Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions
Is Spider-Man the next superhero to be done right in a video game, or are we in for yet another disappointment? Bengt has been swinging his way through Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions.
Leading up to the release of Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions one game has been mentioned over and over and over again - Batman: Arkham Asylum. Call it superhero envy, or just plain old hype, but somehow someone got the idea that if Batman could do it, so could Spider-Man. It didn't quite turn out that way, even if Shattered Dimensions is a step in the right direction for Spidey. It's not a sandbox game filled with repetitive missions like many of its predecessors, but instead it's a traditional third person action adventure. One that stars four incarnations of Spider-Man.
This is where I would normally spend a paragraph telling you about the story, but to be honest I skipped the opening sequence by mistake (maybe it was pure reflex). But I don't think I missed out on much. Spidey needs to collect shards of some tablet in order to restore order in the four universes, and somehow every shard has fallen into the hands off a villain. Tough luck. Each level sees one of four Spider-Men chase after a bad guy, beat him up a little, take out his hench men, maybe save a hostage or two, kick shard enhanced villain in a final showdown and move on. Rinse and repeat. And add to that a rather poorly written dialogue, that will have you cringing on occasion.
It sounds terribly repetitive, and in terms of narrative it is, but fortunately the gameplay is a bit more varied and the four different Spider-Men each have their own unique feel to the gameplay and visual style. The core fighting mechanics remain the same throughout, but the difference between the stealth sections of Spider-Man Noir and the rage mode of Ultimate Spider-Man is vast.
Speaking of noir, I had high hopes for the stealth section, especially as the game was being constantly compared to Batman: Arkham Asylum, but unfortunately the noir levels came across as the least interesting ones. The levels mainly consisted of zipping on beams above your enemies and catching them with a one button takedown from above when it was safe to do so. Boring and repetitive.
Then I enjoyed the Ultimate and 2099 sections of the game far more. Action, action, action. But thanks to a rather nice fighting system that you evolve by spending points you earn by defeating enemies and completing challenges, it's up to you to make it interesting. The enemies you face are rather boring, even if some levels feature unique kinds of enemies, one example is the sand enemies you face in the Sandman level. Before you defeat them you have turn sand into clay by throwing water barrels at them or opening up water valves. It's variation compared to the rest of the game, but spending 40 minutes or so fighting sand enemies still feels a bit repetitive. I had a feeling that the levels stretched on for just a bit too long, and by the end of it I was a bit tired of that Spider-Man and the theme of the level.
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- System:PS3, Xbox 360
- Genre:Action
- Developer:Beenox
- Publisher:Activision
- Offline players:1
- Age limit:From 12 years
- Release date:10 September 2010
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Gamereactor since 1998 - Published by Gamez Publishing A/S Toftebæksvej 6, 2800 Kongens Lyngby, Denmark +4545887600
