Cameras are rarely fun, at least in terms of video games. When you’re Spider-Man, that fun factor hovers around a zero on the enjoyment factor. While sharp to look at in terms of the environment, you’ll struggle to see it in Spider-Man 3 as you swing your way from one goal to the next in this open ended mess.
As Spider-Man, you’re tasked with completing missions to clean up New York, hosted across an expansive world. The rapid, nearly non-existent load time is a spectacular technical achievement, especially given the level of detail. The storyline branches into multiple directions, with different gangs moving around in their plotlines.
Swinging through the air on the webs is always fun, particularly as you pick up speed and make your way through rush hour traffic. Certain missions require web-swinging skills to be at their peak, such as those that have the player carrying an annoying Mary Jane to a specific destination.
Missions like that bring about the camera issues. Trying to figure out exactly where she needs to be can be infuriating, and it’s even worse when Mary Jane requires a pass through a checkpoint high into the air and her eventual target is on the street level. Indoors, the situation is even worse. Camera control is touchy, and sometimes feels completely unresponsive.
Some quests are still unbearable even without the camera issues. Combat is erratic, and while there is some attempt to finally move away from the same fighting feel from back on the PlayStation Spider-Man titles, it’s still loose and clunky. The ability to slow time via spider sense becomes critical. Actually, it’s too critical.
In order to counter, you have to be in this mode and you’re only given a few brief seconds to do so. When surrounded by enemies, which is far more common than it should be, you’re at the mercy of this mechanic. Add in the camera problems here too, and the mission set is ridiculously frustrating in spots, and the only reason the game breaks the six-hour mark.
Article comments
1 - Ken Edwards
Stick to Hollywood? He can't even pull that one off. The third movie was a disaster, with about two plot lines too many.
Isn't odd seeing the PS3 logo font on the Xbox 360 case? Oh right, thats the Spider-Man font, I forgot :P
2 - Rryan
I agree with that the third Spiderman movie is bad, but i also realise that it could still be a great movie. By this i mean the directors cut where huge segments of the movie have been cut out, including the history behind Sandman and more info on what is going on with the green goblin.
I feel that the 'stick it to hollywood' is nonesensical for two reasons: firstly, the spiderman franchise is always going to have a huge audience so video game sucesses is inevitable. Secondly, the game and the movie are produced by seperate companies so sticking to hollywood would be impossible as Activision was never in hollywood to start with.
The game is bad, very bad, but in its flaws lies alot of potential, which could eventually lead to a great video game.