1. The Amazing Spider-Man 2 Review
http://www.gamebasin.com/news/the-amazing-spider-man-2-review
With Sony’s The Amazing Spider‐Man 2 drawing crowds into movie theaters, Activision and Beenox
wanted to do the same with their video game tie‐in, aiming to expand on the movie’s plot while
providing players a good time as Marvel’s web slinging hero. Despite Beenox’s proven track record
with Spidey however, this new adventure is sadly nothing more than a quick cash‐in. And it hurts,
because Beenox can obviously do better than this. The Amazing Spider‐Man 2 video game follows
the general plot of the movie of Peter battling the threat of Electro and the Green Goblin, albeit
very loosely, adding elements not seen in the film in between to pad out the experience. Enemies
like the Shocker, Kingpin and Carnage are added to the rogue gallery, and allies like Kraven the
Hunter and the Black Cat, make appearances in‐game to offer a bit of variety to the mix. Despite
the boost in guest appearances though, nothing can save the game’s weak script. The story is bland
and the dialogue feels stiff, and Spidey’s signature quips are repetitive and uninspired. Even the
collectable audio logs, letters and conversation wheels a la Mass Effect that are meant to flesh out
the back story are boring and distracting. It’s a mess of a plot, and one that could’ve been
entertaining if they followed the film more closely. The visuals are nothing to write home about
either, as the whole thing looks like a past‐gen game with bland textures, terrible car models,
repetitive enemies and lifeless civilians, poor draw distance and frequent popup, boring menus, a
wonky camera, and choppy, unfinished animations. Spider‐Man himself looks decent and animates
pretty well, with his signature cool‐looking flips and webslinging, and spectacular acrobatic combat,
but everything else around him looks rough, rushed, and occasionally skipped over. It’s obvious
that the developers rushed through a lot trying to get the game out in time for the film’s release,

2. which is a shame. The rush to get
the game out wasn’t too nice to the gameplay either, as it all feels hastily glued together to make
something that resembles a video game. Web swinging, often the most important part of aSpider‐
Man game, is very hit or miss here. The idea of using the triggers to web swing from Spidey’s left
or right hand make it more authentic, hands‐on, and realistic, which is good. Web swinging in
general though often leads to terrible results. Swinging through the streets is fun, but whenever
you’re caught in between close quarters, like alleyways, small streets or in between buildings, it’s
an absolute nightmare. Spidey will crash into buildings all the time, either causing him to stick to
the surface, run along it in directions you don’t want to go in, suffer through some weird animations,
and more, impeding players from often reaching the place they want to land on. Web swinging in
a Spidey game is super important, and yet this game manages to screw it up. Thankfully, Web
Rushing, a game mechanic from past Beenox Spider‐Man games which allows Spidey to slow down
time and slingshot anywhere they want accurately, is back in this one, somewhat alleviating the
pain of swinging around New York. Combat is also somewhat of a mess. Like the Batman:
Arkham games, Spider‐Man will often face groups of enemies and can jump between them to
deliver strikes that will add to the combo count. A red spider‐sense indicator will inform players of
when to press the dodge button to counter, and a white one will tell players when to dodge to
escape in a roll. It’s pretty easy and somewhat enjoyable, thanks to the mix of standard attacks,
the web rush that gets you close to enemies, and a web pull to bring them in or disarm them,
though things then complicated due to new abilities you gain later on like a shockwave attack that
can stun brutes but often leaves you swinging madly in the air before you can actually hit the
stunned foe. A close camera viewpoint doesn’t help either, as it often obscures enemies that are
behind you or can get stuck in weird angles, making combat a hassle at times, though you can heal
up at any time by pressing down on the D‐pad, so that’s a plus. You also get experience points from
fighting enemies (missions give you points too), which can unlock new abilities or improve old ones,
though some – like the web slingshot – are just useless.
The game also features a stealth

3. system, allowing Peter to rope in enemies and cover them in web for an instant knockout. While
it’s an okay system, as it forces players to use the Spider Sense to see where enemies are and to
catch them unawares, it feels weird in a game like this, especially if it’s a mission where you can’t
get caught sneaking around, as it breaks up the fast‐flowing pace of the game and forces players
to take their time. The game features 14 story missions that have Peter and Spider‐Man going to
unique locals and fighting off baddies in order to face off against the likes of Electro, Kingpin and
Russian thugs. As I mentioned previously, they aren’t anything special nor exciting, as they usually
have players track enemies, located objects, occasionally webcrawl through tight spaces, fight
enemies, and then wash and repeat. Occasionally a cool Spider‐Sense moment has players move
the camera to locate the source of incoming danger, but that’s the only good thing it has going for
it. Then there are side missions, which would usually be great as they extend the gameplay a bit,
but not here. Instead, they serve as a way to keep Spidey’s reputation with the public up, and if
you don’t do them, then your rep will go down and Trask forces will hunt you down. The problem
with this is that not only are they extremely repetitive and boring, as they have you stopping the
same crimes over and over again or rescuing civilians from the same pieces of falling debris (Spider‐
Man tells them that he can’t hold on to the A‐shaped piece of debris much longer and that they
have to crawl out, and yet for some reason he just casually throws it offscreen and the victims
never move from their initial spot), they end with an initially charming yet quickly annoying,
tiresome and often incorrect news report (the picture shows a different person to the one you just
saved) about how you saved people or did something. Additionally, these missions are time‐based
both in getting to and doing them, often in a very short span of time. This leads to you barely
completing them on time, or not getting to them at all, lowering the public’s opinion about you
very quickly. They also appear when you’re on a main mission, so you’re forced to do these silly
side‐quests when all you want to do is progress through the story. It’s horrible.
There are other activities to do that
aren’t timed though. Hidden through the city are collectible comic book pages, which unlock
readable comics in a store that’s run by Stan Lee. It also serves as the collectable hub, as players
can see figurines and posters. There’s also photo ops, in which Spidey can go to an area and take
sneaky photos to gain experience points, though you can just as easily run up to the people you’re
spying on and take photos right in their faces. Finally, there are also races that have Spidey go
through checkpoints all around the city, though considering the terrible web swinging, you might
want to just avoid it altogether. In the end, The Amazing Spider‐Man 2 is a game that is much worse
than it should have been. Terrible webslinging mechanics, a poor story, rough graphics and
annoying side‐missions are just some of the long list of problems that this game has. While Beenox
knows how to make a great Spider‐Man game, I think that they’ve dropped the ball one too many

4. times already. It’s time to move on; Spidey needs a new developer.
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