The races on the other hand were numerous. The downfall to
these were that they weren’t that much fun in my opinion. They weren’t exactly
challenging either. The upside was that winning these races along with finding
the plentiful tokens, etc, unlocks some pretty cool features. I don’t want to
ruin any of them because the act of getting them isn’t exactly rewarding, in
and of itself.
Now that we have all the side dishes out of the way, it’s
time to get to the meat. The story missions are what this game is all about.
All and all there are some pretty interesting villains that you have to defeat.
Some could be a little more difficult but each and everyone is fun.
When playing as Spider-Man you have to rely on your speed
and accuracy when defeating villains. Your smarts, in the form of Spidey sense,
also plays a key role in anticipation of your next move.
The uniqueness of this game is when the game switches you to
the perspective of Venom. I can’t tell you how much fun this point of view is.
This character isn’t as fluid as Spider-Man but his brute strength and
quickness are an absolute blast. You have the ability, when playing this role,
to overwhelm your opponents.with sheer force. Also the ability to suck energy
from others has a certain gratification to it.
However, I should probably keep those thoughts between my therapist and
me.
I have to admit, it was a little weird the first mission
that I played from the Venom perspective, When the story forced me to battle
and reluctantly annihilate one of my favorite characters of all time, I had
very mixed emotions. The rush of power enabled me to get over it those mixed
feelings pretty quickly, however.
Overall the controls of both characters are excellent. The
learning curve for each is relatively small and one can be at a functional if
not master level in a very short time. The controls of both characters are
differentiated and have a completely different feel, adding a dimension to the
game that is excellent at guarding against monotony. Although there are
differences in the characters the variance is close enough that you can easily
switch gears between characters without completely loosing all your muscle
memory. That is if your like me and consider your fingers a muscle.
When playing as Spider-Man, the fluidity with which you can
explore Manhattan and neighboring Queens is astonishing. Due to the taller buildings, the
city is particularly dazzling. The web zip line function makes getting around
the city extremely fast. This function is initiated by pressing the L2 and R2
buttons simultaneously. This is recommended for buildings with low rooftops. I
found it useful however, after I had managed to get above the skyline, by
either climbing or web swinging. Once Spidey is above the rooftops you can
simply use the zip line to “pull” your self from building to building. It’s
almost as if Spidey had the ability to fly.
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