Ultimate Spider-Man is Treyarch's third incarnation of the Spider-Man series on home consoles. Over the first two games there have been many ups and down with lots of interesting and many disappointing gameplay features. The old saying "third time lucky" may be proven to be true here however if you are of the superstitious kind Treyarch could have had some bad luck along the way as it looks as if everything did not go to plan.
Friendly Neighborhood?
What is unique about Ultimate Spider-Man, us that it allows players to take on the role of super hero Spider-Man and the love to be hated super villain Venom. It does so using an original storyline made especially for the game that follow the tale the comic books have told. Interestingly, and perhaps disappointingly the combat system used in the game is no where near as deep as the one used in it predecessors, that means no combos. Eeck!
Reasons for this could span Treyarch not having the time to implement a better system then before or perhaps it just wanted to make the title a little easier to play for younger player. Whatever its reason this is the first of many disappointing moments I had while playing USM. The next reason I had for been less than happy with the games was the story mode, first off it is extremely short and only lasts a few hours (it may even been beatable in one sitting if you have the time and put you mind to it).
Pick Your Poison
He needs his own game. Who am I talking about? It is Venom of course. I had much more fun than a spider can while playing around with this guy. Off course it is much more fun to be the bad guy but playing as Venom defines this phrase as you suck in bystanders which ups you health and whip and slap them with you tentacles.
Of course this is not all good ol' Venom can do. He can also throw cars around at ease and scale tall building in almost single bound. Almost all of Venom mission revolve around causing a much mayhem as you can and end then this is much more fun than playing with a certain restricted red and blue clad spider we all know and love.
Should You Choose To Accept It!
The missions in USM seem like there pulled straight from a lets build a free-roaming game book. If you want to start a mission you look down at you radar and see a colored marker and you run and swing with all your heart towards it. Once you complete this mission you open up another one and then when you beat that one; well you get the picture! Some story modes also opened up by beating some of the city patrol requirements.
Once a few mission are done you may then run into a boss battle which are undoubtedly the best new addition to the Spider-Man series of games. The boss battles are fantastic and are some of the most exciting moment you will have in a game. They start of with an exhilarating chase which will take you over many parts of the city as you try to keep up with your foe.
Each boss battle will lead to you having to do different things. Some may have you rescuing pedestrians (by playing a mini game) as you try and keep up with the super-villain while others will lead you through trapped alleys and dodging obstacles. When you finally catch the villain you end up fighting a straight up old school fight to the death, if you notice any weakness in enemies (each one of them as a different weak point) you have to exploit it as much as you can till you take him down.
Things To Do In New York
As with all of these new free-roaming titles there is a hell of a lot more to do than just play the story mode in Spider-Man this is no different. First of there are 60 races for you to take part in along with this there are 36 combat tours. Then there is a few side quests in which Spidey may have to take part in.
If you have played Spider-Man 2 then you will probably remember all those guys hanging of buildings for no reason well now they are back again and can be rescued if you feel like it, you can also stop robberies, halt attempted break ins and beat up a guy who tries to mug people and participate in a chase a car. None of these all side missions do much to further the game main story but can be entertaining if you get tired propelling the story mode forward. It has to be said though that much more could be done to flesh out this area of the game as it can get old very, very quick.
Does My Bum Look Big In This?
Visually UMS looks fantastic and embraces the style that's been seenin the comic book over the last few decades to its fullest extent. It totally disregards the style seen in the last two game and jumps straight onto the cel-shading bandwagon. If you have read any of the comic books ever then you will be right at home right of the bat when the game first loads. The game does the best it can it immerse the game in the fantastic world of Spider-Man from the, till now unused comic book perspective.
Each of the character models, particularly the main characters all look great in their new guise as does all of New York in its cel-shaded form. In terms of audio them game does a good job the music and sound effect suit the game well but the Voice acting can get a bit iffy at time, at some point it is OK and at other time it seem like the people were rushing through it just to get out of the studio. It is a definite mixed bag if there ever was one. Once more with feeling guys.
Here Comes The Spider-Man
When all is said and done Ultimate Spider-Man is a very good, highly playable title and perhaps the best Spiderman created title of its generation. It melds all the best parts of the previous titles and most of these conglobations end up working very well.
The new web swing system and the new fighting system are not up to the level of it predecessors but there are still highly playable. Sure, there is no doubt Treyarch could do much better but if you looking for a fun game to tie you over for a few week then you could do much worse than picking up Ultimate Spider-Man.
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