Beenox, what happened? 2010’s Shattered Dimensions was such a great first take on a Spider-Man game. It looked great, had fun combat, lots of villains and was just a good fundament all things considered. Edge of Time from 2011 had allegedly some problems during its development and it showed: It was incredibly short, failed to improve the gameplay and confined Spider-Man into a single building with hardly any opportunities to swing around – fun story though. Apparently most resources during its development had already been shifted towards The Amazing Spider-Man from 2012 – a tie-in for the unnecessary movie reboot. The game was okay; Beenox brought back an open world to swing around in (albeit it was very shallow) and brought in a new combat system (again very shallow) but it was once again a good fundament for a potentially great sequel.
In 2014 said sequel has arrived in The Amazing Spider-Man 2. Unfortunately it is not great. It’s not superior, amazing, spectacular, sensational or whatever adjective Marvel has ever used for the web-slinger. It is pretty much complete garbage. What happened Beenox?
The Amazing Spider-Man 2’s story is a mess. There is something here about a serial killer called the Carnage Killer (You can see where this is going, right?), Kraven shows up and functions as some kind of mentor for Spidey and the Kingpin builds up his empire in the midst of a gang-war. The game also glances over the events of the movie in a way that feels rushed and weirdly out of place all things considered. It’s an absolute mess that lacks any form of coherency or connectivity and it doesn’t help that a lot of story is conveyed through optional audio-logs. The narrative feels like a collection of single-issue stories that occasionally reference one another… or not, as often times events just happen at random.
Source: Activision/ Beenox
One thing that has clearly been improved in Amazing 2 is the swinging. In Amazing there was not much to it: You hold a button and Spider-Man swings. That’s it. Webs attached to the sky and it was really just there so that Beenox (or rather Activision) could claim it’s there. In Amazing 2 Peter’s left and right hands are mapped to the L2 and R2 triggers respectively. Building-height now also factors into whether or not you can sling your web. It’s not perfect, as it is often not completely clear which building are high enough and which aren’t, but it’s much more involved and I found it really fun nonetheless. That being said however, there is one major thing wrong with it but let me address that a bit later down the line.
Combat feels very streamlined in Amazing 2. Once again a very Arkham-ish combat system is implemented and once again it cannot live up to the Dark Knight’s combat proficiency. You can punch, you can counter, you can fling yourself at enemies or you can pull them towards you and that’s pretty much it. It feels a bit more responsive than in the last game and once again Spidey’s acrobatic moves are well animated, conveying a satisfying sense of grace that is not really there all things considered.
Source: Activision/ Beenox
While the combat against normal mooks can be quite fun, the game is a real bore against the bosses. These encounters are so uninspired and mundane and offer nothing you haven’t seen or done in other games. Kingpin is a generic brute that you take out by side-stepping his charge and then wailing on him; Carnage sticks around walls like an idiot and you fire a web-ball at him and then wail on him. No matter how many supposedly epic scripted scenes are sprinkled into these fight, they are boring and unimpressive, not to mention easy. Even on the hardest difficulty setting I never had any problem whatsoever to the point where I finished the battle against Electro without taking a single hit for instance. It’s so disappointing considering Beenox’ own Shattered Dimensions had some amazing bosses to fight.
Now, movie tie-ins like this are clearly made with profit in mind by wringing out a couple bucks from fans and Amazing 2 is no exception. The entire game feels extremely low-budget; the world map is full of copy-pasted buildings and feels completely empty, the enemies you encounter are identical clones, textures are really low-res, animations (with the exception of Spider-Man’s) are far from smooth, loading times are ungodly long and even menus are ugly and lagy. It’s clear that Activision spent as little money as possible on this in hopes of increasing profit. This is also apparent in the fact that some of the most beloved alternate costumes for Spidey, like the black symbiote costume, are held hostage behind a paid-DLC wall. Thanks for that.
Speaking of costumes, what happened to the old Ben Reilly Scarlett Spider getup? That was always my favorite alternate costume. Is modeling a blue hoodie too complicated in this day and age? #nerdynonsense
Source: Activision/ Beenox
Okay, so the story is bad, the combat mediocre, the bosses underwhelming and the overall production value is lackluster. The swinging is fun though, right? Does that save the game in any way? Unfortunately not and the reason for that is the new Hero/Menace-system which cripples the entire game in my eyes.
How it works is like this, while swinging around in the city you will find many pedestrians in need of help or encounter criminals in the middle of a heist that you need to stop and doing so increases your Hero-meter. These missions have a timer and can therefore fail; so what happens when you ignore people? Your Hero-meter decreases and eventually you will be seen as a menace by the public. Continue to ignore these side-missions and you will eventually be hunted down by a special task force with flying drones, turrets and –worst of all – hovering nets that constantly block your way when trying to enjoy the swinging mechanics. The problem is that there are just too many side-missions and you can never reach them all in due time meaning your reputation will eventually take a hit. Even when you rescue some people from a burning building, your reputation still suffers because some crooks stole a car at the other side of town. Clearly a menace to society.
Source: Activision/ Beenox
To make matters worse these events are not only highly repetitive – there was that one guy that got lost on a boat and I saved him half a dozen times throughout my playthrough – but also poorly implemented into the open-world. Every mission starts with a short cutscene and ends with a short news-report vignette showing you what you just did. Every. Single.Time. All of which are unskippable by the way. And to make matters worse, there is no way to disable this mechanic. I thought that maybe you would get some kind of free-swing mode after finishing the story, but that is not the case.
I find it mind-boggling how terrible implemented the Hero/Menace-system is as it completely derails any fun the swinging in the open-world provides. If you want to just swing around the city, maybe look for some collectables, you will constantly be penalized and eventually hunted down by the police. If you do decide to help people, the repetitive missions and annoying cutscenes will soon start to get on your nerves. “With great power comes great responsibility”, I get that, but this is a video-game so with great power should also come great fun.
Source: Activision/ Beenox
The Amazing Spider-Man 2 is neither a good game nor a good sequel. And that’s saying something considering the first game wasn’t particularly hot either. It fails to improve upon the combat in any meaningful way, looks about on par with the 2 year old original and tells a story that lacks any form of focus or relevance. It improves upon the swinging-mechanics but also introduces a reputation-system that is so poorly thought out that it singlehandedly sucks any joy out of it. If you’re a die-hard fan of the character then maybe you will be able to overlook Amazing 2’s gaping problems initially, but I would still not recommend it unless you find it very, very cheap or can rent it. I would suggest playing Shattered Dimensions over this any day of the week and even Edge of Time, as flawed as it is, offered more enjoyment. I bought Web of Shadow a couple of years ago but never played it so I think I will do that, it can’t be worse than this.
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