I thought this game was decent enough, but it felt like it never quite grew into the blockbuster that I was expecting. I thought the combat mechanics worked well and were enjoyable once you got a grasp of them, but the enemies and flow of combat don’t evolve much over the course of the game. Combat encounters at the start of the game are more or less the same as those at the end of the game. There are new combat moves that can be unlocked as Peter gains levels, but these don’t generally make a radical difference. In some cases, the player is offered the ability to stealthily pick off enemies from a group before they become aware of Spider-Man’s presence, and this can be fun, but like the core combat itself, the game never really evolves it forward. Also, for a character with such an interesting and varied rogues’ gallery as Spider-Man, I was expecting more out of the boss fights. There are one, maybe two, that I would consider actually interesting, but most are just composed of a basic pattern of Spider-Man having to dodge incoming attacks until he can hit back with enough webshots/thrown objects to get the boss stunned, at which point he jumps in and just wails on them with basic punches and kicks.

The story is also nothing really amazing. If you’ve ever enjoyed any sort of Spider-Man fiction, you’ll find that this follows a pretty well-worn path: Norman Osborne is up to something shady, Dr. Octavius is suddenly acting unhinged, Peter and MJ’s relationship is on the ropes, and Miles enters the picture as a totally normal kid who we can safely assume will never experience any tragic or strange life altering events. You know where all of these people’s stories are going with very few actual surprises happening along the way. That said, I did like the characters and enjoyed watching them take their personal journeys even if they were incredibly predictable.

I want to say, though, that in the end, I did like this game. The gameplay and story need more depth and originality for it to really push it beyond just a fun time toward a more memorable experience.