Retro Review: Spiderman 2: Enter Electro

<p>After beating the first <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;bagogames&period;com&sol;retro-review-spider-man&sol;"><em>Spider-Man<&sol;em> <&sol;a>game&comma; I put Spider-Man back in the PlayStation to enjoy <em>Spider-Man 2&colon; Enter Electro<&sol;em>&comma; and unfortunately this is one of those weird times in gaming where the sequel is not as good or better than the original&period; This may be due to the fact that Neversoft wasn&&num;8217&semi;t in control of this title&period; Instead&comma; Vicarious Visions took over the development duties&comma; and it shows&period; While they brought some better ideas and design to the game&comma; they took away what I enjoyed most from the first title&period; Now I&&num;8217&semi;m either saying this to huge fans of the first game&comma; or to people have may have picked up the first game at my behest&period; This game is quite different and while it is fun it isn&&num;8217&semi;t a joyous romp through New York with our Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man&period; It is a nail biting&comma; non-directional warzone through the city&comma; so buyer beware&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>When the story starts out it gives you a nice re-cap of the last game&&num;8217&semi;s story which is a nice touch since comic books always do that&comma; whether in narration or just a long paragraph on the title page&period; Then it cuts to Electro doing what he does best&colon; stealing&period; Spider-Man gets there and begins to trail the escape vehicle which is when the Shocker comes in to play&period; Luckily&comma; Spider-Man uses one of his trusty Spider-Trackers to make sure he knows where Electro is going while he tidies up with Shocker&period; Through the entire story Spider-Man is always following the stolen cases that Electro keeps amassing&period; The player discovers that the plan is to put together a Bio-Nexus Device that will amplify Electro&&num;8217&semi;s power exponentially&period; Lucky for New York he cannot figure out how to complete it&comma; so he must cast one final caper&comma; kidnapping Dr&period; Watts &lpar;get it&quest;&rpar; from a science fair&period; Thankfully our very own Peter Parker is there to foil everyone&&num;8217&semi;s evil intentions&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;115924" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-115924" style&equals;"width&colon; 640px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"wp-image-115924 size-full" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2016&sol;12&sol;02225450&sol;shocker-boss-fight&period;jpg" alt&equals;"&lpar;Spider-Man 2&colon; Enter Electro - Activision&rpar;" width&equals;"640" height&equals;"360" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-115924" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">&lpar;<em>Spider-Man 2&colon; Enter Electro<&sol;em>&comma; Activision&rpar;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>Vicarious Visions was smart enough to keep the control scheme from the first game&comma; which I was thankful for seeing as I played both titles back to back&period; Square and Circle are still attack&semi; Triangle is web shooting&semi; and R2 is web swinging&period; In case you had forgotten all of these Beast is nice enough to show up and remind you in a lengthy tutorial&period; Just to warn you&comma; this tutorial cannot be skipped so you have to go through remedial controls all over again&period; Stan Lee is back&comma; which makes me smile once again&period; You just cannot go wrong with that man narrating a Marvel licensed game&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Since a new developer took over the reins for the sequel there are some noticeable differences&comma; both good and bad&period; Let us begin with the bad first&period; What I enjoyed the most about the first title was almost stripped away from the second&period; Spider-Man is mostly a brawler in the comic books&period; Yes he thinks of some creative way to capture the Sinister Six&comma; but for the most part he catches them with his fists&period; In the sequel there is punching&comma; but everything seems to be linked to a timed mission &lpar;which I hate&rpar; or a chase mission&comma; which just aren&&num;8217&semi;t any fun&semi; they&&num;8217&semi;re even less fun in an old game&period; This mechanic switch between the sequels really made me lose some of my enjoyment&period; I hate having to replay a certain area over and over because time runs out or because I lost who I was tailing&period; The graphics though are much better than its predecessor&period; Spider-Man actually has the black webbing on his costume this time &&num;8211&semi; hooray for detail&excl; I also like the fact that Vicarious used all the rogues that weren&&num;8217&semi;t in the first game&comma; so there is no rehash with the boss battles&comma; you get a whole new crop of criminals to brain&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;115931" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-115931" style&equals;"width&colon; 640px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"wp-image-115931 size-full" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2016&sol;12&sol;02233758&sol;hqdefault&period;jpg" alt&equals;"&lpar;Spider-Man 2&colon; Enter Electro - Activision&rpar;" width&equals;"640" height&equals;"480" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-115931" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">&lpar;<em>Spider-Man 2&colon; Enter Electro<&sol;em>&comma; Activision&rpar;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>I did enjoy this title&comma; but definitely not as much as the first one&period; Neversoft was just on a roll at the turn of the century and <em>Spider-Man<&sol;em> on the PlayStation is proof of that&period; Vicarious Visions had some large shoes to fill&comma; and they tried vainly&period; The new mechanics that they tacked onto boss fights and just while wandering around New York are a chore and most of the time make you go back to the checkpoint over and over&period; If you are a fan of Spider-Man and just want to play one of his games&comma; there are far better out there&period; However&comma; if you are like me and have a sick obsession of playing and beating them all in order&comma; then by all means grab a copy of this title&period; Comic book fans will enjoy finally seeing Sandman and Hammerhead digitized for them to pummel with Peter Parker&&num;8217&semi;s fists&period; So while this may not be the best Spider-Man game out there&comma; <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;bagogames&period;com&sol;retro-review-spiderman-shattered-dimensions&sol;"><em>Shattered Dimensions<&sol;em><&sol;a> probably holds that title&comma; it isn&&num;8217&semi;t one that needs to be snubbed&period; If you like timed missions on an antiquated system then by all means go for this title&excl;<&sol;p>&NewLine;