User blog:Hawkeye2701/Review4U: Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions

This week on Review4u! (Yeah right, like I have a schedule for this crap) We'll be reviewing Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions for ADour. So let's dive right in with this multifaceted adventure.

The Story So Far
We start off with a heist by Mysterio at the Empire State University. An old stone tablet called the Tablet of Order and Chaos is on display and he plans to steal it and sell it on the black market. Of course, Peter Parker shows up and begins his witty banter.

During the battle, it becomes clear that the tablet isn't just a nifty museum piece, but actually contains mystical powers, powers which are scattered across the Multiverse when Peter Fly kicks Mysterio and shatters it. The villain vanishes with one shard of the tablet, but an image of Madame Webb soon takes his place. Informing our hero that he just broke the most powerful mystical artifact in existence, she draws his attention to the alternate realities (Really, the idea that these are a thing should not be a surprise to Marvel Characters anymore.) Three in particular, Noir, Ultimate and 2099 to be precise. With the aide of the Spider-Men from these realities, Peter is to recollect the missing fragments and restore order to the multiverse.

Collecting the first four pieces, the Spider-Men are unaware that Mysterio has discovered the power of his own fragment, turning his illusions into real bona fide magic.

With their powers enhanced by Madame Webb, the Spider-Men's senses now hone in on the fragments. Finding his way to a open window, the room inside decorated with nothing but mounted heads and the Fragment sitting on a pedestal at the end of the room. Rightly so, Peter surmises it's a trap. Dodging the traps, he grabs the fragment only to get gassed, Kraven the Hunter standing over him. Waking up in the jungle, Peter fights his way through Kraven's disciples, men who believe the same hunting the strong rubbish he does before confronting Kraven in a wooden dome. Besting the hunter, Peter pursues him only to find Kraven tapping the power of the fragment. Now with speed surpassing cheetahs, he lures Peter to an ancient arena where the two fight for the final time, beating the hell out of him, Peter retrieves the fifth fragment for the good guys.

In the Noir universe, Peter tracks Hammerhead to the waterfront where the Goblin has ordered him to guard one of the fragments. Pursuing the mobster through the train yards, they fight at a train turntable, but Peter gets the better of him. After his men fail to ambush Spider-Man Noir, Hammerhead retreats to an old tower complex, absorbing his fragment. Now with his tommy guns fused to his arms, Hammmerhead realises the true power of the fragment and intends to take over the Goblin's mob. His planned revolt doesn't get off the ground however as Peter beats him, taking another fragment for the heroes.

In the future of 2099, Miguel O'Hara senses a fragment heading his way only to be tackled by the Hobgoblin, a clone of the original Roderick Kingsley, this Hobgoblin has been enhanced with psychic powers and nanofibre armour while being just a crazy as previous goblins. Unlike the others, Miguel's chase involves several encounters as he hunts down the Hobgoblin while dealing with Alchemax's private security forces. Eventually figuring out he can't kill Miguel normally, he uses the fragmment to enhances his Psypower, creating multiple illusions of himself. Miiguel triumphs in the end, but the fact that only the likes of Alchemax could have created the Hobgoblin, puts him on the trail of the company.

In the countryside of the Ultimate universe, Peter Parker traces a fragment to a dam where Electro has used the fragment to increase his ability to absorb electricity infinitely and create mini-electric monsters. Hunting him through the dam, Peter eventually confronts Electro outside, where due to the power he's absorbed, he's now a giant. Tricking Electro into breaking the dam, the villain gets swept away by the water and Peter collects another fragment.

Back at the university, Mysterio returns, putting his new powers to work when the fragment shows him the work of the Spider-Men. Realising that more fragments mean more power, he quickly takes his leave.

Arriving at a Quarry, Amazing Peter finds himself face to face with Sandman who uses the fragment to greatly expand his control over sand and split his personality across a sandstorm. Chasing down Marko, Peter confronts his sandstorm where he finds Marko at war with himself. Using this to his advantage, he defeats Sandman and makes off with the fragment.

In the Noir dimension, Peter starts tracking the Cannibalistic Vulture, another of the Goblin's stooges and the one responsible for his uncle's murder. After a failed attempt to kill Peter or set him on fire, Vulture eventually squares off with Peter, the fragment giving him the power to teleport. Beating Toomes to a pulp, Peter retrieves another fragment.

Back to the future, Kron Stone, this world's Scorpion, intercepts several Public Eye troops on their way to collect a fragment for Alchemax. stealing it, he gains the power to produce hundreds of baby scorpions. Getting after him, Miguel gets some incohearant ramblings from Stone, but the general gist being he was going to give it to some woman in return for turning him back into a human. Knowing that it's not possible to reverse the process, Miguel beats Kron, but not without a certain amount of pity.

In the Ultimate Universe, Peter is drawn into the mutantphobic Wadey Wilson's "Pain Factor" with the promise of a fragment for his victory. Being flown out to a series of Oil Rigs that Deadpool uses for his show, he sends waves of his fanboys after Peter and when that doesn't work, sends an actual tidal wave by detonating an explosive underwater. When all this fails to deter Spidey, Deadpool uses the fragment, splitting his various annoying persona into separate bodies, one with swords, one with guns and one with grenades. Peter soon beats up all three, but is left without a means of making it back to dry land.

Back in the 616, Mysterio hunts Peter back to Madame Webb, taking the old lady hostage and demanding the rest of the tablet in exchange for her life.

Tracking down another fragment, for once it's not an enemy plot as Juggernaut, pursued by Silver Sable comes running through. Stepping on the fragment, Juggernaut takes off. Fighting off Sable's wild pack, Spidey eventually goes toe to toe with the Juggernaut, but for all the power he gained from the fragment, it actually interferes with the power he gained from Cyttorak, making him somewhat easier to damage. Another villain down, another fragment gained.

In the Noir world, Peter tracks the goblin himself to the old Carnival where Goblin absorbs his last fragment, becoming a powerful monster not unlike the Ultimate Goblin. Fighting his way through the carnival, Peter confronts Goblin in the big top and takes him down once and for all. (At least until Noir #4)

In 2099, Miguel tracks the last fragment to Alchemax where he runs into the new Doctor Octopus who heads Alchemax's Shadow Division. (Why a place that pretty much does what it wants anyway needs a Shadow Division, I have no idea) Foiling her plan to integrate the fragment with her technology, Miguel faces off against Patel, who uses the fragment to give herself Technopathic ability. Beating her, Miguel puts an end to Alchemax's involvement with the tablet.

In the Ultimate universe, Peter finds that SHIELD has screwed the pooch yet again. Experimenting on Carnage and the fragment, they gave the monster the ability to drain people and resurrect their bodies as its zombie servants. While hunting the monster, Peter finds SHIELD's own Spider Slayer Mk.2s which are programmed to hunt Symbiotes and thus, target him for wearing the black suit on this adventure. Fighting his way through a ruined triskelion and crashed hellicarrier, Peter finds Carnage having morphed into a giant flower like creature, producing more symbiotes (How very Web of Shadows) With help from SHIELD, he brings Carnage down and with him, collects the final fragment for the Ultimate Universe.

Trying to save Madame Webb, Peter unfortunately finds the Tablet willing itself back together, forcing the last fragment to join the whole, Mysterio gains ultimate power, bringing down the walls of reality. With the barriers gone, Madame Webb summons the other Spider-Men, all four of them taking on Mysterio. Defeating him at his strongest, the four go their separate ways, each convinced they're the best of their kind.

Waiting until after the credits however, reveals Peter Porker, aka Spider-Ham, arriving more than a little late to the party.

The Review
Well, after claiming that freeroaming Spider Stories are best, running right into a linear adventure has me feeling I should shut my mouth, so let's get this over with.


 * Story

The story is really quite good. The premise is simple, but effective, and while I personally would've liked it to be a bit longer, for what I got, I'm not disappointed. Seeing the different Spider-Men and their worlds was really pretty cool, the only way I would've improved it maybe, would have been to have Miles Morales instead of the Black Suit Ultimate, but I guess when the game was released that change hadn't happened yet. Sure it relies on a blatant McGuffin for the plot work, but as far as McGuffin's go, I've seen worse, and at least this one seems to make the enemies more interesting. Several of the characters including Noir Hammerhead and Doctor Octopus 2099 were designed specifically for this game and it really is impressive.


 * Gameplay

While I'm sure from past reviews people may be expecting me to eat my words for saying free roam is better than linear, but I've also said in the past that a character driven plot is good when told linear, and honestly, I wouldn't expect developers to try and render 4 separate New Yorks. If anything, while kinda predictable in places, the linear environments are well detailed and pretty fun, some even having hidden areas and things so that's cool. The controls for each spider-man is pretty much the same with exceptions to certain unique mechanics and each has their own style of combat which is really cool. The focus on stealth for the Noir sections is pretty fun, though frustrating if you suck at it like myself. While Ultimate and 2099 have unique meter based abilities in Rage mode and Time dilation to make their battles more interesting, there isn't a huge amount of difference in their approaches as with Noir. After a point, the levels can get kind of annoying as there is a certain predictability of a non-powered fight with a boss, then a fragment powered version at the end, but the stuff in between is usually interesting enough not to make this feel mind numbingly tedious.


 * Style

I love this game. They well and truly went all out on making this the best Spider-Man game they could, and it shows. Narrated by Stan Lee himself and all of the Spider-Men are voiced by veteran voice actors who lent their talents to Peter Parker in the past which really makes it something special. They've also managed to integrate the different styles of each world so that while different, nothing feels out of place. For as painfully 90s as I was expecting 2099 to look in contrast to the others, it blends well with the others, having it's dark buildings and neon strips actually go pretty well alongside things like Noir's Sepia tones and black and white style. I already mentioned several characters were designed just for this game and they fit very well into it. Mysterio as the final boss, while not my first choice, wasn't bad, ad his redesign is actually one of, if not my absolute favourite look of the character. My one complaint would probably be that I wasn't feeling enough of a difference between Amazing and Ultimate Spider-Man to make their levels feel significantly different from one another and while each one had a final boss for their era as such, with the Goblin Noir, Doc Ock 2099 and Amazing Mysterio rounding out the whole game, Ultimate Spidey just felt kinda weak by comparison. Maybe if this game had waited a while to give us Miles or some big foe for Ultimate Peter I wouldn't feel as bad, but as it is his rogues come to Electro, Annoying as ever Deadpool and a mindless monster, not exactly a highlight reel, though I will admit Amazing wasn't exactly pulling his A-Listers either, though being the original (And by association the best) he can get away with it.


 * Characters

Despite my initial disappointment that a character named Miguel O'Hara lacked either an awesome Spanish or Irish accent, the characters in this game are truly fantastic. The Spider-Men all feel unique in their outlook, between Noir's more sombre tone, Ultimate's young and impulsive streak and even the cheesy future speak of 2099, they are all entertaining especially when they have Madame Webb as support. Even the villains get a good showing. I'll tell you, I've never laughed as hard at Spider-Man than I did hearing Kraven bought his fragment off the internet.

Summation
All in all, I find Shattered Dimensions to be a bit easier on my sensibilities than Web of Shadows. Not that the latter was bad, it was good, but as the name implies, it is a lot darker than your average Spidey game and while certainly not a bad thing, isn't always what I'm looking for. Shattered Dimensions manages to toe that line between comedy and tragedy, a very serious situation approached often with quick wit and spider-like reflexes. My biggest complaint about the entire affair which I didn't find space for above is the extra costumes. One thing that bugs me in any game is ones where you have to complete everything to unlock something, and in this case, it's all 180 challenges to unlock the last set of extra outfits. I'm not opposed to games making you work for things, but when they demand EVERYTHING for some unlockables, I often find that by the time I've got them, I'm so sick of looking at the game I don't really want to replay it even to test out my spoils. So while there should certainly be reward for completing everything, maybe not something like costumes and stuff.

Anyway, I've done my rambling for one day, this has been Hawkeye2701 on behalf of ADour, and I'm gonna go cook me a Spider-Ham.