I keep seeing all this ranting about Spider-Man 3 the game and describing it as a bad thing for gamers and Spider-Man/superheroes/comic book fans. Two years after the release of it came Batman Arkham Asylum with all the praising it received as the best comic book game ever, and that was before the release of Arkham City
Before playing Spider-Man 3 myself, I expected to find crap, after I played it I really enjoyed it, and saw plenty of things I wished to have in a Spidey game there, was surprised to find it my favorite Spider-Man game, but thought the quick time events pure useless nuisance.
After playing more video games with QTE's I actually admired Spider-Man 3 even more, cause QTE's in this game are actually basic and straightforward, you don't get a request of pressing punch to shoot a web like other games do, instead you are requested to press web attack to strike with your web, simple.
I tried to relate to complaints I kept viewing of the game, so I played it more, instead I found the grand majority of complaints are over the top and retarded, keyword most, stating there are some decent criticizing points, or complaints, and saying it's a dumbed down Spider-Man 2, or saying it's Spider-Man 2 with different coat of painting is just wrong, the game is far from that
Before playing Arkham Asylum I looked forward to this game to a great deal, I was kinda let down when I played it, the game is great, but it's not the "AWESOME GAME OTHER COMIC GAMES NEED TO BE INSPIRED BY". Atmosphere fits the game, story is great, combat and gadgets are a blast, but beyond the combat, gadgets and handling titans this game and X-Men Origins: Wolverine Uncaged are pretty much the same
But so I won't get too far, here is a list of reasons why I think Spider-Man 3 is better than Arkham Asylum as a game, and I speak more in observation and testing rather than plain opinion, but I won't deny my opinion influencing the entry
1. Mobility: It's better in SM3, plain and simple, it allows one to cover more distance with more speed, and even with quite a sluggish swinging (the lowest swinging in free roam games), it's more fun than just running. And wall crawling is even an extra plus
2. Combat: Both are button mashers, if you want to call them that way, SM3 combat system is Square & triangle for two kinds of attacks, the more upgrades you get the better, and it gets easier and faster in fighting gangs, there is also the use of webbing to grab and jump for other moves in combat, like jumping on thugs you grab, hit and throw. Different combinations make different moves, and that is not a plain button masher everyone keep saying it is.
Batman plays with one attack button most of the time, rotate stick to follow enemy with your attack, and the counter attacks and stun attack buttons for times of need making various moves.
If you try to convince me the first is plain button masher and the other is strategic, read this note please: "The beauty in Spider-Man 3 combat system is the player building personal strategies as needed against character to be handled, it's you who build the strategies, you need to understand how to build them, when and where. In Batman combat strategies are given as instructions for you to follow, that doesn't feel like strategies to praise"
This is what I found, and this is how it is
3. Handling thugs: You know the stealth methods and the head on combat in Arkham Asylum, simple and straightforward given to you in the face, and combat is all grounded. In Spider-Man 3 there are more ways to handle thugs, not just hanging them on poles or hitting them on ground, thugs you can't pull on ground are easy to pull while sticking to walls, and you can defeat some without touching them by fists or feet
4. Boss fights: Only good boss fights in Arkham Asylum are Scarecrow confrontations (no fight) and Croc chase while getting the ingredient for an antidote (not a fight either), they are good and fun. Rest of the boss fights have the needless amount of toy soldiers for you to bash constantly, what a pain. In SM3 they took a good take on boss fights, only time where there are others to fight along the boss is in Kraven's second fight, when he's invisible and you could find him using one of the lizard men for widow-maker, only 3 lizard men at a time, not annoying 10++ at once. You can defeat all bosses by just beating them up, or you could build up strategies to help you defeat them, it doesn't simply stick you to one move you have to do repeatedly or as the game says now (excluding tossing mega lizard at generators)
5. Variety of things to do: BAA is repeated, same pattern over and over again, with a few things here and there. SM3 displays extra things to do, it is made to be more than beat 'em up, and it was done nicely in that way
Now that I'm done with that, I'll say what BAA did better: Game is more polished and well ironed of faults, that's really it, if you want something else you can go with the story, nothing further. Don't go with graphics cause there is a huge difference in scale of locations, and the time each one of them was released
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