Spider-Man 2: The Game

14_1The dumb, cheap and mishandled sequel.

Typically, shovelware is a cheap port over of a console game that, while roughly the same as the console version, takes no advantage of the extra options or abilities offered on the PC. Gamers have put up with mediocre ports for some time, and Activision isn’t exempt from this trend; unfortunately, that trend reaches insufferable levels with the PC version of Spider-Man 2, a sequel to a game that was surprisingly fun in its day. What’s worse, it’s not even a ‘port’ to a bad game.

In this case, though, it isn’t a bad game because it’s a quick port of the console version, it’s because it’s not: the Treyarch-developed Spider-Man 2 for consoles is a huge, sprawling action adventure that allows players nearly complete freedom of movement through New York City, and it’s a superb game. Spider-Man 2 on the PC, however, was developed by a company appropriately named Fizz Factor, and is neither free roaming nor sprawling. It certainly isn’t superb; in fact, it’s mediocre on its best day.

You can only shoot webs at designated icons, and the action, which mixes plot points from the movie with a variety of other Spidey villains, is mediocre and simplistic. Calling the game dumbed down is too kind—it’s a kiddie-sized version of the console game, with game mechanics that were old school in the 16-bit era. Combat is simple button mashing, and the enemy AI is non-existent. It’s a step backward from Activision’s very first, and far better, Spider-Man game.

It’s not bad looking, and features voice actors from the movie (who sound asleep at the wheel), but it’s just so disappointing that Activision didn’t give PC gamers the same in depth and engaging Spider-Man action that consoles have. This is just the sort of game that gives movie license titles a bad name.


System Requirements: Pentium III 1 Ghz, 256 MB RAM, WinXP

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