See, if there's a group of bad guys, I lock on to one of them, take him out, and leap into the air, the lock-on system should jump to the next baddie but if it doesn't, I can flick the right analog stick to choose my next opponent. Up in the right corner, the game is actually tracking the number of hits you've pulled off in succession (don't be surprised to see it pushing 100 more than a few times), and these ginormous combos are thanks to this lock-on system. I found that sometimes lock-on would let go of my target for seemingly no reason, but when this mechanic works, it's actually super-helpful because Web of Shadows is big on linking together attacks in long combo chains. Once locked on, you can - theoretically - leap into the air, swing from your webs, and so on without fear of losing your man. By tapping the Left Trigger, you activate Spider-Man's spider-sense, a device that highlights enemies and locks onto them.
All of these swing mechanics and wall-crawling capers meld together with Web of Shadows' new combat system. You can modify your swing to go faster, double jump in the air, run along building sides, and do just about everything else a spider can. Holding the Right Trigger will throw out a web and attach to a building in whatever direction you're pointing at, while tapping the Right Trigger casts out a web-zip that allows Spidey to shoot through the air in a solitary direction. First off, swinging through the city is as fun as ever. At times, this journey can be an enjoyable ride. Your job is to take Spider-Man from before the infection, through the dark times, and to one of several endings. shows up, quarantines the city, and basically freaks out as all hell breaks loose. Soon, the city is filled with folks who are scaling buildings, kicking ass, and trying to eat Spidey's brains. The main portion of the goo sticks with Eddie Brock and the Venom alliance, but soon it turns out that the suit is creating symbiote-spitting pods that are infecting the civilians of New York. During a rather routine battle with Venom, the symbiote we all know and love fractures and part of it leaps to Spider-Man, once again endowing him with the black suit and all the strength and evilness that comes with it.
Rather than being based on a movie or specific comic book arc, Spider-Man: Web of Shadows creates a completely unique tale set in the comic book world. Now, Spider-Man: Web of Shadows is upon us, and while it's no where near the slap in the face that Spider-Man: Friend or Foe was, it's got nothing on Spider-Man 2 either.Įxcelsior! Check out the video review in stunning HD. Rather than tweak and expand a formula that was fun but flawed, Activision let the webhead slip into worse and worse titles. At the time, I thought the game had laid out the perfect blueprint of what a superhero game should be, and I believed that Activision got it and would expand the idea when the next generation of systems came around.Īs Spider-Man 3 and Spider-Man: Friend or Foe proved, that didn't happen. Even after I had bested Doc Ock, I could swing around New York and stop crimes, gather collectables, and take in the city that never sleeps. Now, I'm not telling you that it's a better game than God of War, Shadow of the Colossus, or any of the other hundreds of great games Sony's console brought us what I'm saying is that Spider-Man 2 was one of my favorite games to play. Think about that for a second - all time. Early last year, I stated that Spider-Man 2 was one of my favorite PlayStation 2 games of all time.