Welcome fellow Spidey fans to Activision`s Spider-Man 2 the Movie on PlayStation 2. The game follows the movie`s plot pretty closely, only changing slightly here and there to keep it interesting.
For instance, Doctor Octopus isn`t the 'only` villain our favourite wall-crawler faces in the game. I`m sure all Spidey fans will recognise tons of other bad guys from the Spider-Man story line.
Upon starting the game, the first choice you`ll have is between the easy and normal swing modes. While it`s easier to use the easy swing mode, I found that it doesn`t really work all that well, and let`s face it... in the long run, it will be more rewarding if you get the normal swing mode under your belt, don`t you agree?
Moving swiftly along...
You start your basic training, learning how to jump, stick to walls, and the rest of the ins and outs of being the greatest superhero in the world.
Sprinting allows Spidey to run or crawl faster, and you can now charge Spidey`s jumps, allowing him to perform a small hop or an amazing leap over incredible distances. When using a fully charged jump together with a sprint, you can jump close to a full city block.
Swinging throughout the city gives a sense of freedom and it felt exactly how I imagined it would. Zipping web lines stick realistically to buildings and allow you to actually swing around corners.
The game allows you to climb any building, no matter how tall, and you`ve got the ability to jump off with a graceful swan dive.
Careful though, free-fall for a dangerously long time and the screen become hazy - this is a warning that Spidey is plummeting to his death and if you don`t zip out a web line before hitting the ground it`s 'curtains` for the web-head.
Spider-Man 2 is split into over 20 chapters, and each chapter has certain goals that need to be achieved before you can advance to the next stage.
The first missions are designed to get you used to the controls and the large city. All missions are marked on your map, but you don`t have to go to it right away.
Missions like finding hidden tokens, racing through checkpoints, rushing people off to hospitals, stopping robberies or delivering pizzas are a taste of some of the mini games you`ll encounter.
As you do these little missions you will be awarded hero points, which will later be used to upgrade your skills, such as webbing, fighting and so on.
Although there are so many missions that it does become a bit boring, the great thing is that you don`t have to do them (unless you desperately want those hero points!)
Boss fights are handled well, and usually follow a pattern or a specific weakness to take advantage of. They are the pretty typical boss fights you might be used to from other games, but luckily you have your Spider reflexes to help you defeat these powerful adversaries.
Spider-Man`s attacks become a lot more powerful in the "slow motion" reflex state, and I noticed that the combos seemed to change a bit too. Graphically, the game looks pretty decent in some areas, but average in others.
For instance, when Peter is talking to Doctor Connors, the background seems to shake and this actually distracted me from what Doctor Connors was saying.
One annoying thing I found is that some of the random comments thrown around by the people on the streets get a bit repetitive. Comments like "Get a job", or "Hey, I`m driving here" might leave you wanting to pull out your hair when you`ve heard them 1 000 times.
However, as the huge Spider-Man fan I am, I just HAD to have this game in my collection - I hope I don`t get sick of it before I`ve managed to complete it.
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