by In 2000, Neversoft, with Activision acting as publisher, developed Spider-Man for the PS1. Spidey’s first foray into 3D games was in the form of an action-adventure game.
In Spider-Man, the premise is as classic as the hero himself. While Peter Parker was taking pictures of a new science experiment designed by Otto Octavius, Spider-Man breaks in and steals the device. Since Peter Parker is the real Spider-Man, this is an impostor. Now, Spider-Man must clear his name and put a stop to the scheming villains behind his framing. To do this, you’ll be wall-crawling, web-slinging, and fighting fiendish foes from Spider-Man’s rogues’ gallery. The Scorpion, Venom, Dr. Octopus, Mysterio, and more make appearances.
So, is Spider-Man spectacular, or is it an amazing flop? Let’s find out.
Gameplay
I’ll break the controls into sections for simplicity. The D-pad controls Spidey’s movement, the X button jumps, the Circle button kicks, the Square button punches, and the Triangle button fires webs. Some button combinations have special abilities.
If you combine a direction on the D-pad with the Triangle button, you can activate web powers such as the web shield, web gauntlets, impact web, and web pull. The web pull can be adjusted to fling enemies to the left or right by quickly hitting left or right immediately after starting a web pull. If you combine Circle and Triangle or Square and Triangle, you can grab enemies. Once grabbed, you can punch or kick them with the respective buttons. The L1 button enters aiming mode, the R1 button zip-lines directly above you, and the R2 button swings you to the nearest building. The start button pauses the game.
I wish the controls could be a bit more responsive, but they are still good. Some of the combinations seem a bit finicky, but that might be me. The gameplay itself is straightforward but fun and satisfying when you master certain abilities.
Each new area has a new objective, whether that’s fighting thugs, rescuing hostages in a bank robbery, escaping the police, or even racing Venom. This helps the game feel fresh.
There are secrets hidden throughout the levels in the form of comic books. You unlock comic cover art and sometimes even special costumes by collecting these. A few of the costumes even have special powers such as increased strength, extra webbing, or even invisibility.
The replayability is pretty high. There are 3 difficulty modes, challenge modes, and a special “What If?” mode unlocked with a code. Unfortunately, you’ll want to play through the entire game in one sitting if you play the “What If?” mode because reloading a save only brings you to the normal version of the level you were on when you saved the game.
I give the gameplay an 8/10.
Graphics
The graphics are a mixed bag. Some things look great, and others look ok or even ugly. The body models are pretty good for the time, but they are often missing details, like Spider-Man’s signature black webs on his suit. Scorpion and Venom’s models look great, and so do the lizard monsters in the sewers. Many of the faces on human characters look horrendous, like Black Cat, the thugs, and Scorpion. Which is a shame, because the rest of her model looks pretty good. I know it’s not that they can’t do faces, because Peter Parker, Eddy Brock, and J. Jonah Jameson look fine.
Spider-Man has a lot of cutscenes. Usually, at least one at the beginning and end of each level. It helps move the story along and can be a lot of fun. Sometimes I think they overdo it in some levels, but not terribly so.
Despite the issues, more things in the game look good than not. So, I’ll give the graphics a 7/10.
Music and Sound
The music is pretty good. It even has its own page on Spotify if you want to listen to the tracks. The opening theme is the theme song to the 60s Spider-Man show, which is a nice throwback.
The sound effects are very satisfying. Whether you’re web-swinging or clobbering enemies, it feels natural. The voice acting can be cheesy at times, but it’s a lot of fun. They even got a few actors from Spider-Man: The Animated Series and Spider-Man Unlimited to reprise their roles. For people who were playing the game when it was released, this helped with immersion.
I give the music and sound an 8/10.
Difficulty
In Spider-Man, you don’t have continues or lives. If you run out of health, you have to retry a level. The game also has a save system. Checkpoints aren’t common, but levels are short. Because of this, you can restart and try again pretty quickly in most areas. There are also 3 difficulty modes. Kid mode, Normal, and Hard. Unlike other games, I think they are adequately named. Kid mode is for kids. It’s very easy. Normal is average, and Hard is pretty challenging. I played on Hard for this review, and I’ve had to retry quite a bit.
Final Verdict
I have to give Spider-Man a 7.5 out of 10. It’s a good game overall, but it has some issues here and there. Despite those issues, it set the foundation for 3D Spider-Man games and mostly holds up today. If you like Spider-Man or action-adventure games, I recommend checking it out. It’s currently about $20 loose if you want a physical copy.
