The Average Spider-Man | The Amazing Spider-Man 2 Review

<p>Treyarch&&num;8217&semi;s <em>Spider-Man 2<&sol;em> is widely considered to be the high watermark of Spider-Man games with its introduction of the open world and free roaming web slinging&period; It innovated in ways that made the game extremely memorable and felt perfectly how a Spidey title should feel&period; Even today most of the webslinger&&num;8217&semi;s outings are compared to the excellence that was <em>Spider-Man 2 <&sol;em>and while <em>The Amazing Spider-Man 2<&sol;em> seeks to reach heights of similar success&comma; it unfortunately has nowhere to swing from&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The next game in the Beenox line of Spider-Man creations&comma; I can&&num;8217&semi;t help but wonder if Beenox is getting tired of making these things because <em>The Amazing Spiderman 2<&sol;em> really shows signs of it&period; The game&comma; while having the same name as the movie&comma; isn&&num;8217&semi;t trying to make a carbon copy of the movies plot but instead&comma; like <em>Amazing Spider-Man 1<&sol;em>&comma; its plot takes place outside of the movie timeline&period; This lends to some problems though as it feels like the movie villains&comma; Electro and Green Goblin&comma; have just been shoehorned into what otherwise would be a very interesting story&period; Leading to awkwardly placed bosses&comma; unlike the other characters it never really fits the story that they should be there&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The other characters in this game feel different enough with a colorful cast of Spider-Man villains showing up with Shocker&comma; Kraven the Hunter&comma; Kingpin&comma; Carnage&comma; and Black Cat all making a return as bosses to wind down certain chapters of the story&period; Neither very exciting or engaging&comma; all the fights use the same system&comma; every boss having a specific weakness that you have to exploit over and over again until their beaten&period; It makes the battles feel very weak and lazy because there is so much more they could have done with all these unique characters than they did&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2014&sol;05&sol;05104325&sol;The-Amazing-Spider-Man-2-3&period;jpg"><img class&equals;"aligncenter size-large wp-image-61748" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2014&sol;05&sol;05104325&sol;The-Amazing-Spider-Man-2-3&period;jpg" alt&equals;"The-Amazing-Spider-Man-2-3" width&equals;"750" height&equals;"413" &sol;><&sol;a><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>As for the games combat system&comma; it takes points straight from Batman&&num;8217&semi;s book with the X button being attack and Y being counter&comma; which is signalled when you see Spider-Man&&num;8217&semi;s spider sense flashing above his head&comma; warning of incoming attacks&period; While I enjoyed the combat system of the <em>Batman Arkham<&sol;em> games&comma; here it feels a little more clunky and inaccurate&period; Spider-Mans animations have been ramped up though and I never got tired of seeing him use his moves in combat&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The game is set in an open world once again&comma; a staple since <em>Spider-Man 2<&sol;em> did it so spectacularly&comma; but this city doesn&&num;8217&semi;t feel nearly as lifelike or alive with NPCs always using the same walk cycles&comma; hardly interacting at all&comma; and many just color palettes&period; Although the world close-up isn&&num;8217&semi;t very impressive&comma; swinging through it with web slinging is the best its ever been with the L and R buttons being used for each arm&period; With this new system you can only attach webbing when you have an actual building or structure to attach your web too&period; The idea is impressive and implemented well but I wish they had spent more time on other parts of the game rather than putting so much effort into this aspect of it&period; That being said the web swinging here is at its all time best and it was a blast to use to travel&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>There is also a new open world mechanic called the Hero&sol;Menace Meter&period; How this mechanic works is it gauges how Spider-Man is viewed within the eyes of the public&period; By preventing crimes and saving people you positively add to meter but by ignoring crimes and letting them expire&comma; it effects the meter negatively&period; While you are in the Hero side of the meter the Task Force will leave you alone and it adds positive stats and experience&comma; but if you are viewed as a Menace then the Task Force will attack you on sight and you will lose stats on your suits as well as gain less experience&period; This mechanic is an interesting idea but it quickly becomes more of a nuisance than anything else&period; Later in the game crimes will start expiring faster than you can stop them or solving crimes won&&num;8217&semi;t give you enough hero meter to keep ahead&comma; and at certain points in the story even if you have max hero meter&comma; the game will reset your meter down to menace levels destroying your time spent preventing crimes&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2014&sol;05&sol;05104304&sol;ASM2-Combat2&period;jpg"><img class&equals;"aligncenter size-large wp-image-61751" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2014&sol;05&sol;05104304&sol;ASM2-Combat2-1024x576&period;jpg" alt&equals;"ASM2-Combat2" width&equals;"750" height&equals;"421" &sol;><&sol;a><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The rest of the side missions aren&&num;8217&semi;t that much better there being races to unlock concept art and a new costume if you beat them all&comma; while Photo Investigations are pretty much taking pictures of the same situations multiple times to unlock more audio files&period; The only unique and worthwhile side missions are the Russian Hideouts where you unlock more costumes by taking out guards through only stealthy means&period; Its screams of Batman once again but with Spider-Mans ability to wall crawl and rappel down using webbing&comma; it adds a unique spin to it&period; Planning on how to take out guards without being seen was some of the best fun I had with <em>The Amazing Spider-Man 2<&sol;em> and it definitely added to have something to do other than just beat up thugs&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Speaking of thugs&comma; the enemies in this game all come in the same varieties for all factions&colon; there&&num;8217&semi;s basic baddies that get hit normally and get countered normally&comma; big baddies that need to be shocked with a Sonic Blast and then pummelled&comma; and agile and flying enemies that need to be web pulled towards you to be able to hit them&period; While these enemies are unique and add some more challenge to combat&comma; they do become annoying by requiring almost 3 to 4 pulls or sonic blasts before they can be defeated&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The upgrades are a little disappointing as well with the only cool power up in the game being the Sonic Blast&comma; which can knock down multiple enemies&period; The only other upgrades are upgrades to basic abilities and none of the upgrades are really all that useful except for the Spider Sense&comma; which&comma; when maxed out&comma; gives you ability to sense collectibles&period; This proves invaluable if you want to collect all the readable comic books&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2014&sol;05&sol;05104316&sol;ASM2-Stealth&period;jpg"><img class&equals;"aligncenter size-large wp-image-61750" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2014&sol;05&sol;05104316&sol;ASM2-Stealth-1024x576&period;jpg" alt&equals;"ASM2-Stealth" width&equals;"750" height&equals;"421" &sol;><&sol;a><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>On the subject of comic books&comma; the game offers a treasure trove of fan service in way of the the Comic Stand&period; The Comic Stand or Comic Stan&comma; is run by none other than Stan Lee&comma; who is sort of a new father figure to Peter Parker as he knew both him and Uncle Ben before that fateful event&period; In the Comic Stand there is a wealth of fan service including full readable comics that highlight the first time villains of the game appeared in the Spider-Man comics&comma; as well as cool Spider-Man moments in general&period; In the Comic Stand you can also look up Concept Art that you have unlocked in the races as well as try out Combat Challenges&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The Combat Challenges themselves are standard fare in that you take out baddies by satisfying certain conditions&period; Each combat challenge you complete unlocks more concept art and by beating all of them&comma; you can unlock a whole new costume&period; The costumes in this game are also filled with fan service with some dating back to the oldest comics and some dating to the newest&period; These aren&&num;8217&semi;t just little variations either&comma; The Hornet&comma; Ricochet&comma; Spider-Man 2099&comma; and even Miles Morales all making an appearance here&period; These nods to the Spider-Man fans in general are great but I wish they had been structured around a better game&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>At the end of the day&comma; <em>The Amazing Spider-Man 2<&sol;em> is a good title plagued with just a few too many problems that drag it down&period; While the web slinging is awesome and the story is unique and interesting&comma; things like the Hero&sol;Menace meter and the horrible side missions drag down what otherwise could have been a great game&period; It seems that Beenox is tired of making Spider-Man projects and it really shows with this&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;