Spider-Man: Web of Shadows is a 2008 superhero action-adventure video game developed by Shaba Games and Treyarch, published by Activision, and released for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, PlayStation Portable, Wii, Nintendo DS and Xbox 360. The plot follows Spider-Man who joins forces with allies and enemies to stop a full-scale symbiote invasion led by his nemesis, Venom.

The story is pretty engaging, and is an original take on the lore especially since there is the branching paths when it comes to Spider-Man’s actions that does make the symbiote more relevant.  This is also aided by how the story focused on the choices with Mary Jane and Black Cat (Black Cat is incredibly sexy as usual) showing the emotional trials of both the Peter Parker and Spider-Man personas.

But there’s something that the story doesn’t have and that’s a growing arc. It’s good in the initial stages but when the invasion pops off the story flees nearly as fast as the civilians do.  There are a lot of great characters from the Spider-Man cast including heroes, villains, and supporting characters. This is perhaps where the game shines as Spider-Man’s interactions influence the outcome of the story and the make for good insight. The campaign was good but I really wished there was more to the character interactions and to the story. (3 out of 5)

The name of the game is to be Spider-Man and of course, that means hours and hours of exploration and swinging through the city. The city provides a grand open world experience that’s diverse and but outside of the events of the story doesn’t feel active. The gameplay mechanics are pretty solid; there’s a lot of freedom and the swinging offers a fast way of traversing the city.  What makes the game stand out even more is the option to switch between the normal Spider-Man and the black suit.  Both have unique swinging styles as well as fighting styles, the regular focusing on speed and agility white the black suit focuses on brute strength.

We’re going to take a look at the fighting mechanics and see how well they hold up.  The combos, aerial and wall combat work well enough though the transition from upright to the wall can be a pain at times.  Sometimes it’ll transition when you’re not even trying and when you try it doesn’t do it right.  But to be fair it works when it works.  The aerial battles are much the same usually focusing on the web strike to get from enemy to enemy. It’s a nice feature for closing the gap but the game does tend to lean too much on it.

I do like the fact that we can summon heroes and villains to assist in the fight. It gets tiresome in these games when these huge events are unfolding and there’s no backup support for Spider-Man. You’d think that the Fantastic Four, Iron Man and the Defenders would help Spider-Man since they live in the same damn city. (4 out of 5)

Visually, it’s a good looking Spider-Man game.  The graphics are good and still hold up.  The character models look good and they do manage to be expressive though they’re a little stiff. The city looks good, it’s detailed a and the complexity to the design and the activity make the city feel like there’s something always going on. The cutscenes are okay taking the graphics from in-game and it does hurt the game. Great narratives are told with good presentation and it just feels cheap that it’s not.

Some of my biggest gripes are the camera angles.  Most of my frustrations came from the transitions to wall and aerial combat.    When it works it’s good but it can be a bit confusing when you’re thrust into a fight and the entire background flips upside down. Or doesn’t flip when it should. There are some texture issues that pop up sometimes when looking at buildings or the road turning the the highly detailed cityscape into cardboard with the messy graphics of the late 90s and early 00s. (3 out of 5)

The music is good.  Not memorable but it does give the gameplay some edge, the world a little more depth. It does have its moments where it feels epic in scope with large stakes. The voice performances are pretty good and do feel like they fit the characters though I do have my gripe with Mike Vaughn as Spider-Man. I’ve often thought that even as a man Spider-Man has this weird teenage voice and  Vaughn represents that here.  And like a bloody steak he’s a little undercooked. The sound design works. The city sounds active, the swinging sounds like you’re flying through the air and when attacking enemies the blows sound impactful. (4 out of 5)

Like most Spider-Man games the open world entices players with tons of exploration whether it’s to discover various locations, talk to many characters, go on missions, or to collect icons, it’s just what you do in a Spider-Man game.  It’s fun though at times it can feel tedious with all the Symbiote invasion going on and repetition.

The campaign has four different endings depending on the character choices. Honestly, I felt that the endings weren’t worth the repetition so I think most players will have enough patience for one or two playthroughs. There’s a lot of replayability around just one playthrough though. (3 out of 5)

In the end, Spider-Man: Web of Shadows is just as good a step forward as it is a step back. There’s a lot to it to make fun including the combat, red suit/black suit, character choices, and exploration. But the repetition is painful, the lacking story halfway through, the lack of established symbiote characters (Carnage, Shriek, Toxin), and the restrictive choice system how it back from potentially be the best Spider-Man game. Spider-Man: Web of Shadows gets 3 out of 5.