The Amazing Spider-Man 2 Game Review

Amazing Spider-Man 2 Game Review (PS4)

     *POSSIBLE SPOILERS AHEAD* The Amazing Spider-Man 2 is a game that could have been “amazing” but fell very short due to movie licenses, time constraints, and quite frankly what seems like complete laziness.

     Once again, this Amazing Spider-Man game is a spin-off of the new movie. I will be discussing the 7 main parts of the game; story, characters, combat, side missions, hero/menace system, graphics, and web-swinging. In this game, Beenox shows a flashback to Uncle Ben's death. The game starts off by sending you after Uncle Ben’s killer. Once you find Uncle Ben’s killer, you go after him, but he is killed by “The Carnage Killer.” This then sends Peter looking for “The Carnage Killer.” It’s weird because what Beenox does in this game, some of it feels like it should have been done in the last game. Once you get into the story more, the game just starts throwing things at you. You meet Kraven the Hunter as Peter Parker and he decides to mentor you as his protégé. Once you meet Kraven, that’s where the story really kicks off. By the end of the game, it’s just boss fight after boss fight. Once you beat Electro, you are immediately thrust into a battle with The Green Goblin with no explanation whatsoever. There are dialogue prompt scenes in the game allowing Peter to converse with other characters and learn a bit about them, but they offer no reward and are honestly pointless. Beenox tried to craft an intriguing story with some very notable Spider-Man foes, but it ultimately turns into a bland story with a bunch of villains thrown in for no good reason.

     I believe this game was in development for two years; I could be wrong. But, for being in development for two years, I really would have expected this game to look better on Next-Gen consoles. Beenox developed the game for last-gen consoles then ported it to Next-Gen. Talk about a bummer… If they had more time, I’m sure the game could have been better. I’ve seen this time and time again; developers in charge of movie-licensed games often release a bad game due to their time constraints. Also, I’m pretty sure Beenox is tired as all hell of making the Spider-Man games. This is the fifth one in the series for God sakes. Just give the damn Spider-Man license to Rocksteady so they can make something awesome.

     The characters in The Amazing Spider-Man 2 game include Peter Parker/Spider-Man, Aunt May, Wilson Fisk/Kingpin, Kraven the Hunter, Herman Schultz/Shocker, Felicia Hardy/Black cat, Max Dillon/Electro, Harry Osborn/The Green Goblin, and Cletus Kasady/Carnage. Gwen Stacy is completely absent from the game besides being mentioned in some brief dialogue. Rhino is also completely absent. Aunt May’s role in the game consists of one scene where she talks to you about Uncle Ben’s death; THAT’S IT. The Kingpin is in control of these task forces that watch over the city, who also attack you when you drop down to menace level, but we’ll get into that later on. Kraven the Hunter decides to mentor Peter as his protégé. Shocker is in the game for one boss fight, then he’s gone. Black Cat has her own boss fight, plus stealth mission. Electro just has a boss fight. Harry has a decent role towards the end of the game, plus a boss fight as the Green Goblin. Carnage or “The Carnage Killer” is part of the game’s main premise and is the final boss fight.

     Combat in the game is bland and generic. It consists of very repetitive moves, a couple finishing moves, and a counter system. There is an upgrade system, but honestly, none of the upgrades really NEED to be used to play through the game. During combat, Spidey has a few quips that he yells at the bad guys. Almost every single one of them is repetitively-stupid, except for one that has a bit of nostalgia to it, “Can you at least say some fun bad guy things like, curse you Spider-Man!” Also, most of Spidey’s quips are demeaning rather than clever. Most of Spider-Man’s moves consist of kicks with a couple punches thrown in. The finishing moves are either triggered by just beating down an enemy until a white swirl appears above the head signaling you to perform the move or you can just web-shoot an enemy until the swirl appears. They are the best part about the combat allowing you to web an enemy to a wall, etc. The counter system changes depending on what type of enemy you are fighting. If you are fighting a gun-wielding enemy, your spider-sense flashes red above your head signaling you to dodge incoming bullets. If you are fighting basic enemies, your spider-sense flashes white, and the enemy glows red signaling you to counter their attack.  Stealth combat consists of Spidey webbing enemies to walls or ceilings, or actually repelling from ceilings to web enemies up; which is pretty dang cool. Besides repelling, most of the stealth is uninspiringly boring. The Amazing Spider-Man games honestly borrow a ton from the Batman Arkham games, and it is really getting obnoxious. The combat is nowhere near as fluid and diverse. If you are going to make a game similar to another one, at least put the effort in to make it a good contender.

     Side missions consist of beating up street thugs, rescuing people from burning buildings, stopping a car chase, Russian hideouts that when beaten unlock new Spidey-suits, and photo investigations. Collectables include more comic book pages, audio logs, Spidey-suits, and crates around the city that give you upgrade points. The pages are collected in intervals unlocking a comic every set of pages. The comics can be viewed in a comic book shop that is actually owned by Stan Lee, a wonderful little addition to the game. Inside the comic book shop, you’ll also find character trophies with their own descriptions, concept art, and a combat simulator similar to the Batman Arkham games pitting Spidey against waves of different enemies. The combat simulator offers little variety and simply consists of 12 waves, and that’s it.

     The hero/menace system is a COMPLETE DISASTER. Many games nowadays seem to be employing the choice to be good or bad attributing rewards or consequences for your actions; inFAMOUS and Watch Dogs make use of this system in different ways, but do it a lot more successfully than Spider-Man does. Your meter goes up or down depending on the crimes you choose to stop throughout Manhattan. Random crime is always happening and it never stops. Beenox succeeded by adding unlimited crime to the game, but failed in the aspect that for every random crime you don’t stop, your meter goes a little bit down. You have to constantly stop crime to stay a hero, and honestly, it’s a huge PAIN IN THE ASS. It ruins traversing through Manhattan because once you hit Menace-status, electric barriers are put up throughout the city and the task force is everywhere trying to kill you. Being a menace offers no evil rewards, AT ALL.

     The game’s graphics can be described by one question; how the hell does this game look SIGNIFICANTLY worse than the last one? There are bugs/glitches everywhere, buildings look bland and uninspired with a muted color pallet, pedestrians look like they came from Spider-Man 2 on PS2, and main character models look like they came from early PS3. The only thing that looks good in the game is the unlockable Spidey-Suits that have excellent detail.Oh, and did I mention that there is horrible texture pop-in literally EVERYWHERE? At first glance I thought that Beenox was just going for comic book style graphics, but I was sorely mistaken once I played the game for myself.

     Finally, the most important part of the game in my opinion is web-swinging. Web-swinging is controlled by the left and right triggers on the controller. Spidey’s arms are mapped to each trigger. For a faster swinging-speed, the player can hold both triggers down. Web-swinging is the only thing the game FULLY succeeds at. It is an absolute, exhilarating blast swinging through the streets of Manhattan. Oh, and get this! Your webs actually attach to buildings now! Not invisible points in the sky. Web-rush is also back allowing Spider-Man to quickly web from one point to another.

     In conclusion, The Amazing Spider-Man 2 is a game that I would only recommend to absolute DIE-HARD fans of our friendly neighborhood wall-crawler. For a casual gamer who wants something new to play, wait till this game is in the bargain bin for $20 or $30 bucks. Beenox tried to improve on their last game, but only seemed to make it worse. There are only two reasons for someone to buy this game, and those are the web-swinging and the awesome, collectable Spidey-suits; but those just aren’t good enough reasons to justify spending $60 bucks on a game like this. I give The Amazing Spider-Man 2 game a 4/10.

PROS:

-          Traversing Manhattan

-          Spider-Man 2  style web-slinging

-          Collectable Spidey-Suits

-          Comic books

-          Lots of villains

-          Unlimited crime

CONS:

-          Lame story

-          Villains are thrown in with barely no explanation

-          Old visuals

-          Repetitive combat

-          Hero/Menace system

-          Barely enjoyable stealth

-          Repetitive side-missions

Watch Dogs Review

Watch Dogs Review (PS4)

     

       Watch Dogs is a 3^rd person video game developed by Ubisoft Montreal. Going into this review, I will be going over the 7 main aspects of the game: hacking, combat, driving, side missions, characters, online, graphics; and as an added aspect, story length. The game takes place in one of the most largely surveilled cities in the whole world, Chicago. Chicago in Watch Dogs is controlled by “ctOS”, or Central Operating System. You play as Aidan Pearce, a 38 year old who stayed in “the game” too long and made some very bad enemies. Your niece is killed in a drive-by shooting while you narrowly escape. Driven by the death of your niece, you go after the men who put out a contract on your family. Once you start the first mission, you learn the basics of hacking with your smart phone. You start off with a few basic hacks; including, security cameras, a black out; which you must acquire the skill first to use it again after the first mission, etc.

     Firstly, hacking; you are the proud owner of a technologically advanced smartphone that has access to ctOS, (more access as you upgrade your phone with earned skill points). Being chased by the cops? Hack a steam pipe at the right moment and blast a police car into the air by making the ground explode. Can’t circumvent an enemy without being spotted, hack his grenade and watch him explode; unless of course he gets it off in time and throws it away. Being chased by the cops again? Hack “blockers”, a set of security poles built into the road that if hacked, will spring up causing police cars to smash into them creating a fiery car crash. Most hacks in the game offer two choices, lethal or non-lethal. For instance, there are circuit boards around the city that can be exploded using your smart phone to either attract guards to your position so you can take them out stealthily; or explode them in their faces. Hacking can also be used to complete side missions like scanning qr codes, tracking down missing persons, or finding weapons crates. If you’ve run out of money just walk around the city until you find someone whose bank account you can hack. This is called the ATM hack, which can be leveled up to steal higher amounts of money from the citizens of Chicago. You can also hack into peoples’ digital lives to listen in on their phone calls, read their text message conversations, and even invade their homes through security cameras or computer webcams. Hacking is the central aspect of Watch Dogs and there will never be a single moment where you won’t have it at your disposal.

     Secondly, combat; there are many unlockable weapons including, pistols, assault rifles, smg’s, sniper rifles, and grenade launchers. A weapon that you always have on you is your retractable baton. However, Aidan only uses the baton for up-close takedowns or stealth attacks. Hacking helps a great deal in combat. You are able to disrupt enemy comms to distract them so you can sneak past or come up from behind them and take them out. You can also disable reinforcement calls, so when you take out the first round of enemies, you know that there’s no more on the way. Water pipes can also be hacked to stun enemies. Sometimes, it felt as if I didn’t even have to use my hacking skills though; I could just pull out my gun and shoot my way through most missions. Of course, that would take all the fun out, so I mostly tried to stick to my cellphone and baton.

     Thirdly, driving; Driving in Watch Dogs is like steering a cinderblock on wheels. In short, its terrible. It will take a lot of getting used to. Despite there being over 65 different vehicles in the game, it’s odd that the one’s that offer the best driving mechanics are the motorcycles. They allow for sharp turning and weaving in and out of traffic to reach your destination much faster than a car would allow you to. There are 7 different types of vehicles; Budget, Heavy, Motorcycle, Muscle, Sport, Truck, and Performance. All vehicles can either be unlocked in your cell phone car delivery service, “Car OnDemand” by simply driving them or hacking people to obtain the cars. One of the game's most dumbfounded mistakes is the fact that there are NO POLICE BOATS! As you soon as you hop into a boat and start driving, you are literally GUARANTEED to escape. You could escape in a slow as all hell water taxi for God's sake.

     Fourthly, side missions, there are lots of side activities you can participate in. Chicago being one of the most crime populated cities, ctOS in Watch Dogs detects random crimes happening throughout the city allowing you to either inflict vigilante justice or walk away like a villain. While stopping random crimes and being a hero is fun for the first few times, eventually it will become quite repetitive and you won't even care anymore. To obtain access to all of the side missions though, you must unlock all of the ctOS towers in the disctricts of Chicago; a similar element to Assassin's Creed.There are gang hideouts, criminal convoys, driving missions, side missions that lead up to their own separate final missions as I mentioned earlier in the second paragraph. There are other activities including, poker, a drinking game, and a shell game. There are also collectibles which really only include audio logs from different characters in the game. The main problem with the side missions is once they have all been completed, the only damn thing left to do in the city is to stop random crimes. The game fails in this aspect where The Amazing Spider-Man 2 game succeeds. After you beat the game, Spider-Man offers unlimited, variated crime happening throughout the city.

     Fifthly, the characters; Aidan Pearce, the protagonist, is a hard character to relate to. You don’t truly see him for who he is until later into the game. Clara Lille, a “DedSec” hacker who decides to help you in your crusade against the people who killed a part of your family. T-Bone, a washed up hacker who has more skills than you would think. And Jordi Chin, who I’ll just call The “Clean-Up Guy.” Jordi is the guy Aiden calls when he needs some help taking on some enemies, a body gotten rid of, or a car delivered to him. Jordi is my favorite character by far. He has this kind of, twisted sense of humor that really makes me laugh. Watch Dogs characters are barely relatable, but what they lack in relatable traits, they make up for with their excellent voice actors provided for the game.

     Sixthly, online is one of the game's most successful aspects. It runs seamlessly, transerferring you in and out of an online match. Wherever you quit in an online match, you'll end up exactly where you were in online, in story mode. There are 6 online modes; Online Free Roam, which is exactly as you would expect, Hint, think GTA V. Invite your friends and run around exploring the city of Chicago together. Online Decryption, which is basically team death-match meets capture the flag. There is a file that each team member is able to steal, and you have a couple different classes of weapons to use to obtain that file. Next, is Online Hacking; my personal favorite of all the online modes. Online hacking sets you a few hundred meters away from another player; your job is to get close enough to them, hack their phone, then pick a spot to hide, or hide in plain sight rather if you please and start hacking their data. A small circle will appear on yours and the other player's map. This small circle indicates the vicinity of where you are hiding giving the player a fighting chance to find you. It will shrink in percentage intervals over time giving the player a better chance of finding you and taking you out. Once you are spotted/profiled, you can evade the player. If you successfully evade the other player, you don't exactly win the match entirely, however, you don't lose entirely either. You still walk away with some points to higher your level. While running around Chicago, just minding your own business, you could also be invaded by another player too. Online Race is an online race. It consists of either cars or motorcycle races. The car races are somewhat of a disaster considering the fact that driving is HORRIBLE. ctOS Mobile Challenge is a game mode that involves a free IOS app, that allows you to control parts of Watch Dogs without even owning a copy of the game. Through the app, you are given access to the Chicago pd's cars, helicopters and ctOS allowing you to trigger road blockers, steam pipes, etc. The player who is actually playing the game, is tasked with racing through checkpoints throughout a certain area without being taken out by the mobile player's "defenses." Lastly, online tailing, follow another player, observing their every move, once completed, your job is to escape. Online is easily one of Watch Dog's best aspects and hopefully Ubisoft sticks with it and improves it for more games in the series.

     Finally, the graphics; Okay, so we all know the E3 debacle of 2013 with Watch Dogs. When the game was previewed at E3 2013, audiences were captivated by its graphics. Then as more and more videos were released, it seemed that there was a downgrade in the graphics. But, eventually people realized that the E3 footage was basically just pre-rendered game footage made to look as gorgeous as possible to wow people. Sigh... if only developers would realize that Next-Gen needs to be focused on more. Stop porting! And don't lie about the look of your game! Yes, the Next-Gen version of Watch Dogs offers slightly better graphics, but that doesn't make it Next-Gen. Now that the game has finally been released, it does have good graphics, but nothing special. The city of Chicago is breathtaking and full of life. The game looks its absolute best at nighttime. Character models could be a bit better also. Exploring the 6 vast districts of Chicago in game is a real blast!

     In conclusion, Watch Dogs’ story length ranges from 20 hours or more; plus more hours if you include the side missions. The story is nothing special, your basic revenge tale. Watch Dogs is a great game; is it everything I hoped for and more? No. But, it is a game that will definitely be remembered for a long time for its innovative gameplay. I give Watch Dogs a 7.5/10. For more Watch Dogs, check out my full playthrough here, http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLun5VwfBFmJ8JAussupdo1bDhCjJyayBR. 

PROS:

-          Hack almost anything

-          Different styles of play (Hack or shoot)

-          Inflict vigilante justice

-          Extra Content after the campaign

-          Excellent voice acting

CONS:

-          -Wonky driving

-You could just use guns instead of hacking
 -Barely relatable protagonist
-NO POLICE BOATS!?
- Not what Ubisoft originally promised