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Spider-Man 2 Game Goes Spider-Man Theft Auto?

Posted by simoniker on from the previous-big-thing dept.

Thanks to IGN Xbox for its review of Treyarch/Activision's new Spider-Man 2 console game, debuting simultaneously alongside the recently Slashdot-reviewed movie. The fairly positive review suggests: "What Treyarch has done... is to blend in that nearly unattainable addiction so inherent in Neversoft's Tony Hawk's Pro Skater series and meld it with Spider-Man's web slinging in a Grand Theft Auto-style open city." However, the reviewer tempers this praise with comments on "dull repetition of the Hero missions... and the boss fights range from stupid to incredibly annoying", and GameSpy shows similar barely-reserved enthusiasm, noting a returning Bruce Campbell "is perfect as the narrator", and praising the "fantastic web-slinging and the huge city environment", whereas GameSpot is a little more tepid, arguing the game "bites off a little more than it can chew with its attempt at an open-ended design." [It's also worth noting the "kid friendly, intentionally simplified control scheme"-toting PC version of Spider-Man 2 is almost completely different from the console versions.]

35 comments

  1. GTA-style open city/open-ended games by Senator+Bozo · · Score: 5, Insightful
    like Mafia, Privateer, Freelancer or Elite have never worked for me. In reality, your possibilities are very limited and the randomly generated missions are almost always mind-numbingly repetitive.

    I will always choose a game with an excellent, but short (20h) story and scripted missions over an "open-ended" one with a dynamic universe until they come up with a mission generator and good enough AI to create decent missions.

    1. Re:GTA-style open city/open-ended games by KDR_11k · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Many open-ended games have a story you can follow if you don't want to run around doing random stuff. I know that GTA, Mafia and Freelancer are games out of your list that have stories (not sure about Privateer). Freelancer sucks a bit in this respect since they force you to make a certain amount of money in between missions.

      You live in the past if you believe open ended games only have random missions.

      --
      Justice is the sheep getting arrested while an impartial judge declares the vote void.
    2. Re:GTA-style open city/open-ended games by ObsessiveMathsFreak · · Score: 4, Interesting

      I agree. This is a problem with modern freeroamers. It's rather tragic that the designers give you so much space to play around in, but nothing to do in it. Once you've finished all the missions in GTA, the game kind of loses it's shine. The same with, Jak2 and True Crime, very tragicly in the latter's case as the world it gave you was so HUGE!

      This problem does go all the way back to Elite. Even the "jobs" of Frontier First encounters didn't offer much once the main missions were over. There was simply no real incentive to play anymore.

      This is becoming more unforgivable. I think game designers should come up with, at least, more sophisticated random mission generators. The missions should be based on some kind of randomly generated 'super' subplot. Like a gang gaining power, or a war breaking out in FFE for example. Essentially what I think would be best was if the world/universe 'evolved' around you, organically, with you being directly, but not overly easily, able to influence the outcomes.

      This might sound like a tall order, but given the sophistication of simulations nowadays, I don't think it is beyond the capabilities of programmers. Maybe companies don't want this as such a game would distract the player from all those new purchaces?

      --
      May the Maths Be with you!
    3. Re:GTA-style open city/open-ended games by devilsadvoc8 · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Maybe a solution to the lame random mission is some connectivity to a larger db of missions. Until AI can generate an interesting random mission other than a fedex type, human thought is required. The developer should have the framework for random missions available for the game to go out and get. Maybe one based on current events or just something new. If they create a db of several hundred of these things (they don't have to be THAT deep), the playability increases dramatically.

      --
      B O R I N G
    4. Re:GTA-style open city/open-ended games by ObsessiveMathsFreak · · Score: 1

      I believe this was the method used in part by Phantasy Star Online.

      --
      May the Maths Be with you!
    5. Re:GTA-style open city/open-ended games by KDR_11k · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Ummm, basically you're complaining that open ended games run out of content, right? Well, so do linear games, just that linear games tell you "Well, you have won. I guess you could pat yourself on the back now. Maybe try playing me again or go outside and play something, I don't care" while open ended games don't simply roll the credits and throw you back into the main menu. Face it, all games are over some time, just because the open ended game technically allows you to go on doesn't mean you have to keep playing. Trade the game in or do whatever else you do with your finished games if you don't want to continue or play through it again.

      --
      Justice is the sheep getting arrested while an impartial judge declares the vote void.
  2. Open Ended? Replayability. by tod_miller · · Score: 1

    Fontier was a great game.

    I cam imagine an open ended game where simple rules built some fairly unrepetative missions.

    Also general crime fighting and helping old ladies across the road could add some longevity.

    To be honest, stick some downloadable waypoint function and try racing through the city to beat scores.

    Looks like a fine game, better than previous spiderman games, although on the whole, spiderman has not been so badly bitten by the licensed game genre.

    I remember playing spiderman on my 2600! It rocked!!

    You have the benefit os spider-sense if used correctly - the graphics look great, I just hope you will be able to mod it with new challenges and boss characters. Perhaps some comic book cut sceens like Max Payne?

    --
    #hostfile 0.0.0.0 primidi.com 0.0.0.0 www.primidi.com 0.0.0.0 radio.weblogs.com
  3. Killing playability: by tod_miller · · Score: 3, Funny

    [..]Spidey can beat up thugs like nobody's business, though he can't actually harm innocents or their cars, in case you were wondering.[..]

    Oh man! That sucks! Just the fun of webbing a subway full of commuters to justify all the bad press about me would be fun!

    Oh I forgot, I am not Spiderman. ;-)

    Or a good game of pedestrian skittles always helps while away a quite day crimefighting... geroonimo! :-)

    --
    #hostfile 0.0.0.0 primidi.com 0.0.0.0 www.primidi.com 0.0.0.0 radio.weblogs.com
    1. Re:Killing playability: by ultranova · · Score: 1

      You might want to try the game Freedom Force.

      Cars are throwing weapons, streetlights are clubs, and after a big fight half a city may be in ruins. Especially after that one deranged architecht who wanted to make room for his own buildings... And of course civilians who get caught in the middle are knocked out (after all, this is a comic book, so no one ever really dies).

      Yes, if you want a superhero game, then there's nothing better.

      --

      Forget magic. Any technology distinguishable from divine power is insufficiently advanced.

    2. Re:Killing playability: by tod_miller · · Score: 1

      I have seen this game reviewed! It sure looks awesome, and I wish I had time to persue it.

      The mission structures are exactly what I was thinking. A little mayhem never hurt anyone (that I know)

      --
      #hostfile 0.0.0.0 primidi.com 0.0.0.0 www.primidi.com 0.0.0.0 radio.weblogs.com
  4. Perhaps they will be sued by Rockstar by DrSkwid · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Perhaps Rockstar have a Euro-Patent on free roaming crime games. They might sue like Sega tried to sue Fox with Crazy Taxi & Simpsons Road Rage

    --
    There are places where the networks are not touching,and there are places where they are-Boeing's Lori Gunter
    1. Re:Perhaps they will be sued by Rockstar by nukem1999 · · Score: 2, Insightful

      They're going to have a much harder time comparing GTA to SM2 in court. GTA revolves around driving and shooting, neither of which you can do in SM2. The reason reviewers are comparing the two is because of a large, (mostly) freely-explorable city. I think it's going to be difficult to claim that you own the rights to the concept of a city.

    2. Re:Perhaps they will be sued by Rockstar by Mighty+Eris · · Score: 1

      Perhaps Rockstar have a Euro-Patent on free roaming crime games. They might sue like Sega tried to sue Fox with Crazy Taxi & Simpsons Road Rage.

      If they did, I imagine that they would have tried to sue Fox for Simpsons Hit & Run.

  5. I'm a little skeptical about the game by hal2814 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    "What Treyarch has done... is to blend in that nearly unattainable addiction so inherent in Neversoft's Tony Hawk's Pro Skater series and meld it with Spider-Man's web slinging in a Grand Theft Auto-style open city."

    When watching a preview for a movie, I have discovered that the more other movies are mentioned the worse the movie being advertised will be. For example, there were a lot of crappy sci-fi movies coming out directly after the Matrix saying things like "If you liked the Matrix, you'll definately love [insert movie title here]." It is almost garaunteed that this movie will be bad. I have also discovered that even good movies that mention other movies are not as good as the movies they mention. For example, I remember the Bourne Identity comparing a car chase scene to one in the French Connection. While Bourne Identity was decent, it was no French Connection.

    While this is a review of the game rather than something paid for directly by the company producing the game, I am still weary seeing two other games mentioned in such a small space when describing the Spider-Man game. At worst the game will be crap. At best it will not be as good as Tony Hawk or GTA.

    1. Re:I'm a little skeptical about the game by nukem1999 · · Score: 4, Funny

      At worst the game will be crap. At best it will not be as good as Tony Hawk or GTA
      You mean the game will fall somewhere between horrible and perfect? WHAT A DARING PREDICTION!

      On a more serious note, the game is great, I highly recommend it.

    2. Re:I'm a little skeptical about the game by hal2814 · · Score: 1

      I was actually thinking the game would fall somewhere between horrible and decent. Since the game can't be better than Tony Hawk OR GTA according to my theory, it must be worse than the worse of the two. I think Tony Hawk is OK, but far from perfect. I also think GTA is far from perfect, but still good enough that I could see some people labeling it as perfect. So at best case Spider-Man is ok, but no Tony Hawk. You can interpret that how you like but I don't see that as much of an accomplishment.

    3. Re:I'm a little skeptical about the game by Gio+Angles · · Score: 1

      "When watching a preview for a movie, I have discovered that the more other movies are mentioned the worse the movie being advertised will be. For example, there were a lot of crappy sci-fi movies coming out directly after the Matrix saying things like "If you liked the Matrix, you'll definately love [insert movie title here]." It is almost garaunteed that this movie will be bad."

      There may have been others, but the only movie that I remember describing itself as better than The Matrix was Equilibrium.

      In that example, the ads were absolutely right.

    4. Re:I'm a little skeptical about the game by nicksthings · · Score: 2, Interesting
      You're missing the point - at no point did they say "If you liked GTA and Tony Hawk, you'll love Spider-Man." This new Spider-Man game does BLEND elements of each of those games: the free-roaming, open ended city (GTA) and the simple, intuitive and fun play controls, including tricks and the like (Tony Hawk).

      Of course it's not as good as Tony Hawk. Of course it's not as good as GTA. It's not even close to being the same game as either of those two - it's a completely different experience and in it's own right, it's a lot of fun to play.

    5. Re:I'm a little skeptical about the game by KDR_11k · · Score: 1

      Equilibrium was nice as an action movie, but not as an utopic story. You can't get more blatant than Equilibrium in stealing from classics of utopean literature (Brave New World, a little 1984, I think, Unemotion, which I don't think is a classic but pretty much the same basic concept, etc). Hell, they had swastikas composed of T-crosses!

      --
      Justice is the sheep getting arrested while an impartial judge declares the vote void.
  6. Tony Hawk??? by iainl · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Since the game involves neither skateboards nor memorising streams of button combinations to pull high-scoring tricks, what does it have to do with the Tony Hawk games? Writing 'a catchy, replayable game' without using the strange reference would have been less weird.

    --
    "I Know You Are But What Am I?"
    1. Re:Tony Hawk??? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Interesting

      They share some DNA.

      The original PS1 Spidey games (based on the comic, before the movie) were from Neversoft and used the THPS engine.

      In fact, in one of the Tony Hawk games they added Spidey as an unlockable skater. His uber-special was "Does whatever a Spider Can", which had him doing some crazy flips then bringing his board back to him via web line.

      They're diverged somewhat since then, but having played all of them I can still feel the Tony Hawk engine in there somewhere... just in the way it controls.

      Of course, the PS1 never had the muscle for the city levels... so the plot revolved around Doc Ock releasing some poison fog that hovered around street level and killed you if you ventured too far off the beaten path.

    2. Re:Tony Hawk??? by Mike+Hawk · · Score: 2, Interesting

      It is actually quite appropriate, and more than the reviewers seem to know. I picked Spider-Man 2 up on a tip from a comic book nerd friend (the kind that hates everything) and I found my favorite part is the races. It lays out a path for you to follow within a certain amount of time. It records the time for you to try to beat later. Some are super hard and I probably won't ever beat them. The races require complex button presses to complete since they require alot of moves together, swing-wallrun-orbit-swing sorta like kickflip-manual-grind, etc. I'm really diggin it, even more than the story.

      So in short the "streams of button combinations to pull" fast times in races is there. I don't think the reviewers were playing these that much since they seem to only get dismissive mentions, and thats too bad. I really havent felt this way about being challenged for my gaming skill since THPS2. I played so late last night that I was late for work this morning.

    3. Re:Tony Hawk??? by iainl · · Score: 1

      Really? Sounds cool - I'm always up for some highscore/laptime gaming. Thanks!

      Just after I posted I remembered the thing about Spidey being a secret Tony Hawk character, but I didn't realise there would be gameplay connections still.

      --
      "I Know You Are But What Am I?"
  7. Freedom by g0bshiTe · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I think the thing that set THPS series and GTA apart from other games, was the ability to explore the environments freely. Gaming manufacturers are hopping on a wagon now.

    freely explorable 3d environment + great graphics = $$$$$$$$$$$

    That seems to be the equation they are using to bill these games. What lured me into the GTA world was not that you could beat up John Q and take his car, though I have to admit it is quite fun and works out frustrations. It was the fact that after the game gets old, you can breathe life back into it because of the scalability. Anyone have a Land Speeder from Star Wars in GTA? I do. I think it poor planning that you cannot attack citizens throughout the game. They could have made, maybe someone will make, a vigilante patch where you could. The idea of acting like Spidey swinging from buildings and such will part many suckers from their money. This game is one that will at least get the rents from me, but I don't think I'll buy it anytime soon. Especially after reading some reviews of it. Perhaps when it hits the discount $9.99 bin @ BlockBuster I'll take the plunge and buy it, untill then I'll stick with my modable PC games.

    --
    I am Bennett Haselton! I am Bennett Haselton!
    1. Re:Freedom by FreeForm+Response · · Score: 1

      I'm one of the "suckers" that Spider-Man 2 has parted from his money, and I have to argue with your conclusion as I feel that my money was well-spent. I've only had the game for two days, and I've completed probably 2/3 of the story; however, the game informs me that I've finished only 35% or so of the entire thing. There are lots of things to do in the game that are not at all related to the story missions, and the game offers many challenges (races, time attacks, high scores, etc.) to keep players engaged after the story is complete. Also, it's really ridiculously fun to take a swan dive off of the top of the Empire State Building and catch yourself mere feet from the ground (and the game keeps track of your longest fall, to boot).

      I think the reviewers who have been panning it have not played enough of the game to explore the depth of the controls and challenges. Sure, foiling a carjacking gets boring after a while, but thinking up new and entertaining ways to foil carjackings never gets old. To the game's credit, the combat system offers many different special moves and combinations to keep fights interesting.

      Anyway, I love the game, and I'd advise at least renting it before dismissing it as a value-buy-at-best. Check it out.

  8. Boss fights by metamatic · · Score: 4, Insightful
    the boss fights range from stupid to incredibly annoying

    Don't all boss fights range from stupid to incredibly annoying?

    I can't think of a more stale, worn-out cliché than the "boss fight".

    --
    GCHQ Quantum Insert installed. If only our tongues were made of glass, how much more careful we would be when we speak
    1. Re:Boss fights by spezz · · Score: 2, Insightful
      I can't think of a more stale, worn-out cliché than the "boss fight".

      Crate puzzles

      --
      come for the naked robots, stay for the zombies
    2. Re:Boss fights by hambonewilkins · · Score: 1
      I can't think of a more stale, worn-out cliché than the "boss fight".

      There's nothing better than playing a game where you fight normal enemies/soldiers (Contra) and then end each stage fighting someone who is 3-4x your size. It makes perfect sense. The bad guys will always send a whole slew of worthless soldiers at you but spice things up a bit with the giant they've been hiding in a closet somewhere.

      --

      God Bless America. Why? Did it sneeze?
    3. Re:Boss fights by *weasel · · Score: 1

      crate puzzles

      Dont forget its evil cousins: 'jump puzzle' and 'lava board'

      --
      // "Can't clowns and pirates just -try- to get along?"
    4. Re:Boss fights by Phil+Wilkins · · Score: 1

      ...and what about the 2d platform classics, Mine Cart level, and Ice world.

    5. Re:Boss fights by MoistVomit · · Score: 1

      I heard that Doogie Houser was a hidden boss character in this game. That would be annoying.

  9. I don't care... by Inf0phreak · · Score: 0

    how well IGN says it is. IGN has proven its worth as a site for game reviews in the past with numerous reviews proclaiming the latest game from $big_name_developer to be super. With their front page loaded with ads for the very same game. And pretty much every other review site out there says the game just makes it to the better end of mediocrity.

    --
    ________
    Entranced by anime since late summer 2001 and loving it ^_^
    1. Re:I don't care... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      IGN has proven its worth as a site for game reviews in the past with numerous reviews proclaiming the latest game from $big_name_developer to be super.
      i think you're wrong:
      http://ps2.ign.com/articles/525/525181p5.html
      Driver3 review (Big name - 5.2)
      http://ps2.ign.com/articles/525/525901p1.html
      Evil Prophecy review (Big name - 2.5)

      And pretty much every other review site out there says the game just makes it to the better end of mediocrity.
      wrong? this game is not perfect, but far from mediocrity:
      http://www.gamerankings.com/htmlpages2/914915.asp
      Spider-Man reviews

    2. Re:I don't care... by g-san · · Score: 1

      so check one of the meta review sites. read some bad reviews, read some good reviews, spot the plugs[click ad to continue(tm)], and be well.

      i'm still in the (game from movie == junk) camp myself but thats what rentals are for.