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I am an old school Spider-man fan, reading the comics from the 70's, 80's and 90's. It is these comics that my knowledge comes from Spider-man and what I compare to when watching a movie or playing a game. This is why the game got a nine out of ten, rather than a 10/10. The game is good and while I understand the story is most definitely an independent one, there were still aspects that I found did not fit certain characters and then there was too much time on some characters and not enough on others. There were also aspects of the game play that could have been improved upon too, so my complaints of the game are not totally directed out of changes to characters and certain story arcs. That being said, I still enjoyed swinging through New York and collecting things and trying to fight crime in the city!
The story, Spider-man starts out taking down the Kingpin and this seems to set a whole lot of stuff in motion. A new criminal organization has emerged and its goal seems to be to cause as much damage to New York as possible to make Mayor Norman Osborne look bad. Meanwhile. Spider-man is helping out as a lab tech with his friend and mentor Doctor Otto Octavious. Otto seems to share the hatred that the new enemy targeting New York has and soon the doctor loses his mind and forms a team of villains to try and bring the city and Norman to his knees. Only Spider-man stands in their way along with some help from Mary Jane and Miles Morales!
During the time I read the comics Dr. Octopus was Spidy's main villain. Venom had his moments, but Dr. Octopus was always there with some nefarious plan. He never knew Pete before the change, and I am not sure why this game and the movie had him and Pete share a mentor relationship. Sam Rami always professed a love for earlier Spider-man comics, but always took strange leaps like organic web shooters and such. He and this game make poor Otto seem sympathetic, but in the comics once he lost his mind, he never had regrets. They would later make Norman emerge again as the Goblin, but to me Doctor Octopus will always be Spider-man's most unique villain. To me, the Green Goblin is just The Joker with powers and a glider. The Sinister Six was also originally Doctor Octopus, Electro, Vulture, Sandman, Mysterio and Kraven the hunter who always gets ignored these days! Here, they have three of the original members, Doc Ock, Vulture and Electro and add the new villain, Mr. Negative and oldies but goodies Rhino and Scorpion. I was very disappointed when I could not fight each of these villains one on one, for some reason they really skimped on Electro, Vulture, Rhino and Scorpion.
The game play is fun, what one would expect for a Spider-man game made since the game based on the second movie came out. A lot of swinging around New York and stopping crime. You also have side missions, collectibles and tokens to earn! The game keeps you busy that is for! What it needed though were some more villains of the super powered variety. It would have been cool had Shocker been running around the city when the criminals were running rampant and you could fight him occasionally and maybe a few others of the lesser known super villains. At times it can get repetitive fighting dudes in orange jumpsuits! There are also times when you take control of MJ or Miles and you have to get through areas without getting caught and they change up the pace.
So, the game is good, I loved seeing Doctor Octopus as the main villain in the end, I was so fearful that Mr. Negative would end up being the leader of the Sinister Six. The fighting is fun, the story is rather good, but both aspects have flaws. Any story flaws I found, won't really affect any of the newer generation of comic book readers, I just came from a different time. The game play flaws, well at times you kind of wish there was more to do and those challenge tokens are a bit too scarce and hard to get! Overall, a really fun game and I look forward to playing the Miles Morales Spider-man one day.
