With Ultimate Spider-Man, PC gamers can take solace in the fact that it's a proper port of its console cousins, but some of what made Spider-Man 2 so much fun has been removed, producing a result that's enjoyable but far from "ultimate."įor anyone unfamiliar with Marvel's "Ultimate" series of comic-books, they're basically a "re-imagining" of Marvel's pre-eminent superhero franchises. While console owners got a fun, free-swinging game that let them web-sling anywhere in a virtual NYC, PC owners got a similar-looking box, but an unquestionably watered-down title best suited for kids. In 2004, Activision got some unwanted headlines with the release of Spider-Man 2. Unlike recent Spider-Man games from Activision, Ultimate Spider-Man features stylized, cel-shaded graphics designed to emulate the look and feel of artwork in contemporary Spider-Man comic books. Each character has his own style of fighting, and his own reason for doing so by playing as each in turn, players gradually come to see both sides of the story.Īs they explore the city streets, Spidey and Venom will each face their share of other heroes and villains from the expansive Marvel pantheon. In control of Venom, players will be drawn by the symbiotic alien's twisted emotions to lay waste to everything in its path. While the 3D third-person action again takes place in large, freely-roamed urban environments, as in Spider-Man 2, this game has players taking control of two Marvel super-beings - Spidey himself, and his costume-cum-criminal rival, Venom.Īs Spider-Man, players can patrol the rooftops of large Queens, NY, neighborhoods, using spider sense to find people in need and super agility to get to them in time.
After producing two successful movie-based games featuring the arachnologically augmented teen hero, the inventive Activision developer Treyarch spins a more comics-influenced yarn with Ultimate Spider-Man.