Over the years fans of Spider-Man have been given some good games, but never anything we could call great. The latest Spider-Man game Shattered Dimensions places you in 4 of Spider-Man's worlds as Amazing, Ultimate, 2099, and Noir Spidey attempting to deliver something for everyone. After last years success of Batman Arkham Asylum, not only the best Batman game of all time but the best super hero game of all time we now have a new Spider-Man game which will attempt to please Spidey's fans the way Arkham thrilled Batman fans around the world.
Spider-Man Shattered Dimensions begins when a powerful magical artefact is shattered leaving Spider-Man to collect all pieces of the shattered artefact across four different dimensions, each representing a different period in Spidey's history. All this will be completed under the watchful gaze of the mysterious Madame Web.
When it comes to Spider-Man Shattered Dimensions the game does a very impressive job in making you feel like you are actually Spidey, you can run and jump with an amazing amount of agility as well as sling yourself through the level with your webzipping which creates an amazing sense of freedom. You can webswing almost anywhere, tall or small everything in the well designed levels is littered with opportunity's to stick your white net of fun.
Weather you are climbing up walls attacking enemy's from a distance with the many objects you can throw in the game or webswinging directly towards enemy's kicking them from the ground. Everything in Shattered Dimensions feels like it should for a Spider-Man game making the player feel the sensation of being Spider-Man.
There are problems though which prevent this game from being a truly great Spider-Man game in my opinion. When crawling on walls i would find the camera angle unable to decide which position was best, sometimes i would crawl up a wall, attempt to make it onto the next platform and end up going back down the one i just scaled. Also some of the environment's obstacles can prevent you for using some of the many attacks you are equipped with. These are just small issues though which are not big enough to create any real problems when playing through Spidey's latest adventure.
At the start Spider-Man has a basic combat lay out which can be improved later with the more Spider Essence you collect which can be earned during missions, defeating enemy's and completing the fun and addictive level specific challenges. You can unlock throws, counters, and many new attacks to strengthen your character. If that isn't enough you are also able to spend your hard earned essence on new costumes and other attributes.
The levels although varied in beautiful design and enemy's, can sometimes feel repetitive and this is why the specific mission challenges can be so addictive, distracting the player from the feeling of repetitiveness.
The boss battles can feel a little too easy and really once you figure them out they won't cause too much trouble which is disappointing, not to mention the frustrating glitch when facing The Sand Man.
In Shattered Dimensions when you play the campaign you unlock missions in sets of 4 allowing you to choose how you wish to play through your campaign, each Spider-Man sticks to his own dimension and has his own unique set of ability's and sense of humour.
In the sections dedicated to Amazing Spider-Man, the one who wears Spidey's traditional bright red and blue suit you will focus mainly on the powerful aspect of the combat using web hammers and your fists to pound foes into the ground. My personal favourite levels are the Ultimate Spider-Man ones mainly because the sense of humour in those missions is great, they are some of the funniest levels in the game and combat focuses on Spidey's tentacles. 2099 is set in a futuristic world resembling something from Mass Effect, this is the most visually impressive of the levels for me as i am a big Sci-Fi fan. There are allot of areas to free fall and webswing in this dimension. Noir is the least impressive out of the four set in a dimension out of an old Chicago gangster film where enemy's are equipped with tommy guns and feels like it is only really there to make up the numbers. Focusing mainly on stealth you are encouraged to take enemy's down attacking from the shadows however it just feels like a poor imitation of Batman Arkham Asylum and falls short in every area.The only other thing is both Ultimate and 2099 use a heightened combat system which allows the player to slow down time and attack with more powerful blows. This feature is useful in some areas but nothing really new or inventive.
The strongest aspect of the game is no doubt with the graphical design and art direction in each dimension creating a believable and unique Spider-Man world in four different way's yet sticking very true to the comics and TV series, something the fans will appreciate and enjoy very much. There are some areas which make you feel as if you are actually in a comic book when you are playing through the 10 hour campaign and the bright vibrant visuals in the Amazing dimension are definitely some of the most colourful seen in a Spider-Man game to date.
Spider-Man Shattered Dimensions is definitely a new and improved take on the recent versions of Spider-Man games we have been given over the years and offers allot for the fans of the webslinging superhero. The game however doesn't do enough to call it'self a GREAT! game falling just short in some critical areas. Maybe after the phenomenally impressive Batman: Arkham Asylum i am expecting too much but this game feels like it underachieves in too many areas.
Shattered Dimensions is really good, just not great 7/10
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