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In
this day and age, most third-party games are released across multiple
platforms. When the game in question is a major licensed property, like
Spider-Man 2, it's almost guaranteed that you're going to get the same
game on several different systems. Activision did this, in part, by
releasing a Treyarch-developed Spider-Man 2 game on the Xbox,
PlayStation 2, and GameCube. But for some reason that game didn't make
its way to the PC. Instead, PC owners are getting a completely different
game. Between the game's overly simplified gameplay mechanics and its
weak presentation, this is definitely a case where "different" doesn't
mean "better."
At
its core, the PC version of Spider-Man 2 is attempting to do the same
thing that the console game does. It takes only the most basic shreds of
story from the movie of the same name and inserts them into an action
game. In an attempt to liven things up a bit, the game does more than
merely pit Spider-Man against Dr. Octopus. You'll also face other
villains, like Mysterio, the Puma, and on multiple occasions you'll
square off against Rhino.
When you aren't doing that, you're stopping bank robberies and beating up on other, lesser thugs. Generally speaking, the game doesn't go out of its way to tell any story at all. You'll get a cutscene here and there, but most of these cutscenes are ugly. A few of them come from the console versions of the game, and these look just fine. But the cutscenes that were created specifically for this version of the game are awful. They run at a choppy frame rate, and the scenes would probably look better if they were just rendered in-engine.
When you aren't doing that, you're stopping bank robberies and beating up on other, lesser thugs. Generally speaking, the game doesn't go out of its way to tell any story at all. You'll get a cutscene here and there, but most of these cutscenes are ugly. A few of them come from the console versions of the game, and these look just fine. But the cutscenes that were created specifically for this version of the game are awful. They run at a choppy frame rate, and the scenes would probably look better if they were just rendered in-engine.
The
gameplay in Spider-Man 2 is stripped-down to a fault. The game controls
like your standard third-person PC action game, with the mouse
controlling your turning and viewpoint and the keyboard controlling your
actual movement. The left mouse button is a context-sensitive,
all-purpose action button. If you're pointing your targeting crosshairs
at an enemy, an onscreen targeting device will say "attack" or "web" if
you aren't close enough to punch. Pointing at the side of a building or
other flat surface will let you "zip" to that location with a touch of
the button. In some cases, you'll be able to "shoot" web balls at
various targets. And when you're close enough to a swing icon, your
targeting device will light up and say "swing."
Wait,
a swing icon? Yes, that's right. Unlike in the other version of
Spider-Man 2, where you can swing around the city freely, here you can
swing only from specified swing targets. This, in a word, is lame. In
two words, it's incredibly lame. The freedom of swinging around the city
is one of the standout features of the other version of the game. Here,
it's just a joke, whether you've seen the other version of the game or
not.
The
boss fights in the game are, for the most part, dumb. It certainly
doesn't help that the game pauses before each fight and spells out exactly what
you need to do to win before every single fight. This feature and the
one-button gameplay may have you thinking that the game was intended for
kids, but the game is really ill-designed all over the place, and it
doesn't feel like it's catering to any specific crowd. It's also a
fairly short game, clocking in around the five- or six-hour mark.
Graphically,
Spider-Man 2 looks OK. Most of the game takes place in a city
environment, but the rigid, boxlike structure of the skyscrapers doesn't
make you feel as though you have any sort of citylike freedom. The
game's textures are passable, though most of the non-player models are
ugly and animate poorly. When you beat enemies, they blink out of
existence with a static effect that makes you feel as if you're playing
some sort of "Spider-Man in The Matrix" mod. The whole game just looks
dull and unexciting, both technically and artistically.
Most
of the sound effects in the game are good, but this is offset by some
bad voice acting. You'll hear some of the voices from the movie here,
but Tobey Maguire must have used up all his voice-acting energy on lines
for the console version of the game. Here, the script is bad to begin
with, and the line delivery isn't any better. The game has some music,
but it basically just fades into the background and stays there.
Why didn't the PC get the good version
of Spider-Man 2? Who decided to make an entirely different and
decidedly mediocre version of the game specifically for Windows users?
We may never know the answers to these questions, but as for your
question about whether or not you should spend your time and money
playing this version of the game, the answer is definitely no.
