Another year, another “Spider-Man” game.  Last year it was “Friend or Foe”, the year before that it was “Spider-Man 3”, the year before that the webbed avenger starred in “Marvel: Ultimate Alliance”, and it’s beginning to seem like Spider-Man will see more game screen-time than the characters in the “Dynasty Warriors” series.  With so many iterations of the famed franchise, it’s hard to distance oneself from the pack, and so it is with heavy heart that I must give “Web of Shadows” a resounding “meh.”

The game starts out solid enough.  The Symbiotes have invaded the Earth, and your tutorial involves defending soldiers from zombie-like invaders, and you even get a little taste of what it’s like to fight Venom.  Soon after the game begins, you are consumed by the Symbiote and introduced to the famed “Black-Spider” suit, which makes you stronger, faster, and more powerful and serves as the games main gimmick.  A quick tap of the L3 button and you instantly switch from regular Spidey to dark Spidey.  The game offers many “good” and “evil” choices that allow you to decide whether or not you want to explore your darker side. 

The game’s story is a strange combination of many elements of the Marvel canon.  You’ll fight against and alongside characters like Luke Cage, Wolverine, and many other mainstays, as well as against each of their “Symbiote” forms.  It’s not a great story, and it often seems way too out there to serve any sort of lasting purpose in Spider-Man’s world.  For instance, one of the opening scenes features a buff, busty Mary Jane stepping out of a sport car holding a combat shotgun.  Right...

Combat is nicely handled, with a streamlined web and punch system that allows you to swing freely through the streets of New York City and pummel any no-gooders in your way.  Your moves are upgradeable with experience points earned through mission completion, and you can upgrade both the light and dark suits separately.  There is nice diversity to your move list, but since many of the upgrades simply add another punch to a combo or add a little extra flair to a flashy move-set, it inevitably gets repetitive. 

The mission structure of the game is very similar to “Spider-Man 2” and “Spider-Man 3”.  You wander New York City stopping random crimes and completing mission objectives handed out to you by various characters while looking for unlockables.  Every once in a while you’ll fight a boss character, and as you progress you’ll learn more about the story.  The random crimes start to repeat themselves soon after the game begins; so don’t expect any sort of immersion.  The boss fights are a lot better than those found in “Spider-Man 3”, but even with the new upgrades, the game feels very similar.

Graphically the game just doesn’t hold up.  It has been ported to every system known to man, of course, and so the PS3 version looks only marginally better than the iterations shoveled onto less-powerful systems.  The water has a nice sheen to it and the sky is beautiful at sunset, but the game features an obscene amount of pop-in.  Buildings will materialize out of thin air, and textures will often appear after you’ve been standing in an area for at least a few seconds.  It can be downright ugly, and it makes the occasional slowdown seem unforgivable.

New York City has (both officially and unofficially) been the setting for many open world games as of late, and it’s getting kind of stale.  It has been handled with a varying degree of success, but without an insane number of secret nooks or tongue-in-cheek easter eggs, why would you feel the need to explore it again?  You can’t beat up civilians (even in “evil” mode), so you don’t really feel in control of the world, and it really feels as though you’re playing a game made for kids (despite the “Teen” rating and naughty language).  Besides, there’s only so many cars you can throw, and most of us got that out of the way playing the “Incredible Hulk” games. 

Honestly, this game should have been released in July.  Summer is a traditionally slow time for the games industry, and it might have fared a little better with light competition.  But the holiday blitz has arrived, and with games like “Little Big Planet”, “Resistance 2”, “Fallout 3”, and “Rock Band 2” hitting store shelves, there doesn’t seem to be enough time for “Web of Shadows”.  You’ve seen everything this game has to offer before, and if you haven’t, this kind of game isn’t for you.

Grade: C