Spider Man 2

An awesome premise goes to waste.

Spider Man 2 is Treyarch's most ambitious project yet. They've done average-at-best movie-to-game adaptations before, but none for a movie that's bound to be as successful as Spider Man 2. On paper, Spider Man 2 sounds like a true believer's dream game, and it's great premise will lead to great sales, but the game falls flat on several areas that it becomes hard to recommend.

The game is based loosely on the movie's storyline. You'll eventually fight Dr Octopus. You'll hear Peter Parker struggle over whether or not he should give up being Spider Man. You'll even deliver pizza. But for the game's sake, several other classic villians appear in the game, including Rhino, Shocker and Mysterio. Also thrown in as a heavy plot element is the Black Cat, who has a lot to do with the game's story.

Spider Man 2 takes what made the Grand Theft Auto games unique and adds it's own twist. The game takes place in a living, breathing city, namely New York. You can swing around freely. And the game's strongest point is easily the web swinging. No longer able to swing from an invisible ceiling in the sky (the moon?), Spidey requires buildings tall enough for him to swing. The game controls (which now include a turbo button of sorts and the ability to jump higher by holding the button down) compliment this greatly and the various unlocked abilities help recreate Spider Man's choice mode of transportation perfectly.

So what do you do in the city that never sleeps besides web swinging? Therein lies the problem. The game is divided into chapters and each chapters has goals that you must accomplish before you move on. Each will have a "Go to somewhere" goal that advances the plot. These are the best parts of the game as they often lead to the game's fantastic boss battles. (Emphasizing the dramatic battles you have with Mysterio) That said, there are far too many "reach a certain place within a time limit" goals and "chase Black Cat" missions for the game's own good. You'll also often need to make trips to the Spider Store and buy a certain powerup (you can buy many new abilities, but most of them aren't all that useful.) The currency in the game is hero points, which also involve a chapter goal that requires you to collect a certain number, thus artificially lengthening an otherwise short game.

You'll spend most of the time playing Spider Man 2 earning hero points. How do you do so? At various points throughout the city are icons with civilians giving you a mission. This includes beating up gangsters. stopping a getaway chase and helping people get to the hospital. Typical tasks you'd expect a superhero to do. Except you'll do the exact same missions over and over and over again that it gets very repetitive very fast. The sad thing is that this consists of most of an otherwise short and easy game that can be beaten in a few hours. Even after you beat Doc Ock, you'll only have finished roughly 50% of the game and the other 50 consists of the above, along with a few hidden races and pizza deliveries. To get 100% is far too much of a chore to bother.

The game's graphics are a mixed bag. The city looks fantastic, as do the villians, but closer inspection reveals some really ugly characters. The actors from the movie do the voicework for their respective characters, but Tobey Maguire once again sounds like he was half-asleep. Sometimes the game using the movie's trackmark soundtrack, but most of the time, the game is quiet aside from a few citizens.

Spider Man 2 is too short and easy to recommend as a purchase. Even the content that you do get is part filler, as the game makes you spend a lot of time doing superhero-chores. Rent it if you're curious, but in the end, it sucks to see such a good concept go to waste.