E3: Activision Hopes to Amaze With New Spider-Man Game

This summer comes the new Amazing Spider-Man movie, a reboot to the franchise, and a step away from the Raimi series. Along with that comes a fresh take on Spidey’s video game world.  After two successful turns at bat using the comic book source material, Beenox musters their might to take on the movie game, hoping to prove that they can be more than shovel-ware, but high quality gaming experiences.

In the process of showing off their achievements this week, they also revealed a little bit about the direction the franchise will take.

Activision and developer Beenox gave a very generous demo to a few comic enthusiasts at this year’s E3 game expo. They have obviously been hard at work on the title, hoping to break the mold established by so many poor movie games, and continue to build upon the many successes of their previous Spider-titles.

Amazing Spider-Man takes place after the movie, which releases this summer, and acts as a continuation of that adventure, but is free from the constraints of a direct adaptation, and as such they were able to bring in more villains from Spidey’s comic adventures. The immediate observation is that the world looks fantastic. Spider-Man himself continues to be detailed and rich in animation and texture, much like he was in his previous games. Despite this level of detail, his suit is interactive, and becomes shredded as Spidey gets hit in battle; suffer enough damage, and Spidey’s skin gets damaged as well. Unlike a lot of games, though, your hero doesn’t just regenerate his skin. Spidey will have to go back to his apartment to change suits in order to repair damage. The city of Manhattan is also lavishly detailed, and is definitely the best version of the city map we’ve seen to date.

The detail is more than just aesthetic trapping, though. Beenox has brought back the fully immersive, open world from previous Spider-games. Now Spider-man can go anywhere, quite literally, and explore his surroundings. As he does, he’ll find random action and adventures, as well as full unlockable, readable, comic books and new costumes, along with other bonuses. The swing mechanic has been updated and made easier to make web-slinging more fluid and fun. Also, Spidey has never been faster, thanks to his Web-Rush mechinic, which allows him to pick destinations and auto maneuver quickly from space to space, flipping on and around obstacles.

The Web Rush can also be used in combat, allowing Spidey to jump and dodge with new precision. As a player gets faster and choosing his way-points, and adept at the rush, he can make his Spider-man into an agile, nigh untouchable fighting machine. Combat in general is fast and furious, taking some notes from Batman: Arkham City and pumping it up with the proportionate strength and speed of a spider. Of course, the webbing can be combo’d in, building up to signature moves that hit multiple enemies in a flurry, or blast people against objects with massive web bursts.

Boss fights are trickier, as they usually rely on players to read the environment and use some sort of trick or ingenuity to KO some of the burlier villains. The complete rogues gallery is unknown, but the demo did show Spider-Man in combat with Rhino, Scorpion, a Spider-Slayer, and a brief look at what appeared to be Jackal.

The design reveals of the villains gives an idea of the direction of the movie franchise as well, which was a sweet tidbit. The villains in Amazing Spider-Man are almost all  human animal hybrids. Only, unlike in the comics, now they all have actually mutated into their animal forms instead of just being people in suits. It seems that Peter’s mysterious DNA, The Lizard and his bio-chemical weapon, Oscorp’s involvement, may all lead to the use of a series of genetically mutated enemies in the new movies, rather than just scientists with crazy tech weapons. Could the Green Goblin actually end up mutating into a Goblin this go-around? Only time will tell.

In the meantime, as a Spider-Man fan, I can say I was pleased with the way this game looks, and from the murmurs of the crowd around me, it seems like Beenox could have another successful Spider-game on their hands. Check the E3 Release trailer here for a better look!

(The official Activision site hasn’t posted this yet. In the meantime, this one’s courtesy of IGN)