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X'10 - SPIDER-MAN: SHATTERED DIMENSIONS
By DowntownJimmy (08.20.10)
Activision had a substantial line-up X’10 including Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock, DJ Hero 2, 007, COD: Black Ops and our feature ‘Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions.’ Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions puts Canadian developer Beenox at the helm of the latest web-slinging adventure. This time around Spider-Man will be given a treat as Shattered Dimensions features four different Spider-Man universes pulled together. With four alternative universes and a strong voice cast who have worked on other Spider-Man projects, and a multitude of gaming options, Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions aims to please more then the casual Marvel market of gamers.
Three of the four universes were playable on the show floor. Heading into the action, I chose to explore the Noir universe. This alternative version of Spider-Man takes up back to 1933 during the Great Depression with a goggled up Spider-Man in a black and white stylized world. The graphics reflect the comic it’s based off with a sort of ‘Sin City’ vibe, similar to Pandemics ‘Saboteur.’ In the noir universe we sneaked around a train yard saving civilians from the clutches of your typical henchmen stereotype. The approach in Noir was to use a stealth based attack that pulled in elements from the highly popular DC hero ‘Batman: Arkham Asylum.’ The approach to use stealth is all based off the character from Noir who doesn’t have the exact super-powers as the Spider-Man we all know and love. This change up is relevant with all the universes present in ‘Shattered Dimensions.’ Sneaking around with Spider-Man is an interesting take on our hero and one that makes the ‘Spider’ part of his name seem more suitable.
After a good feel for the covertness, I need to break out for some good old fisticuffs so we into the universe of ‘Ultimate Spider-Man.’ Ultimate Spider-Man, which was a feature game in 2005, feels like more of the same beat em’ up action from a more aggressive Spider-Man. I picked up the action with Spider-Man already bonded with the symbiote, which only means one thing, black suit Spidey! Powered with the alien symbiote, I viciously pounding through the overwhelming amount of enemies in the hunt for an ultimate version of Carnage. The action was very satisfying, falling more into the vein of gameplay you would expect out a Spider-Man game. So far, things are shaping up and without anymore delay I was amped to investigate Spidey in the future.
Into the future, it was time to explore Spider-Man 2099. Spider-Man 2099 is set in a vastly different universe fallowing Miguel O’Hara who takes on the role of Spider-Man, inheriting 50% of Spider DNA through an experiment. In the future we are dealing with more then a new Spider-Man with a new look, we are also dealing with a futuristic world that was influenced by other popular sci-fi material like the film ‘The 5th Element.’ Web zipping thousands of miles up in the air past force fields and flying cars is definitely the definition of different when talking about Spider-Man. In our time with our new alt-Spidey, we dogged flying cars, engaged in an epic chase sequence with a futuristic Hobgoblin to top it off with a mega-boss battle featuring our new Spider-Man’s ability to slow-time (a great helper when things get chaotic.) Zipping Hobgoblins bombs back in his direction, Spider-Man 2099 was far more interesting then I imagined and should be a pleasant surprise for all those who didn’t know about this Marvel universe duality.
Battling it out over these three different universes showcased the great job Beenox has done rendering the game to feel completely different in each area, while remaining true to the core mechanics and the feeling of being Spider-Man. After Spider-Man: Web of Shadows I was little worried that we would never get back to the excellent Spider-Man games like ‘Ultimate Spider-Man’ and ‘Spider-Man 2.’ However, this new take is a welcomed changed that seems like a step in the right direction of great Spider-Man games. I guess we’ll find out sooner or later as Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions ships on September 7th.
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