Spider-Man: Web of Shadows Review

By Dan Whitehead Published 27 October, 2008

Back in black.

Version tested: Xbox 360

There's a mission, fairly early on in Activision's latest attempt to keep Spidey swinging without the aid of a blockbuster movie, which neatly encapsulates all that is both good and bad about the web-slinger's new interactive effort.

Luke Cage, Harlem's hero for hire, has enlisted our friendly neighbourhood wall-crawler in his crusade to broker a peace deal between warring street gangs. It's a minor problem compared to what lies ahead but Cage insists that Spidey watch over a historic meeting between gang leaders. Sure enough, snipers appear to muck everything up. Twenty-two snipers, in fact. Clearly, someone wants the job done right. A timer appears, and you've got four seconds to get the first rooftop gunman. Get him, and the timer extends so you can reach the next. And so on.

It's not as tricky as it sounds, since Luke Cage has already taught you the Web Strike move, which allows you to catapult yourself from enemy to enemy with ease. Quite why Spidey needs web-slinging tips from the artist formerly known as Power Man is a question for another time, but suffice to say Marvel continuity nerds are going to have a banging headache by the end of this game.

So, you deal with twenty-two snipers, one after another. You may wonder why the twenty-second sniper didn't take his shot when he saw Spider-Man flying feet-first through his colleagues but, again, this isn't a game that benefits from logical thought. There's a quick cut-scene between Cage and the gang leaders with some risible Harlem street dude dialogue and then... "DEFEAT SECOND WAVE OF SNIPERS (0/21)".

It's that sort of game. No task is too tedious or pointless that it can't be repeated ten, twenty, thirty, even two-hundred times in the case of some later (thankfully optional) requests. You'll perform one drawn-out escort mission, or a tiresome chase sequence, only to be told you need to do two more before the game will let you advance. The tasks are never particularly interesting or innovative - it's all "go here, fight everyone, come back".

'Spider-Man: Web of Shadows' Screenshot 1

The combo system makes it easy to chain together moves, whether on the ground, crawling up walls or flying through the air.

It's a real shame, since the controls are actually pretty good - a decent mix between simple and immediately satisfying web-swinging and a fluid combat system - but the game does absolutely nothing of interest with these workable elements. You just swing from one mission to the next, in a lifeless virtual New York devoid of any diversions, and the only distraction you'll get from beating up dozens of identical foes to move the story forward is beating up dozens of identical foes in optional missions to earn experience points with which to unlock more moves with which to beat up more identical foes... and so on.

Well, you could search the city for over two-thousand spider tokens in order to level Spidey up and allegedly make him stronger and faster. No?

As intuitive as the controls are, there's really nothing here that hasn't been seen in the many free-roaming Spidey games Activision has pumped out over the last seven years or so. It even, rather hilariously, revives the magical swinging from thin air that graced Neversoft's very first Spidey game back in 2000. In fact, the final levels find Spidey swinging through the sky, miles above the tops of the highest buildings, with absolutely nothing for his webs to stick to. Still, plunging into Manhattan's concrete chasms and swooping up to the tops of skyscrapers remains a fun pastime, but with nothing of substance to justify your impromptu excursions around the map it's the sort of shallow fun that quickly loses its appeal, especially after so many previous titles offered much the same thing.

It's the camera which really lets things down, since it's consistently incapable of keeping pace with whatever acrobatic manoeuvres you're attempting. Running up the side of a building pretty much guarantees that your viewpoint will freak out to some degree, and there's a frequent bug in which the Y-axis of the camera gets stuck when you reach the top of your climb. The slightest nudge sends your view straight up or straight down, and you have to run around or jump off the edge to get it back to normal. A clumsy lock-on feature compounds the frustration, and getting your bearings during an aerial encounter is enough to make you throw up. Characters often glitch through scenery, or get stuck in weird animation loops. I had to restart one particularly long-winded escort mission because the vehicle I was protecting refused to drive around a corner, preferring instead to repeatedly ram itself into the wall.

And while your combat options are plentiful, thanks to the ability to swap between the classic red and blue costume and the black symbiote suit, each with their own combos and powers, the flat design means that the only reason to fully explore all the possibilities is to stave off boredom. It's quite possible to beat most of the game using two basic attacks and, thanks to Spidey's recharging health, blocking appears to be entirely optional. Bizarrely, while Spidey can heal himself in a few seconds, Wolverine - the superhero with a powerful healing ability, and one of several support characters - cannot. Once more: Marvel continuity nerds, beware.

'Spider-Man: Web of Shadows' Screenshot 2

The game gets a bonus point for featuring Moon Knight. But then loses it for giving him sod all to do.

Depth supposedly comes in the form of Peter Parker's moral tug-of-war between the Uncle Ben decency represented in his classic costume and the lure of violent power contained in the black, but this is more apparent in cut-scenes than in gameplay. In practice, this struggle manifests in obvious binary choices after each boss fight, where you decide to be brutal or merciful in victory. Small nudges can be made to the moral compass by saving civilians - or not, as the case may be - but it's not exactly a world of choice. There are four different endings, depending on the choices you make, but it's certainly not worth playing the whole game four times to see what they are.

Spider-Man: Web of Shadows is one of those games that seem content to just drone along, coasting on the ever-decreasing appeal of one gameplay element and gobbling up your free time with repetitive tasks and mindless exploration of a mostly empty space. It's not awful, but nor is it sufficiently different to any of the other Spider-Man games. It's a game you'll probably play through to the end, out of habit rather than excitement, and promptly forget you ever played, and with so many superior games fighting for your attention right now, this is barely worth a weekend rental.

5 / 10

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About Dan Whitehead

Dan has been writing for Eurogamer since 2006 and specialises in RPGs, shooters and games for children. His bestest game ever is Julian Gollop's Chaos.

Read more articles from Dan by visiting the Dan Whitehead archive page.

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Comments (42) Latest comment 3 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • siddiqui41 #1 3 years ago

    Another disappointing spiderman game....

  • chrisjm #2 3 years ago

    spider pig, spider pig...

  • captain_artyfartfog #3 3 years ago

    Great, this'll be in the next Face off then!

  • MrE26 #4 3 years ago

    I loved Spider-Man 2, but they've just been treading water since then.

  • afghan_jones #5 3 years ago

    You do have to wonder who makes the decisions to put a dog of a game like this out at a time when the shelves are flooded with top quality games over the next few weeks.

  • Steroyd #6 3 years ago

    Guess I'm not the only one looking for decent a Spidy 2 successor then. :(

  • mingster #7 3 years ago

    Wow i've been waiting for a review of this game...
    /sarcs

  • Triggerhappytel #8 3 years ago

    "Great, this'll be in the next Face off then!"

    It's funny because it's true!


    Anyway, I concur with the comments asking why the fuck Activision release a game like this at such a competitive time of year. Why not give it another six months in development to fix the problems?

  • Apostle #9 3 years ago

    Graphics look quite good though.

  • trav #10 3 years ago

    Who the hell is Moon Knight?

  • JaysonG #11 3 years ago

    Gutted this looked like it could be good. The combat looked awesome.

  • Gnort #12 3 years ago

    @afghan_jones
    Unfortunately, this game probably won't do too badly on the charts. I mean, it's not going to top LBP or Gears 2 or anything, but it will probably shift more copies than some titles with far more critical acclaim.

  • TheBard #13 3 years ago

    I was worried about this game. The trailers looked great, the mechanics seemed to work, but they kept it under heavy wraps. No real contact with the press before release, no hands on previews, nothing. Especially no demo. Just some marketing buzz created through trailers and "exclusives" with mainstream, non-gamer centric media, a game release, and that's it.

    It's like they know the game is mediocre at best and shove it onto the market, hoping the Spider-Man brand will sell. And sadly, they will have been right.

  • Lebowski #14 3 years ago

    God, why did they have to scrap the Marvel MMO? Instead we get this sort of thing. :-(

  • Unclebenny #15 3 years ago

    I rather liked spiderman 3, although no one else did. Friend or foe was horrible though. Its so dissapointing to see how little effort is put into these games when, if done properly, they could be amazing.

    Someone needs to go to the devloper and slap them around with a copy of (insert your favourite recent game here) until they get the idea that releasing the same game each year isn't working.

  • DanWhitehead #16 3 years ago

    I'll actually defend Friend Or Foe. It's not a particularly inspired game, but a lot of people seem to miss that it's very much aimed at little kids. It's a fairly mindless button masher, but I think it's got a lot more fun and charm than this fairly drab and pointlessly violent effort. If I were drunk, I might even argue that Friend or Foe's combo system is better.

  • miiiguel #17 3 years ago

    Friend of Foe is not that bad, actually. It reminds me of the speccy kinda games.

    This, however, judging by the review doesn't seem to have such appeal. While, on the other hand, as it has the same score as Blue Dragon, it might actually be good...

  • Thunderbolt #18 3 years ago

    Moon Knight is Marvel's Batman.

    [link url=http://en.wi kipedia.org/wiki/Moon_Knight
    ]http://en.wi kipedia.org/wiki/Moon_Knight
    [/link]

    But he's a bit of a psycho, so more a combination of Batman and the Punisher.

    Disappointing though as I always like a good superhero game. After so many uninspired games, maybe Activision shouldnt make any more Spiderman games!

  • muscleblade #19 3 years ago

    @miiiguel

    From comparing the demo level of Friend or Foe to the quite good imo Spiderman 3. This is much better in every way than the rather awful kiddie game FOF. Trust me not Dan on this.
    Edited by 1 at 27/10/08 @ 12:32

  • Gearskin #20 3 years ago

    I like this game. The biggest problem for me is the camera. It's pure evil.

  • muscleblade #21 3 years ago

    I rather liked SP3 quite a bit despite bad reviews and technical issues. I might buy this sometime but Dead Space, Fable 2, Gears 2 and Left4Dead is more than enough for the time being.

  • DanWhitehead #22 3 years ago

    The Friend or Foe demo is horrendous. The finished game is OK. I wouldn't put up much of a fight for it, but it's a decent enough kids game. Certainly preferable to most of the licensed kiddy games out there.

    Spider-Man 3 was arse.

  • HolyJebus #23 3 years ago

    I would like to see the Assassins Creed team make a Spiderman game, bet they'd do a good job. I think its worth putting extra resources into a Spiderman game as there's potential to make an awful lot of money if its very good.

  • DanWhitehead #24 3 years ago

    Actually, Assassin's Creed suffers from exactly the same design flaw as Web of Shadows. Too much time spent on refining how the player moves around in the game, not enough time spent on giving the player things to actually do. I'd gladly ditch all the fancy web-swinging moves for a Spider-Man game with just a sliver of variety and wit.

  • onyxbox #25 3 years ago

    ...another game we really care about that's destined for ps3 vs 360 face off.

  • muscleblade #26 3 years ago

    @DanWhitehead

    Cant judge FoF from other than the demo. I enjoyed SP3 a lot and i think it has a lot to do with the perfect difficulty. Too many games are way to easy these days imo. SP3 had some pretty hard missions and bossfights. I didnt like The Force Unleashed much exept for the story until i played it on Sith Master. That was pretty fun. So i guess its important to me that the challenge is right.
    Edited by 1 at 27/10/08 @ 12:52

  • rhubarbandcustard #27 3 years ago

    I love Ultimate Spiderman comic books (kudos to Bendis), but the Spiderman movies (good God they're horrible) and the games leave me cold.

    How hard can it be to make a great game with Spiderman? Bloody hard apparantly.

    And yet it shouldn't be. Spiderman is a great superhero. He shoots frigging webs, scales frigging skyskrapers, fights frigging supervillans ffs.

    The problem is the developers just don't give a fuck. Tossers.

  • HolyJebus #28 3 years ago

    But Dan, I bet the Assassins Creed team wouldn't have Spidey shooting webs into the air to fly along, they'd come up with a more realistic mechanic. I hate that.
    Edited by 1 at 27/10/08 @ 12:54

  • Matfink #29 3 years ago

    @Unclebenny
    It aint the developers that are diluting things with 'annualizable IP exploitage'... :(

  • beastmaster #30 3 years ago

    Oh well. In light of all the other decent games just out recently (far Cry 2, Dead Space, fable 2 etc.) this is one less to worry about.

  • Nithron #31 3 years ago

    @rhubarbandcustard: There have been some good spiderman games in the past. For example, Ultimate Spiderman was a great game. The original Treyarch spiderman game on PS1 was good as well(For its' time, anyway).

    Some of the 16 bit ones were passable as well..

  • Unclebenny #32 3 years ago

    @danwhitehead
    Thats a fair enough point about friend or foe I guess.
    It just angers me because I rmember spending hours on the spider man mega drive games, just on the opening level, which was only a small screen but it was so much fun swinging around I just let my imaganation make up for the fact you were only supposed to punch out a criminal then climb through a window. I remember thinking "this would be amazing if you had an open city to swing around and spider man 2 came out and answered my prayers.
    Since then though none of the sequels have pushed it on though, they even look last generation.
    I just want someone to bring back the happiness I had in childhood..... Is that too much to ask from the giant evil corporation?

  • Quint2020 #33 3 years ago

    God damn it, just one good comic book game, just one!

  • muscleblade #34 3 years ago

    "...another game we really care about that's destined for ps3 vs 360 face off"

    Wait for the Fallout 3 face off instead then. Ive heard the PS3 version alot weaker than the 360 version. Wait and see.

  • bad09 #35 3 years ago

    Poor, poor Spidey, they raped him in the cinema and they raped him in the games.

    / calls the police "yes officer I want to report some tragic crimes of raping the Spiderman franchise. Sony, Nickelodeon (or whoever done that new crap cartoon) Activison and Sam Raimi are the ones responsible, I'll testify too!"

  • smoothpete #36 3 years ago

    Ah, shame. I was hoping for a return to Spidey 2 form. They completely arsed up the swing mechanic in 3, sad to hear this is a pile of arse too

  • IronCladChicken #37 3 years ago

    @bad09
    Dude, that episode of south park is what? two weeks old?

  • Nodebug #38 3 years ago

    Activision - Stop milking your fucking best IPs you bunch of money grabbing CUNTS.

  • bad09 #39 3 years ago

    "Dude, that episode of south park is what? two weeks old?"

    South Park fan! \o/

    Edited by 1 at 27/10/08 @ 23:28

  • p00ntang #40 3 years ago

    I agree with GhenghisNaan. This game is a lot of fun! For me it's 7/10 easily. Controls and camera are fine when you get used to them and the boss fights I've played against Vulture and Electro are awesome. If you liked Spider-man 2 and the ps1 versions there's a lot to recommend here

  • captainrentboy #41 3 years ago

    Clearly some of you don't go on AICN, the nerds on there have been going on about franchises/childhoods being raped since around 2001. Surprisingly Lucas is the main offender!
    I'm guessing that's where ole Parker and Stone got their main idea from for that SP episode:)

  • WinterSnowblind #42 3 years ago

    What's with all the Spider-man 2 hype? It had a big city, but it was very bland with seriously NOTHING in it.. The story was done poorly, the missions and combat were just sloppy and constantly having to save balloons was not much fun either. Reading this review, I instantly thought it sounded exactly like it. Except for the magic swinging, why did they bring that back?

    Ultimate Spider-man game, in my opinion was the definitive Spidey game, but if you enjoy 2, I'm sure Web of Shadows would be worth getting, when it's far cheaper.

  • Vordred #43 3 years ago

    hmm oddly Gamespot gave this 8/10