black suit is back in Peter Parker's life and MJ is less then pleased. But Spidey sems to believe that this symbiote is different from it's parent and holds off on ridding himself of it immediately. This leads to one of the primary attractions of the game. The player is invited to switch freely between the classic Spidey and his symbiote alter-ego throughout thye course of the game. As you progress, each costume earns new powers. The classic outfit is great for agility-based combo attacks and incapacitating foes with webshooters while the black costume is more destructive and is spectacular in it's ability to engage and destroy multiple enemies. But there's a catch. The more time you spend in each costume, the more your alignment is affected. Using the symbiote's powers will eventually lead you to a darker alignment that can change your in-game alliances and lead to a different ending for your character. You are also invited to freely choose which path to take at certain points of the game. Ever wished Spidey would just say yes to a night with Black Cat? Well, MJ is kind of a bitch in this game.....Go for it! Should you save the foes you've been fighting or kid rid of 'em? Whatever you want. But rest assured Luke Cage will not be pleased if you allow his neighborhood gangs to kill each other while he is attempting to broker a peace deal. Anyways, the story escalates from stopping local hooligans to full scale symbiote invasion over the course of the game.

Along the way, you will meet friends and foes that can be summoned to help you in combat. Which ones are available depends on your alignment. Having Vulture
back you up is pretty sweet and riding Rhino around playing bad-guy bowling is fun but they won't show if you've been goody-goody. Wolverine and Black Cat are pretty tolerant around the grey area, but Cage and Moon Knight are only there for you if you're way in the red. Having familiar faces back you up is really cool, but the absence of many of New York's finest is pretty inexplicable. Iron Man and the Fantastic Four are explained away, but what about the X-Men? There are too many of them too account for all of them being gonme except for Logan. And when I went to Hell's Kitchen I was bummed when Daredevil didn't show. Did they really think I'd rather have Moon Knight on my side? There are just a ton of classic characters mysteriously MIA in this game. You'd think Carnage would take an interest or play a part as well. Oh well.

The best part of this game by far is the web-slinging. The physics in this game are rock-solid and give you amazing control as you swing over the streets of NYC. There are tons of little pick-ups scattered that allow you to advance in level and let you really work out the swinging and climbing mechanics as you try to catch 'em all. The combat starts out really simple, but as you advance in level the options that unfold are pretty amazing. In addition to normal combat, there are aerial mechanics and different move sets for vertical wall fighting as well. Cool. This is also the only Spider-Man game I've played where you can use your webs on the bosses. Thank you! It's pretty cool that most of the characters you encounter get captured at some point in the story and the symbiotes manage to duplicate their powers and mass-produce soldiers based on them. Electro and Vulture symbiotes? Believe it. And the fact that so many factions are fighting each other at the end really adds to the chaos even as you swing around the city and see the New York skyline marred by smoke and fire. Kingpin's tech soldiers battling symbiotes battling SHIELD? Why not sit back and see who wins? There are plenty of side missions as well such as rescuing civilians in conjunction with Black Widow's SHIELD troops or helping test their weaponry. No shortage of things to do.

This isn't going down in history as the greatest comic game ever, but it's still a ton of fun. The dialogue and voice-acting is uneven but the quips work more often then not and the characters are mostly well served. One of my favorite moments involves Cage ragging on Spidey's outfit and Parker coming back with " This coming from a guy who was running around with a tiara in his afro?" Classic. Wolvie making fun of emo kids (likely a swipe at the third film) and Spidey attempting to call the heavy-duty superhroes in on his cell phone and getting automated answer systems was hilarious too. The battle for New York is really fun to play and fighting alongside classic heroes and villains is a big plus. Then there's the whole "does everything a spider can" thing. There are few characters better adapted to fun gaming then Spidey is. Most of the elements of this game are spot-on and considering I picked this up for a mere $19.99, "Spider-Man: Web of Shadows" was a hell of a buy. Marvel fans, this is your stop.

This is a great game, graphics are awesome, however I have some complaints on gameplay..... Very repetitive in terms of fighting. Same bunch of bad guys, same combos, not much you can do with getting them tangled in webs, it just gets them tied for a bit, you can't hang them from lamposts or completely cover them in webs that they're rolling on the ground. There are some instances where obstacles are in your way especially when you web zip a bad guy, you actually go right thru the object. Maybe a hardware issue. I managed to finish the game after beating the multi-headed Venom, and that's it.. It's not like Spiderman 2 or 3 where you can go back and just beat up bad guys....

I gave this 4 stars because of the above. I did like the idea of fighting on the side of buildings and in the air. I wish there were more of a variety to web use.


Spider-Man: Web of Shadows