I've been out of comics for a few years now. They're gone but not forgotten, however, and I still have a collection of my favourites to read. For the longest time, everyone's neighbourhood friend, Spider-Man, wasn't on my radar. He didn't really interest me. I have a couple of collections of comic arcs for him, and they were alright, but nothing remarkable. I've warmed up to him over time, but not by a considerable amount.
Trying to think about why I wasn't a fan, it might be because of the Spider-Man movies. Tobey Maguire as Peter Parker was offputting, to the point where I haven't seen the films at all, but it can't be his fault that I don't like the character itself.
It's a good thing that it's not Tobey's fault because he gets another chance to sell me on Spidey, lending his voice to Spider-Man 2, the open-world superhero string 'em up, sort of based on the movie, but not wholly.
This game, if I've remembered what I've read correctly, is the superhero video game, the benchmark for all others to follow. High praise for a silly kid in a skintight suit. What's it all about, then?
Fun Times
Aaaand I'm sold. New York City, in-game, on the PlayStation 2? Grand Theft Auto III's homage to NYC was impressive, but it looks like a cartoon compared to this rendition. Ironic, perhaps, for a game based on a movie based on a comic.
As the day turns back to the night, our hero, the one and only Spider-Man, sits moping in front of a giant billboard of Mary Jane. I'm not too informed on the Spidey canon, so I don't know if they're together, or she's just his crush, but according to the intro credits, Kirsten Dunst returns to voice her. Reasonably sure she didn't lend her likeness, based on that billboard.
I need to learn how to control myself, and the big names are here in the tutorials too, with Bruce Campbell somewhat sarcastically explaining the ins and outs of spider-based movement.
From sticking to walls to swinging on webs, and everything in between. Well, jumping. Walls, jumping and swinging, that's about it.
There are two control schemes for the infamous spidey-swinging. The more complicated one has you jump off buildings with the X button, fall gracefully before firing at a web line with R2, swinging elegantly on that before jumping off into another swing, or, until you get the hang of it, swaying in the wind and bumping into buildings.
But it's alright. It's friendly. No fall damage, so far as I can tell, and no sudden stops when you slam face-first into a wall. In fact, you're just as likely to land straight into a run of some kind, keeping your movement flowing through the city.
Our spidey-senses have alerted us to a robbery in broad daylight, and it's time to swing across the city to intercept the criminals.
Combat is more straightforward than the swinging, with the square button doing all the work, thwacking and slapping your foes with punches and kicks. The animation here is solid, in that spidey seems to freeze in poses ripped straight from the pages of a comic to exaggerate the impact of a hit.
The transition from the skyscrapers to the sidewalk is seamless, and while you could argue that the city is a little on the empty side, it'd be a weak point to argue. For what's going on at any given time, the PlayStation 2 should be lavishly rewarded. I'm emulating Spider-Man 2 here, but from a disc, so I might just have to reward it by actually using the console to play something sometime.
A CGI cutscene between chapters introduces us to Dr Octopus, but that'd be spoiling things, so he's Dr Octavius at the minute, working away on a source of energy for all mankind if memory serves. I wish there were a subtitle option to check.
En route to a school class, Spider-Man is alerted to some commotion nearby. A policeman on the floor says that a group of thugs mustn't get hold of a briefcase. A little further down the road, a group of thugs get hold of a briefcase.
We're now told of our spider reflexes, where a push of L1 slows down time, resulting in blurry screens and slurred speech, but also giant red rings and highlights and, in theory, ways to mitigate a bunch of thugs attacking you at the same time.
It's a minor quibble, but the camera in the combat sucks. For the most part, I was relying solely on Spider-Man locking onto his target and making sure he moved in that direction until I could see the opponent. I could move the camera around with the right analogue stick, but it didn't feel right in combat, especially when I needed my thumb near the square and, now, triangle buttons to instigate some attack combos.
The triangle button shoots some webs at your enemies, to varying degrees of usefulness, from temporarily blinding them or removing their weapons, to grabbing their ankles and swinging them around the streets or tying them up and rendering them defenceless.
After a short fight, this mysterious briefcase is returned to its owner, and we're late for class.
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| You're meant to be friendly, Spider-Man |
We learn a little more about Peter Parker in these cutscenes. They're not much to look at, both in terms of character models and animation, but the voicework is alright. Our professor reminds us how brainy we are, but how poor our performance has been, owing to our distractions, shall we say. He's mates with Dr Octavius, too, and we've got an assignment to write about him. I wonder how that'll turn out.
The city now opens up to us some more, and we're told about a to-do list. Earning Hero Points seems to be the primary thing to do, as not only do they improve our abilities when we purchase skills and so on, but they also allow us to progress through the story.
To get them, we've got to go and do some superhero stuff. Let's ask this pedestrian for a side-mission, shall we?
He tells us of a bunch of criminals shooting a couple of cops. Why Spider-Man's spidey-senses didn't pick that up, we'll never know, but we have precious few seconds to get to the scene and deal with the situation like a spider would.
And just like that, we're 250 points closer to our goal. It's as simple as that. You don't know what mission you'll get when you find a citizen with something to urgently tell you, but there are a few things to get up to - mostly involving beating people up.
Most of the time, while side-missions pop up on your minimap every now and then, a primary mission marker will make itself known above all else. These are the markers you'll be swinging to the most, so it's time to get some practice in.
If you can find a road that takes you there, swinging from skyscraper to skyscraper, swooping down to the traffic and up to the city skyline feels excellent. I found it a little fiddly to get the timing down, but the penalties for getting it wrong seem to be making Spider-Man look like he's still learning his superpowers, so it's no big deal.
It's tight corners or attaching to lampposts that seem to catch me out. And you must connect your webs to something physical, too. No hanging off clouds here. Hope I don't have to swing through central park any time soon.
Apparently, it's Peter's birthday, and MJ and Harry Osborne are here to celebrate. Spider-Man killed Harry's dad, so he thinks, so it's a good job our identity is still a secret at this point of the story. I forget what the point of this cutscene is. I think we just had to meet to get the story going. Can I check that off the to-do list?
Nope, not yet. We need some more superhero points. Ambushes, car chases... what else can Spider-Man 2 challenge us with?
Ambushes and car chases! Yes, it can all feel a little repetitive, but at least some of these missions seem to mix things up by starting as one type and evolving into another, as a thug escapes the beatings and steals a car, for example.
They only take a minute or so to complete, so it's not like we're slogging our way through these side-missions just to get them out of the way. They're fun, they allow me to practice the moves, both swinging to get to the scene and then dealing with the fights. All the while, I can sit in awe of the city itself.
With all our points, we can now progress the chapter by swinging a kilometre through the night lights to meet with MJ. I think she has a theatre ticket for us if memory serves. As it turns out, however, she also has a bomb to drop.
Again, the cutscenes don't exactly do an excellent job of showing, in this case, how Peter learns that MJ is seeing someone - a boy. A boy? And not me, Peter Parker? Who could that be?
No, really, who could that be?
I'd be wondering what the hell I was looking at, too. A bunch of thieves trying - and seemingly failing - to steal some artwork. As incompetent as they are, we should at least intervene, for we are Spider-Man.
Thugs defeated, we pick up the presence of one other person in the gallery, watching over us. It is none other than... not Catwoman, the Marvel version. Who is she? Black Cat? Great name. I suppose Catwoman and Spider-Man are no better, to be fair.
Eager to depart the scene - though what was she doing there in the first place? - Black Cat leaps across the rooftops, and we find ourselves in another gameplay mechanic, that of a superhero chase. I'd imagine the Spider-Man icon needs to be quite close to the Black Cat icon, so let's put our web-swinging skills to the test in this cat and spider chase.
Fantastic. It's such a shame I can't recall what these two said to each other, on account of the lack of subtitles to refresh my memory. I think it was mostly jokes about Peter failing to get a girlfriend. Taunted by a cat. It's not your night, is it Spidey?
That ends chapter three, chapter four near immediately makes itself known, the city is ours to play in and our to-do list for next time is as follows.
I look forward to it.
Final Word
Spider-Man 2 is incredible. I wasn't expecting anything like this. I think it's because I forgot what the PS2 was capable of and perhaps assumed that it's the greatest superhero game because, on the whole, they're pretty average anyway. But no. Spider-Man 2 is, well, amazing would be the better choice, wouldn't it?
While I was fumbling with the swing of things (literally) and really don't like the camera in places, the game grabbed me like a web catches insects, and I was consumed by it. If it had subtitles, I might still be playing it. Maybe I just missed an option somewhere.
The story, so I'm told, weaves some comic material in with the events of the film, so fans of Spider-Man should be right at home here. Before playing, I wouldn't say I was a fan but was familiar with him, certainly. After playing, I might even go so far as to say I'm a convert. Hell, I may seriously consider looking into the PS4 title for an updated version of this inarguably entertaining game.
It looks great, it has the star power to make it sound authentic, and it has gameplay that comes in quick bursts that keep you on your toes, but can seemingly be tackled at your own leisurely pace, if you feel like it.
I can't recommend it enough, even if just to swing through the city for a few minutes.
Fun Facts
The web-swinging was near completely rebuilt for this sequel and uses ray tracing to find suitable attachment points for Spider-Man to swing from.
Spider-Man 2, developed by Treyarch, first released in 2004.
Version played: PlayStation 2, 2005, via emulation.