Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions Reviews
+4 different Spider-Men, all of whom have their own unique quirks.
+Fantastic
+Amazing voice acting
-There are more bugs than Spider-Men in this game
------WARNING!------
Upon reviewing some comments made, I felt it necessary to mention that this review will contain spoilers over the following:
-Playable characters
-Stages in the game
-Bosses in the game
-Basic opening plot
This is all of the spoilers this review contains, but if you feel this is too much for you, feel free to skip around it.
------END WARNING------
First appearing back in 1962 in the last issue of the failing Marvel comic Amazing Fantasy (issue 15, if you care), Spider-Man was rescued from obscurity by his creators and given his own comic book in the following year... from which Spider-Man slowly became one of the most recognizable superheroes on the planet - perhaps just behind Superman and Batman.
This game is essentially a massive tribute to every single year that Spider-Man has been on the page, 48 years as of the game's release, and it really does show. Each level contains references to the character's past (and future!), while each alternate costume references another Spider-Man tale that... sometimes... is an awe-inspiring adventure in its own right. Or maybe it was just a gimmick, like the Spider-Armor.
The plot for our game is rather simple: the Amazing Spider-Man (as played by Neil Patrick Harris, who played Spidey in the short-lived CGI series on MTV back in 2003) tries to thwart Mysterio (played by David Kaye, perhaps best known for playing Megatron on Transformers: Beast Wars) from stealing the mystical Tablet of Order and Chaos. In the ensuing fight, though, Spider-Man punches the tablet and winds up shattering it across time and space.
Madamme Web (voiced by Susanne Blakeslee) realizes this is bad and recruits the Amazing Spider-Man to go retrieve the tablet shards in his own universe, as well as three other Spider-Men from other eras and dimensions. Who does she grab...?
A younger Spider-Man, from the Ultimate Universe of Marvel comics (played by Josh Keaton, who recently voiced Spider-Man in the "Spectacular Spider-Man" cartoon of 2008) where he's still stuck to the Venom symbiote.
A Spider-Man from the far-flung future of 2099 (voiced by Dan Gilvezan, best known for voicing Bumblebee in the original Transformers cartoon, but was also the voice of Spider-Man in the 1982 show "Spider-Man and his Amazing Friends."), a Spider-Man with advanced senses and sharp claws.
And finally, a Spider-Man from the distant past, from the Crime Noir era - the 1930s (voiced by Christopher Daniel Barnes, who voiced Spider-Man in the 1994 animated series). This Spider-Man hides in the shadows and takes down crooks silently.
Each of these Spider-Men has to retrieve their three tablet shards and hopefully restore order to reality before time and space become Mysterio's plaything.
The gameplay is, quite frankly, the shining star of this game. Well, after the sheer weight of references to the Spider-Man mythos, anyhow. Each Spider-Man plays similar... but different.
The Amazing Spider-Man is your basic "vanilla" Spidey, focusing on melee combat with web-based special attacks. As you unlock the various new combos, the web attacks will grow in variety and strength - giving you things like web-based hammers and spiked mallets.
The Noir Spider-Man's gameplay is entirely stealth-oriented. If spotted, Spidey has to go hide, or else the guns carried by the level's thugs will make quick work of him. In combat segments, however, Noir's combat relies almost entirely on his fists and raw, untrained strength.
The Spider-Man of 2099, much like Noir, relies upon his fists as well. However, this Spider-Man is far more flexible with a longer range and variety of attacks. Homing strikes and incredibly flexible combat abilities round out his arsenal, though his most unique talent is Heightened Vision, which acts as a bullet time for the game.
Ultimate Spider-Man uses the symbiote to fight, giving a very "God of War" feel to his portion of the game. The tentacles unleashed by the symbiote are all about strength over speed, punishing the enemy for even straying close. A "rage mode" furthers this by vastly enhancing strength and speed for a time.
The good news, though, is that each of these Spider-Men have a core of gameplay that leaves each one feeling familiar, yet different at the same time. This is, though, a bad thing all at the same time... but it's far from a deal-breaker.
The levels themselves tend to vary from "kinda bland" to "holy crap, did I just do that?", which is great for variety's sake. Most of the levels tend to be "move from point A to point B, fight villain of the stage, repeat until final battle," but this is not necessarily a bad thing either because of how the levels themselves are laid out. This, of course, isn't mentioning that some stages (Doctor Octopus 2099, Ultimate Deadpool, Ultimate Carnage) are incredibly vast in scope and play, leaving any complaints over "linear" in the garbage.
The enemies who inhabit the stages beyond the main villains, though, tend to be much more bland. You have guys with fists, guys with guns, guys with melee weapons, guys with shields and guns, big guys and REALLY big guys. The game makes sure to vary up the combat more than enough to make up for this, however, and not all the enemy types can be found in each stage.
The real attraction for each stage, though, is the villain and how the theme works with the stage. And man, did the developers do their homework.
Kraven the Hunter is the first target for the Amazing Spider-Man, with a jungle-themed stage that doesn't mind throwing some awesome curveballs at the player before the final fight. This is followed by the Sandman, who is fought in a deserted strip-mine... where sand-tornadoes are plentiful. The final stage has you up against the Juggernaut, which has many moments the player won't soon forget.
The Noir Spider-Man's first target is the gangster Hammerhead, at his trainyard hideout. The following stage has you taking on the Vulture in downtown New York... with the final stage having this Spider-Man taking on Norman Osborn, the Goblin. The main focus of these stages tends to be stealth and rescuing hostages, so any Noir level is a welcome gear change from the frantic pummeling of the rest of the game.
The Spider-Man of 2099 takes on the Hobgoblin of his era in the busy city... er... streets of the future, which leads him to taking on the Scorpion of the Future as well. The results of these fights takes Spider-Man 2099 to Alchemax, where the diabolical Doctor Octopus waits for him. These stages tend to focus on combat more than any other, but also have free-falling sections that are quite awesome.
Ultimate Spider-Man's stages are actually quite varied. First, stopping Electro from sucking all the power out of the state of New York at the local power plant. Then Spider-Man's kidnapped by Deadpool and taken into international waters to be on a game show... followed by stopping by the SHIELD base Triskelion, only to find that Carnage is on the loose.
And the final stage?
All 4 Spider-Men take on Mysterio.
Awwww yeah.
In each stage, there are objectives one can complete - found on the Web of Destiny. Some are done just by playing through each level, while others have to be sought out - be it collecting a certain number of items, finding the hidden spiders in each stage, or defeating enemies a certain way. By filling out the Web of Destiny, the player gains more experience and cash to spend on completing the moves and development of each Spider-Man as a playable character... or unlock hidden costumes.
Sadly, the costumes do not grant any actual combat bonuses, but they're still welcome.
The voice acting, as noted above, is nothing short of spectacular. Each Spider-Man brings a great weight to each role that might not have been there, had an actor with less experience been used. Dan Gilvezan's Spider-Man 2099 is a personal favorite, which adds an age to the role that the other Spider-Men don't have... while adding a darker shade of snark to the character as well. Or, rather, a bright shade of humor in a dark and grim world, which winds up being absolutely perfect.
Music, while not iconic, works well and fills the role nicely.
So yeah, if you're a Spider-Man fan, you're already sold. And even if you're not, you still might be leaning toward this game. But I'm sure you're asking... what's the down side?
Well, the game is rather buggy to a fair degree, although you may not encounter those bugs until you start to go for the harder achievements.
The main bug I've encountered happens when Spider-Man either grabs an enemy who is in the process of dying, or is grabbed by an enemy as he is dying. This has resulted in the character being dragged backwards across the ground (Ultimate), stuck in the ground and unable to move (2099), or just plain bugging out (Amazing and Noir). These are somewhat hard to come across, but are equally hard to get out of without some luck... or restarting that part of the stage.
The only other real problem is that wall-crawling isn't perfect. The camera adjusts to your character's location and position, but tends to force you to move in relation to the camera, rather than move the way the player intended. This problem is much the same as the changing camera angles in games based off the old Resident Evil game engines, like Dino Crisis and the first three Resident Evil games. But this is a minor complaint outside the Noir stages anyhow.
In short, if you're a Spider-Man fan, you need to have this in your collection. Now.
If you're not a Spider-Man fan, but still enjoy comics, you should at least rent this game.
If you enjoy action games, give it a shot as well.
And if you're none of the above... I'd still recommend renting it. The game's not perfect, but it's still one amazing experience.
4.0
