X08 Hands On: Spiderman Web of Shadows

Written by Jim Squires

Monday, 25 August 2008 05:00

When I saw the trailer that debuted online last month -- the one where Wolverine turned into a symbiote -- I needed a mop for the puddle of drool around my desk. Once I gathered my senses, I had to ask myself one very basic question: the last few Spiderman games published by Activision have featured heavily recycled gameplay with a new coat of "most recent film" painted on. How could this one really be any different? At X08 I got to find out.

The first thing you'll notice is that at a glance, not much has changed. Yes it's still an open-world. Yes the controls are largely the same. Dig a little deeper though and you'll find some vast improvements over Activision's previous entries. Add in an original story about New York City becoming infected by symbiotes (not just the people -- the city) and there's more than enough here that should pique your interest. So if the basic framework is largely the same, what's new?

Web of Shadows finally changes up the basic fighting up to feel a little more like a Spiderman game, rather than the generic kick and punch heavy combat of it's predecessors. The emphasis is on quick movement and style. Rather than smashing his way from brawler to brawler Spidey can now zipline between combatants and chain together massive combos, not unlike the slide maneuver in Too Human. Switching between enemies is easier too as the right trigger now acts as an auto-target. They call it Spidey sense. I call it an improvement.

One of the features integral to the game is the ability to switch from his classic blue and red suit to Spidey's much darker alien symbiote look. Each costume has it's own set of abilities and attacks, and they've really done a good job of nailing the distinction between the two. While basic controls remain the same, the types of attacks each use really set each suit apart as two different classes. The classic look focuses more on acrobatics and web-based attacks, while the black suit is all about inflicting damage. They've done a great job of complimenting the two distinct play styles with their own animations. When playing as symbiote Spidey his moves clearly possess a disregard for civility and human life. Every action he takes has a certain disgust with his opponents built into it. It's a simple change, but it's really effective.

Switching between suits couldn't be easier, as a click of the left stick gives your duds an instant makeover. There's something of a moral barometer built into the game too. A good vs evil based on your actions a la KOTOR or Fable. We didn't get too deep into this, but it appears to be tied into which suit you're wearing more frequently and some moral options presented in the story. Either way, wearing that black suit scares the hell out of the townies. It's another small but fantastic touch that really sets the two costumes apart.

Two other new features were shown to me during my play session as well, both new styles of combat. The recent crop of Activision Spiderman games have suffered from some pretty generic fighting. Clearly the ground battles have kicked things up a notch with what was mentioned above -- but what about all the other places Spiderman likes to hang out? Wall combat and air combat are being introduced this time around. Wall combat didn't seem like anything too special -- essentially ground combat from an angled view. But the air combat? Hooo-wheee that's some sweet lookin' fightin'.

Air combat works on a very basic principal: Spiderman can't fly. So what does that mean for gameplay? As your pumelling your target (in my playtest, it was Vulture) you need to continually use that zipline maneuver to keep in the fight. If you can't keep your web attached to the villain, it's sayonara Spidey.

All in all, things are looking pretty tight. The open world nature and basic controls of the previous games still apply, but it looks as though enough tweaks and changes have been made to the experience to make this one fresh right out of the box. Expect to hear more on this one before it's October 21st release.