It’s been a pretty big month for superhero video games, between the much-anticipated launch of Batman: Arkham City, the debut of X-Men Destiny, and the return of our friendly neighbourhood Spider-Man.
Our favourite wall-crawler stars in Spider-Man: Edge of Time, a follow-up to 2010’s Shattered Dimensions. In this instalment, instead of four Spider-Men, we get two; Miguel O’Hara (Spider-Man 2099), and the regular ol’ everyday Spidey. In the game, O’Hara races through time to prevent Peter Parker’s death in an alternate timeline where the evil Alchemax Corporation has taken over most of the country. It’s a rather elaborate storyline with a lot of inconsistencies, and even Parker and O’Hara often talk about how the time travel quirks don’t make any sense.
If you’ve seen any of the previews, Spider-Man: Edge Of Time hyped a “cause and effect” style of gameplay, where events in the past would alter the future (Like Microsoft’s Fable). For example, Spider-Man 2099 faces various traps and enemies, which could all change depending on Peter Parker’s battles inside present-day Alchemax. A wall could become a laser trap, and other things that were once safe could suddenly morph into something unpleasant. Unfortunately, all of these events are pre-planned, which really screwed up what we were hoping for with the game. But the game’s narration and voice actors often come through with snappy dialogue.
There has got to be something said for the quality work that went into the production of this game. For inspiration, [Game creators] Beenox studied time travel movies which included Terminator, Back to the Future, 12 Monkeys, and others. Beenox also removed all of the loading screens from Spider-man: Edge of Time. They did it as a result of getting rid of things that would get in the way of your enjoying the game completely.
Not only are the visuals very well done, but the vocal talent is also great. Returning to the vocal fray is Christopher Daniel Barnes (the voice of Peter Parker in Spider-Man: The Animated Series and Shattered Dimensions’ Spider-Man Noir) stealing the spotlight as Spider-Man 2099 this time around, Josh Keaton’s (last year’s Ultimate Spider-Man) performance as Amazing Spider-Man/Peter Parker is pretty solid.
Ultimately, even with all of the coolness we just said, Spider-Man: Edge of Time just doesn’t live up to the style of Shattered Dimensions. You get the same types of enemies that don’t pose much of a threat, and you seem to be waiting forever for a boss fight to happen. We do like the variety in the combat system, because of the sleek style of fighting the collective Spideys possess, but if you level up your health and basic combos, that’s enough to let you breeze through the game. We will say, however, that the combat in Spider-Man: Edge Of Time feels a lot more focused than in Shattered Dimensions. Both Parker and O’Hara feel fast and powerful, like you’d expect from a Spider-Man, so you’ll definitely have fun beating the hell out mutants and robots in 10 to 1 battles.
Have you played Spider-Man: Edge of Time? What do you think of it? We’d love to know. Leave a comment below, on Facebook, or on Twitter.
