The Amazing Spider-Man 2 is *almost* as exhilarating in motion, but regularly shoots its own webbed feet with pointless frippery.
Simply swinging from place to place felt good, and for some of us that was more than enough. That 2004 version of New York city was neatly arranged in blocks (even more uniform in layout than the real thing), and with a grip on the right trigger you were able to swing and release from Spidey’s wrist ejaculations, arcing your way through streets and gliding around corners to neatly crest the traffic just inches from your stinking teenage feet. What separated the original Spider-Man 2 (and some of its successors) from its predecessors was a web-slinging mechanic that captured the essence of “being” Spider-Man. There are moments of enjoyment to be found, but they’re heavily anchored in a sense of nostalgia that just doesn’t hold up.
This is a PS4 game that looks, and belongs, in a completely different era. It’s not so much that Amazing Spidey 2 is a full-on car crash of wanton movie-licenced awfulness, but more that it’s relies on tired and boring gameplay systems, injecting itself with a hybrid serum of elements copied from superior superhero games and yet never web-slinging its way close to anything approaching greatness. Now The Amazing Spider-Man 2 has dumped its load onto my PS4’s rapidly-filling hard drive however, it’s pretty clear we've all moved on from those heady days of 2004.īy any yardstick this is a bit of a letdown. If you’d told me before I started playing T he Amazing Spider-Man 2 that it was essentially a HD remake of Spider-Man 2 for the original Xbox, I’d have gasped with joy for a moment before resuming a level of decorum befitting a 30-something male with a penchant for silly action games that can be breezed through as if made of crepe paper.