Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions Review

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There are few video games that can be described in one word, but Spiderman: Shattered Dimensions is a video game that fits the one word mold. The word that best describes this video game addition to the Spider Man world is “potential.” The game has a lot of potential to be a wonderful game, but sadly it misses on most points.

                The overarching story for Spiderman is wonderful. It is a great addition to the legacy of Spiderman. The basic story line is that the Amazing Spiderman (our traditional Spiderman) has, in an attempt to foil the evil villain Mysterio, broken a mystical tablet that controls time and space. Once broken, the tablet is thrown across multiple dimensions all containing a different Spiderman, created by Marvel comics over time. Each Spiderman is gifted with different powers and uses them to fight their evil villains of their comic book lore. The game is built around the worlds of the Amazing Spiderman, Noir Spiderman (a black and white, 1930’s, detective Spiderman), Ultimate Spiderman (a Spiderman found in the Venom [black] suit, and Spiderman 2099 (a futuristic Spiderman). These different Spiderman all have different villains and different back stories that can be found in the pages of Marvel comics, but they can not be found inside of this game. The major issue with this game is that after the overarching story there is very little story development within each different dimension. Even though each Spiderman is looking for fragments of the tablet there is no rhyme or reason why each villain has the tablet, they just have it. I am sure very hardcore fans of Spiderman would understand the different Spidermans, but for average fans, like myself, there needed to be more character development. One, final note on the story; not all of the villains will be recognized by the average fan. Most of the villains tend to be more obscure and random villains from the Spiderman lore.

                   As hack-and-slash games go Spiderman is a lot of fun. The game play for the fighting is smooth, and simple to grasp. The failure in game play revolves around wall crawling, and web slinging. So the aspects of the game that make Spiderman, Spiderman. The problem with the wall crawling is the camera angles. Sometimes the camera would jump around and you might be going up, and all-of-a-sudden you would be going back down though you did not change the controller direction.  As a player, if you moved Spiderman into a corner or by an angle of the ceiling, the camera would jump around and try to adjust, very annoying. The camera angles on the wall crawling affected the Noir Spiderman the most because wall climbing was part of his attack strategy. The poor camera angles really ruined the coolest Spiderman dimension. The controls for web slinging were slow and unresponsive in times when you needed to move quickly.  Also, there was a quick sling option that only worked when you had Spiderman looking directly at the object he was supposed to grab onto. Also, the quick sling button was the same button as the normal swing anywhere button; that caused some problems with the quick sling, because sometimes you would just sling around the room, instead of where you wanted to go.

                As a reader, I do not want to leave you thinking that this game is a giant piece of crap, it is not. The graphics on this game are extremely well done. As a player you are thrown into a world that has a great comic book feel. The graphics really play to the strengths of each dimension. Of course the only dimension that is really given a distinctive feel is the Noir Spiderman. It is dark and ominous, and there is a distinct lack of color to give the player a black and white feel to the dimension. The Noir Spiderman is pretty awesome.

                Spiderman: Shattered Dimensions is a game worth a rental. For avid fans of the Spiderman lore, the game gives them a little more of the Spiderman story. For the casual Spiderman observer, the game will leave you a little lost, but all will be revealed if you read the comic books. If the developers went back and fixed some of the game play and story issues Spiderman: Shattered Dimensions would get a better rating than the 6.5 I am giving it. 

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