Spiderman 3 – Review

g-spiderman3200Spiderman 3

(Activision for Xbox 360)
By Mike Delano

There’s no way around it: Swinging around Manhattan in Spiderman 3 is fun. Jamming on the L and R triggers as you careen from building to building, swinging low to tiptoe between taxicabs, or getting airborne just to throw yourself into the trees in Central Park, the swinging is the best part of the game, maybe the best part of any game ever from the notorious gaming ghetto of movie tie-ins. Unfortunately, the one thing Spiderman 3 gets very right isn’t enough to overshadow its many faults.

Using a mission-based open-world approach suits the game well since it means you’ll have a blast swinging from mission to mission, and it shakes off the often rigid, linear course of action most movie tie-in games adhere to. The missions themselves, however, are often boring, focusing on tasks that are light on actual gameplay (photo assignments, disarming bombs with simple button prompts). Things pick up when you get to fight, but a herky-jerky camera and shoddy controls (jumping with any kind of precision is a futile exercise) ruin what fun you might have had with Spidey’s creative web attacks. Uglier still are the character models from the in-game cut scenes. If it weren’t for the gorgeous city layout, the majority of the game would be simply unattractive.

His adventures on the ground might not do Spidey any favors this time around, but the high points of Spiderman 3 make you hope that he’ll swing into a more fully-realized game next time.
(www.activision.com)