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Official Ultimate Spider-Man thread

the internet ad banners I should say... go to gamefaqs for instance.
 
Score up on IGN now http://xbox.ign.com/articles/652/652926p1.html

8.4

9.0 Presentation
The use of comic-book panels and a total faithfulness to the source material turn this into a living graphic novel.

8.0 Graphics
Though there's some slowdown that chips away just a bit at the overall polish, Spidey and his foes look spectacular. Venom in Times Square at night is like a carnivorous velvet painting come to life.

8.0 Sound
Filled with unknowns, the voice-acting pool is solid. The score is an acceptable watered-down techno, but it lacks range and doesn't add much to the scenes.

8.0 Gameplay
High marks for the story missions and a tepid thumbs up for the exploration. The combat system is frenetic, the boss battles a hoot and Venom is a delightful terror.

8.0 Lasting Appeal
The story mode is incredibly short, but the quest to 100% all of the city events will take at least 20 hours, even for a veteran player.



Oddly enough, Ultimate Spider-Man and Spider-Man 2 flip-flop in terms of strengths and problems. Where Spidey 2's story mode was atrocious, USM's is awesome. But the free-roaming mode and the swinging were the real strengths of Spider-Man 2 and conversely the one mild disappointment in USM. In the free roaming mode, there are spots of slowdown, both with swinging and in combat.

I felt Spider-Man 2 was a 7.0, redeemed only by its awesome swing mechanics and open city. So in my books, USM is a major improvement overall, with a stellar story mode and decent free-roaming system. I enjoyed swinging around enough to invest 25 hours in the game, but the first third remain the most memorable and most enjoyable.

From a comics geek standpoint, outside of gameplay issues, this is the Holy Grail of comic-book videogames. While X-Men Legends, Hulk and The Punisher are all fine games in their own right, none of them are so perfectly tuned into the source material. The slick style is brilliant, the story mode a complete (albeit brief) joy.
 
IGN said:
From a comics geek standpoint, outside of gameplay issues, this is the Holy Grail of comic-book videogames. While X-Men Legends, Hulk and The Punisher are all fine games in their own right, none of them are so perfectly tuned into the source material. The slick style is brilliant, the story mode a complete (albeit brief) joy.

Sold. I'll be picking this up tomorrow. Sounds like a lot of fun, despite some flaws
 
I picked up the DS version (well actually im checking it out.. gg gamestop checkout policy), and I played the first few lvls up till Rhyno boss battle.

First when I turned it on, I said "Holy Shit!" It is one of the most graphically impressive games i have yet to see on the DS, im still being mind boggled by how good it looks on the DS, it runs really smooth and its so old school feeling with the snazzy fighting moves and combos..

Ill give more details in a day or so but so far the DS one is a future must get for me, 39.99 just owns me atm.. but man this game is great.
 
IGN said:
To compound the problem, Treyarch weakened the only real strength of Spider-Man 2, the brilliant swinging mechanic. Though swinging is still fun, it lacks the complexity or thrill of the last Spidey game. Spider-Man can only cast one webline at a time and while an added mid-air double-jump is a nice touch, it hardly replaces the fluid swinging of the past. I used to turn on Spidey 2 and just swing around the city for 20 minutes to relax myself. The sensation of speed and the feeling of momentum have been lost. Sure, it's a fully functional swing system in USM, but it's nothing compared to what Treyarch already had in place a year ago. Add to this a camera system that has trouble keeping pace with Spidey's quick turns and trouble consistently locking onto bosses and it can become a bit frustrating.

well they changed the swinging :( ...but sounds like its still good, just not as good as before :'(

still sounds like a wicked game though, i cant wait to pick it up.
 
To compound the problem, Treyarch weakened the only real strength of Spider-Man 2, the brilliant swinging mechanic. Though swinging is still fun, it lacks the complexity or thrill of the last Spidey game. Spider-Man can only cast one webline at a time and while an added mid-air double-jump is a nice touch, it hardly replaces the fluid swinging of the past. I used to turn on Spidey 2 and just swing around the city for 20 minutes to relax myself. The sensation of speed and the feeling of momentum have been lost. Sure, it's a fully functional swing system in USM, but it's nothing compared to what Treyarch already had in place a year ago. Add to this a camera system that has trouble keeping pace with Spidey's quick turns and trouble consistently locking onto bosses and it can become a bit frustrating.

NO SALE.

They had to go and mess with the best part of the game. I'm gonna go play some SM2 right now in protest. :lol
 
IGN said:
The new technology places a heavy burden on the graphic processor, though, resulting in occasional drops from the usually solid 30fps. The PS2 USM is particularly marred by this, making it a less attractive option than the Xbox or Cube versions.
Looks like I'm getting the GCN version (I don't have an Xbox).
 
Dr_Cogent said:
NO SALE.

They had to go and mess with the best part of the game. I'm gonna go play some SM2 right now in protest. :lol


Watch some of the IGN videos, it doesn't look terrible by any means. The story got a major upgrade and the swinging got a minor downgrade. All Spidey fans owe it to themselves to check it out. It's mine tmw :)
 
k I lied.. I played nonstop since I stopped posting and I have progressed a few more missions and am about 50% done with the game.

Its pretty hard, there are some gripes and ill list them now.

I hate the venom levels and how it seems the touch screen is the only way to absorb the people and suck there souls or w/e. But his attacks with the normal buttons/dpad are so much stronger but then you cant absorb and u constantly lose life.

I do like the missions, but there very trial and error sometimes cause they go by speed, also it seems spidey doesnt die nearly as easily as venom does in his missions.

Now for what I do like.

The controls are pretty good, they move and glide through very well and seem to respond well even the touch screen minus a few venom grab tentacle stuff with the touch screen everything runs great. I do like how they organized Spidey's powers now and I love the comic panels displaying what kinda punch/kick/tentacle slap you did last on the panels then rewhiping itself. The boss fights are sometimes frustrating and hard till you understand what to do but there really fun, and Im loving seeing all these chars like green goblin, shocker, and rhyno back. Its really fun how they did this game.

The graphics are insanely good. I personally think these are some of the best graphics I have seen to date on the DS. I kinda mocked at the screenshots we saw a few months back, but seeing this game in motion, it makes your jaw drop. You literally go "This is on the DS? wtf?" Its that good. It now just makes me even more pumped for Tony Hawk and for Viewtiful Joe on DS.


Sound.. Holy crap? The music and sound effects are superb in this game too, the DS literally has a shit load of voice overs its like your listening to the whole script of a final fantasy ps2 game almost. Its great how they did the story and they did it even with comic panels and animatied like that in the DS and how all the cutscenes and stories have voice overs and voices from the chars, like peter parker or venom etc. Its great.. simply superb, I couldnt believe they were talking.. I expected talking maybe on a PSP type game but not a DS especially in the quantities they added.


So far this is a good pickup and buy for the DS, and the IGN review does it justice. i really do reccomend this game for the DS, its now one of my favorites and I plan on buying this later this week now after my "check-out" period from work.

Rating: 8.6/10
 
Mac the KNife said:
Watch some of the IGN videos, it doesn't look terrible by any means. The story got a major upgrade and the swinging got a minor downgrade. All Spidey fans owe it to themselves to check it out. It's mine tmw :)

I saw the making of on G4. I didn't care for the stylized look of New York. The swinging has been totally gimped (which is why I play SM2 all the time) and I really never cared for the Ultimate "look".

I will be waiting for SM3 coming out in 2007.
 
Picked it up a few hours ago and havn't been able to put it down. The story is excellent, you just jump right in. Web slinging has been scaled back but it retains it's fun factor. It doesn't really feel better or worse, just different. I'm going back for more...
 
Picked up my GC version a few hours ago. My initial reaction after a few missions: they fucked it up.

1st: jumping. Screwed it up. No more charged jumping. Press A and you jump, hold it to go higher. And you can double jump! WTF? That's just dumb. Also, there's no more "sprint" button, which means you can't do the 'forward thrust' jump (for lack of a better term). I really liked that jump.

2nd: web-swinging. Screwed it up. Spidey moves pretty slowly, and feels really floaty. Granted he started with a slower swing speed in the last game, too, and this one also has higher swing speeds to earn, but it still feels...wrong. It also seems like his webs don't attach as easily. Especially web zipping. I find it somewhat difficult to stay off the ground around lower buildings--a problem I certainly never had in Spider-Man 2, at least not once I could web-zip. They did add the one thing that was missing before, though: the ability to climb up a web you've spun. I always wanted that when I was hanging from helicopters (haven't seen any of those yet to try it out right, though).

3rd: combat. Jury's still out. My biggest complaint, though, is still there: regular guys can hurt you. What's it going to take to get a Spidey game where he's as strong as he's supposed to be? He can go toe-to-toe with anyone this side of the Hulk! Lift 10 tons! But in this game, just like the last, he can barely knock out regular guys, and they can knock him down. And break his webbing (which is BS, too--it's supposed to be able to hold several tons--like suspending cars, etc). Ugh. Another negative: no more dodge button. When your spider-sense comes up, you're supposed to jump away. You can't dodge on the spot anymore.

4th: Venom. Interesting. I've only played as him once so far. I like that he's different than Spidey. I like that he can grab stuff (although I wonder why Spidey can't). Although I've always hated Venom, he could be the big positive for this game.

5th: Random missions. I've only done a couple, but the way they're implemented is a huge plus. No more getting missions from random civilians. They show up as red spots on the radar, and you can go help out or not. Perfect. That's how Spidey operates: he just cruises the neighborhood looking for crimes. Don't know how many types there are.

6th: Graphics. Good and bad. The cell-shaded style is great, of course, but boy, does this game suffer from pop-in. There was enough in the last one, but now it's right in your face. Oh well, I guess it's a trade-off. The framerate is good, though, nice and smooth.

I don't know...this game is already frustrating me. The floatiness and crappy (double) jump system alone piss me off, and the downgraded web-swinging doesn't help. It just looks to me like most of the improvements I was hoping for aren't there, right off the bat. And the one thing that was near-perfect--the jumping/web-swinging--has gone downhill.
 
Played it for an hour so far...I cna honestly say Spidey 2 was way more fun. I like the style of this game but is seems dumbed down.
 
Leondexter said:
Picked up my GC version a few hours ago. My initial reaction after a few missions: they fucked it up.

1st: jumping.

2nd: web-swinging.


I can see how fans of Spidey 2 would miss some of the moves (leap jump, charge meter, sprint button, etc) I didn't really bother me though. The limited locomotion is way better than the "infinite swing" of the first Spider-Man game.
 
Wow man, what the hell was activision thinking by going back to the old way of web-swinging. As if getting over the art style isn't difficult enough (for me). Sure, you can change directions now, but what a step back. Spidey's a lot slower, and the combat isn't that much better. I'm really looking forward to unlocking the black costume, though. I like the voice acting and the colors of the city. Reminds me of Townsville. If they can make one more spidey game akin to Spider-Man 2 (PSone) in terms of extras with the web-swinging engine of the Spider-Man 2 movie game, then it could very well be the greatest Spider-Man game ever.
 
Trying to decide if I should pick this up. I like the visual style, and playing as Spidey and Venom sounds fun. I didn't play SM2, so the change in movement mechanics doesn't mean anything to me. I doubt the stupid rental places around here have it in stock though...
 
Go for it. The way the cinemas play out are worth a rental, it's almost like a web comic, only the models are as good as the art. I'm liking it so far. It's better than STUPID IRON MAN'S MISSIONS. Repulsor rays can level a city block, but can it kill a normal enemy? Yeah, after 312 shots. >:|
 
Not to defend this game in any way, since I have not played it, but this IS based on Ultimate Spider-Man.

No fancy fighting, no extravagent web play. He's an inexperienced kid. He gets whipped on, he fights clumsily. He's not the older, battle savvy spidey of the usual books.

Maybe the changes in web swinging/ combat are there to reflect all of that?

My 2 cents anyways. :)
 
I highly doubt it's to reflect that. Have you read Ultimate Spider-Man? Have you seen some of the poses that guy get's Pete to pose in the air when he has high swingtime? It's not based off of the comic, it's just lazy on their part. But like what was said earlier, Spider-Man 2 and Ultimate Spider-Man basically exchange weaknesses and strengths. I mean, the fact that Spider-Man 2's web slinging alone is the only saving grace while most everything else sucks says a lot. They should've kept it. It sits next to my xbox nonetheless. :\ Glad I didn't pay full price for it.
 
I've been playing it all day and I think it's much better than SM2. You do gain fighting moves as you play and web swinging speed at least. I don't know about the zipping though. I hope it's in ther 'cause I kind of miss it. I don't really notice anything else different from the swinging and crawling though. What did they change?
 
Dr_Cogent said:
I got Hulk instead now. The game is a freakin blast.

I am waiting for SM3. Don't f it up Treyarch.



You may be waiting for awhile. The movies not due 'till May '07. :)


Just finished it tonight. The story shits all over the movie based games and gave me the same great feeling after Neversofts Spidey 1. Finding all the tokens is a bitch though.
 
Quick impressions:

So far it is great! The game is total fan service, and is really amazing how it feels like you are part of the comics. Voices, animation, character design... all amazing. Plus, the game is funny as hell!

I have fought 2 bosses so far
Wolverine and Rhino
and both were great.

Combat is nice because the camera seems to work well. Web slinging is nice, and I like how it will only let you swing when there is really something for the web to grab onto.

One major flaw? There is a lot of pop in and not just poly pop in, but also texture. Sometimes you can see huge areas of untextured building in the distance. Also... There is a building downtown that the top 3rd is totally untextured. It is if they just forgot to texture it and somehow nobody noticed it. Pretty strange...

Anyways... It is a fun diversion and it is fun to play as both spiderman and venom as they feel quite different. I found myself not being able to put the controller down since I was having so much fun.
 
Hulk is much, much better.

Basically, Ultimate Spider-Man is good but it's really just a cel-shaded Spider-Man 2 with a gimped swinging system. Spidey 2's swinging system was much better. Also, all the stupid city missions are the same (Help me I'm falling! Get me to the hospital! I'm being mugged! Bash the car!).

At least with Hulk they made a NEW game instead of slapping cel-shading on last year's game and hoping no one would notice.
 
ManaByte said:
Hulk is much, much better.

Basically, Ultimate Spider-Man is good but it's really just a cel-shaded Spider-Man 2 with a gimped swinging system. Spidey 2's swinging system was much better. Also, all the stupid city missions are the same (Help me I'm falling! Get me to the hospital! I'm being mugged! Bash the car!).

At least with Hulk they made a NEW game instead of slapping cel-shading on last year's game and hoping no one would notice.


yeah but the last hulk game blew :P

Plus the fact that people falling and get away cars and stuff all happens without you having to go up to someone and ask whats going on is way way way better, Ultimate Spiderman is better than Spiderman 2 in everyway except for the lack of the second web shoot while swinging, and the ability to long jump. pretty much everything else is better ( i may have forgoten a few things that bothered me :P ).

Great game !
 
ManaByte said:
Hulk is much, much better.

Basically, Ultimate Spider-Man is good but it's really just a cel-shaded Spider-Man 2 with a gimped swinging system. Spidey 2's swinging system was much better. Also, all the stupid city missions are the same (Help me I'm falling! Get me to the hospital! I'm being mugged! Bash the car!).

At least with Hulk they made a NEW game instead of slapping cel-shading on last year's game and hoping no one would notice.

You think the panel stuff, which is all real time, came free? :p
 
I'm 3 hours into the game and I like it ALOT.
The cut-scenes are just awesome, the graphics are sharp, and the controls are very responsive.
Yeah, they dumbed down web-slinging, but I like this control scheme as well. feels very smooth, and it's alot more natural to release your webs by actually releasing the button.
And the best thing about it - the missions are actually fun now!!
 
Electrii said:
As fun as this game was, don't buy it. 4-5 hours and you'll be done with it. what a rip-off.
It's a great game, there's so much to do even when you finished it.
And it took me longer than 4-5 hours to finish this one...
 
Just finished it.

The cel shaded graphics, especially the cutscenes are seriously great, the web swinging is dumbed down but still very fun. I don't like the ultimate universe as much however, I want venom that can still web swing.
 
Anyone know if you have to beat the game before the costumes unlock? I've met the requirements to get a few but they haven't been unlocked...
 
man what a let-down! i beat the game in about 4 hours. just when things were gettin good...

how do i unlock costumes and what is the point of playing the game after i've already beaten it (if any)?

best comic book game ever though. the boss battles were awesome. i would've liked to have seen more villains but maybe there aren't as many in the ultimate universe. i hope they make a sequel
 
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