| 06 October 2010
Are your Spider-senses tingling? Mine are. That's because our friend Adam Morris has sent in this amazingly comprehensive review of Spiderman: Shattered Dimensions. Have a read and let him know if you agree or disagree in the comments. Thanks, Adam, and keep 'em coming, everyone!
Shattered Dimensions starts with the wall crawling hero in pursuit of Mysterio, who has broken into a museum in an attempt to steal the "Tablet of Order and Chaos", and of course Spiderman, being Spiderman, swings in to recover it. During the battle the tablet is split into many pieces and are scattered throughout different dimensions. Luckily each of these dimensions has it's own Spiderman on hand and throughout the game you'll play as Amazing Spiderman, Ultimate Spiderman, Noir Spiderman and Spiderman 2099. Each of these different versions brings new attacks, abilities and enemies, as well as its own unique visual style.
Unfortunately for Spiderman, the fragments of the tablet have fallen into the hands of some of Spidey's most notorious villains, extending and increasing their powers. Shattered Dimensions handles these villains really well with each one having its own cutscene at the start of the level; it really adds to the sense of drama within the game. But these enemies might not be the ones you are familiar with, as the game alters well known characters to fit with the style they are found in: Noir Vulture is now a cloak wearing cannibal, Ultimate's Deadpool is a game show host - heck, 2099's Doc Oc is a chick! This works extremely well, with each of villains new appearances fitting really well with the genre in which they are placed, most noticeably in the Noir Spidey's dimension, where enemies had to be changed to fit the time period they were present in.
However, apart from their appearance in the opening cut scene and a few boss fights in-between sections, the villains serve no real purpose to Spiderman's storyline - and it suffers because of it. With Spidey chasing down a boss, defeating wave after wave of goons, kills said boss, take tablets, rinse, wash, repeat, being the only driving factor behind the games story, it really starts to wear thin after your first play through with each of the four Spider-men on offer. There is some fun to be had with the games challenges, of which their are 15 per level. They are neat little quests which won't have you straying too far from the mission at hand. Instead of just beating a guy with your fists, the challenges might offer some incentive to use more advanced moves, e.g., "perform 10 web-zip kicks". They help break up the repetitive waves of enemies, making you feel like you can achieve something where you would otherwise just be button mashing. The challenges also offer points, which can be spent upgrading your characters health, abilities and even unlock new costumes for each of the different Spider-men (obviously go straight for Bag-Man).
Apart from the repetitiveness of Shattered Dimensions, the thing I was most disappointed about was the lack of an open world. While it wasn't exactly well constructed in previous games, it was a portion of the games that really made you feel like the web-slinger. With a little bit more polish and attention to detail, the bases of Web of Shadows could have been turned into a great open world Spiderman experience. What you are faced with in Shattered Dimension, however, is a series of linear and often enclosed hallways in which to navigate. While there is swinging and web-zipping, it's always so enclosed or slow paced that it really doesn't make you feel like the quick and agile Spiderman. It would be like making a Superman game in which you can fly, but only at 10mph, and it's all set in a 6ft high sewer pipe. It just doesn't make you feel very heroic.
As this is a Spiderman game, of course our old friend camera issues rears it's ugly head once more. It seems like it might be a physical impossibility to make a Spidey game without the camera flipping out every time you try to dismount from a wall to the floor, or drop from the ceiling onto enemies. Whoever over at Beenox decided that when wall crawling, the camera should focus directly on Spiderman, and not the environment surrounding him, obviously needed to go back to the drawing board.
With his usual attacks returning, Amazing Spiderman is the version that most of the audience will be the most familiar with. This is the only direct combat focused Spider man that doesn't have a left bumper skill to call upon in battle, meaning his attacks focus mainly on web based attacks, as well as the usual Spidey punch, kicks and web-zips. But it Amazing Spidermans' boss fights that really sell this dimension; the fantastic Sandman level is one of the best in the game. Also, the fact he is voiced by one of my favorite actors, Neil Patrick Harris, helps. The art style also looks great, with an over-saturated look giving a fantastic comic book appearance to the Amazing Spiderman Universe.
Noir Spiderman is far from combat orientated and relies on stealth to get past goons. You will zip from roof to roof, lurking in the shadows and picking off unsuspecting henchmen with web attacks. Spider sense helps locate and dispatch enemies as it places a red border around thugs, which makes them visible through walls. Think of it as the detective mode from Arkham Asylum. When detected, a red spider circle will be placed in the location the enemy has seen you, although, getting away from gunfire isn't especially hard and will usually just contain a web-zip to a shadowed location. Noir Spider man is set in black and white. While unseen in the shadows, once stepped into the light, colour will start to bleed into the world; it's a great way to be able to see if you are detectable or not and works extremal well as a visual art style. I also liked the way the bosses had been modified to fit the time period and style of the Noir Universe; you never feel like a boss is out of place.
Ultimate Spiderman differs very little from Amazing Spiderman, however, the black suit does have the ability to enter a "rage mode". In this mode you will deal far more damage than usual, the bar filling up as you land hits on enemies, or take hits yourself. With a few of the rage mode boosts from the upgrades menu, you can use the ability fairly regularly, which is of great use as it seems Ultimate is the dimension with the biggest numbers of goons to dispatch. Once again bosses are handled solidly and refer well to their source material with Carnage being just as manic and psychopathic as you will remember him being.
Spiderman 2099 has an Accelerated Vision mode that allows him to temporarily slow down time, allowing for easier dodging of incoming attacks, missiles, etc. This bar is always recharging and, once again with upgrades, is usable quite frequently. It is the falling sequences that are the fun sections in this dimension, as Spiderman has to dodge many obstacles while hurtling himself towards the ground. It looks great and adds to the futuristic rush of the 2099 dimension.
A brand new feature added to the Spiderman games this time around is the addition of 1st person, 1-on-1 combat. This is triggered during most boss fights, where the left stick represents your left hand and the right stick representing your right hand. You will flail the sticks around and deliver a series of punches to your enemy, then dodge attacks by pulling back on both sticks when prompted on screen. The first time you do this it's fun and different, but it soon gets old fast. It's not challenging at all and is just a waste of time between actual boss fights.
While you will find some great levels in terms of design and execution, you will also find some truly terrible ones (everyone loves saving citizens over and over right?). You may remember me earlier talking about Deadpool being a TV game show host? For me this was without a doubt the worst level in the entire game; it has Spiderman going around destroying many, MANY, cameras in order to leave the imprisonment that is Deadpool's TV show...it's just pointless and horrific.
The end boss fight is satisfying with all of the different dimensional Spidermen working together. You will have to use each of the different Spider-mens' strengths in the final confrontation with Mysterio. I was seriously worried about some cheesy ending that would have ruined the tone of the game and was pleasantly surprised this didn't happen, although, I would have preferred a longer exiting cut scene and explanation. Nonetheless, A fantastic voice over from the God-Father of comics, Stan Lee, was enough fanboyism to keep me happy.
Spiderman Shattered Dimensions has some great ideas and a lot of good things working in its favour. I understand the risks that were taken when making this game and thankfully for Beenox, most of them worked out. However, as a huge Spidey fan I would have much preferred for them to build upon the mediocre basis that Web of Shadows put in place, rather than trying to re-design the franchise. I don't look at Shattered Dimensions as a bad game but a forward step in the wrong direction.
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