Web slinging hasn’t ever felt this good. Well, it has, but it’s definitely beenway too long. Spider-Man has not exactly had the best reception in the past few years in terms of video games, but after digging into each universe in Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions I have faith that things are turning around for the wall crawler. Earlier this week, I had a chance to take Shattered Dimensions for a spin, a game which developer Beenox has brought back to its roots. No more open world environments, no more repetitive side missions, just Spidey in an adventure sprawling across four different universes inspired by the numerous variations of the hero. Shattered Dimensions begins with the famed villain Mysterio attempting to steal the “Tablet of Order and Chaos.” When Spider-Man attempts to intervene, the tablet is split into pieces and sent into four different universes each with its own Spidey as well as its own villains. As expected, each tablet falls into the hands, claw, tentacles, etc. of each villain granting each devastating power. Madame Web, a telepath famous in the comics, takes it upon herself to communicate with each Spider-Man in order to aid in the recovery of each tablet piece and the restoration of the tablet. This all takes place over four different dimensions including Amazing Spider-Man, Ultimate Spider-Man, Spider-Man Noir and finally Spider-Man 2099.
A different actor voices each one and each has his own varying personality traits and abilities. Amazing is combat heavy and uses his web to create weapons like hammers or wrecking balls to topple foes. Ultimate uses the Black-Suit to grab enemies with his tentacles or fall into a destructive “Rage” mode. Noir is an expert with stealth and taking out enemies one by one from the shadows. Lastly, 2099 has the capability to glide and can string together attacks into long combos. All of them have a different form of Spidey Sense that reveals objectives, enemies and friendlies, while 2099’s is unique in that it is used to slow combat at times. Each feels and controls completely different than the others, making each universe feel like an entirely different game. Instead of dragging on about which was my favorite, let’s delve into each universe I played and you can be the judge of which universe you’re most excited to play. For me, the demo began with the Ultimate universe with Carnage the Symbiote giving chase. As I chased Carnage with the powers of the Black-Suit, masses of S.H.I.E.L.D soldiers infected by Carnage tried to hinder my progress. Ultimate has the ability to go into a syimbote-fueled rage that devastates even the biggest of enemies. You can build your Rage meter by fighting off the soldiers as you attempt to pursue Carnage through the flaming wreckage strewn about the military base the level was staged in.
By the time Ultimate had caught up Carnage, one of the first-person combat sequences took place which made use of the controllers’ joysticks. Left thumbstick throws a left-armed punch and same goes for the right stick. From time to time, there was a contextual action used to dodge an attack from Carnage. After beating the pulp out of the red symbiote, a boss battle takes place in ring of fire. Carnage fends off attacks with a burst of tentacles and is quick to dodge attacks. Once you lay a good enough hurting, he jumps onto a piece of machinery intended to grind something other than aliens. Pulling yourself towards Carnage via your own tentacles, you can knock the foe into the grinder. Just as I went to deliver this finishing blow to the freak, the demo ended. All in all, the Ultimate universe felt heavily inspired by the Ultimate Spider-Man game from 2005 both in style and gameplay. Easily one of my favorite universes demoed. Next, I chased Juggernaut through a construction site as Amazing Spider-Man. I’m not a huge Spider-Man aficionado, but I learned from the producer at Beenox that this was inspired by Spider-Man’s first encounter with Juggernaut which also took place in a construction site. As Amazing, web is a huge component of the gameplay so much so that it is used as a weapon among other things.
This feature preview continues on the next page, please click below to see more of our hands-on impressions of Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions.
