Spiderman, Spiderman, Does whatever a spider can. Spins a web, any size, Catches thieves just like flies. Look out! Here comes the Spiderman... Ah the memories of the Spiderman animated series and more recently, the movies have come flooding back.

The amazing Spiderman
I'm a long time fan of Marvel comics and the adventures of the numerous superheroes and super villains. Since Marvel started releasing movies based upon their characters like the Hulk, Fantastic Four and Spiderman I've kept an eye on the developments. As with most movies that are derived from comics they are usually turned into bad video games, I wanted to try out the new Spiderman 3 game to see what it would be like. I was invited over to Activisions' offices for some one on one time with the latest incarnation of the Spiderman franchise. I was provided with a detailed presentation of Spiderman 3 and I was able to play the game at length.

Spiderman 3 is based in New York City and follows the story of the movie with the same name, however, Spiderman 3: The Game is unique in that it boasts ten stories that you can follow throughout the game. For example, there are six story lines created exclusively for the game by Marvel. There are three gang based scenarios and of course, the main plot of the movie.

New York City features a living breathing metropolis with your average Joe going about their daily business and the famous yellow taxi cab littered throughout the streets. The city itself is vast yet the developers have managed to recreate the city down to the smallest detail. From what I saw of the map, it does look genuinely like the real city apart from the smog. The cool thing about the city is that you can look at it in a birds eye camera view to see what is going on and where you should be. The city view is similar to Superman Returns but it's based on a real city rather than a fictional one. Looking at the visuals in the game, it looked as if the movie's actor and actress likenesses were captured. The game does feature the voice talent of the movie stars which adds an extra level of depth to the game's story.

Upon starting the game you're guided through an introduction to the game's controls. May I point out that this is the only time that you're guided through the game... you quickly become accustomed to the controls and then you really begin your crime fighting adventures. The game features open ended game play - so say for example you're playing one of the story lines but you want to do something else then you can roam the map looking for activities, crime fighting or missions. There is a large variety in the activities as you can go skydiving from skyscrapers or take part in races across the city.

The game has over 20 miles of subways and sewer tunnels as well but they seemed to be overly large in comparison to the real subway. However, I guess that if the subway or sewers were to scale then Spiderman would be bashing his head multiple times whilst web slinging. The neat thing about the game is that the more you play the better it gets, in terms of Spiderman's abilities. Using the above as an example you could be slinging through a subway network and you'll unlock an ability, possibility to swing further or longer. The same is true when fighting, especially when you're using button combinations because you can unlock new fighting moves and combo attacks. You could compare the way Spiderman gains his extra abilities to Crackdown.

Spider sense
Among Spiderman's abilities is the 'spider sense' which is going to come in handy when you're trying to locate certain objectives within the missions. Spider sense works by holding down on the right control stick and the screen goes a dark shade of blue while objectives are highlighted in red. I used the spider sense a few times when I played the game in the presentation, mainly to locate a couple of bombs that were planted on a ceiling and to hunt down gang members. However, mission objectives are indicated by an on-screen yellow marker.

In the presentation our host showed us some really cool next-generation Spiderman moves by beating up a gang of thugs and then he used Spiderman's spinneret wrist devices to project web fluid onto the gang members arm and onto a lamppost but it didn't stop there, he set loose another, another and by the end of the fight, the gang member was suspended by his limbs to three lampposts and one street sign. It was certainly a pretty cool sight.

During the game you also get to play as Venom. The mysterious black suit turns out to be an alien parasite and it enables Spiderman when wearing it to swing faster and makes him stronger. However, the suit feeds on Peter Parker's vengeance and hatred which is not so good for our trusty Superhero. Also, at times in the game you get to play as Peter Parker which is a first in all of the Spiderman games to date.

Epic boss battles!
In Spiderman 3 you'll get a chance to play against some pretty mean baddies and fight them. In the presentation I got to sling my hook at the Sandman, the Lizard and Kingpin. Each boss fight is unique and can last anywhere between 5 – 20minutes. The boss fights feature quick-time battles like the main boss fights in Marvel Ultimate Alliance. The boss fights are visually awesome.

I was able to play through some of the boss battles and I think the fight against Scorpion was the best one. In the game, Scorpion is an ally of Spiderman but a mind controlling device which is fixed to Scorpions' head is making him want to destroy Spiderman. Using the quick-time effect by pressing the relevant button that's shown on screen while watching the action was quite pleasing, just imagine dodging Scorpions' dangerous tail, leaping out of the way and then grabbing the villain before throwing him out of the window!

Overall Spiderman 3 is graphically good and the scope of the open ended city is vast. I'm now looking forward to both the game and movie but I'm not sure which one I want to experience first... pre-order Spiderman 3 now.