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

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.]

Comments

GTA-style open city/open-ended games

[Senator Bozo]

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.

Re:GTA-style open city/open-ended games

[KDR_11k]

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.

Re:GTA-style open city/open-ended games

[ObsessiveMathsFreak]

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?

Re:GTA-style open city/open-ended games

[devilsadvoc8]

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.

Re:GTA-style open city/open-ended games

[KDR_11k]

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.

Killing playability:

[tod_miller]

[..]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! :-)

Perhaps they will be sued by Rockstar

[DrSkwid]

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

Re:Perhaps they will be sued by Rockstar

[nukem1999]

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.

I'm a little skeptical about the game

[hal2814]

"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.

Re:I'm a little skeptical about the game

[nukem1999]

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.

Re:I'm a little skeptical about the game

[nicksthings]

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.

Tony Hawk???

[iainl]

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.

Re:Tony Hawk???

[Anonymous Coward]

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.

Re:Tony Hawk???

[Mike Hawk]

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.

Freedom

[g0bshiTe]

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.

Boss fights

[metamatic]

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".

Re:Boss fights

[spezz]

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

Crate puzzles