Countless superhero titles have flooded the markets with the recent resurgence in mainstream comic hero popularity, and a desperate few of them have been quality endeavors worth frothing over. A quality Spider-Man title is even more difficult to come by given the fact that there are so many elements to get wrong. Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions puts a new-ish spin on the popular franchise, and gives Spidey fans a bit more to chew than the usual web-head basics.
Gameplay/Presentation
Shattered Dimensions puts a different spin on Spidey's exploits by giving players the ability to play as four iterations of their favorite wall crawler: the original "Amazing", Spider-Man Noir, Spider-Man 2099, and Ultimate Spider-Man. Each version has his own unique play style, and some individual abilities, but the basics are the same. Every Spidey can web swing and pull off acrobatic attacks, but not all Spideys are created equal. Noir Spidey, for example, is not as strong as his counterparts, and his levels tend to be filled with more trigger happy villains willing to pump him full of bullets. 2099 Spidey's levels contain a series of free fall sequences that test a players reflexes in avoiding falling objects. Ultimate and Amazing are more similar, but Amazing has more web based attacks in his repertoir whereas Ultimate uses the tendrils of the black symbiote suite to do most of his dirty work.
The continuity of the game's story mode switches from stage to stage between the different Spider-Men. The order in which levels are completed is somewhat left to the player, but only a couple of levels are unlocked after objectives are completed. Fans of the franchise know that Spider-Man doesn't use weapons, so as specific objective challenges are completed, different abilities and web attacks are unlocked for purchase. As the game progresses, each Spidey grows more formidable, as do their opponents. Though the upgrade system adds a bit of a challenge to the usual button mashing festival that similar titles offer, it ultimately feels undewhelming when compared to the system that Batman: Arkham Asylum employs. Hardcore gamers who focus on completing every challenge will likely pay close attention to each objective, but it is possible to best the game without paying any attention to them at all. That is not to say that it is not necessary to upgrade abilities, but players will often be plesantly surprised to find that they have enough credits to unlock valuable upgrades without putting much focus on specific acheivements.
Controls
Most critics of this title will point to the fact that there is absolutely no free-roaming opportunity to be found in this game to unleash all of Spider-Man's web swinging glory, and this is certainly true. Each of the game's levels is built with a linear objective based design. Basically its a, "you can do whatever you want and look awesome doing it.......as long as you stay inside this wide corridor" experience as opposed to the sandbox style world that other installments have offered. In many ways, this focused players on the main action of the title, but it also limits the web swinging opportunities pretty severely. Most of the action when fighting enemies will be controlled through button mashing melee attack combos, or through line zipping combo starters. This is pretty standard fare for Spider-Man titles, but something a bit more technical would have been a welcome addition this go around.
Shattered Dimensions does add a first-person fighting sequence to boss battles that allows players to control Spidey's punches and dodges for limited intervals. Though this seems like an interesting addition, it more or less detracts from the experience rather than enhancing it. The controls employed through the left and right control sticks are often clumsy, and the inputs during these segments were hit or miss for the most part. Overall, the control scheme in this title does little to enhance what player's can look to expect from a Spider-Man title though it is also not obvious what enhancements could be made. Rather, it would have been nice to see an environment that made better use of more unexplored Spidey abilities like creating large webs between buildings to trap flying enemies or some such mechanic.
Final Impressions
The fact that titles like Batman: Arkham Asylum have put such a fresh spin on what supehero titles could look like plague less momentus games like Shattered Dimensions. It is becoming more apparent that it is no longer sufficient to relabel old game mechanics with slight changes and gimmicky story arcs in order to attract a new consumer base. Shattered Dimensions does a good enough job of bringing life to several versions of everyone's favorite web crawler, but the title doesn't really deliver anything that makes it exciting to step into Spidey's tights. Perhaps if the level of difficulty were raised in more or a puzzle solving challenge, or if the darkness of the story content were ratcheted up a few degrees Shattered Dimensions could have been a more relevant title. However, it may be relegated to the pile of Activision Studio's dump-ware titles of the year. Hardcore fans will gripe about story continuity, and newcomers will be bored with repetitive gameplay mechanics. It is sad when these titles fail, but someone needs to put a bit more love into a good Spider-Man project for it to be truly successful.
Score: 5 out of 10 (Average)
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