Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #3059 in Computer & Video Games
• Brand: ACTIVISION
• Released on: 2005-10-14
• Rating: Parental Guidance
• Platform: PlayStation2

Manufacturer's Description
Play both sides as Ultimate Spider-Man allows gamers to take on the role of super hero Spider-Man AND super villain Venom in the most revolutionary Spider-Man experience ever! Penned and illustrated by famed comic book creators Brian Michael Bendis and Mark Bagley, the game picks up right where the story left off. Dive into an immersive adventure as you experience a living comic book illustrated with 3D Comic Inking Technology that literally brings the comic to life in every action-packed frame.

The game's expanded, free-roaming environments deliver a deep adventure with a variety of challenging missions, diverse game play and an improved combat system that allows players to face off against the largest number of characters from the Spider-Man universe ever assembled in one video game.

The two distinct combat systems allow players to defeat enemies differently, using Spider-Man's fluid, acrobatic moves or Venom's brute force.

Customer Reviews

All style, no substance
Ultimate Spiderman offers a thoroughly fun albeit simple Spiderman experience which perfectly captures the feel of Ultimate Spiderman’s style but, impressive though it is, comes at the expense of properly fleshed out gameplay resulting in a game well worth playing, but seriously lacking the depth or development to be called great.

The first thing you’ll probably notice is that the game actually looks like the comic – from the comic style shading to the use of animated panels during cutscenes – the whole thing looks and feels like the comic and, while the visuals don’t compare to the flair of the best looking games the PS2 has to offer – they don’t try to, preferring instead to capture the feel of the comic. It works great and sets the feel of the game perfectly.

The city is pretty big and there’s tons of area to uncover and explore, and cars and people mill about down on the streets below. Police, too, can sometimes be seen trying to stop criminals. But as you can’t really interact with the people or cars in any way (besides a few random events), I constantly had a feeling of being disconnected from the city – especially as you’ll swing above rooftops at high speeds, getting to know the city is almost impossible. More interaction would’ve been a good thing, adding depth and diversity

The plot arc is a pretty short and feels really disjointed – like the story and free-swinging around the city were two entirely separate things on the same plate. It made the story seem a little shallow – in fact, the story is shallow, there’s not much to it – it can literally be summed up as: Venom is loose, Spiderman tries to stop him, a third party joins in and gets in Spiderman’s way, Spiderman wins; the end - and it mostly felt like instead of giving it depth, they just chose to write in as many iconic enemies for Spiderman/Venom to fight as possible.

You can play as both Spiderman and Venom and the two characters are conveyed perfectly – Spiderman with his dextrous agility, able to swan dive off a building, somersaulting several times through the air before firing off some web and arcing majestically into a swing, landing gracefully and delivering a series of light but lightning fast blows to a thug, webbing him up and throwing him over a lamppost before leaping off to fight another crime.

While venom stomps angrily over buildings, smashing his fists into the stone for purchase - if Spiderman is pure agility then Venom is raw strength – instead of swinging, he leaps great distances, causing craters in roads and rooftops as he lands. His attacks revolve around breaking backs, smashing faces into the ground and feeding off of enemies and innocent civilians alike for ever-needed sustenance. Venom is also able to lob cars around as makeshift weapons, which looks and feels great – as you smash around the city – you feel close to invincible.

The missions themselves revolve around two things – chasing and fighting. In the chasing missions you have to keep up with some villain as they move around the city, you have a time limit on these missions, but it’s displayed as a ‘distance meter’ – if you fall too far behind, the mission is over and you have to restart, these missions – all of them – follow the exact same formula: swing around a set route in the city as fast as you can. The fighting missions are equally linear as combat revolves around working out the AI’s simple attack formula and then exploiting the weaknesses to defeat the enemy. Sometimes the missions feature both chasing and fighting as you’ll be charged with chasing the enemy to a location. Then fighting them. Repeat ad infinitum.

Free swinging around the city, you’ll have a few things to keep you busy. City Events happen pretty regularly, and are random situations where you can prove your heroics by stopping some thugs beating up some guy, saving someone who managed to somehow be hanging off of a skyscraper several hundred feet up or getting someone quickly to a hospital. They are, like everything else in the game, linear and formulaic and limited to just a few scenarios each – but they’re a welcome distraction to simply swinging around.

There are also two sets of non-plot missions dotted around the city which you can attempt whenever you like by standing on the corresponding icons around the city, there are two types. Wait for it. Racing and fighting. The racing missions follow the exact same formula as the plot missions except you’re on a time limit instead of chasing someone. The fighting missions revolve around beating up a few groups of thugs.

But that’s not to say it’s a bad game – while short and sweet, and lacking the depth a serious gamer might expect, it’s a seriously fun romp through Queens. If you like Spiderman, or especially Ultimate Spiderman but have never played a spidey game – it’s very easy to recommend this. The comicbook style cutscenes are a pure joy to experience, the voice talent is perfect and the playable characters feel and play exactly as you’d expect them to.

In the end, the emphasis was on style over substance – and while it works pretty well, as the game is a lot of fun – great games need style and substance. It’s too short, it’s too easy and it’s far, far too linear. But it’s a lot of fun, while it lasts.

GOOD BUT NOT GREAT
I have finished this game after a few hours of play and I have to say I was expecting alot more,
The good:
storyline is easy to follow but it would help if you have read the comic before hand.

excellent graphics, the graphics are the same comic book style as XIII

The Bad
The game does become repetative after a while, its usually spiderman must keep up with the villan then have a battle or Venom must keep up with a villan then have a battle ect

Levels are to easy to compleate and there is no way to make it more difficult.

The level bosses and goal tasks become very dull, It is the same kind of missions as Spiderman 2.

All in all a good game which could have been great if more thought and game play had been put into it.

Ultimately Rewarding
The first thing that enticed me about this game is that it isn't another movie tie in; this game has its own (very good) plot, taken from the Ultimate Spiderman comic series. You play as Spiderman (bet that shocked you) but you also play as one of the best villains in the books history, Venom. He has his own abilities, qualities and probably smell, and this adition makes the game go another few miles past the standard set by Spiderman 2: The Game. The game has also changed its look, with cel-shaded graphics adding to the comic book feel, and this allows the graphics to flow seamlessly. The new look city is also bigger, with Spidey's home of Queens added, as well as the Baxter Building (maybe just nerds like me appreciate that one). The game has new voice acting, which not only redefines the characters from the moody feel of 1 and 2, but means no more whiney Tobey Maguire.
that's the style, now the substance.
The controls are different, but in a good way. The small changes in web-swinging makes it smoother, and the combat is much improved with more variety which stops it getting boring so quickly. Venom's abilities are huge fun, as you have more freedom to go crazy and kill bad guys as opposed to simply apprehending them, but Spiderman's improvements also keep his section of the game fully playable and fun.
The game also features many characters from the Marvel Universe, and I won't spoil it by telling them all, but I'll give you a taster with an early appearance from Johnny Storm!
All games have their bad points, but for the genre Ultimate spiderman is in, I can't think of any gripes I have with the game. It doesn't fill the full five stars because there is a limit to what you can do, as a lot of gamers found the constant crime solving boring (which is back, but takes less time) but for fans of previous games, all action/adventure fans, this game is worth a doyuble rental AT LEAST.