Spider Man: Shattered Dimensions with Bonus Art Concept Book

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First of all let me start by saying I haven't finished the game. I have played the intro then the first mission in each dimension and wanted to share my early thoughts with those that are considering whether or not to buy this game. I will edit this review if I find my opinions change after finishing it.

Another word of warning, I am a bit of a spider man fan, grew up with the comics (although I haven't read any for years now) so I'm not sure my review is 100% unbiased. Grain of salt and all that.

STORY

The first thing that I noticed is that there was a lot more care taken with the spider man character than in the previous game (Web of Shadows). He has a lot more personality, his jokes are funnier and, although I wouldn't call the voice acting brilliant, at least he doesn't sound like a constipated teenager anymore. I found myself chuckling at many points in the game from the jokes he throws at his enemies. This has a surprising effect on the heroic feel of the game as well (it's one thing to beat the bad guys up, it is another one entirely to do that while making fun of them).

The overarching story of the game is not all that good to be honest. It feels more like an excuse to check out the different spider man realities than anything else. But it also doesn't take itself too seriously: some of the cutscenes between dimensions are narrated by a voice that I'm pretty sure is Stan Lee using the same type of silver age narrative the old spider man comics had on the 80s. Maybe there will be a plot twist along the way, but I'm not holding my breath. Having said that, the mini stories within each chapter are pretty cool, in the sense that it links together the various events at each stage pretty well and do a good job at keeping you engaged.

GAMEPLAY

If you did your homework you know by now that this is not a sandbox game. You are not given free roam of NYC beating up criminals along the way, which was default the format for spider man games for a long time now. Instead they have chosen a format in which you choose a stage and play that stage from start to finish. So it's less like GTA and more like GoW3.

I think this format works very well with this game. It allows each stage to be more varied, as you are not restricted to being on the same environment all the time. The developers did a good job at making the levels feel varied, so you are never doing the same thing over and over (clear room of bad guys, move to next room, repeat). At one point you are dodging Kraven's sniper rifle, the other you are evading his traps, the next you are falling down a skyscraper canyon in 2099 and a couple hours later figuring out how to get hammerhead from behind his giant gatling gun in the 1930's. That choice is not without a price though, as you lose the thrill of web zipping away into the horizon (although the webzip mechanic is pretty much exactly the same as previous games, the spaces are a bit more constrained). You lose a bit of replay value that the sandbox format tends to have.

Spidey himself handles a lot like Web of Shadows, with a bit less emphasis on wall crawling and aerial combat (although both are still present) and a better combat system overall. One of the new ideas in this game is that you enter a "defensive stance" by holding L2. While doing that Spidey automatically dodges all "regular" attacks, and can only be hit by special moves (which you get advance warning via spider sense to push X and jump out of the way), This is also how you lock the camera on one target.

Another interesting concept is that now you can webzip to specific areas of the stage, like lamp posts or on top of a column. When you face an area that can be targeted this way you will see a small triangle (think the bat hook in Arkham Asylum) and tapping R2 you web zip there automatically. This is handy because it would take a long time (and in some cases pretty precise landing) to get to a these areas that you can now zip to in a second.

The camera is still not 100%, I guess it's always a challenge with spider-man games since you zip around so much and the wall crawling bit is still a bit confusing. But perhaps because there are less emphasis on situations where the camera goes bananas, I haven't felt this to be much of an issue.

I don't agree to say that this is 4 games in 1. The only dimension that really feels totally different in terms of gameplay is the Noir one, which is stealth based. However the other 3 spider man dimensions have enough little things that are different, from the visuals to the speed of the character attacks to some special abilities here and there like the symbiote rage and the 2099 spidey's "bullet time" that each feels unique. The expressions and language used help set the tone as well, particularly in the Noir dimension where the 1930's lingo really helps to flesh out the setting.

The boss battles are really cool too, and they are more like "action puzzles" than real straight up battles, and you always have to figure out how to beat the bad guy, either with simple things like waiting for Kraven to charge before web-zipping in and having at him or zipping the hobgoblin's bombs in the air and throwing them back at him.

Last but not least the upgrading system is pretty nice, you gain points for beating up enemies and breaking crates (sight), but also from completing challenges within each level, like beating 10 enemies by zipping a bench on their head, or doing 5 stealth takedowns in a row without being detected. You also have your mandatory spider tokens scattered around each phase.

GRAPHICS/SOUND

I will admit I'm not a very good judge for that (to me gameplay > graphics), so I'll keep it brief. The game has a cartoonish feel, so you won't see a lot of jaw dropping textures like what you can see in games like Red Dead Redemption or Assassin's Creed. But I think for what they were trying to do the graphics do a pretty good job. What I did notice is that each dimension is a bit different graphics wise, even the Ultimate and Amazing dimensions, which are the most similar, are not exactly the same if you pay attention.

CONTENT

Other than he tutorial, I played 4 mission so far (act I), and on normal they averaged out at ~50 min each to complete. (Amazing and noir took 1 hour, 2099 30 min and 45 for ultimate). If the same can be said about the other acts this should be an 9-12 hour game to beat, which is pretty much in line with other games like GoW, Uncharted 2 etc. After that there's hard mode, and the challenges (which I managed to nail most of them in my first play though each stage, except for the hidden spiders). Again, maybe once I beat the game there will be a surprise for more content, but I'm not expecting this. There are also unlockable concept art, figurines etc.

Basically if you think games like GoW, Heavenly Sword are worth buying (i.e. 9-12 hours of quality entertainement), you won't have a problem justifying this one. If you only buy games that have a lot of replay value, multiplayer etc this will probably leave you wanting for more.

Pros:

-Good action game with, well developed stages

-Great Spider Man characterization

-Nicely delivered acrobatic spider man combat

-Pretty cool boss battles

Cons:

-Replay ability

-Some small camera issues

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Spider-Man Shattered Dimensions is a must-play for any Spidey or overall superhero fan. The game's greatest downfall is it's length. Unlike previous Spidey games like Web of Shadows, Shattered Dimensions does not have the sandbox environment, but instead has fourteen limited levels for you to fight your way through. It took me nine hours to complete the game, which didn't bother me too much since I had rented it from Gamefly. However, purchasing it would have made me very angry, as a nine hour game is not worth $60. Activision has some nerve charging full price for such a short and limited game.

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When I first saw a preview of this game I couldn't wait to get it, after I played it. I'm happy I got it, this game is very satisfying to play this is a good step-up from Web of Shadows which was nice too. I gotta point out what makes this game good, you're not just 1 or 2 Spideys you get to play as 4, each with their own unique moveset and purpose. The Spideys are: 2099 Spidey he's from a hopeful future, seems to have a lot of aerial levels, then Noir Spidey a 1930 version of Spidey who's all about stealthy and sneak attacks, then there's Amazing Spidey good old classic self-explanatory and of course the Black Suit Spidey with the awesome speed, strength and agility. Each one of these Spideys have their own unique world, purpose and bosses they fight to find the shattered pieces of the Tablet of Order and Chaos hence the name Shattered Dimensions. A new feature in this I really like is the 1st person fights, when you get to certain points in a Boss battle you switch to 1st person for a short period, that was a great idea. Now for my review STORYLINE definitely better than past Spidey games 5Stars, GAMEPLAY 4 unique Spideys to play as 5Stars, BOSSES 4Stars, GRAPHICS 5Stars. Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions 4STARS

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...but I had to give it 5 stars simply because I don't think that the game earns a 3.5-star average after 13 reviews.

The game is just flat out campy fun. The basic premise of the story (actually the whole nugget!) is that Spider-Man inadvertently destroys a tablet (the cliched "Tablet of Order and Chaos") during a fight with Mysterio, resulting in the shattering in the fabric of reality, placing 3 alternate universes in jeopardy. All of the fragments need to be recovered. Enough said, because that's the story plain and simple.

The game begins in a tutorial-style mode where you get a taste of each alternate Spidey universe (Amazing, Noir, Ultimate, and 2099) and the first 4 fragments of the tablet are easy to collect as you are guided into how each universe differs from the other. Amazing Spider-Man is probably the most balanced of the 4 between his ability to shrug off attacks and dispatch enemies with relative ease. Ultimate Spider-Man has the alien symbiote attached to him, resulting in some rather fantastic rage powers and yet he has to contend with horrific villains. Spider-Man 2099 is also well balanced, but does a lot of aerial combat as he falls through impossible heights. Noir Spider-Man (my favorite) has to rely on stealth for take-downs; if he is exposed in the light, it doesn't take much to bring him down forcing you to evade and melt in the shadows as quickly as possible. Noir can barely deal with one frontal confrontation with your typical lackey; he will get mowed down with 2 or more in his face.

The story is not the best, but it's all about the campy humor, fun, and the web slinging. So how are the gameplay mechanics? In a word...awesome. As you get slowly introduced into his abilities, you'll find yourself web-slinging around, web jumping, blinding your enemies with web pellets, performing web kicks, straight-up punches, etc. It's pretty well done.

Another cool aspect of the game lies within the "Web of Destiny." The Web of Destiny has a series of tasks for Spider-Man to complete in order to win additional Spidey "essence" (read: points) so that he can purchase additional upgrades, abilities, etc. It's very similar to the upgrade system in Batman: Arkham Asylum. It's also well done and leads to some rather cool abilities that Spidey can do. It also breaks the montony of a button-mashing game, forcing you to take down a certain number of enemies a certain way, complete something within a certain amount of time, find a certain number of items, etc. It makes you refrain from web sling, attack, web sling, attack, wash, rinse, and repeat. It's clever.

As for the camera complaints, I don't have any issues. I'm able to navigate the camera with right analog stick with relative ease if the shot doesn't please me and I don't find myself struggling at all. I'm a little puzzled at the complaints thus far I have zero issues.

My biggest complaint is when boss fights occasionally enter a 1st-person mode. Seriously, if I wanted to perform hooks, uppercuts, and dodges like this, then I'll slip the PUNCH-OUT! disc into my Wii console. I don't want it in my Spider-Man game. The mechanics come across as cheesy and half-baked. It seems like the developer felt like it was a cool idea and then realized it was too late to back off the stupid concept and left it in, with the embarrassing wave of "oh, it does this, too." In addition, while most of the levels are pretty cool, some are inexplicably frustrating.

How does the game hold up overall? Humor: campy, but great! Action/web-slinging: well-done! Voice-acting: pretty good for the most part! Is it a Batman: Arkham Asylum contender? Definitely, definitely NOT. But it holds up to its own strengths pretty well and it's fun to play.

Overall, I give it 4 1/4 stars but I'm giving it a full 5 simply because reviews thus far have been a little too harsh in my opinion.

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This game is really great. Has great graphics, cool storyline, and has cool looking spidermen. The game has a lot of bosses such as Carnage, Hobgoblin, Kraven, and Vulture etc. Each spiderman has a unique fighting style. The Noir has stealthy attacks, The Amazing has web attacks. The Ultimate has Symbiotic attacks. The 2099 has futuristic attacks. The Ultimate Spiderman and 2099 Spiderman have an extra unique attack than the others. Ultimate has Rage Mode, and 2099 has Acceletrated Vision. One of the things I liked was first person mode. During boss fights like Carnage you can attack them and after some hits you have to dodge their attack. Another thing I liked is that every level has a boss. The game can get funny... and I mean MEGA FUNNY! The credits have funny art. After some of the art in the credits, a little cutscene pops up with this super funny spiderman. The funny spiderman is not a playable character. He is showed only once. This game also has replay value.

Now what I was dissapointed about this game was it is not free roam for any of the 4 spidermen. Another is that they didn't put Venom in it. They put the Black Suit Spiderman for the Ultimate Dimension. What's weird is that Carnage is in it but not Venom. I rented this game for a few days and beat it in 5 days so this game can be short.

My conclusion to this game would be to buy the game game if you like spiderman. If you're looking for a very FUN game this would also be one of those games. I really do reccomend that you buy the game!!!