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After three mega-successful Spider-films, it’s safe to say that even non-comics-geeks grasp the whole “with-great-power-comes-great-responsibility” thing. It appears, however, that Treyarch, the team responsible for creating the Spider-Man 3 videogame and its predecessors, missed the follow-up memo about great power and great expectations. Instead of giving us a spectacular next-gen web-slinging adventure, they’ve given us something that feels an awful lot like the one we had in Spider-Man 2—and that’s a great disappointment.
The biggest thrills here still come from swinging on a web high above a huge, free-form New York City that looks and feels genuinely real (even if you can’t really interact with any of the citizens). Few games have captured the exhilarating feel of their environment quite like the Spidey games. The whole black suit thing is also a blast: a Spidey on steroids lark that feels almost as rage-a-riffic as a romp with God of War 2’s Kratos.
 Your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man returns in the third installment of the popular videogame. |
But if you’re looking to relive the movie, you’ll have to settle for the plot highlights, interspersed through a varied and sundry set of storyline missions that have Spidey doing everything from racing through the streets to fighting random crime and stopping supervillains from the movie (Sandman, New Goblin) and the comic books (Scorpion, Kraven, Lizard).
With so many options, you’re never at a loss for things to do. You’re also never fully engaged in any of the stories the game juggles like so many spider-balls, and any sense of superhero grandeur falls flatter than Mary Jane’s singing career.
Apologies to Sandman and Venom, but the combat camera is the real villain here, especially during the multienemy melees (and since three different story missions call for Spidey to stop gangs, there are several of them). It’s all but impossible to see where you are in relation to your opponents as you jump, punch and spin around the set pieces. Isolating enemies and using Spidey’s special spider-reflexes can help turn the tide, but given that Treyarch has now swung around this block three times, it’s kinda inexcusable to see major issues like this—not to mention the sometimes stuttery graphics and clipping issues—hampering the proceedings.
