the one element that made it so special, that being a huge open New York City that you can

just be Spider-Man in. So for the next Spider-Man game, it was clear what it needed for be.

It should keep the same feel of having an open world that is yours but add in more things

to do in the city and what it means to be Spider-Man. Ultimate Spider-man strives for

this while also bringing in the unique aspects of the Ultimate series.

One thing this game got right is the look. The art style of the city is superb, bringing

home the highly stylized art style that is so distinct to the Ultimate comics. It is

great to just web-swing around NYC, taking in the locations and sights and the crime.

The web-swinging, probably one if not the, most important part of a Spider-Man game,

feels good. It is easy to navigate and speed along through the streets. And as you do this,

you will notice crimes happening all around you. You then head down and take out the bad

guys, then go back to doing whatever Spidey does when not fighting crime.

This is where the gameplay loses its greatness, for there really isn’t much to do and everything

quickly becomes repetitive. The main points of the game are the story missions. Here you

fight against some of the great villains from the comics including Rhino, Electro, Green

Goblin and more. To unlock the next story mission, you have to do side-missions, which

include great fun things like races and beat ‘em up sections. The combat has many different

moves and combos but it's most effective when just pressing one button. So the side-missions

really drag on you and make getting to the next fun mission a chore.

Thankfully the game mixes things up by giving some missions where you play as Venom, which

are some of the best parts of the game. Venom is a bruiser and is all about combat, making

use of his strength and tentacles.

The game gets the open concept and art of the game down, with that being the best parts.

But it's the limited combat and repetitive missions that hold the game back. While Spider-Man

2 was a major leap forward for Spider-Man games, this one is a step to the side but

while wearing really fancy shoes.