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Spider-Man 2; Greatest swing simulator or… Oh, it is.

WitchsightWitchsight Registered User regular
edited June 2008 in Games and Technology
So, last night I had a craving for Spiderman 2, and fired up the PS2. As usual, after about a minute of swinging airborne bliss I felt the need to express my overflowing love for this game to anyone nearby. Ill give my roommates’ ears a rest and bother everyone here instead.

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This is my favorite superhero game, I have come to realize. It strikes a fine balance between having superhuman abilities and needing to use them efficiently to avoid getting yourself killed.

Soon after you begin the game, and after some much needed swing lessons delivered by a perfectly snide and sarcastic Bruce Campbell, the player is given the freedom to crawl and web about New York. This sounds like standard sandbox fare, and it is… But add exceptional swing mechanics that at once are orgasmic, and have a simple beauty, then my friend, you have a fucking awesome product.

Spider-Man 2 progresses as you amass enough Hero Points to move onto the next chapter. They can be nabbed by helping out random citizens, taking on the challenge markers spread around the city, or catching thieves just like flies, Look Out! The challenges are my favorite aspect, and really force you to step up your thwipping fluidity.

Just… just let me talk about swinging for a minute.
I've played it on Xbox and PS2, but I find it much more natural on the latter. The shoulder buttons all do the following; shoot out a web to the closest building within range, fire a second web for slingshotting purposes, speed up, and enter spidey sense mode (slow time).

Effective and graceful swinging is what you strive for in this game. Arcing yourself unhindered around city blocks and over buildings saves time and looks cool as shit. But its easier said than done as beginners may find. It would be nice to travel from point A to point B, like SOME superheroes… But Spidey has to work for his locomotion. As soon as you let go of your last web you are in peril, you are freefalling, and you will probably die. So you need to be alert for buildings that will keep you on course, and save you from plummeting to death. This constant awareness makes me a happy camper.

This, Mecenaries, and Battlefront 2 are three games i still swoon over and need to play randomly.
Who didn’t swan dive off the Empire State building as soon as they were able? Sigh, oh Spiderman.

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Witchsight on
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Posts

  • RiceCookRiceCook Registered User regular
    edited June 2008
    They really should have left the swinging system alone in subsequent spider-man freeroam games.

    RiceCook on
  • WitchsightWitchsight Registered User regular
    edited June 2008
    RiceCook wrote: »
    They really should have left the swinging system alone in subsequent spider-man freeroam games.

    My devout feelings towards SM2 is what scared me away from the newer games. If they screwed it up, i would just be upset. Even between this and SM3 they managed to drop the ball?
    I assumed it was at least more of the same.

    Witchsight on
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  • darleysamdarleysam On my way to UKRegistered User regular
    edited June 2008
    Dammit, I stopped playing this when I had some annoying-as-hell impossible fight against Octopus, but now I want to load it up again just to swing around the city and stuff. Running along walls mid-swing was totally cool, too.

    darleysam on
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  • WitchsightWitchsight Registered User regular
    edited June 2008
    That is possibly the final boss battle, too... you are so close!

    Things to do after you beat the game;
    Check out all the challenge markers. They are really fun, and the retry / quit options are quick to navigate
    Get all upgrades
    See how far you can get without using any webs... (it will end in death, but still)
    Try to break your top speed record. I think mine is 270

    Witchsight on
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  • darleysamdarleysam On my way to UKRegistered User regular
    edited June 2008
    Witchsight wrote: »
    That is possibly the final boss battle, too... you are so close!

    Things to do after you beat the game;
    Check out all the challenge markers. They are really fun, and the retry / quit options are quick to navigate
    Get all upgrades
    See how far you can get without using any webs... (it will end in death, but still)
    Try to break your top speed record. I think mine is 270

    It might be. It's the one where you've got to jump around in the partially-destroyed building deactivating all the different terminals or something, while the glowing death-sun in the middle keeps pulsing and trying to destroy you. There's just some parts that are so frustratingly cheap that I gave up. DON'T TOUCH THE FLOOR NOW!
    :x

    darleysam on
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  • Kuribo's ShoeKuribo's Shoe Kuribo's Stocking North PoleRegistered User regular
    edited June 2008
    I love this game the most.

    Spider-Man 3 didn't have BAD swinging mechanics, they just weren't as solid as 2's.

    with Ultimate they didn't even try.

    Kuribo's Shoe on
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  • DarkWarriorDarkWarrior __BANNED USERS regular
    edited June 2008
    I love this game the most.

    Spider-Man 3 didn't have BAD swinging mechanics, they just weren't as solid as 2's.

    with Ultimate they didn't even try.

    Wrong. Spider-Man 3s mechanics just weren't fun and what was worse was that they took away the power to unlock the upgrades from you. You just swing and swing waiting for it to upgrate itself. Fuck that noise.

    DarkWarrior on
  • KuratosuKuratosu Registered User regular
    edited June 2008
    Yeah, I thoroughly enjoyed Spider-Man 2 but haven't played it in ages. If fact, you've probably convinced me to fire it up when I go home tonight.

    Unfortunately (or fortunately?) I haven't played any of the subsequent games, but I'd be willing to give them a shot some time. But hearing that the swinging is gimped in everything after 2 is a downer.

    Kuratosu on
    Click spoiler for Backloggery, and gamer info:
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  • SomestickguySomestickguy Registered User regular
    edited June 2008
    Ah, Ultimate Spiderman. It was OK, but the fight system was repetitive and the constant shouts of "he's nothing but a guy in tights" and the like while you were mashing their freaking faces in reminded me way too much of Warrior Within for comfort.

    Somestickguy on
  • urahonkyurahonky Cynical Old Man Registered User regular
    edited June 2008
    Wait, what was wrong with Spiderman 3? I have it on my goozex request queue, but I haven't gotten a bite yet. I'd never played really any of the Spiderman games. Would 3 be okay then?

    urahonky on
  • Burden of ProofBurden of Proof You three boys picked a beautiful hill to die on. Registered User regular
    edited June 2008
    Ah, Ultimate Spiderman. It was OK, but the fight system was repetitive and the constant shouts of "he's nothing but a guy in tights" and the like while you were mashing their freaking faces in reminded me way too much of Warrior Within for comfort.

    Johnny Storm is fucking cheap, and he brags about it too.

    Of course you beat me, you can fly asshole.

    Burden of Proof on
  • RiceCookRiceCook Registered User regular
    edited June 2008
    RiceCook on
  • Kuribo's ShoeKuribo's Shoe Kuribo's Stocking North PoleRegistered User regular
    edited June 2008
    urahonky wrote: »
    Wait, what was wrong with Spiderman 3? I have it on my goozex request queue, but I haven't gotten a bite yet. I'd never played really any of the Spiderman games. Would 3 be okay then?

    despite the above comment there's nothing really wrong with Spider-Man 3 except that it's a small step down in quality from 2

    the swinging felt fine to me at any rate

    Kuribo's Shoe on
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  • urahonkyurahonky Cynical Old Man Registered User regular
    edited June 2008
    urahonky wrote: »
    Wait, what was wrong with Spiderman 3? I have it on my goozex request queue, but I haven't gotten a bite yet. I'd never played really any of the Spiderman games. Would 3 be okay then?

    despite the above comment there's nothing really wrong with Spider-Man 3 except that it's a small step down in quality from 2

    the swinging felt fine to me at any rate

    Cool, thanks :^:

    urahonky on
  • Kuribo's ShoeKuribo's Shoe Kuribo's Stocking North PoleRegistered User regular
    edited June 2008
    urahonky wrote: »
    urahonky wrote: »
    Wait, what was wrong with Spiderman 3? I have it on my goozex request queue, but I haven't gotten a bite yet. I'd never played really any of the Spiderman games. Would 3 be okay then?

    despite the above comment there's nothing really wrong with Spider-Man 3 except that it's a small step down in quality from 2

    the swinging felt fine to me at any rate

    Cool, thanks :^:

    oh I suppose I should mention there are QTEs, and some of them are frustrating as hell.

    but that's true of any game that has those things.

    Kuribo's Shoe on
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  • urahonkyurahonky Cynical Old Man Registered User regular
    edited June 2008
    Fuck me sideways. If you fail it you die? Does it start the level over, or does it start the QTE over?

    urahonky on
  • DarkWarriorDarkWarrior __BANNED USERS regular
    edited June 2008
    Ok lets put it this way. I got Spidey 2, played it, really enjoyed it though couldn't be bothered with the "survive all the enemies" mini game at the end.

    Anticipated Spidey 3, drove all over to get it, got it, played it to completion for the sake of it and traded it in. My first ever trade. PoS.

    DarkWarrior on
  • urahonkyurahonky Cynical Old Man Registered User regular
    edited June 2008
    Ok lets put it this way. I got Spidey 2, played it, really enjoyed it though couldn't be bothered with the "survive all the enemies" mini game at the end.

    Anticipated Spidey 3, drove all over to get it, got it, played it to completion for the sake of it and traded it in. My first ever trade. PoS.

    Dammit DW, you're scaring me now! I know our tastes in games are pretty much on the same level too.

    urahonky on
  • NorayNoray Registered User regular
    edited June 2008
    Starts the QTE over.

    IMO Spider-Man 3 was worse than 2. The boss battles are tedious and overlong and frustrating, the combat in general feel even more haphazard, the swinging isn't as good (though still alright), and it's just not as interesting.

    It isn't totally awful (at least the next-gen versions), but 2 remains a high point.

    Noray on
  • DarkPrimusDarkPrimus Registered User regular
    edited June 2008
    Whoever did Spider-Man 2 should do another Spider-Man game with the same web mechanics and everything made better.

    Holy shit imagine a Spectacular Spider-Man game with the controls from SM2. And the city will be HUGE because hey it's next-gen.

    DarkPrimus on
  • DarkWarriorDarkWarrior __BANNED USERS regular
    edited June 2008
    urahonky wrote: »
    Ok lets put it this way. I got Spidey 2, played it, really enjoyed it though couldn't be bothered with the "survive all the enemies" mini game at the end.

    Anticipated Spidey 3, drove all over to get it, got it, played it to completion for the sake of it and traded it in. My first ever trade. PoS.

    Dammit DW, you're scaring me now! I know our tastes in games are pretty much on the same level too.

    If you like Spidey 2, its more of the same but with no charm and boss battles generally relegated to quick combos and huge amounts of QTEs. They're not particularly hard but boring gameplay to pull off a set piece plus the hero missions are a pile of nonsense about 3 city gangs. I don't think they added more than 4 new crimes to the game from the 2nd and they're bad. Plus they took out the good ones.

    Very few Spider rogues in there, a made up bomber boss villain, no side characters like Black Cat in 2 which in itself was a great side plot and just ...well, it sucked for me. Really, biggest disappointment of last year.

    And being Symbiote SPider-Man isn't very fun.

    Plus again, a game made over 10 years ago had tonnes of alternate costumes.

    And aerial fighting just isn't an option, its atrocious. I had GG basically skating along the ground as I tried to not have him hit me repeatedly and playing AS him in the final boss battle? Most tedious annoyance in gaming.

    DarkWarrior on
  • darleysamdarleysam On my way to UKRegistered User regular
    edited June 2008
    DarkPrimus wrote: »
    Whoever did Spider-Man 2 should do another Spider-Man game with the same web mechanics and everything made better.

    Holy shit imagine a Spectacular Spider-Man game with the controls from SM2. And the city will be HUGE because hey it's next-gen.

    Treyarch. They're now making the inferior, alternating Call of Duty games, that aren't as good as the Infinity Ward ones.

    darleysam on
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  • KyouguKyougu Registered User regular
    edited June 2008
    DarkPrimus wrote: »
    Whoever did Spider-Man 2 should do another Spider-Man game with the same web mechanics and everything made better.

    Holy shit imagine a Spectacular Spider-Man game with the controls from SM2. And the city will be HUGE because hey it's next-gen.

    That's basically what everyone hoped SM3 would be. It was developed by the same team too, least same company.

    Man, SM3 had some of the cheapest, most frustrating fights ever. I'm usually not one to want to smash my controller, but the lizard fight almost did that.
    Apart from there, there isn't that much wrong with the game, it just felt pretty half-assed.

    Kyougu on
  • urahonkyurahonky Cynical Old Man Registered User regular
    edited June 2008
    urahonky wrote: »
    Ok lets put it this way. I got Spidey 2, played it, really enjoyed it though couldn't be bothered with the "survive all the enemies" mini game at the end.

    Anticipated Spidey 3, drove all over to get it, got it, played it to completion for the sake of it and traded it in. My first ever trade. PoS.

    Dammit DW, you're scaring me now! I know our tastes in games are pretty much on the same level too.

    If you like Spidey 2, its more of the same but with no charm and boss battles generally relegated to quick combos and huge amounts of QTEs. They're not particularly hard but boring gameplay to pull off a set piece plus the hero missions are a pile of nonsense about 3 city gangs. I don't think they added more than 4 new crimes to the game from the 2nd and they're bad. Plus they took out the good ones.

    Very few Spider rogues in there, a made up bomber boss villain, no side characters like Black Cat in 2 which in itself was a great side plot and just ...well, it sucked for me. Really, biggest disappointment of last year.

    And being Symbiote SPider-Man isn't very fun.

    Plus again, a game made over 10 years ago had tonnes of alternate costumes.

    And aerial fighting just isn't an option, its atrocious. I had GG basically skating along the ground as I tried to not have him hit me repeatedly and playing AS him in the final boss battle? Most tedious annoyance in gaming.

    Never played 2, honestly. I was looking through Goozex and saw 3 up on the 360 list, so I went for it. I've been matched with someone 3 times and each time it's timed out.

    I'll keep that in mind DW, thanks sir.

    urahonky on
  • theparttimetheparttime Registered User regular
    edited June 2008
    This topic always pops up because the swinging is just that fun.

    Funny too, because over the weekend I was getting an itch to pop this game in swing around but opted out to play Hulk Ultimate Destruction because I haven't beaten that game yet. Gonna play this later tho. The swing engine really should be put into another game intact or improved.

    theparttime on
  • projectmayhemprojectmayhem Registered User regular
    edited June 2008
    I am so glad other people loved this game. 6 hours of fantastic fun.

    projectmayhem on
  • wakeboarderbluntwakeboarderblunt Registered User regular
    edited June 2008
    I bought this game because of all the love it received on these boards. I have a real hard time actually finishing games, but this is one of the few. That boss battle with Doc Ock is hard, but you'll find a sequence that works. and the swinging and running on buildings is unparalleled.

    wakeboarderblunt on
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  • UnbreakableVowUnbreakableVow Registered User regular
    edited June 2008
    Spider-Man 2 is still my favorite superhero game. Get the Xbox or GC version if you can, because the PS2 version has this weird white shadow around Spider-Man and the game overall just looks terrible in comparison.

    The problem I had with 3 (besides the awful QTEs, and this is coming from someone who normally loves QTEs) was that he does web-zip automatically, instead of it being a two-button press like in 2. So now a lot of the time he isn't even swinging around; he's just pulling himself around. Not to mention it somehow runs at a choppier framerate and the game is generally glitchy as hell. The combat sucks compared to SM2 and USM.

    And the fucking QTEs, man. Some of the bomb missions have to be impossible.

    UnbreakableVow on
  • TasteticleTasteticle Registered User regular
    edited June 2008
    You know as much as I love spiderman 2, the best super hero game ever made is Hulk: Ultimate Destruction.

    Tasteticle on

    Uh-oh I accidentally deleted my signature. Uh-oh!!
  • wyrlsswyrlss Registered User regular
    edited June 2008
    Tasteticle wrote: »
    You know as much as I love spiderman 2, the best super hero game ever made is Hulk: Ultimate Destruction.

    Since I've not played Ultimate Destruction, I'm going to have to guess that you are wrong. Is it truly better than Spider-Man 2, City of Heroes, Marvel Ultimate Alliance, Freedom Force, Marvel vs Capcom, and the arcade X-Men game?

    wyrlss on
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  • yalborapyalborap Registered User regular
    edited June 2008
    My favorite thing to do was to run ALL THE WAY UP a building. When Spidey starts to slow/tilt, you just tap jump then crawl/sprint right away and he'll spazz out for a second, then keep going.

    yalborap on
  • UnbreakableVowUnbreakableVow Registered User regular
    edited June 2008
    Ultimate Destruction is definitely close. UD gets repetitive quicker than SM2, that's why I like SM2 more.

    UnbreakableVow on
  • DarkCrawlerDarkCrawler Registered User regular
    edited June 2008
    Ah, Spider-Man 2...Spider-Man 2.

    I could talk about this game for forever and ever. There is no game in the world that I have clocked as many hours into. And I mean this literally, counting in all the childhood games of tag or tetris or minesweeper.

    I could write an essay about the awesome spider-sense mechanics.

    I could make poems about the beauty of the swinging.

    I could tell you about how many times I have gone through the story missions, and you would be awestruck.

    I could sing about the acrobatics.

    This game is great. Spider-Man 3 was crapshit compared to this. SM2 was just perfect, and I just don't know what happened to the development team between the two games. Brain virus, maybe?

    DarkCrawler on
  • Kuribo's ShoeKuribo's Shoe Kuribo's Stocking North PoleRegistered User regular
    edited June 2008
    wyrlss wrote: »
    Tasteticle wrote: »
    You know as much as I love spiderman 2, the best super hero game ever made is Hulk: Ultimate Destruction.

    Since I've not played Ultimate Destruction, I'm going to have to guess that you are wrong. Is it truly better than Spider-Man 2, City of Heroes, Marvel Ultimate Alliance, Freedom Force, Marvel vs Capcom, and the arcade X-Men game?

    nothing in this universe is better than Marvel Vs. Capcom.

    Kuribo's Shoe on
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  • randombattlerandombattle Registered User regular
    edited June 2008
    Ah, Spider-Man 2...Spider-Man 2.

    I could talk about this game for forever and ever. There is no game in the world that I have clocked as many hours into. And I mean this literally, counting in all the childhood games of tag or tetris or minesweeper.

    I could write an essay about the awesome spider-sense mechanics.

    I could make poems about the beauty of the swinging.

    I could tell you about how many times I have gone through the story missions, and you would be awestruck.

    I could sing about the acrobatics.

    This game is great. Spider-Man 3 was crapshit compared to this. SM2 was just perfect, and I just don't know what happened to the development team between the two games. Brain virus, maybe?
    I just don't understand it. They had this perfect game system in 2 and completely tossed it out the window for 3. It's like geeze just keep the game the same, improve the graphics, add more things to do, and your done!

    Spidey 3 would of been a great game if they did this. They would of had so much time to flesh everything out with the core game done. But no instead they said "duuuuuuur lets remake everything and make it different... ALSO WE NEED QTE!!!"

    randombattle on
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    I never asked for this!
  • Kuribo's ShoeKuribo's Shoe Kuribo's Stocking North PoleRegistered User regular
    edited June 2008
    to be fair anything that wasn't swinging in spider-man 2 was pretty mediocre

    and I thought the combat at least was pretty improved

    Kuribo's Shoe on
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  • Kuribo's ShoeKuribo's Shoe Kuribo's Stocking North PoleRegistered User regular
    edited June 2008
    though the mysterio battle in the convenience store is one of the greatest things I've ever seen in a game

    Kuribo's Shoe on
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  • urahonkyurahonky Cynical Old Man Registered User regular
    edited June 2008
    Putting SM3 on hold for now, since I might be able to get Guitar Hero 2. Man so much SM3 hate... Mainly from the people who loved SM2, so maybe that's why.

    urahonky on
  • darleysamdarleysam On my way to UKRegistered User regular
    edited June 2008
    though the mysterio battle in the convenience store is one of the greatest things I've ever seen in a game

    This. So much.

    darleysam on
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  • Kuribo's ShoeKuribo's Shoe Kuribo's Stocking North PoleRegistered User regular
    edited June 2008
    I'm heavily Spider-Man biased, you should keep this in mind.

    I liked Friend Or Foe, for god's sake

    Kuribo's Shoe on
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