Game Review: Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions

Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions has all the variations on Spider-Man one can find short of flipping through comic books.  And, let’s face it, Spider-Man is not blood-soaked murderer like Wolverine, or the Punisher, and he doesn’t even break bones, like Batman. How bad could it be?

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Genre

Action. Platformer.

Platform

Xbox 360, PC, PS3.

Story

In the middle of fighting long-term B-villain, Mysterio, in a museum Spider-Man breaks plot device called the tablet of time, fracturing reality, requiring Spider-Men from four different dimensions to case them down and find them – including a Spider-Man from 2099, the “Ultimate” Spider-verse (think of it as the movie in comic form), a Noir reality that looks like something out of a demented Chandler novel, and the straightforward Amazing Spider-Man.

Gameplay/Mechanics

This game feels a little like the Batman games in terms of the depth of combat.  Not only are there fisticuffs, but quick and effortless web-based weapons, used to defeat an assortment of enemies (gun-wielding thugs, robots, symbiotic creatures, futuristic law enforcement, etc.). Boss battles include slow-motion effects and extended combat in which players fight-off villains with punches from a first-person perspective.

Music/Graphics

The music was good enough.  I wouldn’t go out and buy the soundtrack, but it worked.  As for the graphics, I must say I was impressed with them. It’s not every day you get to have a playable comic book (and, for the record, it was a well-drawn comic book).

Morals/Appropriateness

Most of the game is fairly easy to get along with, and, for the most part, if you let your kids read the comic books, they should have no problem with this game.  However, there are problems.  The Noir version of The Vulture, is portrayed as a circus freak with cannibalistic tendencies.  I can’t see little kids playing through the first-person segment where the player must react to avoid having the Vulture bite at the player’s face.

While I did not catch these, according to the ESRB, dialogue contains the words 'b*tch' and 'bastard' and phrases/words such as "Pervert," "Touch me! Touch me! Go on, no one's lookin'' and “That's kind of, like creepy . . . I'd still hit it though.”

Community/Multiplayer

None.

Addiction Danger

Very little. I tried to play through the game more than once. It didn’t really hold up well.  I can’t imagine any by the more tolerant player going through this game repeatedly.

Problems/Ending Comments

Overall, it was a fun game, generally inoffensive (that I noticed), and the plot made more sense than the Assassin’s Creed series.

ESRB Rating: T for Teen

My Rating: 7/10. Teenagers should have no problem with this game, and I don’t think children could catch the inappropriate comments any more than I did.

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Copyright 2013 John Konecsni