Ultimate Spider-man

“With great power comes great responsibility.”  That line has been repeated over and over again within the Spider-Man movies.  What relevance does it have right now?  Treyarch, the brilliant studio behind Ultimate Spider-man, has worked on the Spider-Man franchise since 2002 when they began work on Spider-Man: The Movie.  Since that point, they have only skyrocketed with expectations due to the success of both Spider-Man: The Movie and Spider-Man 2.  Now three years later, they have the responsibility of delivering another hit for Activision, and this time it is with the Ultimate Spider-Man series. 

For those confused, this isn’t the next chapter of the Spider-man universe from the movies, but an entire new outlook for Spider-man himself.  The shiny windows that glare from the sunlight are lost in the shuffle with the implementation of 3D-inking graphics.  The 3D-inking maintains the original comic’s look, as the pages peal as if you were reading straight from the comic.  If you have a phenomenal PC that can play games such as DOOM 3 & Half-Life 2, you’ll never encounter any problems playing Ultimate Spider-Man.  It runs smoothly at 30fps and never slows up due to technical issues with the game.

If you are still feeling left out of the loop with the storyline of Ultimate Spider-man, stress no further.  Ultimate Spider-Man just launched with in the past five years and has excelled quickly as one of the better comics out currently.  Peter Parker is back in high school and is rediscovering himself all over again.  If you want authenticity, look no further as Treyarch was able to hire the creators of the comics.  They came on board to help with the script, story, and designs of the characters.

You are able to play either Spiderman or his nemesis Venom throughout the game.  If the addition of playing Venom isn’t enough to convince you, just look to the side characters that you’ll be pitted against or have coming to your aide.  Rhino, Green Goblin, Electro, Shocker, Beetle, Carnage and a few other surprises I want to leave out for your own self discovery.  If you wanted a villain to face off against, Ultimate Spider-Man is sure to have a few that might pop into your mind.  The allies that appear throughout the story include a grumpy X-man, a cocky member from the Fantastic Four, and a top gunner from S.H.I.E.L.D.

Before you get hyped up about all these characters from the Marvel Universe, you must hear the potential downside to their addition.  Since this is a brand new retelling of a legendary story, Spider-man is brought back to his roots of course.  All this leads to a new look and design to the characters.  Green Goblin is now an actual behemoth of a monster that resembles Abomination from the Incredible Hulk series.  Rhino actually has intelligence, Shocker is only a simple street thug with vibro-shock units, and Carnage is now somehow related to Peter Parker through DNA.  It’s a lot to take in but in the end you may like the new direction they have gone.

To go along with the characters are voice actors that actually voice their parts quite nicely.  The biggest surprise you may come by in this department is that Spider-man has an adolescent’s voice.  A few voice actors you may have heard from before include—

*John Billingsley- Bolivar Trask himself has actually had roles in such movies as Out of Time, A Cinderella Story, High Crimes, The Glass House, Born to Be Wild (c’mon you know you love this movie), White Oleander and even Crocodile Dundee in Los Angeles.

*Sean Marquette- He’s behind the voice of Spider-man so he must have some type of resume worthy for that credit right?  Well he’s appeared in 13 going on 30 as the younger version of Mark Ruffalo, recently worked with Ben Affleck in Surviving Christmas and had a part on Van Wilder as a younger child. 
 
*James Arnold Taylor- The voice of Electro could be heard from a variety of games such as Final Fantasy X & X-2 (Tidus), Tales of Symphonia (Yggdrasil), Ratchet & Clank: Going Commando & Up Your Arsenal (Ratchet), and often voices Obi-Wan Kenobi in Star Wars video games. 

The voice acting may not sound familiar but the more you play other video games, the more you’ll connect the voices you hear to other games.  With Michael Bendis behind the dialogue, the legitimacy of the game is eminent. 

If I have jumped too far ahead of myself with the omission of the gameplay, don’t worry at all as it is superb.  One consideration of why that is so, is that Treyarch actually cut down on the combos to simplify it.  No longer will you have a long laundry list of moves that you’ll never use over the course of the game besides a few times.  Treyarch is hoping you concentrate on actually being Spidey, as you are able to fly around the screen bouncing off opponents.  With the nimble and agile fighting, you’ll move the combo meter up from “Spectacular” all the way to being “Ultimate”.  This meter allows you to do more damage to enemies as you increase your skill level on how you play.

Don’t fear as you can still use your webbing to your own dismay.  From dragging opponents around the levels to beat them senseless or to even hang them from street posts anywhere in the city, they made sure there is enough here to effectively use Spider-man or even Venom for that matter.  Venom is a whole different machine when playing the game.  No longer will you want to concentrate on saving people and being the good guy, but you’ll actually want to destroy stuff and kill the civilians instead.  Venom is a great addition but the limitations of using Venom become apparent with the simplified fighting system.  You’ll yearn for more combat and destruction but you’ll struggle to find it since it may feel repetitive after awhile.

In the end, you’ll find yourself playing this a few times if you are a fan of Spider-Man.  If you aren’t obsessed with everyone’s favorite web-slinger, one play through may be enough.  The addition of Venom is an appealing draw for gamers who have never played a Spider-Man game.  The boss battles are more the same but have a chase scene usually before them you must participate in.  I am anticipating a sequel that will beef up on the action, and keep up the same level of genuine credibility of the Spider-Man world.

Gameplay- 7.5
Controlling Spider-Man is different than past iterations.  The fact that it is easier to play makes it more accessible to casual gamers who only like to play for small time frames.  The boss battles are amazing but I wish they would have done away with the usual chase scenes you have to go through to get to them.  They still include the usual “find the weakness and exploit” tactics but that is expected.  The fighting system needs to be expanded for me to be fully satisfied.

Graphics- 7.6
The 3D-inking did impress me and it is attracting but I miss the sleek looks from Spider-Man 2.  The city isn’t as beautiful as it was before and is scaled down tremendously.  I loved to plummet from the Empire State Building, free-falling for almost a minute without ever hitting the ground.  Without my free-falling, what can I do to waste time in between missions?

Sound- 8.0
I am surprised at the group of voice actors they brought in.  All of them fit the billing of their characters and do a nice job.  The dialogue is at tip-top shape and excels.  The soundtrack and sound effects need a little more work next time around though as they seem to be the lowest point of the audio department.

Difficulty- Easy/Medium
The simplified battle system makes this game on the easy side for combat.  Even if you still can’t get the combos down the first time, the game will become easier by nature with the complexity gone.  The chase scenes are a pain though as the camera will often affect how you can keep up to the villains you are after.

Concept- 7.8
It pleases me that Treyarch/Activision didn’t sit around on their hands waiting for the third movie to create the next Spider-Man game.  Ultimate Spider-Man is a whole new outlook on the Spider-man universe and it pleases me to see it finally hit retail stores.  The new design for characters may detract from the movie lovers but you’ll grow to love the storyline quickly.

Overall- 7.8
I am happy with the overall product that has turned out for Ultimate Spider-Man.  It’s an improvement over the two movie adaptations as it is unquestionably faithful to the comic series.  I haven’t seen another comic book video game this faithful to its license.  A must buy for any Spidey lover.