Spider-Man: Web of Shadows Defense Force
By mordecaix7 1 Comments
IGN's Review of Web of Shadows was just released and was given a score of 5.7. You can find the review here.
But I don't normally trust IGN either. I tend to disagree with their reviews alot. It seemed like he was really nit-picky with the review as well. Mostly was disappointed that the graphics had some issues sometimes and that the missions and combat were repetitive.... I'm going to attempt to save everyone reading this from dismissing this game based on the fact that:
A) it got a 5.7
B) it's not as good as spider-man 2 before it (according to this reviewer)
The reviewer really likes Spider-man 2 and is basing his review on that game. I want to make sure that you don't make the mistake of blindly agreeing with him that Spider-man 2 is SO much better.
The Accusation
"Early last year, I stated that Spider-Man 2 was one of my favorite PlayStation 2 games of all time""Now, Spider-Man: Web of Shadows is upon us, and while it's no where near the slap in the face that Spider-Man: Friend or Foe was, it's got nothing on Spider-Man 2 either."
Excerpts from his review of Web of Shadows
"See, as cool as these attacks can look, they're just button mashing. When I needed to steamroll the bad guys, I just tapped X-Y-X-Y-X-Y.""See, Spider-Man: Web of Shadows is redundant and repetitive. Infuriatingly redundant and repetitive. In the beginning, Luke Cage will teach you a move, have you do it a certain number of times to him, send you out to do it to a certain number of villains, and then have you do it all over again when you come back to learn a different move."
"It gets old. Fast. Only making this process worse is the fact that you'll be attacking these enemies in the same way over and over."
"Sure, the kick to the head and riding the bad guy like a skateboard moves look cool the first few times you see them but not after a few dozen viewings in the same battle. When the Kingpin's goon showed up to assassinate some gang leaders, I was required to do the hop-zip-kick attack more than 30 times as I went from one sniper to the next around the perimeter of a New York park. That's not fun."
The Defense
Although he really liked Spider-man 2 and was obviously comparing it to WoS (Web of Shadows), didn't Spider-Man 2 also suffer from similiar problems? Review is here.Excerpts from IGN's Spider-man 2 review (different reviewer)
"Sure, there is the dull repetition of the Hero missions, the missions drag down, and the boss fights range from stupid to incredibly annoying -- especially the Doctor Octopus...and well, even the Mysterio fights -- and the voice acting is downright shameful.""After a good couple of hours goofing around with Spider-Man 2, however, the elation of slinging around the neighborhood wears a bit thin. Part of what brings you down is the game's repetition."
"...to progress you have to engage in all those little crime-stopping missions that seem to matter so pointless. Unlike the Grand Theft Auto series, wherein players have the freedom to choose taxi, fireman, telephone booth, or police missions, players must play the civilian mission here. It's forced."
"...the mission types are very limited, and only after a few hours you'll be scratching your head in wonder, saying, "Is that it?" "
"There are essentially six kinds of missions that you'll play endlessly...you'll quickly grow bored of these missions."
Conclusion
Now you can see that alot of the things he's complaining about also show up in Spider-man 2, supposedly one of the greatest spiderman games of all time. It would seem to me that Greg Miller (WoS Reviewer) is looking through retro-goggles. Yeah Spidey 2 was fun but it did get boring doing those same 6 missions all over again and swinging around did get boring.Did you not also end up doing the most effective combat move in Spider-man 2 as well? In the last quote for WoS was the reviewer really required to do that? I'm betting with some experimentation there were different ways of taking care of those assassins.
It seems to me that this reviewer is wearing retro-goggles while comparing his precious Spidey 2 game to Web of Shadows. Yes I know I haven't played WoS yet, but based on both reviews, it doesn't make sense why one is better than the other if they both seem to be suffering from similiar issues.