Tech News on G4Spider-Man game all webbed upNov 1, 2011By John Powell - G4 Canada |
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'Edge of Time' comes on the heels on two of the greatest Spider-Man games of all time: Shattered Dimensions and Web Of Shadows. Regretably, Activision doesn't have a "threepeat" on their hands. It is not that 'Edge of Time' is a terrible release. It is not. It just doesn't measure up to either Dimensions or Shadows and that is mainly due to the adventure's range being so constricted. From the villains you fight to the environments you explore, there just isn't enough variety. The coolest thing about 'Edge' is that the 'Spider-Man' from our time - Aunt May's favourite bookworm, Peter Parker - and the 'Spider-Man' from the year 2099 - Miguel O'Hara - interact with each other in their own separate timelines. The actions in one timeline have consequences in the other. This "cause and effect" system created by developers Beenox is the real hook. It is interesting to watch how things develop and evolve.
Part of the fun of any superhero game is taking on the famous villains and Spider-Man has heaps and heaps to choose from. Surprisingly, unlike Shattered Dimensions, there aren't that many in Edge. You would think David or the developers would have pulled from the Marvel Universe and written in some of the future variations that Spidey 2099 has to deal with but they didn't. It is such a letdown that there are only four bosses featured and one of those is an amalgamation of two of them; think the conclusion of an older Spider-Man game for the PC in which Carnage and Doctor Octopus were bonded together and you'd be on the right track.
You can upgrade both of your characters, there are in-game challenges, different skins/suits and there are timed and flying (or is that gliding?) challenges to change things up but these just aren't enough to overcome the deficiencies. 'Spider-Man: Edge of Time' should have been bigger if it wanted to be better. It is playable. It is just not very memorable.
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Usually we gamers complain about not having enough storyline. How we are sometimes gunning down targets, raiding bases, recovering items with little or no direction concerning our motivation for doing so. 'Spider-Man: Edge of Time' has the opposite problem. Although it has a good story, there is just so much of it that it detracts from the overall feel.
Peter David, the comic book writer who replaced Aquaman's hand with a hook and whose run on 'The Incredible Hulk' and 'Young Justice' shook up both the Marvel and DC universes, created the story and a fascinating one it is. It is just with all the elaborate cut-scenes, some placed right before crucial junctures and therefore prolonging the load times if you perish or fail. The journey itself gets mired in the details. Instead of watching, you should be playing.
'Spider-Man: Edge of Time' should have been renamed 'Spider-Man and The Great Robot Battle' because besides a few symbiote experiments and armoured goons, that's who your adversaries are: robots, robots and more robots. You might as well beJohn Connor or Judge Dredd. To make matters worse, you don't get to travel anywhere besides within the evil Alchemax headquarters. The fights and explorations get tired very quickly.
'Spider-Man: Edge of Time'
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