Let's face it: Spidey's seen better days. Both the Spider-Man 3 movie and game released to middling review scores from critics, and it was followed up by the bland and simplistic cash-in beat-em-up, Friend or Foe. So it was with some trepidation/cautious optimism that I picked up Web of Shadows, hoping that it'd be able to bring some of his former quality back to his gaming endeavors.
To its credit, it certainly makes a hell of a first impression. Opening with Spider-Man sadly walking across a rooftop overlooking guys decked out in Halo-style armor battling all manner of black, icky creatures to the tune of Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata playing in the background, it then drops you in the thick of things, introducing you to the game's controls while battling all sorts of evil symbiote monsters on the ground and on the walls. As a prologue, it does its job spectacularly, introducing you to the game's mechanics, establishing tone and atmosphere, and providing a strong hook that'll keep you playing to see just how New York got the way it is. From there, we flash back to a few days earlier, with Spider-Man battling perennial nemesis, Venom. It's here we first try out the black suit, seeing both its corrupting influence and its sense of empowerment as we throw cars at Venom to keep him at bay (J Jonah Jameson is certainly gonna have a field day when he sees just how many civilian cars he's destroyed in just this one battle). Apparently, the symbiote started attaching itself to more than just Spider-Man, and before long, the city is in the throes of a full-on invasion.
Just another day in the life...
Sadly, the story never lives up to its promising set up. It's never even explained how or why Venom is suddenly able to infect everyone with his symbiotes. What's more, Venom himself is strangely absent despite supposedly being the driving force behind the plot, only making a handful of appearances throughout the game. Instead, the game focuses on a seemingly random assortment of heroes and villains like Luke Cage, Black Widow and Moon Knight, most of whom contribute little to the plot. The game doesn't even do much to develop Spidey's relationships with any of these characters. We know he's close with Mary-Jane - she clearly knows who he is (hell, he's screaming her name in the game's prologue, despite being in costume at the time) - but the game doesn't bother to explain whether they're married, dating, or whatever. Ultimately, the story feels like little more than an excuse to cram in as many Marvel characters as possible.
Fortunately, while the story may be a wash, Shaba managed to nail the feel of controlling the web slinger. Web swinging, always an important aspect of any Spider-Man title, is handled beautifully in this game, with a great sense of speed and mobility. Like in Spider-Man 2, it's a joy to swing to the tallest building before leaping back down to the street to beat up some bad guys, and the excellent aerial controls make the transition from swinging to combat seamless. It helps that Spidey himself looks fantastic in motion, with some incredibly fluid animation as he twists, turns, and soars through the air. What's more, the game implements a token system in the vein of Crackdown, where Spidey can track down emblems that will increase stats like health and swinging speed. It's not especially novel, but it's nonetheless pretty addictive to see Spidey get more powerful as you collect more emblems.
Unfortunately, as much fun as it is to tear through NY on a web, it also reveals a slew of technical issues that put a damper on the experience. Swinging at high speeds is frequently accompanied by screen tearing, massive pop-in, and some egregious framerate problems on PS3. To add further insult to injury, there's some seriously buggy AI where enemies will get stuck in buildings, as well as bosses that'll run into walls and inexplicably freeze in place. On a few occasions, the game would even freeze up entirely during some of the busier combat sequences, forcing me to restart my system. Issues like these make it clear Shaba needed a lot more time to iron out the kinks.
Web of Shadows gives Bethesda some competition for most memorable jank
Web of Shadows' campaign admittedly gets off to a slow start after its explosive prologue. The first few hours of the game see Spidey taking on punching bag gang members with his still-limited move pool. Admittedly, the mundanity of the game's first act, in a way, is the point. What starts out as just another day in the life of Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man turns into a major disaster over the course of these chaotic few days. Nonetheless, it doesn't stop these early portions of the game from being a slog.
Thankfully, once past that initial hurdle, the game quickly starts to pick up, as you purchase more dynamic combat moves and the enemies become more varied. The combat is the star of the show here, with a variety of attacks for the ground, the air, and on the walls. The system on the whole strikes a good balance between accessibility and depth; for those who just want to bash their way through every encounter, there's plenty of crazy-looking moves that can be pulled off simply by mashing buttons, but those who take the time to master it will enjoy learning the timing to pull off successful counters as well as the more complex moves. It's especially satisfying when you seamlessly transition between the three different types of combat, launching foes from the ground into the air before proceeding to pummel them into submission.
Easily the move you'll be relying on the most is the web-strike originated in Spider-Man 3, where Spidey uses his web to quickly pull himself towards the nearest foe and bring the pain. The catch is that enemies will often try to counter his web-strike with an attack of their own, forcing him to either jump before making contact or attack slightly earlier than usual to avoid getting pummeled. The game perhaps relies a bit too heavily on this one move, like one mission where he uses it to hop between not three, not four, but dozens of enemies across several rooftops, but in general, it feels satisfying enough to quickly web-kick one enemy after another that you won't mind making it your default method of attack.
The one other major gimmick regarding combat is the ability to switch between red and black suits with the push of a button. This isn't the first game to make use of this gimmick - Spider-Man 3 introduced it the year prior - but Web of Shadows puts far more emphasis on the contrast between the two. The red suit is more agile, able to quickly chain together speedy attacks on a hapless foe, as well as more focused on aerial attacks and tying foes up with webs. The black suit, on the other hand, provides a more brute-force approach to combat, with the ability to pick up cars and launch slower, more area-based moves. They also trade in webs for tendrils that could grab enemies and slam them on the ground, as well as whip legions of foes. I personally used the red suit when I wanted to beat up bad guys one at a time, while the black suit was reserved for crowd control.
The biggest snag with the combat lies with the camera. Sometimes, it does a fine enough job keeping up with the action, particularly during aerial battles, where it gives you a great sense of just how high up in the air you are as you smack around enemies. The problem comes when you fight on or near walls. The lock-on system often fails to give you an ideal view of the enemy you’re facing, and sometimes just plain doesn't work, leaving you simply staring at the side of a building and leaving nearby foes to get a few cheap shots in. Sometimes, it even gets stuck in walls entirely, leaving me with no other option than to reload from the last autosave. What's more, it's easy to forget to turn targeting off when you take off, leaving it automatically locking on to a faraway enemy instead of simply focusing on what's in front of Spider-Man as he's making his way to his next objective. It seems developers still haven't quite figured out how to build a camera around Spidey's unique range of movement.
The hellscape of symbiote-infested NY really is a sight to behold
Aside from changing combat styles, the 'light vs dark' also factors in to a morality system, where players can decide how the story will play out depending on their choices during cutscenes. Sadly, this is another idea Shaba didn't fully realize. Sure, it's cool to see how your choices play out, but literally tearing someone in half and standing by as rival gangs open fire on each other doesn't necessarily feel like a darker, edgier Spider-Man - it feels like a different character entirely. What's more, your choices have no tangible impact on gameplay, since you can choose to upgrade abilities from either suit regardless of which alignment you choose, and missions are more or less the same regardless of whether you're reporting back to Black Cat or Moon Knight. As cool as it is in theory, in practice the morality system feels like little more than an excuse to have Spider-Man act uncharacteristically violent and moody.
The missions in Web of Shadows start to wear thin after a while. The vast majority simply consist of 'beat up X number of enemies' before reporting back to a character who'll direct you to repeat the process, only with a different type of enemy. The combat is fun enough and the enemies varied enough that you won't mind returning to these missions over and over, but even so, they could have used a bit more variety, and it does become annoying how you near-constantly have to defeat a set number of a specific type of enemy to progress. Thankfully, the missions do get more varied in the final act when the symbiote invasion is in full swing, and you're now required to rescue endangered civilians in the midst of all the fighting. But even here, most missions boil down to punching lots of enemies. Take, for example, one mission type where you have to escort an APC as it transports civilians to a safe zone. So, destroy enemies while staying close to an armored vehicle. Another mission has you defend SHIELD hq from incoming symbiotes. Destroy enemies faster. As much fun as the combat is, the game could have benefitted from some trimming to make these missions feel like less of a grind.Fortunately, there is one thing that makes slogging through the repetitive missions worth it: The fantastic boss encounters. For the most part, the bosses you'll fight are unique and exciting, if not especially difficult. One such encounter has you chasing Black Cat before engaging in a sexually charged battle across several rooftops. Another noteworthy boss is Vulture, which starts out on top of a skyscraper before using enemies as stepping stones to reach him high up in the air. A personal favorite of mine is Electro, a high voltage chase through the city with destruction following his path. None of them are particularly difficult, but they pack a welcome variety the game otherwise lacks and put your hard-earned abilities to good use, though the final boss, as insane as he looks, feels a bit anti-climactic.
Soundwise, Web of Shadows is pretty good, if not spectacular. The score, while not especially memorable, sounds fittingly heroic and appropriately picks up whenever a fight begins. As for the voice acting, it's also decent, with one major exception: Spider-Man himself. Voice actor Mike Vaughn is all wrong for the wall crawler, giving him a whiny, cracked voice that makes him sound like he's still going through puberty. The result is someone who sounds goofy and annoying rather than wise-cracking and heroic. Everyone else at least sounds more fitting, though you can expect some annoying sound glitches where voices will become inaudible or repeat a line several times in a scene.
Bosses against iconic villains like these are about as thrilling as you'd hope.
Graphically, Spider-Man is also one of highs and lows. As previously mentioned, Spider-Man himself looks great and is well-animated, whether he's swinging through the city or pulling off some slick looking combat moves. The rest of the characters don't fare as well, with many looking blocky and stiff in comparison, particularly the women (seriously, just what happened to Black Widow's face?). The city itself also looks pretty good, with solid texture work for buildings and loads of cars and civilians roaming the streets. What's more, the visuals also evoke a sense of heightened stakes, with the final act seeing the sky darken and the city now being overrun by zombies and symbiote webs all over the buildings. But as good as it looks in stills, when you're swinging through the city, the cracks really start to show, with all manner of technical problems mentioned above tarnishing the game's look.
Unpolished and repetitive as it may be, Web of Shadows is nonetheless one of the better Spider-Man titles released. The fast-paced, over-the-top combat and exciting boss battles manage to hold interest even through the game's rough patches, and the morality system, undercooked as it is, does provide some incentive to play through the decent-sized campaign more than once to see just how your choices play out. This may not be the greatest superhero title on the market, and there's no denying it could have been a lot better had it spent a bit more time in the oven, but if you're one of the fans who were disappointed by the mediocre cash-in titles Spider-Man 3 and Spider-Man: Friend or Foe, this might be right up your alley.
Pros
- + Swinging through the city is as thrilling as ever
- + Spider-Man and his animations look great
- + Fun, fast-paced combat, whether it's in the air, on walls, or the ground.
- + Exciting boss battles
- + Different suits add different options for Spidey
Cons
- - Repetitive mission objectives
- - Technical issues include screen tearing, stuttering, and occasionally poor sound mixing
- - Weak story that wastes a novel concept
- - Spider-Man's voice actor is awful
7
Gameplay
7
Graphics
7
Sound
7
Replayability
7.5
out of 10
Overall
Web of Shadows ultimately fails to build upon the good ideas it introduced, turning what could have been the best Spider-Man title into one that feels half-formed. That said, its core ideas are nonetheless executed well enough that it provides a worthwhile diversion for those who want a much better black-suited adventure than the underwhelming Spider-Man 3 with some of the craziest combat moves of any superhero adventure. And hey, the ability to go dark is good for some unintentional hilarity.
