Spider-Man 2

Great videogames tend to share one thing in common: an unforgettable core gameplay mechanic around which the rest of the game is entirely built. Sneaking up to break a neck in Metal Gear Solid. A Musou attack in Dynasty Warriors. Gobbling a ghost in Pac-Man. That sort of thing. Spider-Man 2��s unforgettable core gameplay mechanic��webslinging��rivals that of anything you��ve ever played before. Trouble is, unlike the other games listed above (and pretty much any other classic), Spidey 2 fails to deliver beyond this feature, resulting in a slightly messy game that doesn��t feel entirely complete.

Webslinging has always served as the backbone of Spider-Man games, ever since the wallcrawler��s PlayStation debut in 2000, but Treyarch really, truly nails it here. For starters, there��s no reason to suspend your disbelief about your webs sticking to things above you even when you��re atop the Chrysler Building��if there��s nothing to latch to, you��re not webbing on anything. To go one step further, a new physics engine ensures that wherever your webs do land, they��re swinging you in the most realistic direction. Throw in speed-up and superhigh-jump abilities, and you��re in for a wild ride. I��ve never experienced a game that makes you feel both out of control and totally in control at the same time. Spidey 2 is a veritable webslinging simulator, and Spider-Man himself would probably attest to its accuracy (well, if he weren��t a fictional character, anyway).

And you can do this all across Manhattan. Just like in Grand Theft Auto, the whole city is yours for the slinging at any time in the game. And while New York City in Spidey 2 is no London in The Getaway, expect a very sold representation including most of the Big Apple��s major landmarks, from Times Square to Lady Liberty. And nothing��absolutely nothing��beats free-fallin�� off the Empire State Building (eat your heart out, Tom Petty!), only to whip out a web at the last second and save yourself from going splat.

But alas, the time it must have taken to perfect such wonderful webslinging seems to have interfered with Treyarch��s focus for the actual composition of the game. The rest of the webhead��s chores��you know, all that crime fighting and being a hero stuff��just don��t even come close to living up to the greatness of swinging through the town.

As cool as having the entire city at your whim may be, it simultaneously contributes largely to where Spidey 2 fails. Activision proudly points out that part of being Spider-Man involves stumbling upon crimes conducted by common thugs. It��s a good idea in theory��it just gets way too repetitive, and you��re beating the crap out of punks with a shoddy combat system. Fighting just doesn��t feel very fluid, and it simply never feels very fun.

I know New York City isn��t the safest place in the world, but this is ridiculous. Are there really daily shoot-outs between cops and robbers? Daily armored-car robberies for that matter? Even the ��friendly neighborhood Spider-Man�� sequences get tedious. Should I really be slinging a wounded construction worker through town to the hospital? Wouldn��t an ambulance do a better job? And is every kid in town a whiner who��s lost his balloon? Sure seems that way.

All of these menial tasks in a huge, free-roaming city take the focus off of the bigger fries to catch. By hour 10, I had beaten Doc Ock for good, but defeating him in some ways felt more like a side quest than the central goal of the game. Same goes for the other supervillains, especially Rhino (lame)��all four minutes of him. It��s actually Mysterio (lamer) who poses the most opposition to the wallcrawler, with several challenges such as an obstacle course and a fun house that would make even the Joker proud. And then there��s Shocker (lamest), whom I can only assume is there for the third time in the last three PlayStation Spider-Man titles because Treyarch was too lazy to design the Fabulous Frog-Man. At least Black Cat shows up in several chase missions (which, too, eventually grow tedious) to help extinguish the flame of lame (even if she basically is just a Catwoman rip-off).

This being a movie game and all, you��d think the best boss fights would belong to Doc Ock. Nah��just the last ones. And even though the battles may occur in the same settings as the ones in the movie, they lack not only the coolness, but also the soul. Much potential was lost in the train scene, which involves nothing more than fighting atop a train (and probably falling off a few times). Why can��t Doc Ock terrorize passengers like he does in the movie? And once you beat him, why doesn��t the game actually make you relive what could very well be the most superheroic, sacrificial moment in superhero movie history, when Spidey has to actually stop the train? We just get a lousy cut-scene instead. And just think of the possibilities if Treyarch had bothered to address the losing-powers aspect��it��s not even mentioned.

If the team had been given another six months to work on the game, I��d like to think oversights like these could have been remedied. Maybe Treyarch could have tweaked Spidey 2��s general gameplay enough to at least approach the greatness of the webslinging, too. This game is definitely worth playing, but it falls short of being an amazing Spider-Man.

The Race Is On

Probably more than 75 percent of your goals in Spider-Man 2 involve getting from one place to another within a certain amount of time. In other words, it��s largely an opponent-free racing game, only it replaces driving a car with webslinging through New York City.

Being Peter Parker

You can��t make a living by being Spider-Man all the time. Aside from cut-scenes that move the story along, you can also be Peter Parker to take on photo assignments for the Daily Bugle or to deliver pizzas for Mr. Aziz. Not to sound too overanalytical, but what��s with Robbie Robertson telling you to take pictures from the side of a building? Does he know you��re Spider-Man? He must, especially since he always gives you a deadline of two or three minutes. And don��t you think Mr. Aziz would get a few calls about Spider-Man delivering his pizzas when he gave them to Peter?

Everyday Superheroics

Beat up wrench-wielding thugs who steal purses. Do thousands of dollars of damage to speeders�� cars. Retrieve lost balloons for every whiny kid in NYC. Save the same moron from falling off a ledge.

Finding Stuff

Much like packages in Grand Theft Auto, various tokens can be found anywhere in Manhattan, from the tops of skyscrapers and buoys to thief hideouts and other nooks and crannies. Your reward for collecting all of a certain type? The green word ��acquired�� as opposed to the yellow words ��not acquired�� on the Awards screen. Yep��that��s it.

THE WEBSLINGING AND NYC MODEL

EVERYTHING ELSE

Pub. Activision Dev. Treyarch ESRB Teen MSRP $49.99

Copyright © 2004 Ziff Davis Media Inc. All Rights Reserved. Originally appearing in Official U.S. PlayStation Magazine.