Spider-Man: Web of Shadows

Ever since Spider-Man 2 (based on the movie) came out, I've been buying Spider-Man games for one purpose and one purpose only: to swing Tarzan style from place to place on thin pieces of string strong enough to hold a man yet disappears at soon as you take your eyes off of it. Now that I think about it, what happens to Spidey's web when he web-swings? Does it stay there and someone cleans it up? Does it disappear, and if it does, how come it never disappears when he ties up an enemy? Holy crap I found a loophole. Anyway, there's a reason why people only buy Spider-Man games for the swinging: because the rest of the game is forgettable. The combat is usually sucky, and with the exception of Ultimate Spider-Man the story suffers from having to tie in with the movie. So, how do we solve this problem? We asked Shaba Games that very same question, and they give us Web of Shadows as their answer; a game that's main focus is combat and original storytelling, but sadly that wasn't the full answer we needed.

Race you to the bedroom!

First, let me get this out the way: a symbiote is a life form that lives off of another living thing. That black goo that covers Spider-Man and Venom is called a symbiote. Any person who is covered by the symbiote changes as the goo takes over their bodies. Once that person is infected, they are known to be called symbiotes. There, now when I use the word symbiote, you won't be looking at your screen confused like it farted or something. Now, the story begin with Spider-Man getting his ass handed to him by Venom when somehow pieces of symbiote jumped off of him and onto Spidey. Now back in black (for those of you who don't know, Spidey wore the symbiote first), Spidey gets the necessary boost in power to send Venom running. After the fight, Venom realized that he had the power to spread his suit to other people, infecting them. Eventually, almost all of New York has turned into the symbiote version of Racoon City, and it's up to Spidey to save the day or ruin it, depending on whether or not he can fight off the symbiote in him.

I don't know if it's explained in the comics, but it hasn't been explained in any other medium of Spider-Man. How is it that Spidey is the least affected by the symbiote's power. Sure, he turns into an asshole, but really his attitude is no better than some women while PMSing (you know who you are, ladies). In essence, Spidey is fine, but everybody else goes apeshit when they touch a drop of that stuff. What makes Spider-Man so different? Is it because he was the first? Even wikipedia couldn't answer the question. If anyone knows, drop me a line.

Quick! Change the tire!

Before we continue on to the gameplay, I would like point out my biggest problem with the game; the voice acting. Overall it's okay, but the voices for Luke Cage and Spidey really piss me off. If you listen to Luke's voice, you would noticed how manufactured it sounds. No real person has that kind of deep voice, and if they do, they don't look like Luke. Spider-Man.......*sigh. He sounds like such a whiny little bitch. I can't stand that voice. He sounds like a little brat playing dressup in the middle of New York waiting for his mommy to return. It gets even more hilarious when he tries to sound all bad and shit in his black suit. C'mon people. I know Spider-Man is just your average joe who happened to come across super powers, and I know his double life of superheroism and normality is weighing heavily on his psyche, but dude no hero should sound this much like a whimp.

Like I said ealier, Shaba Games concentrated on getting the combat right for Spidey. The question is "Does it or does it not work?". What if I told you the answer is both yes and no? See, they did a good job of making cool moves for Spidey to use, and the transition from ground to air to wall is strangely satisfying, but there not much you can do with it. Even though you can unlock new moves, they don't really help anything; you can EASILY beat the game with the moves you have starting off. In fact, a good chunk of your fights will be won by you using Spidey's attack that has him bouncing off enemies like a freakin yoyo. To make it worse, thats all you do. Normally, I wouldn't mind a formula like this (I did like Afro Samurai after all), but I can't help feeling cheated out of doing everything a spider can. All you do is go from mission to mission beating up people, and Spider-Man can do so much more than that. He can race to areas within a time limit, save people from falling, sneak into places, stop runaway trains apparently (thank you Spider-Man 2), use his acrobatics to get past security, and a bunch of other stuff. Sadly, all I'm doing is punching people, and when everyone (including bosses) are piss easy to beat, it gets old quick.

"....I QUIT!"

Integrated into the game is a morality system that determines whether you're good or bad depending on what choices you make and what suit is used in missions. It's cool to be able to change your suit between black and red at the press of a button, but sometimes relying on one suit can overturn any choices you made. For example, I was going the good path picking all the good choices that popped up, but because I was kicking ass with the black suit for so long, my alignment was evil. What the hell did I make all those choices for? Also, your alignment determines which partner you can have during missions. On the good side, there's Wolverine, Luke Cage, and Moon Knight. On the bad side, There's Black Cat, Vulture, Electro, and Rhino. Besides Wolverine and Black Cat, the list of helpfuls is just flat-out shitty. Where is Iron Man and the Fantastic 4? Don't they live in NY? Why is Spider-Man being helped by a bunch of D-list villains who's only purpose in the comics and cartoons is filler until a more competent villain shows up? Who the fuck is Moon Knight and why am I taking orders from him? This comes off too much like a fans' games, and nothing proves that theory more than the asinine Spider-Man comic trivia Wolverine ask you during your fight. I don't know what's worse: that they added Marvel trivia into the game that no normal person would know, or the fact that I actually knew most of the fuckin answers. Speaking of answers, this game leaves a lot of questions behind once you beat it. How did Venom spread the symbiote around? Which timeframe does this game takes place? Is Peter Parker a high schooler, college student, or grown ass man? How is Wolverine affected by the symbiote? Doesn't his healing facter help prevent against that? Why in one scene was Spidey throwing infected people off a roof of a building (not something a hero would do)? When did Mary Jane learn how to use a shotgun? How is it that no one saw this invasion coming sooner? Why couldn't Shield get in contact with more big named heroes? What is Venom's motive for doing this? And just who the fuck is Moon Knight? This game has no tie ins to any movie, and therefore was free to be as creative as they wanted. Shaba, you dropped the ball. Once the city does become completely infected, you'll noticed a serious lag from time to time, and it is annoying as hell. Apparently the game is doing more than it can handle once you reach that point. My second biggest problem (first being the voice acting) is what you do after you beat the game: nothing! Once you beat it, that's it. In every open world Spider-Man game before it, once you've beaten the game, you were free to swing around the city and do whatever the hell you wanted. Why the hell would Shaba take that away? That's the most important part to a Spider-Man game. The only thing you can do is start a new game and see the other endings, and if you got bored going through the game once, chances are you're not going through it again.

Whoa! Good luck fighting all that shit.

Travis, you asked what I thought about Spider-Man: Web of Shadows. Here's you're answer: a fuckin disappointment. Yea, it's fun for a while, but I guarantee you will get bored of this before you're done. In case you were wondering, the web swinging is probably the most fun in the series, but it's undermined by the fact that the focus is on combat. You don't really have the freedom you once had, especially if you're going the good route because ignoring civilians earns you black points. There is one scene on the game that is awesome, and it will be on the video sidebar. Warning though, this scene is a huge spoiler. Watch at your own risk.

NOTE: Seriously, WHO THE FUCK IS MOON KNIGHT!?