Also available on: Xbox 360, Wii, PS2
Genre: Action Adventure
Developers: Treyarch, Shaba Games
Publisher: Activision
Release date: October 24, 2008

Treyarch has had a busy month. Not content with Call Of Duty: World At War and Quantum Of Solace, it has been working with Shaba Games to bring an original Spider-Man story to consoles. Seeing as the Spidey hype train has left after a lacklustre third film, other Marvel franchises have been used to add a cornucopia of comic cameos to ramp the interest. As a symbiote menace threatens New York, our friendly neighbourhood Spider-Man has a fight on his hands, and so do you - fighting the controls, camera and repetitive objectives.

The hook of the game is Spidey's good and bad sides - early on he's consumed by a symbiote and can change between red and black suits with the tap of the L3 button. The symbiote suit is slightly more powerful (with the ability to throw cars) but mostly acts as a cosmetic change for certain objectives. From a story standpoint, you're offered branching paths by choosing good or evil, with (slightly) different missions and four different endings, promising replayability if you're so inclined.

The story that gets you to one of these endings is actually quite appealing, even to a non comic fan. Featuring characters from an array of Marvel comics (individuals from S.H.I.E.L.D., Avengers and X-Men appear), all gloriously detailed and animated, they are all engaged in the fight for New York. Some cameos are more prominent than others, but they make for some fun boss encounters. Although they are all voiced, they have a grainy low quality to them and Spider-Man in particular is awful, sounding like a snotty twelve-year-old and this detracts from the semi-seriousness of the story. Whoever hired him should be web-slung into a wall. Unfortunately, from here the production values continue to suffer.

A vast, open New York environment can be swung through, complete with dozens of on-screen pedestrians and vehicles. Standing on a skyscraper and looking at the skyline is staggering as hundreds of shining towers stare at you, with a genuine rush as you swing round them. Spider-Man is fluidly animated as he jumps, swings and flips through the air. Problem is, the city is just a folly for your web-slinging prowess; the environment is a sterile and empty mass of vacant lots, repeating pizza restaurants and the occasional block of greenery. Aside from a few skyscrapers and a bridge or two, there is no way to differentiate one part of town from the other.

The city is composed of citizens that applaud or run away according to your appearance, but it's very false; they gather round, watch and cheer even after trying to punch or throw a car at them. Away from the robotic populace, Spider power-ups can be found on literally every other building to boost your strength and health. Over 2,000 of these things are sprinkled over the Big Apple, and due to their number aren't worth stopping mid-swing for. Aside from these collectables, there is nothing the city offers except side missions of beating up countless enemies. Grand Theft Auto IV this isn't. The city does change as the invasion takes hold, although it's at a particular point in the game and doesn't feel dynamic; one minute citizens litter the streets, next minute they are gone.

Despite its open city environment, the game is very linear. Every story mission has a few side missions tied to it, usually beating up a number of enemies that were just newly introduced. But as these side tasks are rehashes of the story missions themselves, there is no incentive to follow them. Every story mission basically consists of swinging to a certain spot, clearing a group of enemies, returning to mission provider, rinse and repeat. Enemy types rotate to make things interesting however, which is where the varied combat comes in. You can use your powers for some interesting moves, such as projecting webs and web-strikes that hone in on the adversary to bounce back off again. Some of these work great - web-strikes are easy to pull off and can be chained with other moves to bounce from one enemy to another, whereas swing-kicks are literally hit and miss as you have to swing at the right height and angle. You can always just hammer Square to unleash a combo, but as certain enemies require you to use your superpowers, it makes it enjoyable to take down enemies in diverse ways.

It's fortunate that the combat is varied and interesting because you are essentially repeating yourself over and over, battling enemies with some swinging and a boss battle thrown in to break up the action. From the city to the missions themselves, there is no free roaming world, just a linear derivative endeavour. Thankfully the bosses are a breath of fresh air - fighting with heroes and villains is tense and thrilling, especially the flying Vulture battle with his encircling blade wings, requiring you to bounce across flying adversaries to reach him. The swinging is fun, but flawed; you have to really press the R2 trigger to get it to work, meaning you strain as much as he does (although this is possibly a PS3 only fault). You can also run up the side of any building to battle wall-climbing foes, with enemies dramatically falling sideways to their death when defeated. Moving onto a roof from here doesn't work however, with the camera erratically spinning around, causing you to miss and fall back down. Centering the camera behind Spider-Man is the only way to work it properly, which is nearly impossible with enemies on your tail.

In fact, controlling Spider-Man is a challenge; he runs too quickly and with no precision, so you can't exactly move around as you'd like. Attempting to swing onto a roof, more often than not, will see you fall off the other side. The camera's habit of bouncing each time you back into an object - which seeing as you speed through a packed city environment is often - counteracts controlling Spider-Man with any kind of accuracy. It is definitely playable, but you'll get frustrated sliding down buildings like a window cleaner every time you try scaling one.

Spider-Man: Web Of Shadows is fundamentally a flawed endeavour. There are hardly any aspects where the game excels in bringing a comfortable playing experience; the controls are too sloppy, the camera too jerky, the objectives are too repetitive and the city too bland. It does a good job at providing an interesting story and putting the roster of heroes to good use, but when you struggle to play the game it renders these merits pointless. The story excels as the game progresses and will motivate die-hard comic fans to play, but everyone else should just pick up one of the dozen triple-A releases this Christmas instead.