Ahh, Spider-Man games! It’s one of those franchises that has a long-standing list of hits and misses, dating back to the Golden Era of cartridges. Anyone can recall Spider-Man and Venom: Maximum Carnage? Or the Spider-Man hits on the Sony PlayStation 3? Shattered Dimensions? Those are legit main-stay titles that showcase how successful the Web-Head can be in videogames when given the right treatment. There are misses too but let’s not dwell on those painful attempts.
Fans are hoping for more ‘Big Time’ success for the Wall-Crawler in his next game. Thusly, when Sony Interactive Entertainment (SIE) and Insomniac Games teased a concept at E3 2016, fans and gamers everywhere, jumped for joy. That quickly turn in real market hype as more and more teasers and reveals appear at major videogames conventions. 2017 rolled by and locked in 2018 as the year this new Spider-Man will be released. Then E3 2018 took place, revealing the final launch date: 7 September 2018.
Necessary Patience
While many are now waiting for the all-new Spider-Man game to drop, weeks before the game went gold, SIE Singapore Branch (SIES) arranged for a half-day hands-on for the game. Done in secret for and only targeting the Southeast Asia games media folks, these fortunate folks get to clock in the first few hours of the all-new Spider-Man.
Going by the trailers, most can tell it’ll be a fun time of swinging around New York, battling and webbing up the bad guys, and dealing with snarky dialogue from Spidey. There are some quick cuts that show the ever-gorgeous Mary-Jane too. However, for this hands-on, it’s very much locked on the immediate introduction of the game. That, of course, includes the tutorial and easy-to-defeat opponents.
Of course, things will switch up as the tutorial moves into the more complex controls. Indeed, the driving story will become more thrilling and enemy take-downs become harder.
Truly Big Time
From the get-go, the new Spider-Man game looks stunning. Everything – from the scene transitions, to the oversized map ala New York city, and the immersive interactivity in the game, Insomniac manages to take it up a few notches. This is applied on all-fronts and not just key aspects of the game.
Most fans will recall the golden days of swinging around shoddy looking buildings in 8- and 16-bit graphics. It then turned to traversing the same skyline with slightly better visuals for successive systems like the Sony PlayStation and Microsoft Xbox consoles. For this next-gen videogame, the ‘sky is the limit’ rings true as everything looks massive. This opens the door to all the possibilities for the Friendly Neighbourhood hero. Indeed, this time, he can do more than swing around seemingly ‘tall super-structures’.
With Insomniac’s drive to deliver, the entirety of New York is now Spidey’s playground. Admittedly, other media folks have visited Central Park and the Avengers Tower, the game’s forward and pushy narrative insist on jumping into trouble right away. Seems the old Parker Luck has transitioned well into this game as well. This is where the tutorial really shines as it will famliarise the player with the basic controls like movement, webbing techniques, and fighting. Oddly, camera control isn’t part of the script.
Besides swinging up and down like the Marvel movies, which is a huge change from before, Spider-Man is now able to run up walls, parkour on roof-tops, and take huge leaps between buildings. Of course, in this demo, hitting ground level and knocking random New Yorkers is pretty common; this is especially true for someone who is prone to motion sickness. That is also one of the main reasons exploration isn’t a must.
Maximum Carnage
Yes! It must be used! That title is one of the best crossovers to-date for the Spider-Man lore. That or Spider Island and Spider-Verse! Anyhow, undoubtedly, the fight comes fast and dicey – just like it should be. This is where the smooth transitions shine as it switches from cutscenes to quick-time-events, fights, and downtown swinging with seamless ease. Once battle commences, it’s a free-for-all as the AI will get all the on-screen goons to take on Spidey.
It can become a real doozy of a fight as Web-Head can mix up the hits and kicks on multiple enemies in one go. Even the stuff around the fight zone – broken wall debris, the fire extinguisher, and trash bins – can be used to beat up the baddies. It’s like a massive homage to Wall-Crawler’s Ultimate Web Throw super-move in Marvel VS Capcom 2.
Webbing can be used too as combo-starters or finishers – think aerial brawl initiators or web-swinging into a big drop-kick. Of course, delay tactics are best when using webs as impact webbing can be fired in successive shots to gum up targeted henchmen. This here is paying due respect to the older Spider-Man games as they all have web-shot attacks that disable targets. The big change is how the web does more than trip up the enemies. These techniques must be mastered quickly as they become very useful against long-range snipers and the big boss of the first stage. With these webs, Spidey can jet into different parts of the fight or travel zones too.
With Great Power…
All the tutorial lessons, discussed and nagged at, reveal how much Peter Parker and Spider-Man have changed. Experience does that, and it seems Parker is now an old-hand. What never changes, through his years of crime-fighting, is his incessant need to make wise-cracks. That and Spidey’s need to always be responsible. This includes taking all incoming calls even while in the middle of a fight. Odd, but true.
Personally, the demo should have lasted longer. Due to motion sickness and the need for fresh air, your truly didn’t finish the tutorial run. From whatever could be taken away before the hands-on became a mess, it’s easy to say that this is the Spider-Man game for al. However, if not all the previous titles, there won’t be a 2018 take. It’s all thanks to them that Insomniac is able to create this epitome of perfection.
Going by what the demo hands-on has to offer for the all-new, feature-packed Spider-Man videogame, September 2018 cannot come any sooner.
