Retro Review – Spiderman: Shattered Dimensions

<p>After I saw Insomniac&&num;8217&semi;s <em>Spiderman<&sol;em> game preview at E3 I was instantly excited for everything about that game&comma; except for that costume&semi; let&&num;8217&semi;s hope that white spot was just someone forgetting to add blue&period; So&comma; being the OCD gamer that I am&comma; I rifled through all my <em>Spiderman<&sol;em> games and settled on Beenox&&num;8217&semi;s first foray into the Spider-verse&period; Beenox did not disappoint&comma; they were smart enough to draft Dan Slott&comma; long time <em>Spiderman<&sol;em> writer&comma; to pen this game&semi; something Rocksteady copied by hiring Paul Dini for the <em>Batman<&sol;em> games&period; I&&num;8217&semi;m thinking that Beenox kicked off a nice trend of pretty decent licensed games&comma; and <em>Shattered Dimensions<&sol;em> is much better than decent&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>As I said before&comma; Dan Slott provides the story to this game and he does not disappoint&period; The Tablet of Order and Chaos has been shattered across dimensions and Madame Webb enlists four Spidermen from different dimensions to hunt down the pieces and reassemble them&period; Stan Lee narrates the whole game and introduces you Spiderman 2099&comma; Ultimate Spiderman&comma; Spiderman Noir&comma; and The Amazing Spiderman&period; Each of the Spidermen have different quirks in their levels&comma; which makes the game exciting&period; You don&&num;8217&semi;t have to play with only one Spiderman and the different levels never let you get bored of the game&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;110424" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-110424" style&equals;"width&colon; 640px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"wp-image-110424 size-full" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2016&sol;07&sol;03115737&sol;SMSD20Review2008&period;jpg" alt&equals;"Spiderman&colon; Shattered Dimensions" width&equals;"640" height&equals;"361" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-110424" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">&lpar;<em>Spiderman&colon; Shattered Dimensions<&sol;em> &&num;8211&semi; Activision&rpar;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>I am no fan of stealth games &&num;8211&semi; I generally don&&num;8217&semi;t have the patience for them &&num;8211&semi; but Beenox really knocked it out of the park with Spiderman Noir&&num;8217&semi;s levels&period; His levels are heavy stealth&comma; and they really knocked it out of the park&period; I didn&&num;8217&semi;t get stuck all the time because I kept being seen&period; Luckily&comma; I could swing away when trouble happened&comma; and I found myself hiding in the darkness as I regenerated&period; Ultimate Spiderman&&num;8217&semi;s levels were pretty normal&comma; except for the fact that you charge up Venom power&semi; Amazing Spiderman&&num;8217&semi;s levels were almost identical&comma; just minus the Venom power&period; Spiderman 2099 focused on speed&period; There are still nice action moments&comma; but mostly I ran away from explosions and such in 2099&period; During the levels you complete challenges that unlock points on The Spider&&num;8217&semi;s Web&comma; this gets you more useful Spider Emblems and if you get them all you can unlock an achievement&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The controls are pretty easy to learn&comma; and surprisingly easy to remember&semi; my time gap for this game was five long years&period; It was back when I had severe game ADD&period; I&&num;8217&semi;m better now and try to finish a game before I switch them out&period; Pushing A makes Spidey jump&period; If you want him to web-swing hit RT&comma; and quick web to get you out of sticky situations is RB&period; If you need to travel super fast hit A twice and Spidey pulls himself up with his webs&period; If you get lost in a level or are looking for Spider Emblems lying around&comma; hit up on D-pad and you&&num;8217&semi;ll enable Spider-sense&semi; this came in handy with the Noir stealth portions&period; Combat is simple and once you master it Spidey owns the Octagon&semi; B is grab so you can hold and punch the enemy or throw them into other enemies&period; Punch is X and Y is a stronger punch and defense break&comma; for those enemies who like to block punches&period; As you progress through the levels and defeat enemies you collect Spider Emblems&period; These Emblems can be used to buy more combos&comma; health and special moves for Spidey&comma; so grab as many as you can&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;110433" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-110433" style&equals;"width&colon; 640px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"wp-image-110433 size-full" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2016&sol;07&sol;03115726&sol;1312521-sd1&period;jpg" alt&equals;"&lpar;&lt&semi;em&gt&semi;Spiderman&colon; Shattered Dimensions&lt&semi;&sol;em&gt&semi; - Activision&rpar;" width&equals;"640" height&equals;"361" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-110433" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">&lpar;<em>Spiderman&colon; Shattered Dimensions<&sol;em> &&num;8211&semi; Activision&rpar;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>Beenox brought the voice-over talent to this title&period; Neil Patrick Harris voices The Amazing Spiderman&comma; Christopher Daniel Barnes lends his talents to Spiderman Noir&comma; Josh Keaton is Ultimate Spiderman and finally Dan Gilvezan jumps to the future to voice Spiderman 2099&period; These guys were great&colon; they gave each of their Spidermen a different personality and I loved them for it&period; My person favorite was Spiderman 2099 as he just nailed the banter to a T&period; Stan Lee as the narrator is always a joy as well&period; He should just be allowed to narrate everything&period; The music is not really worthy of mention as I can&&num;8217&semi;t place a single tune right now as I write this&comma; so if you&&num;8217&semi;re buying this game for musical score&comma; don&&num;8217&semi;t&period; Buy it for variety in Spidermen and insanely perfect voiceover work&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>I&&num;8217&semi;m grateful that I decided to go back to this title&period; It had been on my pile of shame for half a decade and I&&num;8217&semi;m thrilled I got to scratch it off that list&period; The gameplay was fantastic&comma; the story drew me along&comma; there were some bumps in a few levels where you had no direction&comma; but that didn&&num;8217&semi;t take away from my experience&period; If you&&num;8217&semi;re looking for a top-notch Spiderman game to pop into your PS3 or Xbox 360 then this is the game for you&period; I&&num;8217&semi;m looking forward to playing Beenox&&num;8217&semi;s sequel here in the near future to see if they captured the same magic for The Friendly Neighborhood Spiderman&period; I really hope they did&comma; because I wouldn&&num;8217&semi;t mind seeing another great web-slinging game&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;