As a Spider-Man mega nerd -and my full geekiness didn't see the light before I play Spider-Man 3 console games and enjoy them, followed by seeing the source movie an underrated fun movie instead of viewing it as a terrible one like I used to- I started to look forward to every Spider-Man video game I could lay my eyes on, I was even searching for them vigorously and playing them. Then I played Web of Shadows myself and got greatly disappointed, it made me think more carefully about getting another Spider-Man game, so thinking with my mind instead of my deep attachment to my main nerdinessI played this game, finished it twice, thought it was better than Web of Shadows back then, was defending it and strongly advised people who ask which of these two games to choose to pick Shattered Dimensions, at least it shows respect to characters more than Web of Shadows did, used to despise that one a lot, only recently I feel the older one is decent, and great
compared to the newer one
STORY:
It opens in a museum in the world of Amazing Spider-Man (voiced by Neil Patrick Harris, MTV Spider-Man), Stan Lee narrates, and the lines they give the Big Man are too cheesy, he sounds cheesy saying them, so cheesy I hope I don't listen to him narrates the upcoming game (Edge of Time), not at all, nil line
Going back to the main feature, Mysterio grabs a precious artifact known as the tablet of Order
and Chaos (why make a tablet like that?), Spider-Man somehow knows something is wrong at the museum that night, nothing is explained of his reasons or knowledge, kicks Mysterio down, and grabs the tablet pulling it away with his webbing, but instead of it going to his hands it falls down on the floor and Spider-Man
bounces about the museum dodging Mysterio's shots. The way Spider-Man kicked fish bowl for a head this should have been the result
Writers keep writing Mysterio too stupid to put unbreakable fish-bowl, and he spent so much money before, and behaved with great deal of intelligent, but this never happens because?
So Spider-Man web zips himself and punches the tablet Mysterio grabbed to sell in the black market, and the artifact turns to fractures flying out of the museum to unknown areas through the walls, one shard remains with Mysterio and he escapes, then Madame Webb from the 90s cartoon show up (cause she posses the power cosmic, not simply a blind old psychic woman like her -deceased- comics version)
Silver Surfer is so proud of you (his eyes look like the Human Fly eyes, why?)
Cosmic powered old hag explains the tablet Spider-Man just broke controls order and chaos, now that it's broken fragments of it traveled to other three alternate dimensions (between the lines: Don't you worry, you are important as a playable character in this game, hence some fragments for you to collect in this world), and they are to aid him in his quest
Each of the four Spider-Men collects a fragment in his world before it's discovered by the unknown evil one and used for the unbelievable evil shenanigans they can do with it. All Spider-Men place the fragments they collected in the cosmic web of dimensional rip caused by the fracture of the tablet, then we move to Mysterio who just discovered the powers of his fragment, and wants the rest of the fragments to rule the world
-What is with these stories? Why such a powerful tablet stored in a museum of normal security with all the powers it contains? Why the heck did the main super-villain want to sell it in the black market not knowing what this is exactly? Heck (as cliched as this word is) why was such a piece even made? A tablet carrying a formula that gives one youth is acceptable, a tablet with a formula of poison killing specific DNA carriers is acceptable, but this?-
Well, I guess they needed the story to happen, something had to make reason for it to happen, like the main hero acting like a stupid clown instead of completing his job right
Every universe has 3 villains who obtain the fragment the next day directly, carries it, fights the hero, throws Spider-Man to a wild goose chase, fights him again, and it happens in 12 stages, the same pattern for 12 stages with minor differences from one to another. Kraven is the dumbest chapter, how did he know about the fragment to buy it online and place it with a 100 booby traps to lure Spider-Man and catch him? How was it sold online with full description?
Story is too stupid, the writer who had credit for making it is current writer of Amazing Spider-Man: Dan Slott, he's a capable writer, knows how to handle events and stuff in comics, I've been told by some the story had interference, so here's me hoping the new game had no interference and Peter David managed to pull the whole thing on his own and executed a well made story, which is tbh flawed from what I gathered about it so far.
Seeing how dumb the story is I don't wish this was an animated movie instead, unless it was well written and worked finely. One good thing about this game is how well it was received, it expanded the trey of Spidey-Fans a little, I appreciate that from Beenox, but hope for an actual good game to absorb extra fans
GAMEPLAY:
Stage 1 introduces gamers to how each character is played with and controlled, but only Spider-Man 2099 has combat introduction
12 stages between the first and the last with the basic following pattern: Fight boss, chase boss and fight chronies, save people and let them do you a favor, save people while they do favor for you, go fight boss again and pick the fragment. Some levels are free from humans to save, it's nice, but in the levels with people to save: WHY DO THE ONES WHO JUST PRESS A DAMN SWITCH TAKE TOO LONG TO OPEN THE DOOR?
What distincts Spider-Man 2099 from the rest in gameplay is the freefall, and the Noir guy is distinguished by stealth
Final stage: Use each Spider-Man to kick the hides of a large sum of bad seeds, fight mysterio, fight chronies, fight mysterio. Noir is the best one cause he rips the fight against Scarecrow from Arkahm Asylum, go stealthy all the way to do this one important attack only. Though this one there are absolutely nothing to fight before Mysterio, the road to reach him is tedious and too long, you'll have to shut Spider-Man up cause he keeps repeating the same two lines over and over again.
AUDIO:
Great use of VA's from Spider-Man cartoons only, and the voice director from the Spectacular Spider-Man animated series to assure great quality voice acting
Music is nothing memorable, but nice
Great quips
best thing about this game
GRAPHICS:
They are all the same, things vary in coloring system only
ASM: Comic-esque with too bright coloring
USM: Comic-esque as well, but this one has coloring a bit more realistic
SMN: Almost black 'n white, right coloring for the mood
2099: Too much like tron, bright neon lights on dark backgrounds, looks the most realistic, but I don't like Tron brightness
So:
Story 5/10
game Play 3/10
Audio 8/10
Graphics 7/10
Average 5.6/10
Game is overrated, all flash and no subtle. Batman Arkham Asylum is popular cause it deserves the success it got, that one is a well crafted game, sure is repetitive like every other game is, but it holds some values to play and replay, no missions where you have to do the same thing 2-3 times to finish one stage in half an hour all combat, and 12 stages with the main pattern
