The Amazing Spider-Man 2 Reviews
Check out The Amazing Spider-Man 2 Review Scores from trusted Critics below. With 16 reviews on CriticDB, The Amazing Spider-Man 2 has a score of:
While Electro's role is superfluous, Amazing Spider-Man #2 offers plenty of fun and drama for Peter Parker.
For the most part, ASM2 is more of the same, but the unfortunate addition of the “Hero/Menace” meter turned a previously-enjoyable aspect of the game into something I was obligated to do, and thus I quickly became resentful of it. I wound up spending a lot of time between story missions rescuing civilians not because I wanted to, but because I wanted to avoid the task force. ASM2 is still a good game at its core, with some improvements over the original, but they really botched the Hero/Menace element.
The Amazing Spider-Man 2 adds too many half-baked ideas to the original game's elegant framework. The result is a game that is half good, half frustrating, and all tedious. Just about every good idea in this game is held back by something that isn't quite finished or just plain doesn't work. Here's hoping Beenox gets more time to develop the inevitable Amazing Spider-Man 3, because there are good ideas here that just need some time and polish.
The Amazing Spider-Man 2 is a third-person action-adventure that builds on the story of the previous game with an alternative take on the events of the movie of the same name. It gives players an enhanced, free-roaming web-slinging experience through a greatly expanded New York City.
Essentially picking up where the last game left off, The Amazing Spider-Man 2 does little to push the series forward, instead choosing to play it safe and reheat the same gameplay structure. That said, there's still a fair bit to enjoy here, especially if you missed out on the first Amazing Spider-Man. Thwip.
The Amazing Spider-Man 2 isn’t a complete disaster, and I can easily see fans of Spidey enjoying it at a deep discount. It’s just a shame that Beenox somehow got worse at making Spider-Man games over time, and that the powers that be insist on rushing them as movie tie-ins. Somehow, someway — we will get our Arkham of Spider-Man games again. Until then, you can just pick up a used copy of 2004’s Spider-Man 2.
The Amazing Spider-Man takes Marvel's most famous hero and ticks all the boxes required to make him the centre of an enjoyable few days of undemanding play. If Beenox had been allowed the time to build on that foundation - to add more life and colour to Spidey's world, to construct more compelling reasons to explore and develop your abilities - then it could have earned the adjective of its title. The Passable Spider-Man just doesn't have the same ring.
When 2004’s Spider-Man 2 hit theaters, the video game tie-in was an example of how licensed products could be done right. Ten years later, The Amazing Spider-Man 2 is on the big screen, but this time the game is just an empty commercial cash-in. Like every Spider-Man game since Treyarch's title, this one features a shortlist of some of Spider-Man’s most dangerous enemies, a vast open-world version of New York to swing through, and a variety of petty crimes to stop. This formula was a blast back in 2004, but history has been repeating itself for a decade. Unfortunately, Spider-Man’s open-world shtick has been overplayed so many times that his puns look fresh by comparison.
“Boo hoo. I'm Spider-Man. I can sprint up skyscrapers, lift cars above my head, I have a nice girlfriend, look great in spandex, live in in an affluent part of New York city with my loving aunt, study at a prestigious university and take pictures for a nationally syndicated newspaper.” Spider-Man doesn’t get to complain about his problems. Beenox, the developers of his latest game, do.
The Batman: Arkham series of games have a lot to answer for. On the one hand, they showed how to make a truly great superhero tie-in, while on the other, they’ve inspired what feels like an endless procession of imitators that borrow heavily from its formula but fail to deliver experiences of a similar quality. Swinging onto the PlayStation 4, The Amazing Spider-Man 2 is taking another crack at this recipe, with the hope of spinning some gameplay gold rather than the cobwebs of its predecessor.
After some of the forward progress made by Beenox themselves, The Amazing Spider-Man 2 feels like a step backwards for the franchise and for the viability of open-world superhero games in general. It’s not really a game that’s broken, and at times, it's quite beautiful, but it’s also far too happy with itself being so astoundingly average. Those who absolutely need their web-swinging fix may find themselves with just enough web-fluid to see it through. But for everyone else, they may find themselves walking away from a Spidey-suit-filled trashcan, whispering, “I’m Spider-Man… no more.”
It really is a shame, because there are moments where it feels like things are or will soon start to click. Spider-Man can perch near the top of a tall building, look over the city and then swing down into the streets to help save the day. No other hero can do that, so it’s a unique hook that gives each Spiderman game a unique identity. Peter Parker when not Spiderman has always been one of the more interesting characters in comics because he is often very easy for people to relate to. There is a great catalogue of villains to draw from for boss battles. But in the end, it becomes hard to re…
After finishing the game all I wanted to do was swing around collecting comic books and have fun but all that fun disappeared almost instantly when my maxed out hero meter dropped hard within the first ten minutes of finishing the game. Suddenly I was a huge menace to the city after a chain of crimes expired and I had robots chasing me, soldiers putting up force fields to stop me from swinging, and this giant hornet mech boss I had to deal with. The problem with this system is that the meter drains way too quickly and the crime activities just aren’t fun at all. To make matters worse the game needs to load whenever you start and finish one of these crimes. It’s not a super long load but it’s just another thing to annoy you with an already annoying part of the game. It’s a huge pain having to deal with this stupid thing because it basically puts a giant roadblock whenever you’re just trying to have fun swinging around collecting comic books. Let me repeat that so it sticks, there’s a feature in a Spider-Man game that is continuously stopping you from freely swinging around for fun.
Finally, there is an abundance of side missions to complete which actively control your hero/menace meter. Being a hero or a menace determines if the Enhanced Crime Task Force (this team gets explained to you in-game) targets Spider-Man during this game. Whether you are being targeted or not isn’t an issue, usually it is a small one or two button quick-time event to continue. Over the course of my time with the game I became less concerned with the meter as the side missions that affect your stance are repetitive and offer little reward other than keeping the task force off your back.