Spider-Man games have had it pretty rough over the years. Some were big hits and some have been bigger flops. Now comes along Spider-Man: Shattered Dimension, and there's hope for Spidey fans with this newest adventure.
To start, Beenox and Activision looked back at all of the past Spider-Man games to find out what fans loved and hated about these wall crawler titles. They've taken that fan feedback, creating this new Spidey game which will span four different Spider-Man universes.
Web sling over the break to see what's involved in web head's latest adventures.
Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions (Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Wii, DS) Developer: Beenox Studios, Griptonite Games -- DS version) Publisher: Activision To be released: September 2010
Upon first hearing the Shattered Dimensions announcement, I immediately thought of the classic Fox cartoon Spider-Man with its cross-dimensional Spider-Man team-up. Shattered Dimension follows a similar path with the multiple Spider-Mans, and in this case, the Spider-Mans must reunite the shattered pieces of the Tablet of Order and Chaos. The Tablet was keeping the four worlds from crashing into each other, and now the broken pieces are in the hands of super villains across the four dimensions.
The main thing Beenox took from all the fan feedback research is that people loved the boss fights. Unfortunately, those boss fights were a hassle to reach, especially with the previous games' open world settings. Shattered Dimension streamlined by being level-based, and each level is designed around the specific villain you'll be encountering.
In the demo of the Amazing universe, Spider-Man left the streets of Manhattan to track down Kraven the Hunter in the jungle. After battling a number of goons, Spider-Man and Kraven go at it, and we see one of the new features in action. The perspective shifts to a first-person mode during parts of the boss fight, and it almost feels like you're playing Punch-Out!!. Spider-Man and Kraven box for a brief period before the camera pulls back out, and everything is back to its normal third-person action.
Every dimension's Spider-Man will act and feel different from the other. Amazing Spider-Man is the classic hero we all know and love. He's quick, snarky, and loves to use his web shooters. Amazing Spider-Man's attack style is heavily focused on his webs -- he'll even be able to blind enemies, create web hammers, and whip enemies into each other among an assortment of web-based attacks.
Noir Spider-Man is the complete opposite. This Spidey is more of a strategic fighter, and focuses on using stealth to take on his enemies. He's older and slower, and therefore has to get his "Batman on" a bit. The Noir section is very reminiscent of Batman: Arkham Asylum, in fact. Noir Spidey even incorporates some extremely badass-looking stealth takedowns.
The preview build we saw was extremely early, but the visuals were already looking very good, especially in the Noir section. The developers are going for a "ink on paper" treatment with the visuals to give everything a more comic book feel.
So far, we know of the Amazing Spider-Man universe and the Noir universe, with the other two dimensions to be announced at San Diego Comic-Con and E3 2010. Each dimension will have three levels with four acts in each stage. Every section will feature a Spider-Man villain, so you'll be battling 12 bosses, plus the one big bad that caused the tablet's breakage in the first place. You'll be able to choose which dimension you start off with, as well.
The story in Shattered Dimension is penned by Marvel comic book writer Dan Slott, and Activision is working closely with Marvel to ensure a solid story that comic fans can dig into. Activision is even putting a lot of work into the voice actors on the game. Every Spider-Man voice actor in Shattered Dimension has done the voice of Spidey at one point -- the Noir Spider-Man voice actor is actually the same actor from the Fox cartoon series!
We got a very early taste of the new Spider-Man game, and I like what I've so far. I can't comment on the gameplay, as the demo I was shown was early and a bit buggy, but I did enjoy the visuals and where they're headed with the plot. The only thing that's left a sour taste in my mouth is the first person fight sequences -- it feels forced and unnecessary.
I'll be looking forward to an actually playable build of Shattered Dimension hopefully by San Diego Comic-Con time. Until then, keep an eye out for a video interview with Beenox coming soon.
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I didn't even recognize the Noir Spider-man voice as the guy who did the voice for the 90's cartoon. I have to wonder if web swinging is going to work the same way now that this game's backing away from the whole Open world thing.
I think we will get a problem with one dimension being better than others, like one campaign being good in AvP etc. Also, with the open world gone, and it is now in smaller "levels", I wonder how the web-slinging will work out, nothing beats swinging through the city, not sure how smaller levels will work out.
The fan feedback is the exact opposite of my feelings. Swinging freely around the open world was always my favorite part of the recent Spidey games, while I honestly can't recall a single boss fight that I loved.
Not sure about the whole first person thing. Levels will work as long as there is a hub. Like if I can swing freely around New York but then go into the Kraven mission to be taken to the jungle level that would be cool.
...Loved the boss fights? I'm sorry, what? In Ultimate Spider-Man, sure, but all the others have been complete messes. Anyways, this is looking alright, though I want to add that Gamestop had already shown a picture of their pre-order bonus, which is a Cosmic outfit for all four Spider-Men. So yes, they've pretty much shown us that the remaining two universes are Spider-Man 2099 and...the symbiote Spider-Man from the bad ending of Web of Shadows, perhaps? Here's the link:
Sounds damn cool. I'm so jealous of knowledgeable comic fans. I didn't even know this kind of thing existed in the Spidey universe. And that's just Spider Man. I'm a casual fan, and it sounds pretty cool.
Fuck a "Web Hammer". I can't stand it when they make some web origami master who can make anything out of web. He is super strong. he can pick up a giant hammer like object and use it as a hammer. He doesn't have to conjure one out of his webslingers. Webs are basically ropes. You can make a web lasso, tie a dude up with a web knot. You cannot make a "Web Hammer". Even a web shield is pushing it. He has a spidey sense and super-agility. If you're putting him in situations where a shield is called for, you're not doing it right. Save it for the Captain America game.
I think they're trying to go after something like Batman: AA achieved, and it's only natural. The parallel worlds are enormous potential in story telling and in gameplay variety, which would be very welcome. The Noir Spider-man is simply amazing! I hope they pull this off, I'll be keeping an eye on this.
Wait a minute...
Why do I get the feeling Spider Man: Friend of Foe is what there talking about? That was a linear, simple but not bad at all Beat Em Up where the best bits were the Boss Fights, but were a pain to get to.
Shattered Dimensions stinks of it but FOF's best features were the amount of playable characters. Also it was funny as hell.
Wait a minute, are they honestly that fucking stupid? The single best part of past spiderman games was swinging around the city. The single worst part was the combat. The boss fights were merely awesome. They didn't nearly match the badassitude of open world webslinging.
I'd have liked to have seen Noir with an actual web gun. Make him seem a little more 1940s. Like Batman kinda, but with a spider-man outfit. Instead it looks like just a reskin of his spidey outfit with different moves.
I do like the it could only happen in a comic book style the story is taking. Its actually kinda fun.
I'd loved to see a Spiderman from the stylised animated series included somewhere, it may have only been 16 episodes but each was genius. Loved every spiderman game so far except friend or foe and will definetly be picking this up day 1. Web of Shadows was the best yet!
"Shattered Dimension streamlined by being level-based, and each level is designed around the specific villain you'll be encountering."
Oh god no...
"The perspective shifts to a first-person mode during parts of the boss fight, and it almost feels like you're playing Punch-Out!!. ...] I can't comment on the gameplay, [...] the only thing that's left a sour taste in my mouth is the first person fight sequences -- it feels forced and unnecessary."
And that seals the deal. I'll just stick with Ultimate Spider-Man and Spider-Man: Web of Shadows.
ultimate was not. I am sure this will be better than that. It looked great, but the swinging was really poor, as were the mission designs and boss battles.
I'm a decent sized spider-fan. I don't sprout off comic books by number on the spot or anything, but I did grow up on the books and watch all the cartoons and movies and bought all the games.
That said, this is what their player data came up with? That people want less of the real Spider-man in their game? Get him away from Manhattan?
I appreciate trying to keep things fresh and changing up the levels for gameplay...but for no concrete reason I'm getting a bad internal spider-buzz with this game.
Hopefully when more details come along, it ends up great. I'm always rooting for a good game. But even weirder...is it just me or don't most people agree Web of Shadows was the best Spider-man yet?
And Activision's response is to hand it to a new developer with no track record and the idea of "different" spider-men?
Maybe they'll pull a Rocksteady with Batman, but I'm still scratching my head at these weird choices of what's here so far. For some reason I keep thinking of Friend or Foe instead of, say, Arkham Asylum (quality-wise).
You know I will never understand spiderman web of shadows getting mixed reviews.
I thought it was fantastic, from the comic book style visuals, to the storyline that was basically spidey vs zombies, to the open world new york that changed as the game went along, to the amazing combat and web swinging...Im truly baffled. It's one of my favourite games, actually, so I really dont get what people didn't like.
I appreciate trying to keep things fresh and changing up the levels for gameplay...but for no concrete reason I'm getting a bad internal spider-buzz with this game.
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3:00 PM on 04.05.2010
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But I am cautiously optimistic as well.
http://www.gamestop.com/gs/images/bonus/SM_shattered_bonusLG2.jpg
Hopefully that means that we'll have some NPH voice over work.
Why do I get the feeling Spider Man: Friend of Foe is what there talking about? That was a linear, simple but not bad at all Beat Em Up where the best bits were the Boss Fights, but were a pain to get to.
Shattered Dimensions stinks of it but FOF's best features were the amount of playable characters. Also it was funny as hell.
I do like the it could only happen in a comic book style the story is taking. Its actually kinda fun.
Marvel Zombies please activsion!
Oh god no...
"The perspective shifts to a first-person mode during parts of the boss fight, and it almost feels like you're playing Punch-Out!!. ...] I can't comment on the gameplay, [...] the only thing that's left a sour taste in my mouth is the first person fight sequences -- it feels forced and unnecessary."
And that seals the deal. I'll just stick with Ultimate Spider-Man and Spider-Man: Web of Shadows.
ultimate was not. I am sure this will be better than that. It looked great, but the swinging was really poor, as were the mission designs and boss battles.
Luckily the rest of saturday more than made up for it.... I probably should've shook hands with Mr. DToid, though... :(
That said, this is what their player data came up with? That people want less of the real Spider-man in their game? Get him away from Manhattan?
I appreciate trying to keep things fresh and changing up the levels for gameplay...but for no concrete reason I'm getting a bad internal spider-buzz with this game.
Hopefully when more details come along, it ends up great. I'm always rooting for a good game. But even weirder...is it just me or don't most people agree Web of Shadows was the best Spider-man yet?
And Activision's response is to hand it to a new developer with no track record and the idea of "different" spider-men?
Maybe they'll pull a Rocksteady with Batman, but I'm still scratching my head at these weird choices of what's here so far. For some reason I keep thinking of Friend or Foe instead of, say, Arkham Asylum (quality-wise).
however none of the other spider man games have been quite as good, here's hoping maybe this one will be
I thought it was fantastic, from the comic book style visuals, to the storyline that was basically spidey vs zombies, to the open world new york that changed as the game went along, to the amazing combat and web swinging...Im truly baffled. It's one of my favourite games, actually, so I really dont get what people didn't like.
http://www.gladriel.com/reviewFull/content/4981/
Best regards, Katya, CEO of telecharger cd burner xp pro, iscsi initiator for windows