Spider-Man 2: The Movie (Xbox)

First things first, this game as a whole is unlike any of the spider-man games, or other game for that matter. However, it is sort of pieced together from aspects of other games, which actually has worked surprisingly well. You (obviously) play the role Spider-Man, with the unique ability to sling web to attach yourself to buildings, tie up enemies and fight crime the superhero way.

However, there is a distinct element of Grand Theft Auto in this game. You now have the entire Manhatten area to explore at your disposal, meaning rather that follow fixed routes and paths, you can go wherever you want, whenever you want. So you could, for example, be in the middle of a mission, get bored after failing miserably and just go for a pleasant swing many feet above the road. Fantastic.

And, similair to GTA, you have the option to complete "mini missions", in which you can help the regular citizens of manhatten by halting the actions of petty thugs in true superhero fashion.

However, these missions tend to get very repetitive, you can be asked by pretty much the same child 5 times in a row to rescue his balloon (it makes you wish you could web sling it to his hand ;) ), and unfortuantely the boss missions are done pretty badly.

There is also an element of Tony Hawk's Pro Skater in this game ( and any other game involving Stat rising), in the form os Stat points, or "Hero Points", which can be traded in so you can learn new abilities and tricks to help you fight crime.

Another disappointment is the length of the game, only 16 missions (aside from the sub-missions) mean you could complete the story in merely hours. That's not to say there isn't any replayabiltiy, you could scour the rooftops for hours just messing around without getting (too) bored. If not you can continue your small vigilante missions.

The combat system is not bad to be honest. Combining your brute strength and your trusty web powers you can beat up your foes in many different styles, personal favourites include tieing an enemy to a lampost to make sure he can't fight back, and latching a web to they're foot so you can swing them around and throw them away like the trash they are :P. The combat can get repetitive however, as you can find yourself adjusting to one speical move and ignoring the others, so you should make sure you take a different approach everytime you face an enemy, otherwise you may find yourself dropping off tapping the same button over and over again.

All in all, an impressive game in the fact you have an entire city to do what you will, but let down by it's length.

Try it before you buy it really, but I'd doubt you'd be too dissapointed :)

Content wise: the mini tasks do become repetitive. But stopping an old lady from getting mugged hasn't lost it's edge with me yet. The boss's are easy enough to defeat, and Mysterio in paricular is just downright silly. The script isn't too bad, not up to the film standard but worthy enough for a gane. Graphics are exceptional, apart from character models. When you talk to someone in the street, they don't move, they are almost flat.

Playability: There is so much to do in this game, challenges to complete, things to collect, people to save. Even after completion, just swinging around the city stopping crimes is still fun. It's like being a full time super-hero.....

I thought this would be a huge dissapointment, but it isn't. it is well worth adding to any gamers collection. with slick graphics and superb gameplay, this is the best game i own, and i own a few! And Black Cat is a babe!!!!

WARNING- Stay away from the PC version, it is totally different and very very pants.

Now i wish they would make a marvel super-hero world game, create your hero and protect the city, come on Treyarch make me proud.