In 2012, along with the film of the same name, a knee-length motif was released, proudly called The Amazing Spider-Man. The game received mixed reviews from critics and players, after which it almost immediately fell into oblivion, as it did not offer anything worthwhile for gamers. And what should the developers from the Beenox studio do if a sequel to the film comes out in 2014?
That’s right – to sculpt a sequel out of shit and sticks, timing it to the rental of the picture in the cinema. What is really there, they tried so hard that they managed to release the game a week before the film. Something, in comparison with the first game, the developers have corrected, if they considered it garbage, if they listened to the players, and left something at the same level of performance. But this is not the worst thing. … In many ways, the developers managed to make the sequel much worse than the original, although, it would seem, is much worse, is not it? But, as it seems to me, I am getting too ahead of myself.
Perhaps, it is worth slowing down a little and just outline my general attitude towards the project, so that there will be no surprises later. Despite the fact that I adore Spider-Man as a character, I sorely disliked this project for many reasons. And now, when we have found out my subjective attitude to the game, I propose to move on to its objective review with all the details and spoilers. And, according to tradition, we will start by retelling the plot for those who need it. When we have found out my subjective attitude towards the game, I propose to move on to its objective review with all the details and spoilers. And, according to tradition, we will start by retelling the plot for those who need it. When we found out my subjective attitude to the game, I propose to go to its objective review with all the details and spoilers. And, according to tradition, we will start by retelling the plot for those who need it.
Plot analysis
I don’t even know how to adequately describe what is happening in the plot of this game. I think the phrase “chaos of shit and sticks” will be more than appropriate here. According to a news by bestusacasinosites.com we found the scriptwriters of the game did not understand what they wanted, so they threw everything they had into the blender. Here you will find pieces from Parker’s origin, pieces from the film of the same name with Andrew Garfield and outright gag. At the same time, the pieces taken from the film are woven into the general narrative of the game so roughly and out of place that they do not cause anything more than a hysterical laugh from the player. Here we have Max Dillon. The spider meets him for 30 seconds, and then leaves home. But now it’s Electro who hates Peter. What nonsense, seriously! In the film, the arch of this character, of course, is also not a fountain, but at least they showed the experiences of Max, choked with life, and showed the insidious Harry Osborn, who manipulated a scientist who had changed as a result of an accident … And here – zilch. Here we have Max, and now Electro. Even how he got the ability is shown only in passing, but thanks for that.
Really the failure of the third part of the Spider from Sema Reimi says nothing to the writers? There, the director tried to cram a bunch of characters into the story for the fan service, resulting in a mess of Spidey’s undisclosed opponents. Here, the creators, probably, also considered that the most important thing is a large number of recognizable villains. Therefore, here is the Goblin, and Craven, and Kingpin, and the Cat and hell, you know who else. And these are just models that should please comic book fans, nothing more. No backstories, no personality disclosures, no character arcs. Nothing! I understand that I am demanding too much from the promoter who came out as an appendage for the film, but I can’t help myself. We are all serious people gathered here to discuss serious games, and here we are being dumped like this. Thank you, don’t, I’m full.
The characters and their interactions with each other are generally laughter. Firstly, the events of the original game are mentioned only in passing, and the city, as well as its inhabitants, as if they do not care that recently all of them were almost destroyed by a virus and mutants. No newspaper articles on this topic, no talk. Well, like, Craven caught all the hybrids. Thanks for that too. Secondly, Gwen Stacy is missing. So they just took and cut out the love interest of Peter Parker, without substantiating it in any way. No, I’m serious: all we know about their separation is a line from Aunt May, who claims that they shouldn’t have left and that Gwen is a good girl. I fucking know she’s good. What with her? Where is she? The reason for the breakup? The date? Time? I want to know something. And there are such omissions, not docking and outright stupidity in the game in bulk. But there are many villains. Thank you, damn it.
Dialogue … I love dialogue in movies, TV shows, books and games. Dialogue is the aspect through which a story can be conveyed and characters can change. Writing a competent dialogue is a great art. Write in such a way that it would be interesting for a player or spectator to watch this chatter. Unfortunately, The Amazing Spider-Man 2 has nothing of the kind. Undoubtedly, in comparison with the first part, the Spider began to joke much more and inappropriate vulgarity disappeared from this humor. Of course, there are few jokes and they are often repeated, but this is already at least similar to the very Peter Parker whom we love and appreciate. Everything else is at ground level. Pretentious speeches that do not carry anything meaningful. Unprincipled cries that someone will kill someone, and someone will stop someone and stuff like that. I understand that the art of superheroes is tied to this, but we will talk more than once about the fact that in a superhero game you can make good dialogues.
Unfortunately, this game is not the right option. We do not receive information relevant to the plot. We are not getting character disclosure. These cutscenes, in which dull dialogue take place, are so useless that if you cut them out, nothing will change. What’s the point? In the cutscene, we are told that we have Shocker in front of us. Okay, but if you just wrote in the corner of the screen, would something change? No. We beat a faceless dummy this way and that without history, intentions and experiences. Just a boss to be eliminated. so useless that if you cut them out, nothing will change. What’s the point? In the cutscene, we are told that we have Shocker in front of us. Okay, but if you just wrote in the corner of the screen, would something change? No. We beat a faceless dummy this way and that without history, intentions and experiences. Just a boss to be eliminated. so useless that if you cut them out, nothing will change. What’s the point? In the cutscene, we are told that we have Shocker in front of us. Okay, but if you just wrote in the corner of the screen, would something change? No. We beat a faceless dummy this way and that without history, intentions and experiences. Just a boss to be eliminated.
This, as for me, is one of the main problems of the scenario of this project. Even with chaos, characters can make a cool story. Arkham City will not let you lie. The problem with this game is that it believes that every person playing it is familiar with the movie of the same name and with comics about this character. If you’ve watched the movie, then you understand the reasons for Electro’s hatred of Spidey. If you read the corresponding comics, you immediately realize that Craven is leading Spider by the nose, and Fisk is deceiving Osborn. But, dear screenwriters, it doesn’t work that way. Your game should be full of details so that a gamer with a clean sheet of knowledge after completion has no questions about why these characters perform certain actions and why everything happened as it happened. It shouldn’t be behind the scenes, they say, the fans are already in the know. It should be here and now, inside the game! And until the developers understand this, it will be difficult for them. Well, this … Carnage in the game is not infected with a symbiote, but with some kind of drug that simply released his inner monster outside. Here even I can’t say anything.
Game process
Since the first part, the gameplay has undergone certain changes like online casinos for real money. First of all, I would like to note flying on the web, which, I will not tire of repeating this, is the most important aspect of any game about Spider-Man. They are felt here an order of magnitude better than in the first part. First, the animations of flying on the web were debugged. I scolded the first part for not feeling the hero in my hands at all. It was as if a piece of cardboard was tied to a string and thrown to dangle in the air. Here everything is different. Not yet a kitten’s grace, but progress is visible to the naked eye. The movements became smoother, and their pool increased significantly. Now Peter is in the air and can do that, and he will twist such a somersault and, in general, he is great. Secondly, we significantly reworked the mechanics of flying on the web. Now you don’t just hold one trigger on the controller and the character flies forward. Now the left trigger is responsible for releasing the web from the left hand, and the right trigger, respectively, for the right hand. This way, you can easily control the direction in which Spidey is moving. Moreover, depending on how you press the trigger, you can control the speed and altitude. If you want to move quickly, then press and release the triggers. The spider will quickly cover the distance and grab the next building with its other hand. If you want to gain altitude, then hold down the right or left trigger, thanks to which the Spider, with the help of swinging, will take off, finding itself above the roofs of skyscrapers.
Whatever one may say, but flying on the web is just a way to get from point A to point B in order to fight there. The beating of enemies has also changed. Again, according to the tradition established a couple of minutes earlier, a few words about the animations in the battle. They also became much better. The spider moves more gracefully between opponents, more gently, or something. Moreover, the number of these very animations has increased. That jump, then squat before hitting. In general, fighting is much more pleasant. But the gameplay of the project was enriched not only with new animations. The developers took a look at the original game and reworked a lot. Opponents are now always people. No robots from the first part and thanks for that. Not drastically, of course, but still.
Before us again is the classic story for Batman from Arkham: there is a blow and a counterstrike. We fight with opponents and wait for the indicator of spider flair above Peter’s head. As soon as we notice this strip, we immediately press a certain button and the Spider reflects the blow without losing health and without knocking down the combo counter. There is still nothing difficult in this, since the game does not require you to immediately respond to an enemy attack. There is still a second or two left, during which you can press the button, and in intense battles this is such a big handicap that you will almost never reboot from a checkpoint. But, nevertheless, when compared with the previous part, the battles still became an order of magnitude more difficult. Firstly, there are now much more opponents with small arms in the arenas, who inflict very significant damage. This can be either a mob with a shotgun, which is close enough, or an enemy with a sniper rifle, which is at a respectful distance from Peter. And the guys with small arms must be destroyed first of all, since they bring the most trouble. And this adds to the difficulty. And pulling weapons from their hands requires pumping a separate skill, so at first it will be a bit tough with these guys. Secondly, the developers have minimized the possibility of throwing objects of the surrounding world. If anything, in the first part it was like this: you aim at some object in the arena, throw it into a crowd of enemies and everything is unconscious. It remained only to tie everyone to the floor with cobwebs and the point was cleared. In the sequel, not only is this skill a pumpable skill, but also the cat cried objects. Only occasionally will there be some boxes or cylinders that can be thrown. For me personally, this complication of the gameplay was a significant improvement in the gameplay, since the original was too simple in this regard.
But the miracle did not happen to the opponents. Before us are still the usual dummies and only two types of opponents, to which a certain approach is needed. These are guys in armor, which you have to shoot with corrosive cobwebs and fat bugs, which you need to stun with a seismic pulse into the carcass.
These two special opponents, like those from the first part, do not complicate the gameplay in any way. I shot at an armored enemy three times with a cobweb and it turns into ordinary meat, and a pulse was charged into a fat hog once and it stands stunned in place. Interesting and varied? Yes, where there!
But what pleased me in this game was pumping. No, not because it is deep, variable, or very much needed. First of all, the fact that the developers have ceased to stand out and have blinded all the hero’s abilities into one convenient menu. In the first part there were “Skills” and “Technologies”, which in fact were no different from each other. In the second part, all this is in one place, and besides, all unnecessary things were thrown into the dustbin of history. Now almost all skills are useful in one way or another, so you have to think about what is best to pump depending on your play style. If you prefer stealth, improve your spider scent and see better when scanning the area. You will be able to understand where the enemies are, where they are looking and where they plan to go. If you are trying to fight in the open, then pump the snatching of weapons from the hands, tying with cobwebs and dashing from a greater distance. Or you can pump everything in a row, since during the passage, again, they pour in such a heap of resources that you can pump 85% of the skills. And if you also complete side tasks, then you will even have an abundance of points.
Stealth. He is as poor as he was in the first part. Only the enemies now stand far from each other and generally one at a time. Move quietly under the ceiling, tie, hang and so on until victorious. Opponents always look into some kind of wall or passage, from which no one will appear. In general, everything has been done so that you do not accidentally overexert yourself during the passage. Thanks for the good artificial intelligence, fellow developers.