Ultimate Spider-Man : Games : Web Wombat

In the world of enduring superhero franchises, Spider-Man sits amongst illustrious company: Batman, Superman, the X-Men, Hulk and The Punisher, all of whom have remained relevant in the social zeitgeist of today, aided by films, good marketing, refreshed storylines and, of course, games.

In our multi-billion-dollar industry, which relies as much on established names and fan-bases as it does innovation, licensing is a godsend, but results in as many bad games as it does great - though more often than not the result is simply mediocre.

Alongside X-Men Legends and its sequel, the most immediate examples of comic-based gaming done well that come to mind are the well-known Spider-Man games.

Eventually tied in with the arguably excellent Sam Raimi films (culminating in the visually sumptuous if unimaginatively titled Spider-Man: The Movie Game), the games were universally acclaimed as creative, immersive and, above all, accurate takes on the Spider-Man universe.

All and sundry knew that relative-unknown Treyarch Studios had done a good job. Especially, it should be noted, since the original game engine was a derivative of the old Tony Hawk setup, and it was a measure of Treyarch's success that one could not tell: their Spidey looked, moved and sounded just like he should.

Enter Ultimate Spider-Man (USM), the Pepsi Max of the Spider-Man comic universe. The celebrated work of writer Brian Michael Bendis and long-time Spidey-artiste Mark Bagley (both of whom put in work on the game itself), USM takes, polishes and refits the established canon story line:

Peter Parker is once again an awkward teenager balancing his school life against his undeniable urge to crawl walls and fight crime. Mary Jane is fully aware of his web-swinging proclivities, and so he goes about his business, saving the city in-between bouts of study.

Specifically, this outing in the Ultimate Spider-Man line concerns Peter and his friend and occasional rival Eddie Brock finding a crazy black serum in the bowels of a scientific facility, which (surprise, surprise) transforms Brock into the one and only Venom.

Nothing new, surely, except that for the first time gamers can play as everybody's favourite nemesis during specialised segments in the game (more on that later). As one has come to expect from Marvel, all the usual comic cornerstones make regular guest appearances, from villains like Rhino and the Beetle to established heroes such as the Fantastic Four's Human Torch.

First things first, before we move on: Ultimate Spider-Man looks stunning. The influence of Bendis and Bagley on the console interpretation of their baby is obvious from the get-go, as is Treyarch's now-well-known visual prowess: every model is lovingly detailed and cel-shaded, every animation finely and humanly tuned, and every cut-scene evokes comic book framing.

Spider-Man, unlike Superman's Metropolis or Batman's Gotham, calls a slightly modified version of New York and Queens home, and it has been rendered in its entirety for you to leap and swing across from one end to the other. While the buildings are not quite as, shall we say, sexy, and the attention-to-detail lacks a little something when it comes to minor characters, overall USM is a real looker.

Spider-Man has grown weary of violence
over the years, and tries mesmerising his
foes with gnarly break-dancing moves instead

Boss battles like these will make your eyes
do the "dosey-do", such is their grandeur

Taking advantage of such scale, the play area is literally massive, and missions will take you from street-level to the very top of the Empire State building.

Sadly, cel-shading and ambition dost not a great game make, particularly when one is forced to come to terms with truly piss-poor pacing and an exceptionally short, not to mention simplified, play experience over what most consider the best of the Spider-Man games, Spider-Man 2.

No longer is there a true and comprehensive combo system, nor can you treat your web-lines as kinetic objects in the game-world, and forget a consistent and approachable story arc; instead (bar sporadic, though intensive and creative boss battles) the majority of your time in-game is taken up, of all things, in time trial missions and random encounters, and it's these that will turn off all but the most dedicated Parkerite.

Despite offering a semi-sandbox type of environment, what Ultimate Spider-Man does runs counter to all common sense: it locks off certain parts of the city until you have completed a hefty and increasing number of boring and monotonous objectives.

As noted above, these are restricted to web-slinging your way through flaming hoops, and beating up weak gangs of roving miscreants. It is only once you have completed a number of these that the story will progress.

This kind of thing rapidly begins to do one's head in, and is for all intensive purposes the gameplay equivalent of that horrid red and white stuff you find masquerading as crab-meat in the seafood section of your local supermarket: filler.

When not swinging about as everybody's favourite Spider-Man, the game segues into small sections involving Venom, who counterpoints - as a slower, stronger brawler-character - Parker's agility.

He can jump really high, he can climb walls, sprout tentacles, throw stuff and he needs to eat people to regain health, and the first time we get to step into his crazy suede shoes is as he's beating seven shades of hell out of Wolverine; it all points to something special.

However, the initial promise of these gameplay-asides is almost entirely squandered by being both too long and too simplistic (the latter being a criticism easily levelled at the whole game) to maintain interest. More often than not you end up battering away wave after wave of swarming S.H.I.E.L.D. mercenaries and, as with the rest of the game, the only thing that saves the proceedings is the occasional cool boss battle, in Venom's case against well-known Marvel characters like Nick Fury and fresh recruit to the Ultimate universe, Silver Sable.

Even then, combat is fun but the novelty quickly wears off for both characters when you realise that you could defeat your bog standard adversaries with your eyes closed and the game pad in your mouth, because what it comes down to is button-bashing.

Even with all its painfully protracted distractions, Ultimate Spider-Man is not a long game by anybody's reckoning, with the full campaign taking roughly six hours to complete, but only two hours if you remove all the side-quests.

Considering the price of your standard console game, this kind of short play-time is inexcusable, and hence the reason I can only recommend Ultimate Spider-Man as a rental. It's pretty, but shallow and ultimately disappointing, so swing with caution.

Game: Ultimate Spider-Man
System: PS2
Players: 1
Online: No
Developer: Treyarch
Distributor: Activision

Rating: 70%

(Ratings Key/Explanation)

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