With the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) in full swing, Activision’s gave us a chance to check out "The Amazing Spider-Man," a game that ties in with the upcoming Sony film, coming to theaters later this month. (The game will debut on June 26.)
In the game, you control Marvel’s iconic web-slinger as he battles crime throughout New York City, while also fighting with familiar baddies like Rhino and Iguana.
Unlike previous games in the series (namely "Edge of Time" and "Shattered Dimensions"), where you were stuck indoors, "Amazing Spider-Man" lets you roam around New York however you choose, picking missions from a map and swinging any way you want through the city streets to get there. It’s this “go anywhere, do anything” approach that could make this a big hit with fans, especially if they’ve played games from years before like "Spider-Man 2."
Along with web-slinging, Spidey has other tools to his advantage. He’s quite nimble in combat, able to dispatch enemies using powerhouse combos and webbing to temporarily disable them. For good measure, he can also launch objects such as dumpsters at them. And if you need to take out an armed assailant in a hurry, you can use a zip line kick, grabbing them with webbing, then flinging at them before they even know what’s happening. [ 'Ghost Recon: Future Soldier' Brings Fight to Xbox 360 & PS 3 ]
One of the bigger new additions to Spider-Man’s arsenal this time around is the new Web Rush ability. When players switch to this mode, they’ll view the world through Spidey’s eyes, seeing objects they can latch onto in yellow. All they need to do is pick a connection point and hit a button, and they’ll fling right over to it in a matter of seconds. This is quite useful when you want to reach specific points on a map, or evade enemies.
Beenox, the game’s developer, has done a wonderful job recreating New York City, as you can literally go end to end through its streets, beating up thugs and challenging familiar enemies. It isn’t limited to ground combat, either. During one part of the game, we found ourselves grabbing onto aerial gliders, making them explode before zip-lining to the next one, sending it crashing down right on Broadway. [ Carnage Reigns in 'Prototype 2' for Xbox 360 and PS 3 ]
If you’re any kind of Spider-Man fan, this game will easily complement the movie experience, letting you feel like the web-slinger without having to go through the angst of losing your parents — or, for that matter, facing a giant lizard. We’ll have a full review of the game once it releases later this month, as a retail disc for $60 on Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 and for $50 on Nintendo Wii.