Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions review

Over the last year or so, we gamers have had a treat when it comes to the comic book translation into our universe. First we had not only a good comic book game but also a good movie tie-in in X-Men Origins: Wolverine, but we also had the smash hit Batman: Arkham Asylum in the latter part of the year. Now following suit is Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions, Activision and Marvel’s next entry into the long running Spider-Man gaming franchise.

The first thing that should be noted is that the game starts off with a new developer, Beenox. While the team are not complete strangers to the Spider-Man franchise having been a porting house for most of the series this is the first time they are the lead developer with Spider-Man. It seems that Beenox has shown it’s mettle to the Activision brass with the half decent movie tie-in for Monsters Vs Aliens, but Spider-Man is where the developer’s heart lies it seems. Shattered Dimensions takes place over multiple dimensions of the Spider-Man universe, hence the title. You are given control of four different Spider-Men over the course of the game. Featured we have, the Amazing version, the 2099 version, the Ultimate version and finally the Noir version. Each Spider-Man has a different universe to play in but also has different abilities, that is of course they all can spin a web and stick to walls but there are other abilities that make each one almost completely unique to play as. The gameplay reflects the difference in the character you are playing, Noir Spider-Man is physically weak and once engaged in face to face combat will take a pounding easier than that of the others, but that isn’t his strength. Each of these levels smacks of the Predator levels in Batman: Arkham Asylum, with you sticking to the shadows to take down enemies without detection. Again like AA, but not as advanced due to the temperament of the AI, for example; if you are seen a quick swing around the environment will confuse your foes and reset their nature back to normal. But the best part of Noir, is the change in colour when you are in and out of shadow. In shadow you are cloaked in darkness and the world looks black, but the moment you enter the light everything gains colour and becomes vibrant. Similarly, the Ultimate gives you control over the Venom Symbiote and all the rage filled power contained within it. With the Symbiote attached Spider-Man has a kind of overdrive ability called Rage, this powers up all your attacks and beefs Spidey up. Which is a massive help as these levels are enemy heavy, sometimes giving you a screen full to contend with at a time. In the 2099 universe you spend much more time in the air as the future cityscape is all high rises and hover cars, as such you do spend most of your time trying not to fall off ledges and swinging through some pretty amazing floating streets. Like the Ultimate version 2099 has a little trick up his sleeve in that he can use Accelerated Vision to slow down objects, this is key to this version as almost all the of the enemies carry some type of projectile based weapon. The Accelerated Vision gives you a chance to avoid incoming missile attacks by slowing them down enough for you to be able to get behind cover or, my favourite, leap behind the enemy who fired it and let him eat his own medicine. The Amazing universe is much more mundane when compared to the others, this universe is very much bog standard Spider-Man, he has no real special abilities or changes to what you would consider the norm for Spider-Man. The billed difference for this version is that he uses ‘web-based attacks more for powerful combos’, not the greatest difference but it does mean that you get to experience something normal and less souped up. The story takes place as the Amazing Spidey tackles Mysterio in a museum raid, where Spidey accidently smashes an ancient tablet that cracks the fabric of reality and the pieces soak through the divide and into the hands of various members of Spider-Man’s Rogue Gallery. So you are tasked by Madame Webb to work together with the other versions of Spidey to bring the tablet back together before all reality ends. When I first heard about this new entry for Spider-Man and that it was a multi-dimension affair I had the thought of a map of New York City split into different zones but this was not to be true. Unlike the previous versions of Spider-Man this game isn’t a free-roaming title, instead each section is level based and then cut up into acts. If I’m honest this thought worried me a bit as one of the core parts of playing a Spidey game for me is to be able to swing around New York City taking in the sights and enjoying the playground that it is. But I was amazed how well this worked, each level is well designed and feels like a playground within itself. Even the smaller maps, such as some of the 2099 ones have a depth to them that you don’t really notice even though you are only playing in a small level not a city. Each level does follow the rather old school trend of you following a boss through the level until at the end you have a final fight with them. But this is varied by having mini scraps with them throughout the level as a warm-up. In addition at the final fight, to defeat each boss you need to tackle them in various ways, such as trying to make one boss blow up steam tanks so you can creep up behind him or force another foe to impale themselves on the floor to allow you to attack. Each boss does follow the same idea that you need to whittle down their life bar, but the options available to you make all the difference. Combat is one part of the game that only shines at the end or after you finish and have lots of the game’s currency, known as Spider Essence, to spend unlocking new and more powerful moves. At the beginning you only have access to simple attacks and limited combos, but once those more powerful ones are unlocked you can string them together to create an unstoppable force to be reckoned with. The limitations of the early game leads to the combat feeling stilted and repetitive, the problem is that it takes so long for you to access the better moves that unless you’re actively thinking about combos you will just keep to the same old attacks. As I said, each Spider-Man plays differently, but also each universe feels and looks different as well. The Noir levels are the most stylised, with deep colours used when you’re in the light and great backlighting used when you’re in shadow. The whole place has a photo-realism to it, that adds great depth to the environment. The Ultimate universe sees a return to the cell-shading that was featured in the last generation title of the same name. This gives it a more comic book styling along with Amazing that has vibrant and a wide use of different colour palettes. 2099 has a more 3D gaming look to it, but graphically is the weakest of the lot, having lots of neon and bright colours filling the place. Overall, Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions has to be one of the best Spider-Man games around, with some great fan service (including Peter Porker). The gameplay is solid and fun to play and while there are some limitations to the proceedings there is something special about it too. While I do still in my heart of hearts miss swinging around a map of NYC, the new level design works excellently and swapping between the universes never jars. This is one game that Spidey fans can be proud of.

Rating: 8/10

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