Score
Gameplay:	8
Graphics:	9
Sound:	7
FunFactor:	8
PlasmaFactor:	6
Overall:	7.6

Ultimate Spider-Man Review
November 18, 2005 by Matt Wetsel

by MattW - November 18, 2005

Where�s Gwen Stacey? The Green Goblin doesn�t ride a glider? Venom doesn�t shoot webbing? Don't fret, True Believer, it's just the Marvel Ultimate Universe, an alternate take on some of Marvel�s most popular titles (Ultimate X-Men is a great read, by the way). Purists may dislike the inconsistencies, but one thing is for sure: the Ultimate Spider-Man series makes some wonderful source material to use for a video game. Recreating the look of the comics with remarkable accuracy, Treyarch builds off of the movie-based Spider-Man 2 with some excellent results, but the disappointingly short length - and some minor control issues - holds the game back from true greatness. Oh, and you can eat people.

Staying in line with the comics, Peter Parker is a mere 15 years old, he�s already dating Mary Jane, and Eddie Brock is now a childhood friend and schoolmate (opposed to a psychotic rival reporter). Apparently Peter and Eddie�s fathers� worked together years ago trying to find a cure for cancer, the product of their research being none other than the symbiotic black costume that Peter wore for a short time, eventually finding Brock and creating Venom. Angered by Peter�s rejection, the suit is a perfect match for power-hungry Brock and his quick temper, and before long he�s rampaging through the streets of New York. The actual story and dialogue in the game were written by none-other than acclaimed Marvel writer Brian Michael Bendis, so the story is well-delivered and the cut scenes have some great dialogue.

If you played 2003's Spider-Man 2, then you�ll roughly know what to expect with this title in terms of gameplay. As Spider-Man, you have complete free-roam of Manhattan, although for Ultimate Spider-Man it feels like the island itself has been downsized slightly to make room for Queens. Controls have been simplified for better or for worse - in the previous game you had complete control over web-swinging, including individual arms. Heck, you could even shoot 2 at once and just dangle between buildings over the street. For Ultimate Spider-Man, you only have the right trigger for swinging, although you can still web-zip across rooftops with the best of them. One of the best parts of Spider-Man 2 was swinging through the city at blinding speeds, but the simplified controls here make swinging more routine and less exciting. Make no mistake, it�s still great to swing through a digital New York, but it�s a very odd design decision to give the player less control. Also, the charge jump has been replaced by a double jump, which has great defensive use but can be endlessly frustrating depending on it�s application. For example, if you�re near a wall, the first jump you make will launch you straight up, but if you try to double jump, Spider-Man will automatically do a wall jump and propel himself away from it. I don�t know how many times this launched me in the wrong direction and caused me lose a race or one of the many chase sequences in the game. After a while, you�ll learn to compensate for it, but that doesn�t make it any less obnoxious.

You�ll forget all about the slight issues with Spider-Man�s controls the first time you get to play as Venom. Since the behemoth doesn�t shoot webbing, he gets around by leaping, kind of like the Hulk, and he can also do a tentacle zip which is identical in execution to Spider-Man�s. More importantly, though, Venom is much stronger and is usually being chased by authorities, so his sequences are always full of action and are some of the best in the game. The suit is constantly using Brock�s life force, so you have to feed on people to restore health even if you aren�t currently taking damage. His ability to heal makes Venom�s sequences a bit easier, but that doesn�t make it any less entertaining.

 

What DOES make the game less entertaining are City Events. Recall in Spider-Man 2 the random crimes, car-jackings, and people caught on the roofs? They got really boring really fast due to a serious lack of variety, and while Ultimate Spider-Man doesn�t do a whole lot different with them, they are now mandatory to advance the story. Between story events (re: the fun stuff) you have to complete a number of races/Crime Tours (go around fighting gangs) and the aforementioned City Events to make them appear. The worst part is you�ll have an exhilarating fight and cut scene, only to be told you have to go do the same old routine stuff completely unrelated to the story just to proceed. Weak.

 

A playable comic book?

Perhaps the biggest accomplishment of Ultimate Spider-Man is the new graphical style being employed. Treyarch wanted to make a game that looked like a living, moving comic book, and in that they have succeeded admirably. Simple yet astounding, the cell-shaded characters and environments capture the look and feel of the comic book in a way that no other game has before. The cut scenes which move the story along are told in moving panels to further the comic look and feel, with characters often leaping from one to the next - it�s what Comix Zone should have been 10 years ago. The draw distance is still occasionally painful, with textures or even entire buildings and cars appearing out of nowhere, less then a block away. It can kind of kill the immersion of the otherwise bright and fluid style, but these are minor complaints. Being a cross-platform title, it�s likely that these things are necessary to keep frame rates high (and they are), but I have a feeling they could squeeze more power out of both the Xbox and Gamecube versions.

 

 

Overall, you won�t be disappointed with the audio in the game. Character voices match up nicely with their digital counterparts, and the voice acting itself is better than what we�ve come to expect for dialogue-heavy games. Speaking of dialogue-heavy, what would a Spider-Man game be without the witty one-liners? Every boss fight has it�s own set of comments from Spidey, the majority of which are quite funny the first time you hear them. And no, he didn�t make up the word nudnik. The only problem is, there are some really hard fights and you�ll probably end up going through a few of them more than a couple times, dialogue and all. The 27th time you hear him say, "Thanks, but I had a fireball for lunch!" you'll see what I mean.

Worth noting is the music, or rather the lack of it. The majority of time you spend playing will be accompanied by traffic noise and pedestrian conversation, with music creeping in intermittently and during races or battles. It's a great way to suck you into the more action-oriented sequences, it prevents the music from getting repetitious (*cough* unlike the dialogue) and some of the songs they have are downright good, far above and beyond the generic metal or techno you'd expect.

 

 

All the complaints I've made thus far are minor, because one thing needs to be clear: this game is so much fun that it's worth every annoying catch phrase and race through Manhattan. The story sequences are so well put together and challenging that you'll just do the boring stuff quickly so you can move on, but this also happens to be the games undoing. As fun as it may be, Ultimate Spider-Man is even shorter than it's predecessor, and that's saying a lot. If it wasn't for the mandatory between-story events, and assuming you beat each story-line mission without dying, this game would take less than 2 hours to complete. As it stands, a dedicated player could finish it within 6-7 hours of gameplay, which makes it difficult to justify anything beyond a rental except for the biggest of Spider-Fans. When it's over, there isn't much else to do except collect secret tokens and do more races, although you do get the ability to switch between Spider-Man and Venom at will. When free-roaming as Venom, attacking pedestrians and vehicles will start a mini-game where you have a threat level and score being measured, and the game keeps track of the highest one. A nice little diversion, but it doesn't exactly qualify as replay value.

Based on the brief amount of time I spent with the other 2 console versions of the game, I feel I can say with confidence that there is no significant difference between them. Controls and graphics were solid and consistent on all 3, and the PS2 of course has the longest load times (keep an eye out for the PS2 review later this month).

 

 

So there you have it. Tight, well-rounded gameplay with an excellent story add up to place Ultimate Spider-man among the best comic-book video games ever created. It's obvious that the developers are fans of the series, and it's faithful to both the book and the overall character. As such, fans should check it out as soon as they can, but consider the length before you fork over the cash. It's usually a good thing when the only real disappointment of a game is when the credits start rolling, but for The Ultimate Spider-Man, that moment comes all too soon.