Is Spider-Man: Web of Shadows a good game, or a good Spider-Man game? There’s a big difference, one statement implying that, in the larger ecosystem of the videogame world, Web of Shadows holds up as a valuable interactive experience, while the other implies that, in the considerably smaller ecosystem of Spider-Man games, Web of Shadows is as good as, if not better than, any previous entries to the series. As you swing, collect, punch, kick, combo attack, upgrade and absorb the story throughout the 10+ hours of adventure, you may come to the conclusion that, while the developers have created solid foundations for a good game, it’s all a bit empty and padded, resulting in what most would call a good Spider-Man game, but rather mediocre interactive entertainment.

What is Spider-Man: Web of Shadows? Well, it could most accurately be described as an open-world, free-roaming action adventure game starring the inimitable Spider-Man, in which you swing and wall climb through a version of real-world New York city, breaking up skirmishes between opposing factions, collecting items and going on missions for a variety of comic book heroes. You’re also able to upgrade your abilities along the way, earning experience points by completing missions and side-quests to improve said abilities, while also facing vague moral dilemmas, either fighting as the squeaky clean Spider-Man, or as his alter-ego, the black-suited Spider-Man, between whom you’re able to switch on the fly to take advantage of each of their unique fighting abilities (upgraded with the aforementioned experience points). Quite a long description, but it serves its purpose.

The problem with the game shows up not one or even two hours in, but rather any amount of time past that point because, despite the fact that all of the mechanics in the game work either very well or at an acceptable level, the developers (Shaba) haven’t given players enough to do with those mechanics. The problem is that of repetition. At the beginning, the game does a good job of compartmentalising your objectives, either crucial to progressing the story, or side quests that will earn you extra experience points. The objectives are small and simple enough to complete within a few minutes of play, giving players a good reward system to continue playing, knowing that each mission’s completion is only a few punches away.

Beat up five enemies? Sure! Beat up 25 enemies? OK! Beat up 500 enemies? …?! Later on in the game, these seemingly easy to attain demands become hilariously ludicrous and it seems that everything boils down to beating up enemies in order to complete missions, or gain necessary experience points, with some more interesting set-ups occurring only much later in the game. Boss fights, too, become entirely monotonous as you’re forced to repeat the same encounters over and over until you either ‘defeat’ the enemy or, most frustratingly, the enemy gets away.

Luckily, with all of this enemy beating, Shaba have provided players of the game very solid combat and movement systems, effectively instilling you with a suitable feeling of power and freedom. Spider-Man is able to effortlessly swing through the city while the music follows pace, shooting strings of web into the air to aggressively sway through the cityscape, or slinging from place to place with quicker shots of web. You’ll also be able to climb up the sides of buildings, which is where some camera troubles come into play, snapping the camera from one point to another as the game tries to keep up with your orientation. Not a game breaking issue, but something that can cause frustration if many instances are experienced in quick succession (such as starting to climb, climbing around the edge of the building, then reaching a ledge, while the camera catches up to your perspective at each turn).

The combat system in particular is satisfying to use, especially as you learn new abilities and upgrade your skills. To begin with, you’re able to pull off simple punching routines via multiple button presses, but eventually you’re able to introduce more finesse to your fighting technique, chaining together a variety of combo attacks that allow you to either juggle multiple opponents at once, or continue to wale on a single enemy for an extended period of time, starting on the ground and then finishing them off in the air (or vice versa), complete with dramatic slow-down effects to add weight and power to your attacks. Once again, camera issues blight the fun as your viewpoint can snap from one orientation to another without warning, and because your movement is camera oriented (you move in a direction relative to the camera’s position), this can lead to some frustration as you fight your in-game avatar for control.

The scope and resultant quality of Web of Shadows’ interpretation of city life does, at times, seem as though it was a little too much to handle. Cars are able to simply disappear from the relentless city traffic (maybe to their relief), friendly citizens, as well as enemies, can be seen taking a break from the daily grind by walking or running into walls for indeterminable amounts of time and the game is prone to some pretty severe framerate drops, at times making it unplayable (and even freezing up completely). While these are, again, minor issues (except for complete lock-ups and severe slowdown), they do prove that this is a game and pull you out of the experience just that little bit more.

Spider-Man: Web of Shadows almost proves the point that games don’t need to provide countless hours of gameplay. This game could easily have been whittled down to its core story component with brief action sequences and set-pieces sprinkled throughout in order to provide a tight, focussed Spider-Man experience - just enough to allow you to enjoy the freedom of swinging through the city unhindered and just enough to introduce you to the oftentimes deep combat system, but not so much that you grow tired of the experience altogether. If you’ll excuse the analogy, developers Shaba have woven a detailed web with their core gameplay mechanics - presenting players with a more than solid foundation - only, the web is disappointingly, and tragically, empty, as those mechanics go to waste on countless enemy encounters and tiresome fetch quests.

Pros: Deep combat system; a cool story (overall); feeling of freedom in the city.

Cons: Repetitive objectives; city can get glitchy; freezes/lock-ups/framerate drops; script wavers from acceptable to awful; camera issues.

Purchase: