There a lot of mix feelings about this game, and many reviews claiming it’s really great. Now I had been really excited to play this game ever since I saw the trailer that featured Spider-Man 2099. Before that I wasn’t too excited. As months passed over, I began to go into a Shattered Dimensions craze, and I was so very anxious for the game’s release. When I heard Ultimate Spider-Man was the last dimension, I was disappointed, but I see that this game had a very original concept. Having four different and unique Spider-Men with different looks, and different universes, and different combat systems, so what more can you ask for? Except when it comes down to the plot, which was very straight forward. Don’t believe me? Well not to give anything away, but here how the plot goes.
Mysterio trespasses into a museum at night to steal the Tablet of Order and Chaos. This tablet holds magical powers to anyone who possesses it. Spider-Man (played by Neil Patrick Harris) encounters Mysterio, and while trying to stop him, accidentally breaks the tablet. The tablet breaks into pieces, and the other pieces were transfer into other dimensions, with other Spider-Men. Madame Web addresses this to Spidey, as well as the other Spidey’s, and he leaps off to find the tablet pieces. And that’s about it. So in each mission you have to go after each boss that has a piece of the tablet. But you will encounter some of them more than once, and as you keep encountering them they will become much more powerful with their tablet pieces. So that’s about it, again this game’s story is very straight forward.
I admit this is what got me disappointed. We get great Spidey games like Ultimate Spider-Man and the Spider-Man 2 game, but years later after those games we get this? Not to sound rude, but this Spidey fan feels let down. I want to see a Spider-Man game with a really good plot, and I’m sorry to compare this to Batman: Arkham Asylum and you’ll probably read that more than once in this review, but that game had real effort into the story. This game on the other hand, not so much. But I gotta hand it to Activision and Beenox who worked on this game, they did approve on some of the things that we had problems with in the previous Spidey games. The graphics and the environments are so well-detailed. Everything looks good to look at. Unlike Spider-Man: Web of Shadows, where it seem like they were lazy working on the graphics.
Now I am not the type of guy who would nitpick on graphics, I could care less. But this game had real effort into the design and style of each different Spidey and their universes. Like with the Amazing Spider-Man universe having that comic book style, the 2099 having that neo Star Wars mixed with Blade Runner feel to it, Noir with the gritty and black and white 1930’s look, and Ultimate Spider-Man having that comic book glossy graphic novel look. I really like these concepts. This is a set up from the previous games, congrats Beenox.
And the voice actors were brilliant in their roles. Who would’ve known that Dan Gilvezan could play as Spider-Man 2099/Miguel O’Hara? That is awesome!! And Neil Patrick Harris as the Amazing Spider-Man? Now I know most of you have a problem that Neil is gay, but to most of you who have a problem with that, grow some balls, and deal with it. He was brilliant in this role. Josh Keaton and Christopher Daniel Barnes as Ultimate Spider-Man and Spider-Man Noir were great too.
And how about the combat system in this game? Most people find it repetitive and boring after awhile, and I do agree with them on that part. But some of it was fun, and amazing (no pun intended) to begin with. What I really like is that each Spidey has their own combat style. Amazing with his web attacks; Noir taking down criminals in the shadows; 2099 free-fall, slowing down time, and brutal takedowns; and Ultimate using rage mode and the power of the black suit. Now the black suit thing, I don’t know what is their deal with having the symbiote in almost every recent Spidey games that came out (a fetish they may have?), so with Ultimate I find it nothing new than Web of Shadows or Ultimate Spider-Man the game, since those games basically had the same combat attacks for the symbiote. Maybe just having 3 dimensions was good enough?
I thought the first-person combat was really cool and different. Although after awhile these can get really repetitive too, but nothing's better than punching your enemies faces to the ground while doing it face-to-face. Speaking of enemies, let's talk about bosses in this game. Some of the boss fights were either very fun, amusing, or just down right disappointing. I had a few times where I was disappointed at some of the boss fights because those ones were too easy. But some of them were really brilliant and so much fun to do over and over again. For some reason I get a kick out of the Deadpool level, and most of you would agree with me on that. That was the most amusing level and boss fight ever. Deadpool was just spot-on amazing. And other boss fights like Goblin, Hobgoblin, and the Mysterio boss fights were fun to play too. Which one is my favorite boss fight? Maybe the Hobgoblin one most, because you get to fight him several times, especially in free-fall (which was awesome!!). If only Vulture 2099 was in this game. He was one of my favorite villains from the 2099 comics.
Another thing that could’ve been disappointing to most fans, which I think is disappointing to me, is that this game is a miss-opportunity to be multiplayer for maybe challenge games and/or battle mode. It would be cool to see 2099 to fight Ultimate or maybe Noir fighting Amazing. 4 Spidey’s could easily be a 4-player game. Wouldn’t that be fun to have to do with your friends? I would think so. Also, a lot of people have stated this before, but the camera angles really are bad in this game. I know it may be hard for the developers to move the camera angles around because Spidey is so fast, but it can be so frustrating at times. For example, while I’m sticking to the ceiling I want to be able to see the opponent below me, so that I would have a better advantage to take him down or something. It’s just terrible, and I hope they can fix this problem with their next Spidey game.
All in all, this was pretty decent game. Its way better than Spider-Man 3 and kinda better than Web of Shadows, but it’s nowhere close to being as great as Spider-Man 2 and Ultimate Spider-Man, in my opinion. I do however think the Web of Destiny challenges are a cool idea, and a best way for the most dedicated of fans to finish each of the small challenges in each level. And the costumes are really cool, and I like how some of them are only use for that dimension. Since I pre-order this game from GameStop, I gotten the exclusive Cosmic Spider-Men costumes, and it’s pretty neat, and they look really cool. I like how each of them looks fitting for each Spidey.
But I am sticking to wearing the Scarlet Spider for Amazing, the Iron Spider in 2099, and the Negative Zone Spidey for Noir, and the Manga-Spidey for Ultimate. Like I said, I think the most dedicated of fans are going to get a kick out of some of these challenges. Some of them are really easy, and some of them are very tricky, and some are kinda hard. I would know; I did manage to complete them all, and get all the achievements on my Xbox 360. They were really easy to get in my opinion, but then again so were the achievements for Batman: Arkham Asylum. Heh, see what I mean? I can’t stop talking about that game (Although I only mentioned it twice, right?).
So how would I rate this? Well if you’re a Spidey fan, then you can surely own this game, but make sure to rent it at first. But if you’re not a true Spidey fan or not a Spidey fan at all, then consider this a rental. But I give Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions 8.5 out of 10. There you go, that’s my full-blown review of this game. Now go out and play it!!
Rating: 8.5 out of 10 possible Tablet Pieces
~ Gobbie, Out! ~