Retro Review – Spider-Man: Edge of Time

<p>Beenox Games really outdid themselves with their first entry into the Spider-Man franchise&period; <em>Shattered Dimensions<&sol;em> did everything right and very little wrong&period; Seeing that success Activision had them pump out a sequel&comma; <em>Spider-Man&colon; Edge of Time<&sol;em>&comma; and while the game stands alone very well&comma; it doesn&&num;8217&semi;t compare very well to its predecessor&period; So in this review I&&num;8217&semi;m going to try to review it without thinking about <em>Shattered Dimensions<&sol;em>&comma; that is the only way to give this game a fair shake&period; At first I didn&&num;8217&semi;t enjoy my time with this game&comma; but as I got deeper and deeper into the story I realized that this game is pretty darn good and people shouldn&&num;8217&semi;t overlook it just because it is the middle child of Beenox Spider-Man games&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Now there are some comic book writers that can pen an extremely well crafted video game story&semi; Paul Dini for example with the first two <em>Arkham<&sol;em> games&comma; and Dan Slott with <em>Shattered Dimensions<&sol;em>&period; Peter David is not one of those men&period; In my opinion Peter David should have stopped writing comic books years ago&comma; yet he continues to pop up with stale titles like <em>X-Factor<&sol;em> and <em>Spider-Man 2099<&sol;em>&period; Speaking of Spider-Man 2099&comma; he is one of the main characters in <em>Edge of Time<&sol;em> and says &&num;8220&semi;shocking&&num;8221&semi; a lot&period; I&&num;8217&semi;m assuming that&&num;8217&semi;s a swear word 83 years from now&period; This game opens up with Spider-Man of our time getting his clock cleaned by Anti-Venom and Spider-Man 2099 trying to save Parker from dying a truly horrible death&period; He saves Parker and in doing so causes a huge time rift that can only be fixed if both Spider-Men work together&period; The game&&num;8217&semi;s story plays in our time and in 2099 in the same building if you can wrap your head around that one&period; Thankfully it isn&&num;8217&semi;t too confusing and everything gets tied up in a nice little bow&comma; but it takes some twists and turns to get there&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;116041" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-116041" style&equals;"width&colon; 640px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"wp-image-116041 size-full" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2016&sol;12&sol;06021346&sol;Spiderman-Edge-of-time-Wii&period;jpg" alt&equals;"&lpar;Spider-Man&colon; Edge of Time - Activision&rpar;" width&equals;"640" height&equals;"359" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-116041" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">&lpar;<em>Spider-Man&colon; Edge of Time<&sol;em>&comma; Activision&rpar;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>The controls feel great on the Xbox 360 controller&comma; and swinging around as either Spider-Man was quite simple&period; X is jump and A and B are attack&period; If you feel the need to shoot some webs Y will be your button of choice&period; Both Spider-Men have special moves that really come in handy while fighting the tougher grunts&period; Tapping Left Trigger while playing as Spider-Man 2099 nets you a decoy so that you can dodge incoming missiles and lead them to objects or enemies that need to be destroyed&period; Hyspersense is Peter Parker&&num;8217&semi;s special ability and it basically makes you invulnerable for about thirty seconds&comma; which comes in handy during some difficult boss fights&period; If you really like to throw things at people Right Bumper is grab and Left Bumper is throw&comma; but I didn&&num;8217&semi;t need that at all after I upgraded my webbing&period; To upgrade everything you need to collect items&semi; to upgrade health&comma; shield and stamina you have to hunt down Golden Spiders&period; For combat upgrades you collect all the portal energy you encounter in the world and when you defeat enemies&period; Much of this was moved from the original game which was a good idea&semi; they added the Golden Spiders though&comma; which makes it more difficult for you to become extremely over-powered&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The voice acting and graphics are stellar&period; I&&num;8217&semi;m guessing that without having four actors playing four different Spider-Men allowed them to free up some money for Val Kilmer to play the villain&period; The actors for both Spider-Men also do a great job with their respective parts &&num;8211&semi; current Spider-Man has the quips while he&&num;8217&semi;s running around and Spider-Man 2099 is a tad more serious in tone&semi; basically <em>The Odd Couple<&sol;em> meets <em>Spider-Man<&sol;em>&period; Sadly there is no Stan Lee to be found in this game&period; I don&&num;8217&semi;t know why&comma; but it saddens my heart&period; The graphics look great&semi; all the models for the villains are for lack of a better term&comma; amazing&period; Anti-Venom looks scary&comma; Black Cat looks smoking hot and watching Spider-Man&&num;8217&semi;s costume slowly turn to ribbons is pretty nice to see&period; The rooms and buildings look the same for the most part&period; I mean this game does take place in The Daily Bugle building &lpar;which turns into the Alchemex due to time changes&rpar; in our time and in 2099&period; There is no grand landscaping to see&comma; it is just the inside of a building&comma; and sadly buildings are just as boring in 2099&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;116053" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-116053" style&equals;"width&colon; 640px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"wp-image-116053 size-full" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2016&sol;12&sol;06134541&sol;spiderman-edge-of-time-e3-2011-screenshots&period;jpg" alt&equals;"&lpar;Spider-Man&colon; Edge of Time - Activision&rpar;" width&equals;"640" height&equals;"361" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-116053" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">&lpar;<em>Spider-Man&colon; Edge of Time<&sol;em>&comma; Activision&rpar;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>As I said prior&comma; this game is great if you play it without playing any other Spider-Man game on the Xbox 360 or PlayStation 3&period; The story is self-contained and leads you on some very interesting twists and turns that will shock you&comma; especially if you&&num;8217&semi;ve read Spider-Man comic books for years&period; I would play this game first&comma; that way when you get to it you won&&num;8217&semi;t be as disappointed when you first start it out&period; This game grew on me pretty nicely as I got deeper and deeper into the game&period; I&&num;8217&semi;m thinking it is because I&&num;8217&semi;m somewhat obsessed with Time-Travel and John Titor&period; If you can find a copy of this game&comma; are a fan of Spider-Man&comma; a fan of comic books or just a fan of action brawlers you should pick this title up&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;