Who here has played Spiderman: Shattered Dimensions? It was a pretty favorable game from last year and yet some people didn’t care for it due to the repetitious nature of the game. While I do hate it for that reason, and that there were some glitches and little replay value, I still think it’s a really good Spiderman game. If you put it into context with the pile of Spiderman games we have gotten this past decade, it’s the best. The developers Beenox did a good job in making the Spiderman franchise get a good clean image in the life of video games. Now we have another Spiderman game called Spiderman: Edge of Time! I did have my concerns about this when I first heard about it. It had just been a year since the last Spiderman game was released and there were only two Spiderman characters to play as, Amazing Spiderman and Spiderman 2099. This game also has the draw of famous actor Val Kilmer playing the villain. Is this a worthy Spiderman game to check out or should you just leave this at the end of time? Let’s find out in Spiderman: Edge of Time for the 360 and PS3 here on Cam’s Eye View.
The story starts with two different worlds as the setting of the game. The modern time with the Amazing Spiderman voiced by Josh Keaton, and the future of 2099 with Spiderman 2099 voiced by Christopher Daniel Barnes. Future Spiderman is tracking down a mad scientist Dr. Walker Sloan voiced by film actor, Val Kilmer. Some of the stuff Walker Sloan does actually effects the past in some major ways. One of the things happening is that Anti-Venom, voiced by Steve Blum, is acting weird and out to kill Spiderman. It is up to Spiderman 2099 to stop Spiderman from the past from being killed and get his help to stop Dr. Walker Sloan. The story itself can actually be pretty good, if a bit confusing at times. However, due to some issues I will explain later, the story kind of loses itself to me due to some boring aspects of the game that really drag on. However, there are some good and memorable moments. Let’s just say the story is weaker this time than in Shattered Dimensions.
The glue that holds this game together, a.k.a the gameplay, is of a typical action game. You play as both Spiderman characters, and this time, they are a bit more fleshed out, but they play a bit like they did in Shattered Dimensions. Spiderman is more melee-focused while Spiderman 2099 is more agility-based in their fighting styles. Each Spiderman has their own unique spidey sense ability. Spiderman’s spidey sense ability makes him more agile, which makes dodging enemy attacks easier. Spiderman 2099’s spidey sense ability can make a decoy clone of himself to take on heat-seeking missiles and act like a dummy for enemies to hit while you attack enemies from behind. You can buy upgrades like new attacks, more health, more power bar energy, and the usual action game upgrades. You will mostly be going around bashing enemy heads into one another and from time to time taking on one of the few bosses this game has to offer like Blackcat or Anti Venom. It is very simple and straightforward, and isn’t really that deep. The two Spiderman characters have the same move sets, but Spiderman 2099 does have areas where you need to dash downward or upward to either get out of trouble or, in a later part of the game, save Mary Jane.
The graphics are good, but nothing mind-blowing. I do like the details put onto Spiderman since during the game, his suit gets worn and torn through many tough encounters. The details on Anti-Venom are impressive and make Anti-Venom look really menacing. The voice acting is great with all 3 of the main actors, Josh Keaton, Christopher Michael Barnes, and Val Kilmer doing a good job with their roles, and not sounding as bad as Spiderman does in Spiderman Web of Shadows. The music is epic at times and is handled well, but though it isn’t anything memorable, it’s well done. The cinematic cutscenes however look great and are pretty impressive-looking
This game has a lot more flaws than Shattered Dimensions, which disappoints me a little since I was expecting more from this game. The fighting is BORING. It is just so tedious and repetitious due to cookie-cutter enemies that act the same, no matter what Spiderman you play. I was also expecting a game that had multiple endings since they marketed this game with comments like “whatever you do in one time, will affect the other.” Well, that’s true that it happens, but it’s more for story purposes and doesn’t really help curve the ending to a different finish like Resident Evil or Mass Effect 2. I also felt like Doctor Octopus and Black Cat were a waste of space, since they didn’t really do much. Black Cat 2099 is especially pointless since she ends up being a major boss a couple times in the game and is rather unbalanced. I actually had to move to easy mode to even get a chance to beat her. Doctor Octopus didn’t really play a major role either and was really there to make a huge monster combined with Anti-Venom. You can tell this game feels unpolished, because when you keep playing, it doesn’t feel fully tested or fully thought out. It’s just boring in the last half even though there is a pretty nice twist in the story. I think the thing to blame here besides the Beenox team is the time they had to make this game. They basically had a year or less to complete this game, and for a retail game, that isn’t enough time to make a retail game. Due to the boring last half, I felt unattached to the story, and my brain checked out an hour before I beat it.
Overall, this is a pretty disappointing Spiderman game. This is definitely not worth your time purchasing as of right now. I would wait till it’s cheaper. If you want a really good Spiderman game, play Shattered Dimensions. It might be as repetitious as this game, but it’s a heck of a lot better than this. I guess I would recommend renting it if you really want to try this game out. Play about 5 hours and see if you want to play more. Maybe you will enjoy it more than me, but man, I felt like I wasted my time when I hit the halfway mark of the game. You will get about 10 hours or so out of this game, but I think Beenox should wait awhile before releasing another Spiderman game, or at least a better one.
This game gets a 5 out of 10
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