Spider-Man 2

Written by Chris Reiter  on February 10, 2004

First Impressions: Jeez, all that happened when I was bitten by a radioactive spider was that baby spiders started creeping out of my colon. Damn.

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One of the biggest motion picture features out of all 2002 surprisingly managed to translate into one of the year's best action video game adaptations as well. This was a shocker to most critics, as in the past video games based on movies they drew their characters, their setting, and their inspiration from rarely ever saw something most gamers could say they enjoyed through and through. From Spider-Man's longtime video game publishing house, Activision, and the development team behind Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2 on the Dreamcast, Treyarch, for the first time in a long time, these gaming giants brought a game born by a movie of the same name into the Spider-Man universe like no game experience before it could to a significant level. Two years have passed since that time, and now with a movie sequel on the way for a summer sequel, you can bet your Comic Book Guy ass that Activision and Treyarch are hard at work to explore New York City from the eyes of one of comic history's most famous and celebrated super heroes: Spider-Man!

Facing multiple foes over time, there's rarely ever been an incident when Spider-Man wasn't saving himself, his friends, his loved ones, or even his arch enemies from a past, present or future danger. Spider-Man isn't the strongest of super heroes. He's certainly not more powerful than a locomotive or faster than a speeding bullet. He could leap over buildings...by climbing up to the top of them first. But that's neither here nor there. Spider-Man is basically the every man's hero. How this vigilante in a spider-like costume came to materialize was by accident. He was bitten by a radioactive spider and then the abilities of a super spider were transferred into him, turning the High School geek Peter Parker into his secret and second known identity, Spider-Man. Having just faced and beaten his first cycle of ultimate nemesis in the first movie (from the movie's point of view, anyhow), the second film is to focus this time on one of Spider-Man's most lethal adversaries: Doctor Octopus. Armed with four metallic, mind controlled, extending arms, the good doctor turned bad like all Spidey's enemies intentions are to harm the innocent people of New York's teeming city. And you being the web slinging, spinning, and sticking Spider-Man will be the hero of all heroes who can stop him.

Ripping another page out of Rockstar's book on "How to Create the Ultimate Grand Theft Auto Experience," Activision has figured out a way to implement the open-ended and mission-based system of Rockstar's popular crime spree franchise into the Spider-Man universe. Don't fret, Spider-Man hasn't become a mobster -- rather, in Spider-Man 2 players will find themselves accepting missions from the friendly folk from inside the Big Apple. If you thought the size of the city in the previous Spider-Man game was big, this one's going to be a heck of a lot bigger. Basically what Treyarch is doing will be to capture a massive New York City in which Spider-Man will be able to freely roam in a giant-sized scope. Not just being able to explore the city rooftops and building edges, Spider-Man will now be able to literally descend down to the street level where people indicated with exclamation points will offer players the chance as Spider-Man to accept a variety of odd jobs. Relating to common abilities such as scaling heights in order to fetch a missing balloon, to a more dynamic quest of foiling either purse snatchers or a vehicle full of armed bank thieves, Spider-Man will have his hands full when it comes time to get to work. Instead of receiving large sums of money for his achievements, however, Spider-Man instead will receive points toward improving his own spider powers to become a stronger, faster, and a slicker moving and looking super hero.

Naturally, Spider-Man will get his chance to use his gained expertise in battling bad dudes. When not collecting on side missions, the combat system for Spider-Man to implement in the sequel will change in part for the better. No longer can the webhead cover one guy in spider fluid, as now Spider-Man can do more. Webbing up to around five guys at once, Spider-Man's enhancements will consist of properties like getting to swing several baddies in the air all at a moment's notice. But also, Spider-Man's web-targeting system has changed for the better, as Spider-Man will now be able to blast goo while in a first-person view using a targeting reticle. In practice, this will result in a more realistic swinging measure as if Spider-Man's not shooting his web at a wall, he's not shooting it at anything at all. When Spider-Man's not battling meager human challengers, he'll face his greater selection of opponents, from the deadly six armed Doctor Octopus (or Dr. Otto Octavious), who has mind control over more than four separate tentacles implanted into his back, to the feral Lizard (or Dr. Kurt Conners), a one-armed scientist that transforms into an enormous reptile when anger overcomes him.

Empowering New York City with a broader scale to now reflect a metropolis closer to the size of the real thing, Spider-Man's movements throughout this bustling mass will act more fluidly just like the CG version of Spider-Man from the film. Past elements used to move Spidey from one spot to the next with his web fluid in a linear fashion has been done away with, as now players will see a much more fluid looking Spider-Man that's able to freely spin webs and swing on them similar to Tarzan, or stick to poles and loop around them to leap off, or even to catapult himself by yanking backward on two webs to shoot himself into the distance -- a technique used in the ending in the first film. Only adding to these web-tastic improvements will be a richer crafted set of characters that will prove to showcase the grittier side of Spider-Man's life than ever before. Summarily, Spider-Man 2 is proving to only further up the ante in enriching not only the gameplay, but the appearance of movie-to-game conversions like this one.