Two Spideys, One Cataclysmic Event

As far back as I can recall I’ve always held Spider Man as my favorite super hero. Maybe it’s because I can relate to the Peter Parker as the higher IQ than normal, but not quite Reed Richards level, or the hazing and being picked on in school (not quite as much as Parker) or maybe it’s because we both like to dress up and fight crime. Well, I guess that last one is a stretch. I’ve also always liked spiders in general. With this mindset I’m usually willing to give a Spider Man game a chance. I found last years Shattered Dimensions fun and challenging. And based on my experience with Shattered Dimensions I was excited to pick up Spider Man Edge of Time.

And over the past few weeks when time permitted, I played through the campaign. First I must commend them on the story. The story is well written even though you can’t help but see where a few things were headed. On the other hand, we get some twists and turns that just about made my head spin! Without giving any spoilers, the basic premise is to try and save the world from a time paradox or disturbance that takes place with both our friendly neighborhood Peter Parker and the futuristic Spider Man 2099. They have to work together and you play one then switch to the other and then back again and again throughout. That’s after saving Peter Parker at the beginning of the game.

The controls are fluid and work almost perfect, much as they did in Shattered Dimensions. Crawling on walls is my only major problem here as it is too easy to get turned around or stuck. It was also easy to be running along and find your self starting to climb up a wall. The web swinging works very well and the combat system us still pretty sweet.

How does it look and sound? It looks good, I can’t complain. The in game graphics look good with only a few rough areas here and there. It’s not super realistic, but it does have a good cartoonish/comic feel. The cut scene animations on the other hand are stunning! Almost life-like and at a glance could be mistaken for live action. The voice acting was fair, with both Spider Men sounding almost too much alike. You can hear the difference when they speak to each other, but it other parts of the game you have to think about who is speaking. Sound effects and soundtrack blended perfectly. 

Starting the game sets you on normal by default and this will give most of us a challenge. Once you beat it on normal, you can try hard. Easy on the other hand was too easy. I would suggest playing on normal unless you have trouble. Most villains in this game, save for bosses, are fairly easy to defeat as long a you don’t get hit. The bosses on the other hand require a little more skill and timing. Levels range from running through levels defeated bad guys, collecting orbs, spiders and keys to free falling through buildings trying to avoid getting hit. The latter can be very challenging.

As you progress and earn orbs and gold spiders you can upgrade both Spider Men’s Combat skills and health. Each Spidey has a different special ability you can use and different fighting moves. Even so it’s not difficult to remember most of the moves. We also can unlock alternate costumes and news paper articles throughout the game.

As normal I played this on the Xbox 360 and most of the achievements are story based and combat based. You should be able to unlock quite a few just by beating the game. There are a few tough ones, like completing the game on hard and collecting all the golden spiders. That last one just takes time to look everywhere, but otherwise shouldn’t be too rough.

All in all the game is fun and challenging, but the fighting system does get tedious and I did run into a few glitches. One that required me to restart a checkpoint. Somehow I was able to get into a small room without disabling the shield, thus once inside I could not get back out. It did give me several hours of gameplay, I would estimate about 8 hours total including all those times I died. And then we do have challenges you can complete in each level as well. It’s not a bad game, but unless you’re a big Spidey fan like me – I would suggest renting it first. $59.99 isn’t exactly worth it this time around.