Customer Reviews

Ultimate Spider-Man

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Last year's Spider-Man 2 was undoubtadly the best super hero game ever made, and the same formula that made that game so great has been applied here to Ultimate Spider-Man. The biggest difference between the two games you will notice immediately: Ultimate Spider-Man boasts some great cell-shaded graphics that make the game look like a living, moving comic book that suit the game very well. Some have argued that the game looks too cartoony, but the graphics are superbly rendered nontheless. You can play as either Spidey or his arch nemesis Venom, and you trek through New York on objective based missions beating up baddies, racing, and there are some nifty boss battles as well to go along with a good story penned by USM comic scribe Brian Michael Bendis. The control is tight and easy to get ahold of, and the audio effects (including voice acting) is pretty spot on for the most part. However, Ultimate Spider-Man is ultimately not as fun or awe-inspiring as Spider-Man 2. Despite the fact the game environment is huge, it doesn't feel or look like the massive playing environment in Spider-Man 2. Also, the game feels incredibly linear and the objectives are pretty repetitive and can get old real quick. Not to mention that playing as Venom isn't as fun as playing as Spidey, and his part of the game just feels sluggish. However, there is still much to admire here, as the boss battles are nicely orchestrated, and there are cameos aplenty from Marvel characters (including Wolverine, the Ultimate version of Nick Fury, the Human Torch, and more) that will keep players and Marvel fans happy. All in all, if you enjoyed Spider-Man 2, you'll dig Ultimate Spider-Man, but don't expect it to top Spider-Man 2.

I've only been playing this game for a few days, but it was enough to inspire me to write a short review (my first). If you are looking for your first Spider-Man game, buy Spider-Man 2. If you finished that one, and you want another game, then buy this one.

This games looks wonderful, but there are two aspects that annoy me to no end.

1. The web swinging is horrible. I'll never understand why they didn't just use the same model from Spider-Man 2. It was perfect. You could swing simply by pressing and releasing a button, or you could develop skill at swinging so that you can move through the city with pinpoint accuracy. I still find myself loading up Spider-Man 2 just to swing through the city for a while. In this game, press R... release R... press R... release R... It is very simplistic and doesn't allow you to move with style like the previous game. I'll mention the two good things just to be fair. Your web still has to attach to a building (or something), not an invisible cloud way up in the sky. Second, the web zip is improved, but I think they improved it only because climbing a tall building without charge jump would have been torture otherwise.

2. This may change as I get further in the game, but so far... you always start in Queens. I get annoyed that I have to make my way to the bridge and swing across (or under) it just to get to Manhattan where the real fun is.

I give the game a 3 overall because in the swinging area it feels as if they took a giant step backwards. However, it is a Spider-Man game that looks great and is still fun, so I give a 4 for fun.

I remember when the first Spider-Man comic came out. Yeah I'm dating myself.

He was 'Amazing' for all those years. He could climb walls, leap great distances, swing at mind numbing speeds, had AMAZINGLY fast reflexes and strength. Notice that adjective 'AMAZING'.

However, this game has more of a 'LETHARGIC' Spider-Man. He can't jump for squat, he runs slower than molasses running uphill, he swings like he needs mental help therapy, and even Aunt May can jump higher than him. It's sort of like 'Play Skool Spider-Man' or something. You can grow a beard in time it takes to get some things done during this game's action.

The previous game 'Spider-Man 2' based on the popular movie, lived up to it's name! You really felt like you were the wallcrawler using his AMAZING powers to thwart evil. In 'Ultimate Spider-Man' the only thing 'ultimate' is your patience.

Not all is lost. I love the art style. It's rather refreshing. The color schemes are like your kid sister got hold of the crayons and went postal on your yearbook though. The story is just fine. Lots and lots of action and the kicker is you get to play as either Spidey or the purple-people-eater Venom. Playing as Venom sort of made up for not being able to play as Spider-Man. These Venom battles are fierce. Lots of destruction and you get to throw foreign made cars at people and helicopters.

There are chases, battles, strategies, I don't mind them as they make for more fun gameplay. Not enough of the classic characters like J. Jonah Jameson and Aunt May. I can't think of one gameplay scenario that was impossible. They were rather quite challenging and easy.

As a Spidey fan I'll hold on to it and keep playing.

However one final warning, there are chases with the Human Torch that are just intolerable. I stopped playing them as they became too time consuming although they had the funniest dialogue.

Buy at own risk.

I hope in the future Spidey games will go back to the Spider-Man 2 formula. If they put out a new Spidey game each year I would be happy. Just touring NY City by web swinging is fun! In this game NY City doesn't look like NY City. It looks more like when you play frisbee in the house and knock over your mom's pocket book and all those cosmetics fall out.

I'll say it up front: I am biased. I'm a big fan of Brian Michael Bendis and an even bigger fan of Spider-Man. A month or so ago I got onto this really big Bendis kick and with that came Ultimate Spider-Man the comic. The book itself was amazing, and before long I'd read all of the 13 graphic novels out so far. Then I saw the ad for the game in one of the other Marvel Comics I subscribe to, and was floored the game needs to be gotten. Period.

So on to the game...

In the past there have been some horrible superhero games...and I mean horrible. Any of you play the X-Men for the original nintendo? Ugh. I know that it's an early game but when you essentially get a graphically ramped up version of that in X-men Legends, it's kinda dissapointing. Now I now everyone raves and loves X-Men Legends, but it wasn't exactly my radioactive cup of tea. With the greater technology coming out, the capabilites of free roaming in hugely expansive enviornments is becoming a mainstay of the video game world.And something like X-men ledgends kinda lacks that, but it's something that spider-man games recently have had in spades.

The game is almost totally immersive. You can go nearly anywhere as the webhead and never really have to run into any invisible walls that take you out of the experience. There is the instances during missions where you can't stray too far, but if that didn't happen people would be flying all over the place trying to keep on track and lose the mission. Anyway, not the point. The point is that the game is an excellent piece technology wise. Aisde from free roaming capability, it retains the TreyArch webswing system from the previous spider-man game which was so popular. It is dumbed down a bit, and there's no ability for you to go and purchase new acrobatic/fighting techniques (they're given to you as you advance throughout the game)but that makes one less thing for you to worry about. The Need for hero points has been erased and you are free to accept or ignore random missions thoughout the game. My complaint about that though is that there really aren't enough random crimes in the game for you TO ingnore. But it's made up for in storyline and Stroy Missions.

So that covers the Spidey game play, now onto Venom. Venom was a good idea for the game. whereas he's not the most major player in the ultimate Spider-man Comic arc by any means, it makes for a good gameplay character. You hvae Parker who's agile but doesn't do tons of damage, and then the behemoth of the Symbiot that's a bruiser but wickedly slow moving and a huge target. The one thing that is redeeming about Venom's gameplay is the L2 (on PS2) jump. It's like putting a cat into a catapult and pulling the lever. You can jump almost as tall as most skyscrapers in the game with that thing. So when chasing electro around, it makes it really useful to catch up to him (You'll see...).

So Far: Game environment: A, Game Play: A-...Now onto the thing sthat really matter: Audio Visual entertainment.

the visuals relaly work for the game, and may be slightly difficult to get used to at first, truly round out the experience. The style seems to be taken directly from Mark Bagely's illustrations from the comic book. in fact there are certain cutscenes that if you were to hold up the comic next to the tv screen, it would look like the comic panels were animated. And that is a big plus for anyone who loves the comic. Otherwise, the graphics are Cel-Shaded as all should know, so don't expect there to be any mind boggling realistic looking Final Fantasy-esque cut scenes here, just pure comic book heaven.

And the Audio/writing...is...genius. My favorite factor of the game is the fact that all dialogue was written by Brian Michael Bendis. And not just the mian characters, but even the passerby's on the street. I can't tell you how hard I laughed when I overhear som woman saying, "have I told you that I absolutely HATE your shoes?" But as such is Bendis. He not only knows how to formulate a story and make it very enticing, but his humor is out of this world. Spidey's quips are sidesplitting, and the characterizations of the people within the game are gladly similar to the comic. Bendis has a way of writing how you and I would talk to one another (with interruptions, non-verbals, and onomatopoetics) and not have it sould informal or awkward: it can only make the story better. The games' creators certainly did themselves a favor by getting him to write it, becuase anyone else would have made it come off as trite or pedantic.

So In my eyes I can justifiably give this game 5 stars. why? Because it's frickin' amazing!

PS: If you're interested the game runs parallel to issues 30-39 in Ultimate Spider-Man the comic series, or if you'd rather Graphic Novel Vol's 6 thruogh 8. Guet em here at amazon, they're cheap!

~JYH

Please ingore my first review "Great game although there are some flaws." I didn't have my head on straight. If you ask me I think this game is the best since Maximum Carnage and the recent Spider-Man 2. I am also tired of people saying the webs are too cartoony or it's fun enough to be five stars. It way surpassed Spider-Man 2. Five out of Five stars.

This is a very good game! The scale is grand, the graphics are fantastic and the story is great (with a fun script). Unfortunately it has a lot to live up to and falls short on a number of things:

Though the story over-all is better, it's also a lot shorter and should be completed in a coupole of days (if not less).

The graphic style is very different to Spider-Man 2, being the style used for the Ultimate Spider-Man comics (obviously). The character designs are unique and superb - particularly in the cut-sequences. The cityscape - this time incorporating Queens (though no Roosevelt, Ellis or Liberty island) - is also far more detailed than Spider-Man 2, especially at ground level. However it is also more cartoon-like and you don't get the same feel of flying through the city streets as before. The streets are narrower and the buildings shorter, and the swing-speed is also a lot slower making roaming less fun.

The control method is simpler and easier to get to grips with than previously, but the controls are less responsive making the chase/race missions in particular very frustrating at times. And the lack of a charge-jump and aerial acrobatics don't help. Nor does the camera, which has an even worse habit of throwing itself in random directions than the last one did.

The side missions are pretty much the same as before (i.e. break-ins, purse-snatchings, armoured car hold-ups, gang warfare, people falling from buildings or in need of a hospital, etc.) with some missions having two separate aspects (e.g. stopping an assault and then having to get the victim to hospital), but all the missions appear at random - as opposed to some coming from a witness' calls for help - and without any time-limits.

On the whole, this is prettier to look at and has a better story and script than Spider-Man 2, but simply isn't as much fun to play.

I design video games for a living and I was very dissapointed with this game. I was looking foward to this game very much and was quite dissapointed to find that every level was the same just a different villian (i.e. you chase the villian throughout the city and then catch him and try to kill him)

the biggest suck ass part of this game was the false advertising YOU CANNOT BE VENOM AND DO WHATEVER YOU WANT IN THE GAME LIKE IT HAS BEEN ADVERTISED, YOU HAVE TO FOLLOW THE MISSION ONLY, I REPEAT YOU CAN ONLY FREE ROME AS SPIDERMAN, NOT VENOM.

I am a huge spiderman fan and was very disappointed by the false advertising.

This game was fun to play. I loved the graphics. Oh, and the cameo's by a few other Marvel guys was the best to see. When Wolverine entered into the game I also most didn't want to fight him with Venom. Hey Wolverine is cool, I didn't want to hit him. Anyways now that I sound lame... I thought the game was short when it came to the storyline, and there wasn't much to do... Basically 2 submissions (races and beating up gang members). There was a few races with the Human Torch (some of the reviews mention they where to hard, I couldn't tell you if they where, I cheated in those races). I haven't played Spider-Man 2 in over a year, so I don't remember most of the stuff on that game, but I remember there was more things to do on that game, and it wasn't this short and had more things to collect around NY and the city was bigger then the NYC in Ultimate Spider-Man. Another thing I did love to see in this game was that after each battle you had with a boss, or whatever, all the damage you've created in the city while fighting in those battles gets left behind and you can revisit the busted up buildings and holes in the ground anytime you wanted to. I've also seen a few dumpsters shown up in the area showing that people where working on trying to "clean" up Spider-Man's mess, LOL.

I rented this game before I bought it, so I knew what I was getting. I also bought the Spiderman 2 game used and beat it before playing this and was disappointed by the total lack of unlockables it had. Plus it was way too short. So I was looking forward to all the nifty stuff Ultimate Spiderman had to unlock. The trouble is, they took a lot of what made Spiderman 2 a good game, out of it in order to do so. That would be things like buying moves, a tutorial mode, a choice between web swinging modes, and Bruce Campbell. ;-) That and it turned out to be a lot harder than I thought it would be.

I love the way the game looks. The whole comic book aspect works for Spiderman and I found that I prefer this over the look of Spiderman 2 in most cases. Especially during the cut scenes. I've only read a few Ultimate Spiderman comics, so I have a vague idea of the reality in which this takes place, but its easy to grasp even if you haven't read one issue. Since this takes place in the comic book world and not the movie, they can have cameo appearances by other comic book characters like Wolverine, Hulk, Silver Sable, Johnny Storm, and a lot more.

Speaking of Johnny Storm, I hate racing with him. The racing wouldn't be so bad if it were actual racing and not a game of tagging floating orbs which reside in places that are super easy for Johnny to get to, but insanely hard for Spiderman to get to. You basically have to swing like a natural pro and at the top of your game to even keep up, which is hard, but would have been easier if they would have kept the swinging system from Spiderman 2, not to mention the speed upgrades. At best, web swinging is awkward and difficult to use in gaining altitude when there's nothing to swing from or when the system thinks there's nothing to swing from.

Battles are sometimes irritating with Spidey, but just brute force with Venom. Spidey has to find a weak spot or wait for an open moment to take his villains down. Which means he'll be web swinging like crazy to avoid projectiles and jump attacks from the enemy. This would be easier if the area in which you fight could be extended. However, you often get the message "Area Unavailable" when swinging out of the way, and you end up flinging yourself into an invisible wall on the street which allows your opponent plenty of time to pelt you with several shots. Not the most well thought out boss arena. Meanwhile, Venom functions like the Hulk but with Spiderman-ish powers. He has the super high jump that Hulk does and the super beat downs as well as a grab and throw. He also has a sort of web sling that he can do which is basically extending his suit to stick to a surface in order to pull himself to it. Oh yeah, he also needs to feed on people in order to keep himself alive. This is kind of interesting since in every battle pretty much, you have crazy innocent people running around to feed on to replinish energy. Meanwhile in your fights as Spiderman you have no refills even if there is a second round to a fight. :-\

In between story points, you have a set amount of things to do, just like in Spiderman 2. But instead of accumulating a number of hero points, you have a set number of events, races, and fight campaigns to complete. Along the way, you can also hunt for landmark tokens, secret tokens, and comic book tokens that will unlock the specific comic book or landmark they are, as well as characters to view and costumes to wear in the game. Although it does take a LOT of these to unlock costumes, so be ready to take some serious time to look for these.

Bottom line is, the game is a pretty good follow up to Spiderman 2 and has everything it didn't have. The problem is that it Spiderman 2 has everything this game doesn't have. Heh. If they could combine the best of this game with the best of Spiderman 2, they would have a game that would sell countless numbers. If you're looking for a very challenging Spiderman game with unlockables, lots of cameos from other Marvel characters, and an overall different tone, then you should buy Ultimate Spiderman. If you're just looking for a quick Spidey game with better gameplay and movie-type graphics (and Bruce Campbell) then you should just go buy Spiderman 2.

I don't want to make this really long, so I'll skip the sheer amounts of praise I have for this game. I really do like it and don't regret buying it. Story mode is somewhat short, but there are substantial extras. However...and here come the complaints.

Wall crawling is insane. Actually managing to go in the direction you want to go is quite difficult, and good luck with it at all if you're near a corner of any kind.

The extras are decent. The method for getting them has one major flaw. The tokens. The unlockable costumes are fairly mundane save the last one, which requires you to find 190 tokens hidden, some quite well, all over the city. Basically, once you have gone through the immense frustration of finding the tokens, you then finish the races and combat tours and city events, then you get the costume. Congratulations on the cool costume, you also happen to be completely done with the game. So what are you going to do with the costume? Make the unlockable costumes and things of that sort able to be unlocked quickly, so the players can have fun with them WHILE they play the game, instead of making them the endgame reward.

The combat tours are fun and challenging after a while. The races are for the most part fun, but can become extremely frustrating. This isn't so much a complaint as an observation. I don't expect every aspect, especially races, to be easily completed the first time through.

Overall, I really like this game, despite the flaws. It's a great game to just pick up after a while, swing around the city and punch a few guys, then switch to Venom and go on a smashing rampage. If a similar game with even more characters to choose from and less frustrating methods of getting them comes out, I'll pick it up with no reservations whatsoever.