So, Web of Shadows. Either you love it or hate it. So I'll start the review with this: I don't understand the hate. It's the best Spider-Man game to date! It has a great line-up of heroes and villains, the actual choices are great. Damn it, even the graphics are-okay half the graphics suck. The voice acting? I can get over it. So, lets actually start the review.
THE GRAPHICS
Simply put, Most of the graphics are good, but enough are bad that you can be distracted and angry at them, even when the rest are fine, even great! The designers put in time and effort. Spidey himself looks great, his movements are fluid and acrobatic, and has very detailed ridges on his costume. Black Cat is great, Wolverine is great, Electro, Vulture...um...civilians...Venom, Venom is greatly done. Luke Cage COULD, and that's a big could, be in here. The environment looks great, and both versions of the Web-Slinger's costume are made to the best of their ability. The only thing that could have been better is if the Red Suit could be ripped and torn, but the Black Suit healed itself. Enemies also looked good. The rest? Crap. Kingpin? Crap. Black Widow? Slight crap. Tinkerer? Crap. Moon Knight? Crap. Rhino? Could have been better. The Symbiote versions of villains? They were actually my favorite part of the game. I mean, take your favorite villains, put a symbiotic on them, and BAM! You have an awesome design. A lot of work was put into the graphics, enough were good to give them a good score.
GRAPHICS: 4 out of 5
THE STORY
{MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD!!!}
So, here's a summary.
BOSS BATTLE!
Venom has hurt Mary Jane, and is crushing Spider-Man's skull. Part of the symbiotic goes onto Spidey, and he beats up Venom, who mysteriously disappears. MJ goes to the hospital, and Spidey helps stop a gang war with Luke Cage. He makes a parley, but mysterious men come and try to kill them. He learns the gang war was a setup, and:
A: He can be good and tell the gang leaders.
Or B: He can let a huge battle erupt, and have Luke yell at him for doing the right thing and just having the damn GANG LEADERS go to prison instead of making a truce.
Either way, Spider-Man goes over to pay the Kingpin a visit, and finds Black Cat is working for him.
BOSS BATTLE!
Spidey chases Cat across the city, eventually coming to Moon Knight's base, and fighting cheap Kingpin Iron Man and Green Goblin rip-offs, as Spider-Man would put it. He fights Black Cat, who goes to her apartment. She says she was working with Kingpin to learn his plans, help Spidey, and make love with him for it. She says that they can just have fun, do what they want, and be free of responsibility. You can either:
A: Say, "I can't do that Felicia." "Can't or won't?" "Same thing." And work with Moon Knight.
Or B: Stay with Felicia, who promises you the city, and work with her. (This one is better.)
Either way, you get the same orders, fighting the Kingpin's forces, and eventually-
BOSS BATTLE!
-fighting Vulture! (His design is great, I'll cover that soon.) You beat him, and can either:
A: Be good and hand him over to the police.
Or B: Threaten him with death, forcing him to help you.
You go back to Felicia, going to a crime ring, only to find some mysterious crazy people who have similar Spider-Powers. You throw one off a building, and are blamed for murder.
You make your way to Hell's Kitchen, where Wolverine is waiting for you. So he can claw you in the face!
BOSS BATTLE!
Wolvie asks you questions, which will make you better if you answer correctly, or worse if your wrong. You can get the answers right, or beat the crap out of Logan. He teaches you how to find the crazy people, and you eventually find Venom
BOSS BATTLE!
Brock is making pods that turn people into all out infected, and you must destroy them to damage him. When you beat him, your slowed down, and go to a SHIELD quarantine zone. Electro pops up, and a chase begins!
BOSS BATTLE!
You follow Electro across the city, eventually coming to a standoff on train tracks. You follow him to a construction site, and the Black Widow shoots him, and he is infected. You go to a bridge closure, and meet Kingpin. He suggests finding 'one of those geniuses'. Spidey calls Reed Richards and Tony Stark, both unavailable. Then, Spider-Man decides to go break Tinkerer out of jail. (Instead of finding Bruce Banner, or even calling Nick Fury. Yep. Fury doesn't show up.) You can either:
A: Ride to Ryker's Island with Moon Knight.
OR B: Go with Vulture.
You go there, and free Rhino, who you ride to Tinkerer. You can either
A: Be a douche and trick Rhino back to his cell after he helped you.
OR B: Be awesome and let him go.
You free Tinkerer, find Widow and Kingpin, only to discover NYC is completely overrun with symbiotes. Spidey goes down to Stark Tower, where Widow is, and do a few favors. Then you go to protect some of Kingpin''s men, meet Black Cat again, (who isn't mad you ditched her.) who tells you to find Electro, as he's making special electric symbiotes. You then go to a stunning set, and face off with the infected Electro!
BOSS BATTLE!
You fight and defeat Electro, removing the symbiote by either
A: Encourage him to do it himself.
OR B: Punch him repeatedly and insult him to get it off.
So then you do more missions, eventually going to the church with Wolverine, who is infected.
BOSS BATTLE!
Wolvie uses pods to make body armor, but you beat him anyways. Then you can either:
A: Let him claw the thing to death.
OR B: Take the symbiote for yourself, leaving Wolverine mad.
So you go to Harlem, evacuate everyone, and are captured by none other than Black Cat. As a symbiote.
BOSS BATTLE!
You fight, MJ comes, and you eventually throw her off the tall building your on, nearly killing her. MJ drops down, and you can either:
A: Load her on the hovercraft, allowing SHIELD to help.
OR B: Ignore MJ, using your controlled symbiote to save Cat and make MJ sad, leaving you, and have Cat at your side.
So you meet with Widow again, and go find Vulture, infected, messing with the Tinkerer's invention.
BOSS BATTLE!
So then you beat him, and based on past decisions, you either destroy the machine and keep the suit, or let it destroy the symbiotes. Then you go up to the helicarrier, and encounter a giant, five-headed Venom monster.
BOSS BATTLE!
You stop the monster, destroy the helicarrier by either:
A: Letting Venom sacrifice himself.
OR B: Wrapping webbing around his neck, pulling him into an engine.
Then there are four endings.
1: Spider-Man saves the city, and stays with MJ.
2: The city is saved, but MJ dumped Peter.
3: Spider-Man becomes 'king' of the symbiotes, and infected Logan is hired to go after him.
4: Same as 3, only controlled symbiote Black Cat is Spider-Man's 'queen'.
So, it's a good story. Everything happens as a result of another, and the choices are good. Really, the only ones that had impact to me were the Black Cat, and last ones. The rest were good, but not as important. It's original, as far as I know, and is really, really good. It's original, which pleases me, it has a story that all superhero games should have.
Story: 5 out of 5
DESIGN
Okay, it's time for character design. Mostdon''t include this, but I do. You know why? Would you have liked Scarecrow from Arkham Asylum as much if he looked like he did in BTAS?
Exactly. Now, first on the list is Spider-Man!
Spidey's design is great. He doesn't have the 'raised webbing', like the movie versions do. I liked that, and all the other comic details there were. The two Spider-Logos were just like that in the comics, everything was as it should be. On the Red Suit. The Black Suit..wasn't great. It came from Venom, and was inconsistent. Venom was a blackish-blue. Spider-Man's was purple. Venom's wasn't shiny. Spider-Man's was most definitely shiny. I say that the Red Suit is better than the Black Suit, but the Black Suit is just purple with a white spider, so it's nothing major.
Black Cat!
Her design was everything Black Cat should be. Just, the perfect design. The hair, the height, the mask, the movement was very sleek and feline, the suit. It was all just perfect. The symbiotic version was good. It didn't make me complement the designers. Well, maybe it did, but not as much as I should have. The tentacle hair was a nice touch though. And the other infected version was...wow. Just wow.
Vulture!
The design was very original, as far as I know. The razor blade wings were awesome, and the body suit is also great. His symbiotic version is perfect. The two huge 'talons' and square head are great, and how they kept his 'wings' clean was a great detail.
Electro!
He looks like he should in a movie, skinny, the stupid mask, but that's where the stupidity ends. The gauntlets were nice, the bulky body suit a nice touch, such as a cat curving upwards to appear larger. The electricity effects were great, and the symbiotic version was my favorite design in the game. The breaching electricity, the eyes, the protruding electric spikes-it was all great.
Wolverine!
Nothing much to say here, as the design is about as close to the comics as you can get. The symbiotic version, however, is badass. The huge claws, missing eyes, replacement 'Wolverine eyes'. The design was amazing.
Venom!
He was a combination of every version. What I loved was that the mouth was there, but didn't move. His movement was very nice, completely Venom, and he was big. After that horror-fest that was Spider-Man 3, we got the bulky Venom back. What is most likely one of my favorite parts of the game was when, in the beginning, the Venom much comes open, revealing Eddie's mouth, covered in symbiote. It was great, and I was like:
"Wow, that is amazing! I love that they put that in there! That was just-just great!"
So Venom is my favorite design.
The rest were...okay. I didn't exactly like them, but they weren't bad. Black Widow was actually very good. So, enough were good to make me like the designs.
Design: 4 out of 5
GAMEPLAY
So how does the gameplay itself hold up? Other reviews call it repetitive, but if that's so, why are you playing Call of Duty, Battlefield, or any other shooter game? The web swinging is at it's best, being able to boost to the max or the min. You can still web zip, but can also run across walls. The fighting differs between suits, which I like. The Black Suit is more direct and powerful, while the Red Suit is more fluid and acrobatic. My favorite part of combat is the web strike. Spidey latches onto an enemy, and goes forward, crashing into the enemy. The boss battles are fun, gimmicks for each being introduced. Electro creates walls of electricity, Wolverine questions you, Black Cat keeps away and pulls you in, and Vulture is up in the air. These make the battles fun and different.
Gameplay: 5 out of 5
THE ENVIRONMENT
The last and most important part of this review, the environment. It had a good blend of reality and fantasy to make it seem like Spider-Man's New York City. Unlike Spider-Man 3: The Video Game, Web of Shadows has multiple comic buildings. Stark Tower, Wilson Fisk Industries, The Trask Building, The Daily Bugle, Moon Knight's Base, The Baxter Building, and many others. Unlike other games, grounded in fantasy or reality, Web of Shadows has the perfect mixture of both. The Hidden Spiders are a great addition, allowing Spidey to level up in a creative way. New York is at it's best in this game.
The Environment: 5 out of 5
THE VOICE ACTING
While a lot of the voices were great, like Black Cat, Venom, Vulture, Electro and Moon Knight, and others bad, like Luke Cage, MJ, Rhino, Black Widow, and some in between, like Spider-Man and Kingpin, I can get over it. There are some good jokes in the dialogue, made by Spidey, and the voices themselves aren't perfect, in the end, it doesn't even matter.
The Voice Acting: 3 out of 5
THE DECISION
So, Web of Shadows is, to me, everything a Spider-Man, and Superhero game should be. In the end though, I had to give it a-
4 and a Half! So that was my review of Spider-Man: Web of Shadows! Check out my other articles!
Until next time,
Comiccow6.